ON STUDY - THE SKILL TREE

This is the exact method that I've used to study everything that I know for the past few years. 
The major issue with pursuit of anything is keeping the objective and efforts organized. 

I developed the idea of using a game format skill tree to chart this. 
When it hit me I was in college. I generally knew what I wanted to make but it had tons and tons of moving parts. 
Fortunately the solution was simple. I took each section in larger chunks. 

At that point it was Art , Film and Tech. 

I went to college for animation and was heavy into the art stage, but it also doubled as a little bit of a film education. 
Everything was done manually but we learned everything from pre-production to post. I knew that this would take years and years to complete but this was the method. 

THE 1ST WAVE IS FOUNDATION.

You'll need to understand what it means to do the thing. 
In art it's drafting, tone, rendering, colour, perspective ETC. Just the essentials to effectively make anything work visually. After that application of the first wave lead into specifics. Everything in the world. Organic and inorganic. Costume, clothing, was next. Last, Flair or design sense came in. After a base is established you can flip it any way you'd like. This process was then repeated for tech. I got to a certain point and understood enough to get what I needed in relation to the projected final result.  

Currently I'm on the film part of the chart. 
This is a deep avenue of study but it's getting there. 

BONUS: THE SKELETON PORTFOLIO

Along the way my ideas had been cooking and I started to make a skeleton portfolio. 

The idea of drafting the final before your skills are there to meet it is quite useful. This often includes, writing stories, premises, treatments, scripts etc. Also due to my prior experience in the art skill tree, I've been able to develop accurate concept art and storyboards for the ideas that I create. 

When you have a shell version say 5 key pieces, you have pencil sketch versions of them.
You can keep them on a closed page of your site or as a mock up somewhere. 
Over time you'll slot one of the roughs out with an updated version. 
You keep doing this until they're all done. 

After the tree is completed, you batch that tree under 1 "node" and you can either scale that idea up as an expert, 
or you can repeat the steps with other branches to develop a more complicated final skill. 

Think like an rpg, or Naruto lol. You can stack elements on top of each other to form new techniques. 


ACTIONS ! 

Go out now and make your own skill tree. 
Think of your final longer term goal. 
Break down the areas of study. 
Tackle them piece by piece starting with the raw foundation. 
Have fun! 

-MANIKK-