During sixth form we are told to decide what we want to do for our university courses, we had classes where we sat and researched universities, apprenticeships, and our next steps. I knew I wanted to work in the film industry so I researched careers in this area.
I wanted to move away to university, I didn’t want to go somewhere close. I wanted an adventure and I wanted to start again. Like every main character in a low budget romance film I wanted to move away and get a fresh start. Initially I had 2 options that I was looking at Solet university in Southampton and Falmouth university in Cornwall. I lived in the midlands, so these were both a fair few hours away from my home. I went to visit both and was blows away by Cornwall, and the course and what I could do and learn there.
I moved to Cornwall with big expectations of this fresh start, but I was terrified. This is something I had been waiting for, I knew it would be amazing once I had settled down and but I was still so scared. I knew when I moved down that I wasn’t the normal university student in the sense that I wasn’t interested in ‘nights out’ I don’t like being drunk and that isn’t something I was interested in. When I went on socials and to freshers’ events, I was always sober and I still enjoyed myself and I met the most amazing people! There is so much more to university than just ‘nights out’, drinking and partying and I was worried that, that was all there was and I am so happy to share that it wasn’t. The things I loved the most about my Cornish life and my little home were the little things, spending time with my friends, staying in and making cakes – we once went foraging and made cakes out of stinging nettles (they were completely safe, vegan, lemon flavoured and everyone we offered them too loved them!), going to the beach, exploring and so much more! There was so much that Falmouth university offered and yes it did have a night life but that isn’t what I loved, I loved the midnight swims, the fresh sea air, being able to walk to the beach and spend time with my friends.
I am a very hard worker and Monday- Saturday I would walk up to university early to work or go to the gym; I lived just off Penryn high street in a small cottage with 2 of my friends. I would walk out of our little cottage up the high street – a very steep hill it was quite the workout! But with time this got easier, and I did it every day. I had a spot, I would stop every morning and turn around, take a picture and just look out at the harbour, whether it was cloudy and raining or sunny and hot I would just stand there for a few mins and just breath in the fresh sea air. This became a little ritual and I have hundred of pictures of my spot. This was just the most humbling and mesmerizing moment of the day, I felt so peaceful id walk along the path running my hands along the leaves and just feel the world around me. Id listen to the birds, pick some flowers for my desk and just be in the moment and be in the world. This is something I miss about my home in Cornwall just being able to see that view because it was the most amazing thing to go and look at and I was so privileged to see in in all weathers, all seasons and all variations. When I go back to Penryn I will always go and look at that spot and I would take it in because it never gets old, and it can never not be beautiful. I was so lucky to see it and I knew I was lucky so it was always appreciated.
My Spot
My Spot
I lived in a little white cottage with 2 of my friends, it was only small but on our doorstep there were so many amazing things. I could walk out of our alley down the hill to the harbour, I would often take my sketchbook and sit and draw on the benches there were normally little fish swimming around my by feet or some jellyfish in the clear water. we would go to the muddy beach café for a tea and cake, sometimes when the skies were clear we would spontaneously walk down the hill late at night in our pyjamas with our hot drinks in our mugs (praying we don’t drop them and break them!) we would sit and look at the stars above us and just take in the world. We would dance in the rain or do our weekly shop to Lidl or ASDA and regret buying that extra oat milk with the heavy bags… I could walk to the campus apple orchids and green houses and look at the flowers on the grounds and sit in the hammocks. I would go on little walks in the little forest behind my house look at the trees and listen to the birds, sit on the benches, do some cartwheels, take my laptop and work, draw, crochet and just be in nature. Id follows the streams that lead me to the reservoir and just sit in the sun and watch the swans swim that’s where I wrote a lot of my dissertation just sat with my laptop watching the swans and listening to the water. Penryn was another world, and I am so lucky that I could live there even if it was just for a short period of time, I felt like I was at one with nature and I could see the beauty of the world first hand.
