What kind of portfolio do I need for Digital Media?

bobmaster

Hi all,

Applied last year for Digital Media but didn't get the course. I brought a portfolio of cartoons and drawings etc on paper and some ideas I had for new mobile phone apps, but I'm not sure if I was completely barking up the wrong tree and should have brought a portfolio on CD of actual media that I have created or something? As in, "digital" media?

Could anyone advise what kind of stuff are they actually looking for in a portfolio for a course like this?

Thanks

BlueJohn

Is it DMP you are talking about? if so I'm in DMH now after doing DMP. IT took me 2 tries to get in ha!
The second time I came they remembered me from the year before, I never brought anything in with me just expressed my interest in the course. But any sort of photoshop, Illustrartor work or web design will defiantly help your chances.

I also felt a lot more confident going in the second time. I had known one of the tutors(John) from about 3 years before when I dropped out of the games course.

bobmaster

I meant DMH. I don't have a lot of experience with creating media on a computer, I'm mainly going into Digital Media because I've always been creating things or making cartoons etc on paper and I'm also very experienced with computers in general so I thought it would be good to combine the two things.

Do I have to do DMP before I would be able to go for DMH? (By the way, the interview I went for was for both of those courses, when they emailed me telling me I didn't get either of the courses they said it was because the standard was very high that year, I presume that was just a nice way of them telling me I had done something wrong ha)

Thanks

BlueJohn

You don't need to complete DMP before as a lot of the new students that came into the class hadn't done it. Only about 9 of us from the first year got into DMH but only around 12 had applied from DMP.

We have already lost quiet a few from are class and will loose a lot more as the course goes on. In the first week we lost some one and since the beginning of the year to now, we have lost around 5 people. Now I am only taking for DMH1 as there is two classes. You should have a basic understanding of programs that are used as it will help greatly. Programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, 3D max and Dreamweaver are all used in the course. But don't worry you are thought from the beginning on each of these programs as well in DMH.

A few of the students that came into the course this year didn't really have that much experience and I think that's the reason why they are gone.

Its a shame you didn't get in cause a to be honest some of the students that get in really shouldn't there and are usually gone with the first few weeks. If you are going to reapply which I recommend as I find the course great and love it, I would just prepare yourself for the interview next year. Show maybe some work from illustrator or Photoshop or have got a basic understanding of HTML as it plays a huge part over the 2 years of the course. I done a FAS web course during the year I didn't get in the first time and I think it helped in the interview as Viv is the head of the course and the web tutor.

If again you aren't successful in getting in I would maybe email or ring the college with in the first week of the start of a new year and ask if there any places available as a lot of the people are usually gone with the first week or so.

If you haven't used any programs like photoshop you can download CS2 Adobe suite here: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

Now it is old version but is still great and you could do some video tutorials on youtube to get some understanding of the programs. If you want the most up to date versions well you could buy them or pirate them as they are pretty expensive.

PM if you dont know anything about pirating.

bobmaster

A lot of good information there, thanks for that. When you say bring in examples of work from Illustrator or Photoshop, I presume you mean bring it in on a CD or do you mean print out some examples?

Also, does creativity play a big part in the DMH course or would you say the focus is more on the technical side of things? Basically what I love is creating stuff but obviously I'd like to learn the technical stuff like HTML (actually learned basic HTML years ago) and Photoshop so I could bring my creations to life so to speak ha.

Thanks

BlueJohn

Bring in prints or a laptop with say a gallery setup just to show case work you have done.

Creativity plays a big role as well as technical skill at using the programs. You are thought the basics of the programs and then really you are left to achieve what you can with the projects.

If you want to take a look at some of the work I have done this year, you can look at a blog I set up. Its one of the projects to keep a blog going for the year. I just have some course work from this year not all.

http://johncashin.bcfedigitalmedia.com/?cat=5

Programs like 3Dmax are great cause they really let you be creative once you learn the basics and are comfortable with the UI. We just received a new project to design a robot or mech. The last one was a spaceship interior. The 3D tutors are pretty bad though, they just teach the course completely wrong. I learned more in about 20 minutes of 3D tutorials than a whole year of DMP.

Photoshop and Illustrator are also brilliant once you learn the basics.

If you really want to look into these programs there are great PDF books you can download for each program like 3Dmax 2012 bible, Smashing photoshop cs5 and dreamweaver missing manual. There also hundreds of great tutorial videos over youtube.