Evaluation

During this module I had the opportunity to work collaboratively. I chose to work with my friend Tess Bratkowski, as while we have starkly different art styles we were able to work really well together because we both have very similar work ethics. We both want to succeed and create something that can help us become professionals. We also had an overlapping interest to make an animation that made use of Hybrid animation and Maya so we chose to work with Maya as our main platform and 2D assets. This wasn’t my first attempt at 3D but it was going to be my first attempt at modelling and animating a character in 3D so I was nervous and excited as I had forgotten everything I had learned last year so this was an opportunity to develop the remnants of old skills and take them further. I was able to learn how to animate, model and be a moderately competent animator with the software. I think mine and Tess’s differences are why we were able to work really well. We had a strong desire to get the work done but had a mix of very different ideas. As the project went on I found myself struggling a lot with Maya as multiple issues with rigging, modelling and animating appeared and I relied on Tess a lot during these times. This wasn’t a good thing as it meant I wasn’t figuring out my own problems so with future projects when I reach a problem or something goes wrong I’ll calmly evaluate what I’ve done and first try to remedy the problem or if it fails redo it and take it as a learning experience that will help me to take my animation practice further. It’s all about how I have to handle sudden problems and this means I’m going to have to grow as a person. I’m glad that the module has made me aware of this and I will endeavour to improve.

While working collaboratively we found that our personalities rubbed off on each other I’m a person who over works themselves and gets stressed easily while Tess takes her time, to a fault, and is very relaxed. I caused Tess to get a lot of work done early on and Tess caused me to not over work myself. Although I’ve caused Tess to become very stressed. After talking to Tess she says she’d work with me again on either a 2D animation and on a 3D animation after I’ve gained more knowledge of it. I would like to work with Tess again to see what we can do with a different brief and I agree with her I’d like to work with her when I have become a more proficient 3D animator. I have really enjoyed the fact that I could compare ideas and see another person’s perspective on the same brief so that we can approach the most suitable and best ideas. We went back and spent a lot of time on pre-production as for both of us it is our strong point and continuously refined our character and narrative this was when mine and Tess’s best traits showed we were able to come up with designs and story even after we thought we had reached a final product. Collaborative work is something I want to push across this coming year and this was something I liked about this module, being able to start with a friend on a one to one basis allowed us to be honest with each other and I now have an understanding of how as a person I need to improve and what I need to improve on in my skills as a practitioner.

This module overall has given me multiple opportunities to grow and try new things and I’m even finally understanding after effects thanks to DUIK, a software I didn’t think I’d dare touch previously. It’s been hard and I fell behind as I had to go home on many occasions because of family reasons this took more days out of my module and for around three weeks I had fallen behind. But I was still able to get the work done in time so I was happy I didn’t need an extension it was proof that I am improving in my work flow as organization has been a big part in this module and I am going to make myself more time tables and schedules in order to keep on top of my work and allow myself to create the best work I can. After watching the final animation at our courses showing I’ve realised how much I am actually proud of our work and have learnt and improved and this was because of my mistakes. This has left me feeling quite good about myself as it is proof that I have improved and when I consider it I barely knew how to make a Maya project and now I have a full animation that with a little tweaking we can be proud enough to enter it into festival because the worst that can happen is it gets rejected. I plan on in the future to work more in Maya so that when I work with people on 3D I won’t hold the team back and the prospects of taking Hybrid animation further excites me as well. In conclusion the module has been a great way for me to get back into animating after summer and has allowed me to see things from a new perspective.