Train2Game Art & Animation student Fee Stewart recently appeared as a guest on RTI FM to talk about Train2Game.
The mum of three told Postcard from Poprad about her experiences with Train2Game and what she’s been working on as part of a Train2Game student placement at award winning independent game developer Radiation Burn.
You can read part one of Fee’s interview here or on the Train2Game Scribd page, while part two is here. Alternatively, you can listen to Fee on RTI here.
RTI: So Fee, let’s start out by finding out and telling the listeners, who you are.
Fee: I’m Fee Stewart, I’m a mum of three. My oldest is 16 at college now and my youngest is seven.
That means you’re a busy mum?
I am a busy mum, yes and I decided that I wanted a career now that my children are a bit older. So, I’ve gone and retrained.
But didn’t you have some sort of home work or job that you were doing before children? There must have been life before children.
Oh yes, there was life before children. I’ve always been in the arts world, a bit. I trained as a fine artist and before that a graphic designer.
Does that mean you’re a Michelangelo type?
Not at all, no! [Laughs]
What does fine art mean then?
I did fine art painting and printing, so it was painting on canvases, yes, a bit like Michelangelo, but not half as good as Michelangelo!
Was it because you got bored at home or were you genuinely driven to get something new to do?
A bit of both actually, I’ve been at home for 16 years while I’ve been bringing up my children, and I’m just fed up of being at home on my own and I really wanted to get back out into the work place and feel that I’ve achieved something and done something useful outside of just being a mum.
But that presents one major problem of course. That even though the kids are growing up, mum’s still on call 24/7.
She is but I have a very supportive partner.
I saw an article in the newspaper about that Fee where they reckon if mum got paid all that she was due in terms of wages, she would earn £250,000 a year.
If not more Eric! We’re worth our weight in gold I think.
And with today’s money you’re probably right! OK, so you decided to make a change for you, that was the important thing? And was it just financial, or was it just an opportunity to do something? What was the motivation, why did you want to change?
The motivation is both really. I think it’s quite hard to get back out, as a mum, interview the workplace especially when you haven’t been out into a job for a long time. And I wanted to do something that I really enjoyed doing as well. So, having followed an art path most of my life, it had to be something to do with that, so I looked around and found a course and have started retraining to do video games.
RTI: OK, so number 1 you’re changing the rules because mum doesn’t want to be bored at home anymore, and then number 2, you’re going in what is known as a male dominated world. Or is that wrong?
Fee: No, it’s a very male dominated world, there’s not many of us girls in it, we could do with some more.
Looking for comrades are you? Anyone out there listening who wants to get into games, we’ll put you in touch with Fee! You’re in this male dominated world, are you looking to do something where you’d have your own business, or are you going to work for somewhere in the traditional way? What’s the game plan?
Well I’m not 100% sure what the game plan is at the moment. I’m working at a studio called Radiation Burn in Middlesbrough at the moment…
Backtrack, you’re working? How did that happen?
Well, the Train2Game course I’m on actually provides work placements; this was through them that I was given the opportunity to go on work placement, and I’m still there at the moment. I’ve been there four months now.
Well actually that’s quite clever because id you’d gone straight into a workplace after not being in work for 16 years, it’d have been quite dramatic I would have thought, whereas doing it this way it’s a little bit more gentle.
It is more gentle, definitely. I wouldn’t have said that it was that much easier, I mean you are expected to work very hard just like you would be if you’d gone from a proper job. So it’s not any easier by going on work placement, but it certainly gives you a very good insight as to what the job involves from the people in the industry and it’s very exciting and I’m enjoying it.
Part two of RTI FM’s interview with Train2Game Art & Animation student Fee Stewart will be online shortly. As usual, leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on The Train2Game Forum.
Train2Game students have probably seen Epic Games’ impressive Samaritan tech demo by now, and with the quality graphics and animation, you’d be forgiven for thinking that a game like that could only be achieved with a next gen console.
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