Tess Studdiford
New Media
Fall 2022
Graduating Fall 2023
https://tessstuddiford.wixsite.com/my-site

My road through higher education started at FSU in Communications, feeling incredibly unfilled and mentally burnt out from high school. After taking some time off, I decided to apply to the University of Tampa for a degree in New Media which sounded incredibly inspiring and challenging. Suddenly I was taking interesting classes and was excited about learning again. As well as getting to explore my passions for digital art from Videography to CSS creative coding. Studying at the university these past couple of years has given me an inner purpose and confidence in myself and my future. Professors Santiago Echeverry and Gregg Perkins have been incredibly supportive in my projects. As well as helping me find internships in my field to make sure once I graduate I will succeed in the real world. Both offer well thought out feedback that only improves my skills as a New Media Producer.

One specific strength I’ve noticed is that I can showcase my style in any media whether its coding in HTML 5, videography, or photography. I want every piece or project I create to be true to myself, and if someone looks at my work, they know it’s mine. Though I am a New Media major, I feel connected to the past, old music, film photography, movies, or even vintage clothes. I enjoy combining the new technology with older concepts to put my spin on the digital age, even by simply placing a film filter on a video or recreating a Grateful Dead cover art in Creative Coding (FMX 310). My technical strengths are videography, graphic design, photography and CSS coding. Through my internships in social media and content creation I have been able to work on photo and video shoots and create many graphics for Instagram and other social media platforms. And through class projects I get to focus on the more creative side of my personal work and be free from a marketing guide rulebook. More recently I have been learning how to projection map through MadMapper in Multimedia Installation (FMX 463) which is slowly beginning to be a strength I may want to pursue a career in as it has may lead to some interesting marketing capabilities in the future.

In terms of weaknesses, 3D Animation (FMX 217) immediately comes to mind. That is the most challenging class I have taken at UTampa, and I commend every animation major, as it is an incredible skill. As a former perfectionist, I now actually enjoy being able to attempt something and realized I cannot be good at everything. I was able to create a model car, for example, but rigging a walking figure is where I struggled to finalize the actual animation. Learning Maya, in general, was rough for me, as the interface is much more complex compared to Adobe software like Premiere or Photoshop. However, I learned I can create simple 2D animation, using Procreate as a fun hobby or to be used in marketing projects. Professor Dana Corrigan was incredibly supportive in her feedback on projects and would always answer questions I had, which helped me not give up on learning animation in general.

When I graduate in Fall 2023, I cannot pinpoint what I will be doing, as my major is vast in what direction I can go in the aspects of job prospects. I see myself working in marketing, and creating content for social media, as I have a lot of experience in that field from past internships and jobs. I also debated taking a boot camp in learning UX/UI as it is something I find incredibly interesting but only have a little bit of background knowledge of and would like to learn more. No matter where life leads me, I know I will be creating things I am fulfilled with, whether with my personal projects or through work.