OUAN505 - Creating a Scene, Introduction

I volunteered to create the opening scene for the animation as I had a good idea initially about how to create the scene with the Earth floating in space. There a few elements I wanted in the scene when I was trying to think about how to design it. Firstly I wanted the Earth to be relatively big in comparison to the frame, so not in the distance but close to the camera. I also wanted an area of light reflecting off the perimeter of the Earth and a shadow being cast on one side of the Earth for added realism. I knew everything except perhaps the black background would be made of paper cuts so it would have an added dimension of texture and depth that otherwise wouldn't be achievable even by trying to recreate a paper texture in Photoshop for example, so the clouds, Earth and the areas of land on the Earth as well as the area around the outside is all made from cut outs of different coloured paper. I wanted to have as much movement included in the scene as possible, to do this I had everything on a separate layer so that it can be easily moved when imported into After Effects. An addition element of movement that I wanted to include was a satellite in the foreground orbiting the Earth. I thought this would add a nice extra to the scene that would take it from a simple still image to a moving scene.

The first step in creating the scene was drawing all of the separate assets using Adobe Illustrator. I used illustrator to make sure the lines that were being drawn could be interpreted as vectors by the laser cutter and therefore cut. I used images of the Earth as reference and simplified some of the different shapes until I had a collection them resembling clouds and land that could be cut out. I also created larger circles that would act as the glow to encompass the Earth when scanned in and edited using Photoshop. After all of the assets were cut out of coloured paper, I scanned them in before reforming the original Illustrator image in Photoshop, this time with the paper cutouts. I modified the colours slightly using the tools and functions that are available in order to find a more cohesive colour scheme, rather than the contrasting and uncomplimentary colours on the paper that the shapes were originally cut out of. Following this the rest of the aspects to the scene such as the background and smaller details were added until the scene was complete. Overall I like the look the initial scene gives and I think combined with some movement and sound effects this scene could be a really nice opening to the animation.

My initial thoughts regarding sound effects for this scene is a mixture of the music that will run through the whole animation fading in and a slow rumble as if the Earth is being viewed from inside a space shuttle, and in general I think a low rumble would work with this scene. One aspect of this scene that I think worked really well was the outer rings of the Earth that were created by altering the opacity of the circles cut out of paper. This gave the scene a dramatic effect that wouldn't have been created without these elements present in the scene. I also think that the shape of the sections of the Earth have a certain look to them because their initial shapes consisted of quite a lot detail and after being cut were shrunk down. In the final image this looks quite intricate, and I don't think I would of been able to recreate this using a purely digital method so I believe it was worth the extra effort. If I could have improved this scene, I think I would have found a way to make the Earth rotate slightly during the time that this particular shot is onscreen, it would have taken the scene away from the flatness that it has and made it more dynamic as a whole. I'm pleased that this is the opening scene of the animation as it brings the audience straight into the style we're going for. Furthermore, it's quite a dramatic scene and I like the idea of showing the whole Earth before going into some of the forests and the life that inhabits it, making sure to ease the audience into the feature.

OUAN505 - Final Animatic

Using the final storyboard as a starting point and each panel as essentially a place holder for each scene in the animation I created a new animatic to serve as a direct reference for the group during the production process. I actually figured out a much quicker way to make an animatic using storyboard panels than the method I previously used. Previously I would cut all of the panels out of the storyboard and cut them onto separate layers using Photoshop, before importing the Photoshop file into After Effects to order them. Finally to make sure the timings were accurate I imported this file onto Premiere Pro and adjusted the scenes to fit the timing of the narration. This was a very laborious process for a task that shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to an hour maximum. This time I separated the scenes just like I did previously in Photoshop but this time imported the document into Premiere Pro with the layers separated so that I could move each scene individually. The advantage of doing things this way was that it essentially skipped the process of arranging all of the separate scenes in After Effects and saved about half the total time of the process. So this is the method that I intent to use from now on if I'm using a storyboard as the source of the scenes for an animatic.

Overall, I'm relatively please with the aesthetic of the animatic and final storyboard. Furthermore I'm satisfied that the timings of different scenes, both the transitions and the durations of the scenes themselves fit well with the audio that we recorded. This should prove to be a reliable reference when animating in the production stage and working out timings and lengths for the scenes we're working on. I also think that it has encompassed a good range of different scenes and shots whilst finding a balance of shot duration throughout the animation, meaning that the audience will be able to view each scene on an individual basis without them coming stale for being too long. I owe this also to the pacing of the narration that was devised earlier in the project by our group.

