At some level, I've always wanted to create some bitchin' assets to be used in games.

Really, it's just an extension of a craving, one of a few dreams I've had since childhood to be a "game designer" -- or, more accurately known to me since I 'grew up', a game developer.

One of my first attempts of making a 'game' was in Microsoft Paint, when I was about 6 or 7? Very young, at any rate.

I painted a background, something crudely-drawn, and then painted something else into the, uh, "scene". I then painted over the "something else" with a white box or something, and the goal of the "game" was to uncover what I'd hidden.

Now, as you can imagine, it didn't exactly work out: being a dumb kid, layers (like those used in Photoshop) were a concept that I had no knowledge of, and weren't (and still aren't) implemented in MSPaint. The concept itself of "Shiverbumps"... yeah.

You can practically picture my young face's puzzlement when I loaded up the .bmp or .jpg, and nothing "worked", heh.

I also remember religiously-reading my Total Annihilation guidebook/manual at break-times in primary school, and designing new units and structures (like a fortress/outpost that had radar, two light lasers, and a tier one kBot lab built-in) for the game in pencil and on paper.

Cavedog's monthly-release of new units for the game also helped fuel my desires.

I also designed Command and Conquer: Red Alert bases and missions in spare exercise books, while also decorating the outside of said books with black and gold sticker-letters, in an attempt to mimic the game's logo.

As I grew up into my teens, and as games such as Warcraft III, Command and Conquers Renegade and Generals were released, my curiosity remained (as did my failed dabbling attempts) as the modding community for these games created (and released) their own assets. Playing maps and levels where they had been used by people stoked it and the various ideas I had.

Ashamedly, I also had a long "idea guy" phase.

Recently, I've gained a subscription to Plural Sight, an online training centre aimed at professionals in many, many industries, and have decided to put my learner's license for 3DSMax to use on my laptop.

I'll be learning 3DSMax at first from the course "Introduction to 3DSMax 2017", which is a comprehensive introduction to everything (modelling, animating, texturing, etcetera), chronicling my progress in-text and with images from each lesson, before moving onto other courses.

I also plan on following the courses outlined for other software, like Photoshop... once I get a Wacom and a subscription, that is!

After all, I still have big dreams and ideas... I just need to work and train myself to gain the necessary skills to bring them to life. :)

This is Mike, signing off for now!