Introducing Me!

Hi everyone! For those that don’t yet know me, my name is Daniel Hill and I hail from a tiny village in Stoke-on-Trent called Scholar Green. Born on 24th January 1989, even though im no longer in my teens I don’t really act that mature; don’t get me wrong, I can be serious when I need to be, but I find it easier and a lot more fun to enjoy myself as much as possible through the medium of obscure noises and even more obscure conversation.
I enjoy drawing, playing videogames, spending time with friends and family, reading, walking, throwing mean shapes on nights out, eating pizza, and using some/all of the above to fuel my imagination to create original ideas and stories. Ive been drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil, and observational work has definitely always been one of my strongest skills and has driven me down the educational path of art and design. Ive done a lot of original work and Fan art as well, as its kept me in drawing and I find it a really amazing way to just zone out from the chaos of the world in my own little artistic bubble.
I started to get into videogames from the Sega era onwards, Sonic the hedgehog being the game that first truly captured my interest in them. I always struggle when people ask me what my one favourite game is, there’s been too many that have inspired and captured my imagination over the years. I think the series that has pushed me in the direction of wanting to work as an artist in the games industry the most, is the Final Fantasy games; I was never really into RPG’s before them, and when I first played FF7 it completely blew my mind that games could have such an amazing focus on story and character that these games had, to the point where you felt emotionally connected to the characters you were playing as. My favourite out of all of them id have to say is FF9 though, as to me, it captures the very essence of what these games do best (and was one of the last that had all of the ‘key’ creative people working on it that made the series what it was in the first place). Other games that I love are Okami, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Kingdom Hearts 2, and….others too numerous to mention.
I come from a Graphic Design background, having studied it for four years prior to starting Game Art here at Dmu, and even though it was something I found that I was really good at, I didn’t really have the passion for it as much as I did for anything game related. Pretty much every time we were given an open brief, id always choose to create a games concept, a sure sign of what direction I really wanted to head in.
I think I want to focus on improving my skills at observation, perspective and anatomy the most, as my dream goal is to become a Concept/ Character Artist, and I think these are the abilities in which I want to really hone during my time on this course.
Also, learning how to use 3DsMax wouldn’t go amiss either.