OUAN505 - Final Storyboard

Following on from the revision of the script and premise of the animated documentary as a whole in terms of the content and the types of scenes we decided to include and leave out I did a full revision of the storyboard so that we knew scene by scene what the plan for the piece was. Aesthetically this storyboard is less refined than the original but I've made sure to communicate scenes in as much detail and in addition to this made sure to explain any of the more subtle aspects of the storyboard verbally to the group so that everything is a clear as it can be moving forward. I think that although we won't be using the old storyboard as a reference anymore it can still be used as a guide for our colour pallet and the overall clean cut style we are going for, so it's not redundant despite us not continuing to use it for the animation itself.

The new version of the storyboard indicates a total of 25 scenes in it over the 2 minute running time of the documentary. There are a couple of scenes that are subject to being dismissed when it comes to the animatic and combining the recorded narrative with the storyboard in order to determine the best way to present the documentary. Ideally we don't want scenes to be constantly moving off and on screen but equally I wouldn't want certain scenes lingering on screen for too long and becoming stale for the audience whilst they're watching - as I previously mentioned I want to keep the audience entertained and engaged for the full 2 minutes if possible. The materials used to create the storyboard were simply the combination of black marker and fine liner; fine liner for the lines and smaller details which encompasses the vast majority of the story board and a black marker to create silhouettes and define certain shapes where necessary. The reason for using these materials was simply for efficiency as I needed a relatively quick turn around on the storyboard so that we could progress. I liked this technique and the speed I was able to illustrate panels at, so I will be using it in the future on other types of pre-production work that require a quick turn around.

I made sure to use some of the storyboards I've looked at in the past as reference to take some of the ways in which they communicated certain camera movements or on screen movement through annotation on the storyboard itself. To do do this I included arrows next to frames indicating the camera movement. This can be seen with panels 6, 7 and 8 where the arrows are indicating a tracking shot from left to right as the camera essentially pans across a forest scene. Furthermore, for clarity when working directly with the storyboard I included small annotations under panels explaining actions or details that are specific to that scene. I generally think the more information and detail in the annotation the more successful and true to the original concept the final piece will be, also making sure all of the smaller details are accounted for whilst adding clarity to what needs to be down for both me and my group. Finally, I can now use this version of the storyboard to create a new animatic that will fit much better with the current script and voice recordings we have. From here we will have a finalised idea in terms of our sequence that we can create remaining scenes for. Equally important to this is that we will have more accurate timings for each scene and where it falls time wise in conjunction with the narration.

OUAN503 - Evaluation

This module has been the basis for huge learning curve over the different briefs I've attempted. My intention was to make the most of the openness of the module and select a diverse range of briefs in order to introduce myself to a range of different skills and practices. As a whole the responsive module was one of the hardest I've had to do because of the number of unfamiliar situations I was placed in. An example of this was the collaborative brief. This was the first time I have worked on a project with more than just myself and one other person so there was a level of communication and organisation that I had to strive for in order to conduct a successful attempt at the brief. Working in a group like this allowed me to approach the collaborative brief with a fresh outlook and simultaneously pushed the boundaries of my individual ability, my time management and my capacity to communicate effectively. The module as a whole was an opportunity to develop new skills but also further develop my pre-existing skills that fall into pre-production work, post-production work and the process of image making - which was enhanced throughout the Secret 7" brief. When shifting from brief to brief I've tried to adapt my skills when undertaking contrasting practices. For example the short time between the UCC Coffee brief, a branding project and the Feathr brief, a pattern making project.

In terms of the briefs that I selected I'm happy that I chose to do the Feathr brief, and it turned out to be my favourite brief of the four I did. I was able to experiment with colour, which is something I love to do. I often feel like my knowledge of colour is limited so this provided me with a chance to expand what I know about colours that work together and the way colour works in design. The Feathr brief as a whole took me back to what I would call basics in terms of shape, colour and form. I based the foundations of each of my designs on the natural world and the chaotic and unordered structured it often presents. Looking at imagery and objects that are all around us gave me a good insight into how natural shapes can be applied in areas that I often overlook and a fountain of inspiration that I can translate into other projects in the future.

