I had a month to play around, sort of, and so I wound up focusing on my 2D digital art and I took a few commissions. I may take another few during the winter break. They're crazy fun and I really learned some new techniques. In order from my earliest two months ago to the latest:
The fandoms/genres include Star Trek, Star Wars, steampunk noir, and original characters I received commissions for.
I learned to paint hair and metal and wrinkles and scars and PATTERNS... that patterning down the front of the dress was FUN. I learned glass. My proportions are improving. My color theory's getting better. I TOTALLY USED REFERENCES AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO SAY IT. Those are important and key to learning.
I've also done lots of small sketches to keep my hand from getting stiff.
And more text stuff under the cut, just keeping a record of where I am right now. I'M IN A GOOD HEADSPACE, IT'S AWESOME.
And for the record, I'm awesome. I know these programs now:
Autodesk Maya
UDK
Motionbuilder
Cortex
The Foundry's Nuke
Zbrush
Photoshop
And I can do basic Python scripting to make my own toolsets in Maya.
Maya, Zbrush, and Photoshop are my best, since I've worked with them the longest. The others are a work in progress. But considering I have less than a month to learn most of these... I'm awesome. I know their basics and what I don't know, I can pick up on pretty quick.
AND I'm considering going to GDC in 2013. I'll have some work to show if anyone asks because I'll be starting finals around that time. ANd mostly it'd be awesome to meet people in the industry.
I've been writing, too, but that's more fanfictiony so I'm not exactly going to post that here. XD Still, practice is practice.
