From Script To Screen - Reflective Statement
My experience of this project has, yet again, been most memorably overwhelming. With each new project, I try to prioritize time management in order to make my work a good as it possibly can be. However, I found myself working up to the day before the deadline, despite sacrificing all spare time to get work done.
This isn't to say that I'm unhappy with the work I have produced. Reflecting back on this project, I think I have improved in my ability to support an outcome; I think that my volume of design sketches, concepts, illustrations and drawn planning has grown, making my overall project stronger. This has also vastly helped with storyboarding, script writing and pre-visualising, as I have a mattress of supporting work to fall back on and utilize.
Prior to this project, the idea of crafting an idea into a working plan seemed ominous, and an element of the creative pipeline that seemed impossible to me. I feel like I have proven my worth with the skills required for this process, as I have successfully turned three random words into a relatively clear 2 minute pre-visualisation. I now see myself as a more capable creative person, breaking the boundaries of simply putting an idea onto paper.
With so much to consider, it felt natural to talk to peers and converse about each other's work. I think this helped me open up to professionalism, as I found myself discussing and critiquing other's ideas, and allowing other people's comments to improve my own work. I have learnt that an audiences opinions can sometimes be better than your own. After all, a finalised animation is made to be watched by an audience. It is therefore important to avoid closing yourself off during the pre-production process of a project.
Time management is a skill I am endlessly working on. Other than this aspect of the project, I think that I need to learn how to round-out my design work. Although my design work has grown in volume, I have a habit of re-visiting the same thing, the same composition or object or character, and unnecessarily re-drawing when there are an endless array of other aspects I haven't yet visualised. For example, was is really worth rendering an already existing image of the exterior to my community centre when I could have looked into logo design? or costume design?
Additionally, I think I need to work on my application of research. I think I have a strongpoint with carrying-out research, but where does it lead? Looking into Wes Anderson vastly influenced my cinematography, and this was the most effective research I carried out. However, I feel like the reading material I recorded (Nancy Beiman and Marice Begleiter) through blog posts was a dead end, and so was the research I conducted on the three words I received for this project, as this never influenced finalised work. I think that, over time, I will become more efficient at understanding how to use the research I have compiled. Maybe the research I conducted has influenced my work. In that case, I need to work on my realisation of this, and communicate this.
Overall, this project has been surprisingly successful and enjoyable. I wasn't expecting to have as much motivation as I did, since I wasn't working towards a polished product I could proudly present. Instead, I had to figure out how to work within tight constraints and create something that isn't a complete embarrassment. I think that there's hope and potential behind my terrible CG characters and choppy animatic, I suppose that's all that matters.
This isn't to say that I'm unhappy with the work I have produced. Reflecting back on this project, I think I have improved in my ability to support an outcome; I think that my volume of design sketches, concepts, illustrations and drawn planning has grown, making my overall project stronger. This has also vastly helped with storyboarding, script writing and pre-visualising, as I have a mattress of supporting work to fall back on and utilize.
Prior to this project, the idea of crafting an idea into a working plan seemed ominous, and an element of the creative pipeline that seemed impossible to me. I feel like I have proven my worth with the skills required for this process, as I have successfully turned three random words into a relatively clear 2 minute pre-visualisation. I now see myself as a more capable creative person, breaking the boundaries of simply putting an idea onto paper.
With so much to consider, it felt natural to talk to peers and converse about each other's work. I think this helped me open up to professionalism, as I found myself discussing and critiquing other's ideas, and allowing other people's comments to improve my own work. I have learnt that an audiences opinions can sometimes be better than your own. After all, a finalised animation is made to be watched by an audience. It is therefore important to avoid closing yourself off during the pre-production process of a project.
Time management is a skill I am endlessly working on. Other than this aspect of the project, I think that I need to learn how to round-out my design work. Although my design work has grown in volume, I have a habit of re-visiting the same thing, the same composition or object or character, and unnecessarily re-drawing when there are an endless array of other aspects I haven't yet visualised. For example, was is really worth rendering an already existing image of the exterior to my community centre when I could have looked into logo design? or costume design?
Additionally, I think I need to work on my application of research. I think I have a strongpoint with carrying-out research, but where does it lead? Looking into Wes Anderson vastly influenced my cinematography, and this was the most effective research I carried out. However, I feel like the reading material I recorded (Nancy Beiman and Marice Begleiter) through blog posts was a dead end, and so was the research I conducted on the three words I received for this project, as this never influenced finalised work. I think that, over time, I will become more efficient at understanding how to use the research I have compiled. Maybe the research I conducted has influenced my work. In that case, I need to work on my realisation of this, and communicate this.
Overall, this project has been surprisingly successful and enjoyable. I wasn't expecting to have as much motivation as I did, since I wasn't working towards a polished product I could proudly present. Instead, I had to figure out how to work within tight constraints and create something that isn't a complete embarrassment. I think that there's hope and potential behind my terrible CG characters and choppy animatic, I suppose that's all that matters.
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