Approaching all of the different briefs that I was with a lack of experience meant that I expected things to go wrong. The biggest problems I faced throughout the individual briefs were due to my lack of knowledge when it came to the best creative processes behind designing for certain things. The UCC Coffee brief took a lot longer than I hoped it would because I had to do a lot of research before each step. For example, I had to spend a large amount of time looking at various types of packaging and the number things that are relevant to rebranding an already existing brand. I found myself revisiting different sections of the brief in order to remember specific details, making sure that the brand remained consistent across all of the promotional material I produced. I believe if I had prior experience I could have completed the project in a more time efficient manner, but this is a problem that can be solved with more familiarity with this type of work. When it came to the Feathr brief I found it difficult to determine a solid starting point for my designs, so I undertook some perhaps unorthodox methods in order to kick-start the design process. Finally, the collaborative brief was the first time I have collaborated with a group of people on a project, and all from a different creative background than myself. Despite this I'm pleased to say that I really enjoyed working with everyone involved and ultimately we all contributed a lot to the successful undertaking of our animations and the brief as a whole. Specifically, we were able to manage the workload relatively well and discovered a good working process for us all to work with. I think something that helped us solve the brief, as a group was that everyone involved was allowed and encouraged to play to their strengths. This in turn allowed everyone to learn from one another. There were many occasions over the course of the brief that I felt like I needed to step up and work harder than I was to ensure I didn't bring the quality of our groups work down. In summary the experience of the collaborative brief was difficult at times and I often felt out of my comfort zone. However, it has given me invaluable communication skills and shown me how to take specific roles within a team.

I always think about what could have been achieved with any brief if time wasn't a constraint on the vision of a project but of course deadlines and realistic time frames are a natural factor in any brief. I think if my collaborative group and I had more time to refine and experiment further with the story and the animation as a whole I think there is a few things that I would have liked to change. Firstly, because of the pressing deadline and two month time frame of when we formed our group until the project end we had to come up with three plot lines in quick succession. With the brief we were working on we also had to factor in a lot of different requirements and considerations when mapping out the plot itself. I think because of this limitation our storytelling and the way the narrative was communicated to the audience suffered slightly. This could also be due to the over ambitious idea to tell stories of the complexity we wanted in the short timeframe of 20 seconds, not that in itself it was overly complicated but perhaps too difficult to communicate within the timeframe we had. The other difficulty I discovered with this brief I found was finding the time to meet up and make quick progression with our work. There was an element of conflicting schedules that meant we had to take every opportunity to meet and discuss work and progress made. I feel that in this respect I was lucky to have such a committed group to work with that made themselves available whenever a session to talk in person was organised, and without this level of commitment the project would have been a lot tougher to complete to a good standard.

As a whole the module and the briefs that I attempted were quite daunting due to a mixture of inexperience and unfamiliarity. I think now the process is complete I'm happy that I pushed myself to try new ways of working across a variety of mediums and with tools that I haven't necessarily had the opportunity to work with. It has been a great experience to collaborate with people across courses and combine disciplines to create a final outcome. In addition I believe that it has given me good experience and acted as somewhat of an introduction to the way collaboration works in industry and in all types of other situations where teamwork is essential. I'm pleased with the work I've put in and produced during this module, however if I had committed more to the module earlier on I may have been able to fit in another brief and expanded the different areas of practice I covered. I'm hoping that I can build upon what I've learnt throughout the entirety of the module and apply it to other areas of my practice.

OUAN503 - Project Report

OUAN503 - Presentation Boards

OUAN503 - Feathr, Submission & Final Thoughts

Through completing this brief for the responsive module I feel like I've acquired a whole new skill set and approach to a more commercial form of design than I had previously. In conjunction with this, I've been able to experiment a lot more than I thought I would initially with materials, approaches and techniques whilst being driven by strong visual references and imagery that I accumulated online through the use of image boards and other online resources. Below are screenshots of me submitting my final designs through to the competition through the website, which offered an automatic preview of the design draped as wallpaper as you were submitting, and it was great to see the work as if it were actual wallpaper.

