My days left in high school are numbered, and as I head towards the end of my final year I've been thinking a lot about my high school experience as a whole. It wasn't exactly what I expected, especially not these past two years, but through all of my years in high school there has always been one class that has kept me sane and in order. In fact it is also the only class that I've taken for all four years under the same teacher too, and that right there is what has shaped my whole experience. Mr. Bourgeois has been a great teacher and a perfect fit for the game design pathway, especially due to his ability to level with his students and be perfectly clear with his expectations. Straight from day one he made sure we were aware of the amount of work we were getting into and that we wouldn't just be sitting around playing games on the computers in class. With each project we were reminded to read the rubric, at least until it was a given procedure that anyone who wanted full points would do. I also significantly improved my writing skills with this class, though I know my writing is still far from perfect. The format of this pathway was slightly disappointing at first, seeing as I signed up to make games and wouldn't be doing so until my senior year, but the skills we learned in each class leading up to AGAD have all been valuable and have helped to expand our interests. I never thought I would have enjoyed working with Premiere Pro or 3DS Max as much as I did, and now I do both 3D modeling and video editing in my spare time (so actually not much these days). Possibly one of my favorite aspects of this course is that it actually stays true to the DSA motto of "rigorous academics" unlike many other classes. I've pushed myself several times each year to complete projects that at first seemed impossible, even though some (like the train station) were primarily difficult due to render times. Likewise I've also fallen several times, but Mr. Bourgeois understands that as humans failure is inevitable, so small blunders here and there have not been the end of me. The only mistake that is inexcusable is to give up, it will bite you a lot harder in the future than you think it will, especially for this class. On the bright side difficult assignments often feel as though they are trophies themselves when completed, so there is never a reason to feel the need to give up. This year I particularly enjoyed the assignments to create a UI prototype and a GDD for a game we know, though I still feel that I put way too much effort into the GDD assignment. In years past I enjoyed the neighborhood and train station assignments, but sadly I've already forgotten many of the others that may have been fun. You're probably noticing by now that I've barely even touched on the actual skills we've learned related to software in this class, and that's because the experiences I've had in this pathway amount to much more than what someone looking at a course overview would be able to tell me about this class. Sure we learned how to use Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, 3DS Max, and Unity, but frankly anyone could teach you that. What's more important is the teaching process and how enjoyable the class can be even as a working environment. I can not thank Mr. B enough for the wonderful job he's done getting students invested in this pathway while preparing us with skills that will be useful in the real world. That being said I don't want to make this post any longer than it needs to be, especially if I end up repeating myself as I am about to do, so for the sake of brevity I'll just say thanks Mr. B, and I can't believe I'm already writing my final blog post (at least for this site).
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AuthorMy name is Andrew Prichard and the this is my first digital arts class, I look forward to a good year with lots of hard work. Archives
May 2021
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Last updated 5/14/21
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