Hammocks in the Apple Orchids
Falmouth Harbour
Reservoir
Sitting in the sun by the reservoir
I studied Animation and VFX with the hopes that I would work as a 3D artist for film and TV, for this course we are taught all aspects of animation and we decide our specialism in 2nd year. I specialized in the 3D pipeline this meant that out classes in 2nd and 3rd year were catered only to that pipeline we had classes for nuke where we learnt keying and compositing and maya where we learnt hard surface and character modelling, we also learnt substance painter where we textured our assets and the things we had made both for our personal projects and for our team projects. I knew what I wanted to get out of university and what I wanted to learn but I learnt so much more than I could have imagined. Because I was mostly interested in the 3D pipeline specifically 3D modelling I worked really hard learning Maya and improved significantly while at university. Figures 1, 2 and 3 show renders from a project in first year, we were taught the basics of Maya and then asked to create a living room with multiple assets, we didn’t need to texture them but we were told if we wanted to then we could try. Due to the fact I had very minimal experience these models are not amazing, but I learnt a lot and I love seeing them compared to my work now. As you can see clearly in Figure 1 the wood texture is stretched and distorted, this Is due to the fact that I didn’t know how to UV unwrap and as I explained in my ‘working on a BAFTA nominated short film – Middle Watch” blog, middle watch is the first project I learnt how to UV unwrap on. The textures I used are also AISS and I also didn’t understand what all the settings and things meant – and although I know I’ve only just scratched the surface with the models I am producing now but I know a lot more and am now able to create textures externally rather than just applying an image and blindly hoping it will work on my model. Figures 4 and 5 show examples of models I created during 3rd year of university and as you can see after all the masterclasses with industry professionals, personal tutorials, practice, lectures and seminars I have learn a lot both about modelling but also texturing. Its unclear in the first renders but I have now got a significantly better understanding of topology and how to create something using the proper poly structure as well as creating the shape. The fisherman in figure 5 is a highly complex model but I ensured to stick to a clean topology and make sure the mesh works for animating. I really love learning and finding out new things and Falmouth university, the lecturers and my friends taught me so much and it was the most incredible experience.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
I am a film buff, not sure how I feel about that phrase but it’s true I love films and one thing that Falmouth had was a huge library of films, there were millions and you could ask for one if they didn’t have it, you could rent them and take them home, you could watch them in the library on the computers, you could hire a room and watch them on the big screen, you could hire the campus cinema and all for free… it was amazing and just so fun to have access to any and all films! Even new releases! I have always been obsessed with film and because Falmouth had a film school – the film school I was a part of, there were always events and things I could go to and films I could watch with ease. As well as this watching film was homework for me WHICH WAS AMAZING! It would be like “this week in our lecture we will be watching spiderman into the spider verse then we are going to analyse the way that it was animated and why the film makers did this” I loved learning about why something was done, why a colour was used, how a technique was created, why a specific fps per character was used like in spiderman into the spider verse. I just love the film industry and I love how Falmouth university allowed us all the understanding and access to all types of media. I also was s frequent ‘SpinFlix’ attendee at university, this was a spin class where you sat on your bike and you watched a film honestly if you love films Falmouth university is the place to go it has such a community of film lovers and has so many different ways in which you can watch films even sitting on a bike for 2 hours. Film theory is something I love, I enjoy watching a film and figuring out why it was done that way, why it was framed that way etc… I really enjoyed writing my dissertation and I think it shows because I was lucky enough to get a first for my dissertation (you can find my dissertation on my blog – “lets get real: Designing Verisimilitude in film”). because Falmouth was so passionate about art and film it allowed an already strong obsession with film to grow and get stronger. Due to the fact that I was also using the same software’s as film makers use on feature length films, I also gained a greater appreciation for the films as I knew the difficulty and skill level and the sheer amount of work that goes into producing a film. I worked on short film and that was an incredible amount of work, although this was a small team and feature films have hundreds of artists, it allowed me to see the scale of production.
While at university I joined the aerial acrobatics society, and later became a committee member and teacher. This was something I had never done before. Before going to university I did acrobatics and different forms of dancing but aerial acrobatics is more of a circus skill rather than a dance. This was an incredible experience and I met so many incredible people from all over the university. Aerial acrobatics is a form of circus skill where a metal hoop is hung from a rope and you contort yourself around the hoop in multiple positions as well as lifting yourself and holding yourself in positions. I tried a few societies such as cheer leading and swimming but this was the one I found a passion for. I was also the fundraising committee member this meant that I organized events such as cake sales and socials to raise money for the society, this was so that we could afford the hire of the hall, the equipment and the teachers. We even had a social event with the other societies such as rugby, dance etc... where they hired a kids play area with a ball pool and everything and they added a bar and we were just allowed to play. As I mentioned earlier I am not the biggest fan of a night out but this one was one I loved I just played and slid down slides for hours it was great! There were so many incredible things I learnt at this society and it was just amazing! Since leaving university it has been difficult to find anywhere that offers aerial hoop classes, but I am so glad because I recently found one! I have been able to attend these and am now enjoying it as much as I did at university, this is such a niche thing that I took away from living in Cornwall, but it is something I gained such a passion for and continue to love.