I attempted this brief not only because I was interested in the process and the ability to learn a new skill, but because it fitted nicely with the requirements for the responsive module. Throughout the brief I've developed skills and developed a solid body of work through the means of research, development and application. I've also been able to experiment relentlessly with colour, shape and managed to explore new approaches and ways of generating supporting work and starting points to fuel my ideas - such as photographing coloured ice I'd created for one of my tiles. I wish I had more time and that I would have been able to create more designs for this brief in particular as I had enjoyment doing it and I was learning more and more through each design and variations of different designs that I was creating. I think a realistic time frame to complete the work was around a week given that I put in a lot of time over the course of that week, which I have. I've been able to take this week out of Easter to think about and work on the brief quite a lot to produce a good amount of work, more than I expected at first. The challenges this brief posed for me was learning a new skill which was creating repeat patterns, and also having to work efficiently and design in a way with colour and research that I haven't before. Finally this brief had an openness that allowed me to explore all of the things I wanted to in terms of types of design and I ultimately was able to explore three avenues into the brief, each with different considerations, research and exploration of techniques. Overall I'm happy that I under took the brief and definitely feel like this is a skill I could apply and utilise in the future.

OUAN503 - Feathr, Natural Forms

Of all the patterns I created this was probably the most practical in terms of the amount of time I dedicated to the tile outside Photoshop. I wanted to create something directly inspired and related to the types of natural imagery and various elements of the natural world. I think this is a great source of inspiration because it's so accessible in terms of primary research but in a more design sense it can be interpreted in a variety of ways and applied to almost anything. I'd seen images of trees, mountains, rocks, rivers and glaciers that all got me thinking about a way I could directly relate the types of textures and shapes that occur in these things to a design. I wanted to have complete control over the textures, shapes and colours I was getting as a starting point so I decided to look at ice.

So that I could get a texture I wanted and one that I was able to work with and photograph freely for my work I decided to create a sheet of coloured ice, before smashing it and manufacturing cracks and imperfections that could be then used as a texture - giving me a starting point for my design inspired by the natural world. I took a baking tray and covered it with a thin layer of water. To get the colour I wanted I mixed some gouache paint, specifically green, blue and white in a bottle with some water to dilute the colour further. I then sprayed this sparingly over the thin later of water in the hopes of creating a marbled effect or at the very least a difference in the intensity of colour across the water, giving me further variation to work with if I needed it. Once this was done I left the water to freeze for a few hours, checking it every now and then and occasionally spraying more of the paint onto the surface so that it formed spots of intense colour. After it was completely frozen I smashed the ice at random creating an array of cracks and imperfections in the sheet of ice. At closer inspection I was also able to see crystallisation under the surface that resembled frost. This was an example to me of all the different shapes and textures that I was going to be able to get if I photographed the ice carefully. To expose as much as I could and find a neutral light for the ice, I took a daylight lamp and shone it onto the ice before taking close up photographs, making sure to capture as many of the different elements and textures as I could.

I adjusted the basics of the photograph by increasing the contrast to expose the shadows and specks of light. Once I offset the image I realised that this would also be quite difficult to transform into a seamless repeat. The most difficult part was trying not to make one edge darker or lighter than another, as I wanted it relatively uniform across. Eventually after some tweaking the pattern worked relatively well and I turned to finalising the colours of the tile. After playing around for a while I eventually came across this almost sunburnt pink colour, and I really liked it. Admittedly it doesn't quite reflect what I originally set out to do in creating a link between the pattern and natural forms but I really liked it nonetheless. Overall this specific design was a challenge to myself to find alternative ways of gathering inspiration, materials and resources in order to complete a design and I think the manner to which I attained this was quite successful in terms of completing what I set out to do.

