For the
most part I have really enjoyed responsive from a practical stand point. The
concept of actively looking for live briefs to enter and work towards was,
while frustrating, enjoyable because I could make the decision on which briefs
I wanted to enter so that they would benefit me the most. What I wanted to get
out of the competitions was a chance to grasp some form of understanding of
software I wasn’t familiar with, such as Maya and After Effects, while also
pushing the development of my character animation and design skills. I feel
that to a certain degree I succeeded in doing this because, while I still
cannot model or rig characters in 3D and After effects, I was able to
successfully portray actions and behaviour in mediums that were far out of my
comfort zone. I am mostly satisfied with the character animation in my 11
second club entries as I can see a clear difference in improvement in my later
attempt. I found that there were also a lot of chances for me to collaborate
with people such as Daniel Goodman making 3D models for me to animate with.
This allowed me a great opportunity to characterise a non-human creature and Dan
some practice with rigging.
Comparatively,
I did enjoy the collaborative brief but didn’t feel it assisted me in further
my character animation or performance, due to the content being portrayed.
While it didn’t feel like I made any progress with my acting animation. I was
able to use it as an opportunity to further my understanding of the after
effects software. Working with the illustrators was interesting. I found
myself, initially feeling left behind by their way of working since it became
quite clear that the way an illustrator thinks and approaches a brief was quite
different to how an animator might approach a brief. The illustrators were
producing pages and pages of work, sketches and mock ups while I felt I wasn’t
contributing enough at this stage. However, when the animating came I might
have caused one of them to go a little mad as I got her to draw over a few
frames which just left her frustrated but to be given the assets and the rule
animate it, I found myself satisfied with the end result as it gave a very
professional vibe and receiving the necessary components but not having made
them myself felt like a very studio oriented action.
The general
organization of the module however I don’t think went well. From the very
beginning right through to the end it has felt like animation, when compared to
graphics and illustration got either pushed to the side lines or forgotten
about. A lot of this module felt like it catered to the requirements of Graphic
Designers and Illustrators leaving animation to scrape together what it could.
Much larger briefs, for example, are a lot more accessible for illustrators and
graphics because the final executed product could be made in under a week while
an animation takes a lot longer. There are also not that many large briefs out
there for animation that are quick and easily accessible. The organization and
requirements were constantly being changed or left till really late to be told
certain things such as the art boards and studio brief 3 being briefed to us only
a few days before the deadline, while illustration was briefed on it the art
boards before the Easter break. I feel that if there was a little bit more
awareness of the differences between animation compared to illustration and
graphics. We are aware of their similarities which warrant our working together
but like how I noticed it in studio brief 2, we work differently. I don’t feel
we can be asked the same as the illustrators and graphics students and should
have the brief feel more catered towards animation rather tan it being some
tacked on.