I Lived in Penryn, this meant that I was about a 40 minute walk to the beach (or a 5 minute train, luckily the train was just 5 mins up the road from my home), I often walked to the beach. There was 2 walks that I loved the most one was walking left when I got to the beach and along the coast to Falmouth docks and the other was turning right and going to my hidden beach with ice waters. The fact that I lived so close to the beach was such a dream and I often went there, I sat on the sand and drew, I went for beach BBQs with my friends, I went swimming, watched sunsets, we went paddleboarding and just went and took in the views across the ocean. I went on so many exploring adventures and I loved like a local, I found things you wouldn’t be able to find in that 2 weeks that you went to Cornwall on a holiday, I took every little path, every little road, every little route some I even had to abseil down with an old sketchy rope (the time I did that I ended up stranded on a nude beach and had to ask a man for directions, he was lovely and informed me I would have to climb back up using the rope…). I was so lucky to have friends that could drive and we went on loads of early morning swims, waking up at 3am getting in the car to a random beach and watching the sunrise at 5, going swimming under the stars. I loved walking barefoot on the sand and just seeing everything and being in nature, id sit and crochet or draw just listening to the birds and enjoying my live so grateful that I could do these things and do them with such ease. This was a real culture shock when I got back to the midlands as back home my world was so big, there was so much to explore and so many events and things to do with my friends. Because I was on a film making course, I spent some days/evenings out on shoots, for a few weeks I went on drone shoots to a far of beach to capture the sunrise/sunset for a project I was working on, my friend had a drone and we went to shoot the sky. It was so amazing and the fact that I was able to do things like that was just amazing. I found so many places on adventures, and they became places that I took my friends, for example my ‘hidden beach’ this was about a 30-minute walk from the main Falmouth beach up through the woods and fields on the other side. I climbed down the small cliffs to a rocky area and if you jump into the water you can swim to a small sandy beach, it is tiny but so stunning, the water is as clear as glass and the sunsets are stunning. It was so nice because when I invited my friends from home to stay I could take them on adventures and show them how amazing Falmouth was! I know it is just a little Cornish town but there is so much more to it and so much more to do than what you would expect when you visit for a short time.
My Hidden Beach
My Hidden Beach
I spent a lot of time in Cornwall in Falmouth but my home was only a 5/10 minute walk to the train station, it was a small line that could take you anywhere from Turro to Falmouth docks it had about 5 stops. But if you got the train to Truro, you could go anywhere! My favourite day trip was going to St Ives it only cost £6 for a return train and it meant that I could go with my friends to this seaside town, we would go swimming, go for walks explore, have drinks and just enjoy the beautiful town! It was so amazing doing things like that, and it wasn’t even expensive we were living the dream! even when it rained me and my friends got out bikinis on and ran full speed into the ocean (would recommend checking the area of sea that your running into because I had a near miss with a rock…) everyone thought we were crazy but it was so liberating! It was chucking it down with rain and there were two girls in February running into the ocean it was just incredible. We did get very cold and wet and have to get food but because it had been raining and we didn’t rush into anywhere we couldn’t find anywhere to eat so we ended up in spoons luckily we weren’t picky and they had vegan options. The big day trips were amazing we could go on a whim and just explore and live freely but I loved the little ones too. We had a small café down the road from our house called sunshine café. It had the most incredible chai lattes and every time I took someone new to Cornwall or to that café I would recommend it and everyone agreed that it was life changing! I even have a trip to Cornwall planned so I can go to Kona (an incredible restaurant in Falmouth town their curry’s and poke bowls are insane!) and to the sunshine café for a chai latte. This wasn’t just a café though they had yoga classes (I went once, and the woman thought I was pregnant – kind of rude because id just eaten my dinner so I was bloated but very funny! I didn’t say anything she just kept chanting “protect the baby”) the café was just so stunning from the crystals to the food it was just amazing! the full menu was vegan and locally and ethically sourced. I went on day trips to the Eden project and saw the stunning flowers from all around the world growing in this magical place. Cornwall just has some stunning things to see and being able to live there and have such easy access to all of these things was magical and I am so lucky that I lived in that world even if it was for such a short period of time.
I am so lucky that I lived there and I cant wait to see where I end up, I didn’t expect to have such an incredible time and to meet so many people and to live that way. I became very much an explorer and after I'd worked all day in a windowless studio I would enjoy my walk home looking up t the stars, taking pictures in my spot and getting home to the girls to plan some amazing adventures. I know that the career I want will take me to amazing places and I will be able to explore them and learn about what makes the special and I can’t wait for that. I cant wait to see where life takes me and I know all my adventures will be unique and as special as Falmouth was.