OUAN503 - Feathr, Abstract / Natural Forms

The process for this design, like my first started with some visual research. I knew I wanted to create quite an abstract pattern on this one and I already had a good idea about how I was going to do it so it was simply a case of getting on with it. Initially I thought that one design for the Feathr brief would be sufficient, but I'm really quite enjoying it so I've decided to see how far I could take it. I've asked people who know more about pattern making than me if it's possible to create a pattern purely from a piece of abstract colours and shapes and I've been told yes, but it's a little more difficult. I'm basing this piece on colour and texture, a combination of the two to create a nice motif and hopefully in turn a nice pattern. I've started in the same place as before looking at an image board make as inspiration and it's given me a lot of insight and quite a lot of ideas about what to do. The first thing I've done here is taken a piece of scrap wood that I found in the wood workshop and use gouache paints to create abstract marks and colours on the wood. I tried to use colours without any real direction and although it's nothing overly complicated I created marks and textured using a mixture of dry brushing, painting and bleeding colours into one another before leaving them to dry. Once this was done and there was a good mixture of different textures and brush strokes to work from I scanned in the piece of wood and altered the colours using the hue, saturation and levels options on Photoshop. In the past I've developed a lot of textural work on Photoshop using custom brush sets and various settings and techniques that are available through the software but I feel like doing it in an analogue way gives a lot more control and overall a much better result, so I'm glad I did it this way as oppose to doing it digitally. Once I was a little happier with the colour scheme I offset the pattern and began adjusting it to create seamless edges. As you can see from the image split into four quadrants that the lines of separation or the edges are very distinct due to the nature of the initial image and the way it was produced. It look a lot more thought and effort than my first attempt but I eventually managed to create a new image still holding onto as much of the initial work as I could, but this time without the edges. It was more difficult than before, and I had to actually paint over various sections and use the stamp tool repeatedly to conceal certain sections. The elements I liked I copied and used elsewhere in the image, so overall I think it still holds true more or less to the original I created. With this image in particular it took a lot of back and forth regarding the pattern itself and spotting certain areas where the connection between tiles could be seen, I eventually got it to a point where the divides between the repeat weren't visible any more and the hardest part of the process was complete.

At this point in the process I wasn't especially happy with the colour, so using all of the techniques to modify and experiment with colour that I've tried and used in the past on Photoshop I altered the image. The best results came from overlaying colours on a separate layer and then modifying the layer properties - 'soft light' and 'pin light' gave the best and most radical results when compared to the original, so I saved these and continued to experiment until I had four different variations of my tile that I was happy with. After one final test of the pattern and it being a success I chose my favourite one of the variations I created ready to submit which can be seen below. What I especially liked about this process up until the final results is the way it was created using thick gouache paint and layered on means that there is now elements of this in the final pattern. I'm please it can be seen as real paint and not something that could have been made exclusively using digital media. Finally, I really liked this way of working and my only regret when creating this design specifically is that I didn't experiment more with creating textures and separate elements that I could of perhaps brought into the tile later on when I was experimenting with it. Nonetheless I'm really pleased with the way the final repeat pattern turned out and also pleased that I managed to create a seamless repeat from an abstract painting, despite the time that it took to get it right.

OUAN503 - Feathr, Bacteria & Fungi

This was the first pattern I made and I went into it with a good amount of visual research and references based around my theme of bacteria and fungi. I wanted to interpret the shapes, colours and randomness of these natural organisms and portray that in the work I was creating. I wasn't quite sure of my starting point, but I had a few ideas about different materials that could be used to pursue this particular avenue of design. I first attempted some paintings on wood but they didn't go as planned and so I went back so a much simpler method of pen and paper. Using some of the images I had found, I decided to draw circles similar to that of examples of fungi that I had seen. The idea to me about a collection of tightly packed objects in this way also reminded me of the way cells or bacteria look in Petri dishes or under a microscope.

I produced a relatively quick drawing of circles consisting of various line weights using pens with a 0.1, 0.3 and 0.7 diameter in millimetres. I tried to create a natural looking amount of randomness and variation within the arrangement of the circles using some of the references I was using. Once I decided I had enough to create a motif from and had a good amount of variation within the drawing to work with I scanned the drawing in. I opened the drawing in Photoshop and turned the levels up so the image was a lot darker. I did this because I intended to use the live trace function in Illustrator to create a smoothed version of my drawing - essentially cleaning it up in a time efficient way. I opened the vector image back up in Photoshop and offset the image. In Photoshop this is incredibly easy - the option to offset an image is in Filter > Options > Offset. Once the option is selected you can offset the image by any number of pixels. I wanted to offset it by half so I simply had to half the number of pixels the image was both horizontally and vertically and then enter them. In this case it was 780 pixdels because the square I was working in was 1560 x 1560 pixels. This dimensions I was working in was based of the size of the pattern you have to submit to the competition being 1560 pixels wide and one repeat down. I continued to fill up the image and offsetting it, modifying the arrangement as I saw fit and making sure that there were no visible separation lines within the image. Using the stamp tool made with process a lot easier and really straight forward, it was simply a case of taking the time to adjust the different sections and fill areas of the canvas otherwise empty. Once this stage was complete, the image is interpreted or 'defined' as a pattern. To define a pattern from the image using Photoshop I went to Edit and then 'Define Pattern' which took the image and stored it as a pattern. The pattern can then be tested in another document for any inconsistencies and mistakes that I may have made. Fortunately Photoshop makes this whole process very easy and by going to Fill > Custom Pattern, and then selecting the pattern previously saved. Due to this pattern being quite complicated I made sure to check it worked before adding colour. I chose a colour palette based on some of the images that I had been looking at and adjusted them at the end to try different combinations and also playing around with the colours by altering the hue, saturation and by overlaying colours and changing the layer settings. Eventually I came across some patterns that I really liked by using these methods, and below are the four that I've choosing between to submit, I'm currently choosing between the first and second but if I don't create any more that I like I can submit them both as due to the competition guidelines you can submit up to five entries.

