Project 1: Collaborating
Working as a team will be vital for industry work. I therefore focused on being negotiable, reliable and a useful asset to the collaborative group for the duration of this project. This was challenging at first, since I'm naturally reclusive and independent with my work. However, I gradually learnt the benefits of considering others and the team were able to produce an animated Skit that I wouldn't have explored on my own. Another benefit from working as a team has been my increased motivation; I had expectations from my teammates that I wanted to exceed. I also found myself becoming competitive from the outstanding quality of my team's project contributions. Therefore, the collaborative aspect of this project has been beneficial to my growth as a professional.
Personal improvement could be made to my lack of confidence, which prevented me from pushing and debating my thoughts during team meetings. I need to further understand the benefits of active contribution over passive contribution.
Project 2: Animated Short
I'm confident in our animation's robust pipeline and production quality; the strength of our initial ideas carried through to our final outcome, which was executed with accurate animation. This quality of work was achieved by the decision to split the scenarios between group members. I focused on the Laundromat scenario within our animation, using my pre-production work to model an 80's inspired set and animate two characters amongst this environment.
I built on collaborative ideas by producing environment and prop illustrations from visual research. Once a storyboard was completed and edited into an animatic, I used Maya to produce a 3D previz before a finalised animation.
I thoroughly enjoyed the modelling process, but was reluctant to the task of animating. Gradually, I became more familiar with character rigs and the importance of interacting with them correctly; I didn't want to sabotage the character assets added to the rigs by my teammates. Exploring smaller rig controls, such as the neck, eyelids, and fingers, taught me the importance of detail and enabled me to create some of the best animation I have produced on this course. Once I accepted the inevitable tediousness of character animation, I learnt how gratifying this practice can be when you give it proper time and patience. I was proud of the movements being playblasted, which sustained this perspective shift. Working on this animated short has forced me out of my comfort zone and I've discovered how enjoyable animation can be when done to the best of your ability.
An area of improvement would be the restrictive use of one camera angle to replicate CCTV capture. Our animation's delivery would've been more successful if we adhered to the original storyboards; their dynamic camera movements generate better immersion as the audience is amongst the narrative.
Project 3: Lecture Program & Film Reviews
By analysing films against different weekly criteria I produced written discussions on new areas of focus. I always appreciate the opportunity to watch new films, such as The Mist (2007), Eternal Sunshine (2004), and Moon (2009). However, I wouldn't think to reflect on exploitation, or the mathematical formulae to filmmaking, or the manipulation of time in film narratives. Therefore, the lecture program enabled me to write about these films with refreshing subject matter. The short word limit for each film review allowed me to cover multiple thoughts I wanted to explain, unlike previous projects that required fully realised essays. This project gave me the opportunity to explore film fundamentals without worrying heavily on written structure. I see myself using these different film analysis 'lenses' in future essay tasks to help produce more professional written discussions.
Improvements could be made to the consistency of my film reviews; I found myself writing better quality texts on films I enjoyed. This could be resolved by carrying out research on films I didn't enjoy in order to cultivate discussion content.
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