Final Evaluation
When starting this module, I could only do basic animations from within Photoshop and I hadn't been able to experiment with mediums as much. By the end, I know about how to have a moving camera within the animation, how to upload and use different tools that I didn't even know were on Photoshop, as follow doing frame by frame animations a lot more smoothly. This would have taken me years to figure out, but becuase we had a chance to do many briefs instead of one big one, we were free to experiment and look at which areas we find enjoyable and find more beneficial to our future. Now we are finished with Responsive as a module, it becomes a lot clearer what I have improved on and which animations/ briefs I naturally found more beneficial to complete. This included Character Design Reference as it opens you up to design a new person who can fit the theme, but they have no rules agains species, age, setting or story, so this means it gives a lot more freedom than most competitions. This is why I chose to carry on producing characters every month, and I shall carry on doing so for the forcible future.
Apart from gaining software skills, I learnt a lot about communication, teamwork, organisation and professional layout skills.
Communication has always been a difficult thing for me to accomplish, so learning more about how to work with people I dont know is very useful to me, most of this learning was on Collaborative practice as it meant going into a room full of 2 other courses and finding people who would work with you. Time management is something that gets difficult doing work on your own, this is why Collaborative Practice meant overcoming this issue as you are working with other people so getting behind made things more stressful, this is why I worked hard to keep on time and as soon as a member of my team had finished something, I would add it to the designs straight away. This was also an importance that I learned for individual practice also, becuase each brief had a deadline, accepting too many made it difficult to complete projects, this is something tat happened more at the beginning as I got used to how I worked.
When looking at everything I produced, the Mouri Warrior was one of the things that I most enjoyed and looked best as an outcome, I felt differently to the other character designs as they didn't come out looking like good, well thought out characters, I think for my piece to go well, I have to take time and many more sketches to produce something great, but this was all a learning curve to get used to what I can and cannot do, or which goes better for me in the overall outcome. From Loopdeloop, Chicken was the best thing I produced as he shows an original looking character, a forward walk cycle, as well as bold colours and movements. I spent ages on this designs and animations as I was busy with other animations at the time but when I got going, I was proud of how he turned out.
When looking at all of my animations and character designs together, I can see a definite style and aesthetic of bold colours, dark lines and small amounts of shading. This is something I want to come away from as I dont want everything to look the same, I want to experiment with styles, brushes and overall colour pallets as this will help show I can be versatile, which cannot be seen through aesthetics within this module, but I didn't see it till the end when they were all together. This is something I am aiming to change within 3rd year. This all comes down to testing and development, when I designed something good I shouldn't have changed mediums into digital so it fitted, this is how they all ended up looking similar. I wish i had taken the time to produce a watercolour animation as this would have looked delicate and beautifully coloured, wheres digital can look blocky and flat colours, something i struggle with coming away from. This is how I wish I could have changed throughout the module, by going out of my comfort zones and producing something different, even if it didn't work, just experimenting would have been beneficial to me as a student.
Organization is a big thing I would change. Sticking to a ghantt chart, I would have a direction to follow and understand where I needed to be by that date, this is something I didn't think of doing for the briefs and struggled to produce the work on time, even thought I always made sure they were done, it would involve a lot less stress if I had tapered the workload, not doing the bulk right before the brief deadlines. I also found my software to be something that hindered me, I can only afford Photoshop for my laptop, this means I only have it to use. This means I need to do anamatic, animation, and editing, all in the same place so the look will never be as good if it cant be brought through to After Effects, this is something I will change in the 3rd year as I am hoping to spend more time in the studio as I wast able to as much this year.
When thinking of the future, I have been able to find many things I can improve on even now. This means that when faced with doing this in the 3rd year, I can make these alterations and hopefully produce a better animation that looks more professional and well thought out. Working within a team also has its ups and downs but when someone can split workloads with me, it really takes off some pressure that I would have been under on my own. This is defiantly something I am having to consider when facing the final year, so I will face it with these altercations that will develop my work further. Although some character, unfinished ideas and aesthetics are some things I can take with me but also take further, as theres no point wasting a good idea, I feel I can stretch these out and produce more work that I can manage, knowing I have done pre-production work to get the kinks out of the ideas and designs. This is another thing I have realised when doing work within the 1st and 2nd year, when you get better as an artist, looking back makes older work less impressive to yourself. This isn't a negative though as it means you have come further. This is what I aim to do when I leave, keep getting better and better to my work can develop as well as my skills.
Overall looking at this module, it has been incredibly useful for me as an artist, as I can produce a lot of quick work and small animations to further myself and find more things to be proud of if I have more work to see from myself as I can become more aquatinted with my strengths and weaknesses so when working with others, I can have partners that replace my weaknesses with their skill, this is what makes great projects, when everyone can bring something to the table.
