The learning curve for this module has been enormous. Having been asked to work in a way which I haven't previously allowed me to approach the brief with a fresh outlook and take a experimental approach whilst pushing the boundaries as much as I could. I wanted to make sure I took full advantage of the opportunity to learn more about 3D modelling and animating in this way, as well as develop my pre-existing skills such as the pre-production and post-production processes. Looking back to September when the brief was first set and we were brainstorming ideas, I had no idea the amount of content I was set learn about and how much work I would be able to produce given the two and a half month duration given to us. I've tried to adapt my skills throughout the module and undertake new things within Maya by myself, whilst trying to remain clear of my limitations and the constraints of the module. This project has tested my problem solving skills and encouraged me to think in a way that I haven't before with a brief. Fortunately the work Wing and I were producing was quite close to what we envision at the start, and we were able to stick closely to our initial ideas.
Approaching a brief of this nature and with it being something I had no prior experience with things were expected to go wrong. The biggest problems I encountered during the module were predominantly technical problems with a variety of software programs such as Maya, Premiere Pro and After Effects. Having used Premiere Pro and After Effects quite frequently I thought this stage would be okay but we seemed to quite consistently encounter problems. The problems were mostly with Maya but this was just due to our inexperience with troubleshooting the software combined with a general lack of experience. This is the first time I have collaborated with someone else on a creative project, and I'm pleased to say that I really enjoyed working with Wing and think we both contributed a lot to the successful undertaking of our animation. We were able to share the workload evenly between the two of us and found a good balance in this respect. Both of us were able to play to our strengths within the process allowing us to learn from each other. Many times throughout the project I was blown away at the high standard of Wing's work and this encouraged me to step up and work even harder to make sure I didn't bring the quality of our work down. Furthermore, the experience has taught me a lot about how to communicate with someone during the planning an execution of a brief and overall I was confident in our ability to find a good solution to the brief.
When we had our interim crit I felt that Wing and I had established our idea quite well and I was happy with the progress we had made. At this point we had produced several story boards demonstrating our initial ideas for narrative as well as an animatic which also featured the music we used in our final animation. The premise of the characters and the narrative were well received by my tutors and peers which gave me the confidence to push the idea forward along with the helpful contributions and input of the class. Another thing I've tried to do more and enjoyed doing is asking more questions and trying to learn from both Mat and Sara. They are both very knowledgable about certain areas such as using Maya, shot framing, storytelling and character designing and I realised that it's important to try and seek help when it's needed from people who are experienced with what I'm trying to do.
For me personally, one of the most prevalent factors in making sure this was a successful project was how I managed my work load. There was quite a few ways I tried to make sure that I was prioritising work and completing individual tasks in good time. We were also fortunate enough to be given a break down of our time and an overview of where we should be up to each week. Aside from this I made sure to set myself personal goals, noting down lists of tasks that had to be completed in order of priority and in an order that would enable me to work in the most efficient way I could. For example, if I was able to multitask then I would make sure I did, so rendering frames across multiple computers whilst working on the scenes that have been rendered. Outside of the actual production process, I tried to stay on track with the documentation and usually used the weekends to write up everything I did during the week. This usually took quite a few hours due how quickly progress was being made and the amount of work we were producing. However, this seemed to be quite an effective way to manage it, and at no point did I feel like I had to catch up on the documentation side of the project. Another thing I did was invest in a white board so I could write down things I needed to do including any reminders for the project. I was able to keep all of the current and relevant information around the module in this format so that I could refer to it whenever I needed to.
If Wing and I had more time to refine the animation further I would want to revisit a couple of things. Firstly, there is a scene in the second half of the animation where a character walks outside, and in the final version the scene is quite blown out and a lot of the objects in the scene are white. This was an unfortunate rendering mistake but by the time we realised what the frames that were rendering looked like, (after around seventy had been produced) it was too late on in the production process to redo it as we would't have been able to finish the full animation. Or at the very least it would have been too close to the deadline. Furthermore, I would have liked to consider some of the shots more and told the story a little differently. Now I've seen the finished piece I can see where there could have been minor improvements in the storytelling and how the narrative was visualised.
Although at first the brief seemed quite daunting due to my inexperience and unfamiliarity with 3D animation and software I think after the process starting everything started coming together and the progress throughout was quite constant. It has been a great experience to collaborate with a classmate, and it is a good introduction the way collaboration works in animation and the animation industry. I'm pleased with the work I've put in and produced during this module, it's been a good experience and hopefully I can build on this and use what I've learnt for future modules.
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