I encountered a minor set back with the colours and due to my inexperience I forgot to realise that of course the colours need to line up as well as the lines in order to make the pattern repeat seamlessly without being able to distinguish where patterns begin and end. Because of this, I had to go back and alter colours using a method of trial and error until they all matched up. It wasn't a particularly difficult task but it was a nuisance and a mistake I will make sure not to make again - especially with a pattern with as smaller details as this one. After this was eventually completed by design was finished and the pattern was a success, I now had my first finished design to submit to the competition. So far, this is my favourite brief I've attempted, the design has felt quite instinctive and I like that I've produced. It was a big learning curve at first but I feel my next design or designs will be produced a little bit quicker as I'm now familiar with the process.

OUAN503 - Feathr, Repeated Pattern

I've wanted to try to design and create a repeating pattern for quite a long time now, and due to a lack of time and understanding I haven't been able to do this. Fortunately the responsive module does accommodate for us picking our own briefs to pursue and about two weeks before the deadline I found out about the Feathr brief. After going through all of the information and looking at various details about the brief, I decided to investigate further, as a starting point in the design process, how to create a seamless repeat pattern. It's worth mentioning that I've been very lucky to know people who are on the Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern Design degree at Leeds College of Art so I've had some of their input and advice if at any point I've needed it. When it comes to making a repeat image it became apparent to me through a variety of sources that the first step and the foundation of the pattern is a tile. A tile is singular repeat of a pattern or design, and is essentially a motif that features at the heart of the pattern. In my case I was looking to explore abstract textures and shapes, and also take reference from natural forms. In this instance the random and unordered nature of these organic forms may make the task a little more difficult but I thought the best way to dive into this brief was to go in with enthusiasm and a willingness to overcome any hurdles I may face - I also had to expect this, because it was such an unfamiliar area to me and I was complete novice in the practice of pattern making. After having created a tile of the design, or the motif there is a variety of ways that the design can be offset in order for it to be repeated. The repeat can consist of a 1/2 offset, 1/3 offset, 1/4 offset etc. But this essentially means that you're moving any repeats of the design down by that portion of the length. For example, 1/2 offset would mean that the next sequential repeat could be moved 1/2 the length in relation to the previous motif, this sounds more complicated than it is in practice.

Something that became apparent to me that I was unaware of before diving into the practice of pattern making is that there isn't an exact science or process that encompasses every type of pattern. The skeleton is the process that I previously mentioned, but once the pattern is offset it creates an unnatural line between the different segments because of course the edges will no longer match up. This is where different techniques and approaches are taken in under to create a seamless connection between the separation lines. This was especially apparent in some of the work I was doing because the pattern was random and unordered following the themes I was looking into such as natural forms. Below is a visual example of what happens after offsetting a design by 1/2 and the lines that become visible, dividing the image into quadrants. I've been working with these patterns and designs in Photoshop and there are a range of techniques available and that will be used in order to overcome the problem of making the pattern a seamless repeat. However, during the process the design will change quite dramatically. I think it's important and quite a skill to be able to retain the initial aesthetic of a design and the original intention behind it, but also succumbing to the inevitable modifications that the design will undergo as a result of creating a seamless repeat.



Feathr were also generous enough to provide information about how to create seamless patterns using designs, and sharing some of their knowledge and experience on the practice.