Reflection

The research I did on professional portfolios helped influence the planning of my own portfolio by giving me some insight on what people are looking for in a portfolio in terms of style and content. I found that programmers included all aspects of the work that they have done not just the code from the games but also any art work or assets they created or used. This helps give people a more clear idea when they look at your body of work what they are actually looking at so even someone who isn’t necessarily a programmer will be able to identify the great work that you’ve achieved. So when I planned out my own portfolio sight I looked to include as much of my 3D modelling work as well as my pixel art assets from 2D games as I could. When it came to style a lot of the sites used a clean easy to navigate design with a consistent colour scheme throughout so I kept to that formula in my planning as I think it is a very professional looking way to present myself.

I’ve learnt a lot since starting at this college and this can be evidenced in my portfolio. for example in my Unit * project I think I made great strides in understanding C# compared to when I first started and didn’t really have any understanding of programming I just knew I had a passion for the subject and from there was able to grow my skill set. I also was able to apply myself in aspects of 3D modeling and have seen my skills improve from only being able to make a crate under the direction of my tutor to creating a full low poly model of a revolver by myself which has shown me how far I’ve come.

Going through this project I really started to learn the value of having my own portfolio. I knew that one would be necessary for industry but after researching other people portfolios and how they present there bodies of work I realised that without a portfolio a university or a potential employer doesn’t really know anything about you or what you are capable of if you don’t have one. This is why I want to take great care with my own portfolio and make sure I present work in a professional way and to show work that really shows what I’m capable of.

I feel that my personal statement is good, I had someone look over and help me keep improve my personal statement until it was to a standard that I was happy with and I have now since received two unconditional offers and an interview opportunity from my three main choices which leads me to believe it has helped me promote myself to these universities. I think my portfolio will be key going forward to help show off what I can do however it hasn’t come into use at this point. I feel I can make some improvements to my portfolio though this will always be the case as I will be constantly adding new works to it.

The peer review process has really helped me stay on track with my project whilst simultaneously allowing me to keep my work at a consistent level all throughout the project. The peer reviews also gave me an opportunity to see other peoples work and compare it to my own and help myself gauge where I think my level of work is. I received a lot of tutor feedback throughout the project and its helped me improve my body of work to a standard I am happy with and it was important to me to have my work evaluated because I want my portfolio to be as good as possible.

I learned a lot whilst making and planning for my portfolio. One of the main things that I learnt was what is meant to be included and what shouldn’t be included in a professional portfolio and this helped my greatly during my creation process as I knew that as a programmer setting up a place where someone could easily gain access and look at my code is paramount but also not to be forgotten is the other areas in which I have achieved bodies of work like 3D modelling as even though my specialism is programming it is important to show that I have versatility and the ability to learn and try new things.