#de4402

[emilydaisymasters]

Pre-Production Overview & Thoughts on Year 1 MA PT

It feels odd to conclude this part of the blog for now, but as the deadline for pre-production is looming, I thought it best to cover (in words) all that I have managed to achieve thus far, what I missed out on, and what I will continue with into second year.

Pre Production Overview

Character Designs -

I managed to complete all of my character designs to a degree that I am very happy with, concepts and turnarounds included. Of course, there will be wiggle room as some assets may end up changing in the animation progress, but as it stands the character designs are all finished.

Backgrounds -

I wasn't able to complete all of my backgrounds (including blurs and filler shot backgrounds) in time for the pre-production deadline, which is grating on me a little to be honest. In fairness, I haven't had very much time to do so and my mitigating circumstances are reflective of this, but this is something I will be working on heavily in the gap between this academic year and the next.

Script -

I reached a draft of the script that I was very happy with in the end, after 4 complete rendition changes, and so I would class this portion as completed. Again, the script is subject to change in the animating process, and I did go through the motions of thinking about rewriting and changing up the animatic, but time restrictions made this an unlikely achievement. I still think it holds up very well as is though.

Animatic -

The animatic is fully completed, minus sound of course, though this is something I learned that animatics don't normally include anyway, which gave me some relief. The timings are almost final with some wiggle room, but I am very pleased with the base I have created for myself going into the animating process.

Learning Agreements & Blog -

This isn't just pre-production of course and will be upkept throughout the next year also, but as it stands, I am pretty well happy with both of these things. My blog is a contentious one, as I tend to draft all of these posts over time and then upload them in one fell swoop so they don't appear as often as they should, but I'm aiming to break this habit. Come next year, I want to draft even more frequent learning agreements and to do a lot more inspiration delving on my blog.

Thoughts on the Year

This part is one I was considering skipping entirely, as I'm not sure how personal I actually want to get with this, but in all honesty, my thoughts on the academic year and my personal experiences meld into one at this point. Incase I hadn't stated previously at any point on this blog, in December of 2023, my stepdad was diagnosed with an agressive and rare form of cancer, and in May 2024 he passed away. Everything that occured in this time frame has honestly become a sharp blur to me, if that makes sense. University work wasn't on the forefront of my mind, though I tried to maintain normality as best as I could. This project began as a way to express my childhood experiences and to describe the feeling that is difficult to portray through words, though it has become more than that since. It now serves as a way to keep me grounded, to bring back the joy I used to feel when doing the things I love, though now without some of the people I love, and that's a hard balance to strike.

Given all of my circumstances, I am still proud of the things I have achieved this year, and I am even more proud at how much I managed to get done despite my personal life. I didn't feel a dip in quality, which I partially expected from my lack of focus, and that's something I intend to retain moving forwards into the animation process.

My stepdad was one of my biggest supporters, he loved to see my work and his reactions of shock and pride always felt so genuine. He's the person I would go to when I needed a pep up, or needed to be reminded that I am capable, and that I am a creative, and missing that, missing him, is going to be something that simply heals in time.

As such, I am going to dedicate this film to him, to his nurture, and to his words that helped to shape who I am today.

My film will be for you Antony, thank you for everything.

[asreaserch2022]

Interview with Brigitta Hosea

For the research I am undertaking for Module DE4402 I have managed to contact and have an interview with Brigitta Hosea, who has worked with museums in the past to fill the spaces with animation.

This interview was invaluble and brought up a number of issues I had never considered during my research to this stage, such as the disadvantages of using VR.

This interview will provide a major foundation for the first part of the essay.

[maanimationblog]

“If we measured success by longevity, then dinosaurs must rank as the number one success story in the history of land life.”

- Robert T. Bakker

This is a quote I stumbled across and I love it. Humans have only been around for 300,000 years, compared to many of the other animals that came before us, this is an unbelievable short amount of time. Dinosaurs approximately existed for 165 million years.

There have been five mass extinction events in Earth's history and we haven't even been around one third of the amount of time dinosaurs existed.

[emilydaisymasters]

Learning Agreement 5

[emilydaisymasters]

Learning Agreement 4

[emilydaisymasters]

Learning Agreement 3

I've created yet another learning agreement, this one during the process of writing my essay, to inform of the updates of my intentions, as well as my mindset regarding things:

[emilydaisymasters]

Finished Essay and Viva Voce

I've finally finished my essay and the corresponding Viva Voce powerpoint to go with it, and it's been a pretty interesting experience and break from all of the practical work.

Ultimately, I feel as if I have learned a solid amount from the combined efforts of all of these creators, even despite their differences in profession, and I feel that I am better informed not only to keep going with my project with even further personal accounts on perfectionism, but also on my own perspective on perfectionism and how I can continue to manage it within myself.

I'll include a few clippings from my Viva Voce below to give a better idea:

(The formatting is a bit messy since this is a Powerpoint in Google Docs, sorry!)

Having concluded this module, I feel that I am going to go forward with the project with a lot more gumption, but with a new appreciation for the subject matter also, as I want to put something into the market that people can truly relate to.

[emilydaisymasters]

Writing My Essay - The Progress

I've been spending a lot of time recently writing out my essay, planning the order and finding the relevant pieces of information that I can so as to get my point across, and it's actually been quite an enjoyable experience to say the least.

In comparison to the last essay, this one feels far more lax and personal, and I feel able to include my own thoughts and opinions beyond just making academic links, which is nice.

So far, I have concluded the creator interview section of my essay and I'm one creator deep into the lecture series, and just being able to compare and contrast all of the methodologies these different creators use is so interesting. Here's just an exert from my essay so far:

I am really looking forward to being able to finish this piece and to see what I feel I have learned by the end.

[emilydaisymasters]

Response Tally from Animators

Since I need to begin writing my essay so as to reach the deadline, here is a categorised list of all of the responses I got from the creators I contacted.

Candy Guard - Full list of answers to Q & A, timely and detailed

Claire Grey - I contacted Claire through her colleague Jon Turner, who has done talks and competitions at the University before and who actually offered me an internship as a result of the CJam competition that I have yet to claim. He forwarded my request onto Claire, but gave some pretty good insight himself on perfectionism that he has kindly agreed to let me use in my essay.

Emma Calder - No further response

[emilydaisymasters]

Lecture Research

I'm still awaiting some responses with my questions that I sent to the animators, but in the mean time, I thought I would decide on which of the lectures I want to reference within my essay. I wasn't present for a lot of these lectures but was lucky enough to catch a lot of the recordings, and the people I have chosen to study are:

David Bunting, animator and director. David worked on a lot of products from my childhood such as Shaun the Sheep and the Tigger movie, and made some nice points about children needing to have the courage to experiment and have fun with art, which I liked.

Sarah Lynch, Interior Designer. Sarah talked a lot about her experience with impostor syndrome which pairs perfectly with my overall subject matter, and I felt really compelled by her journey into the career she loved.

Jenny Rutter, co-director of the British Textile Biennial. Jenny is very eccentric and is driven by social injustice and change, which is pretty awe inspiring. I liked her talks about collaboration with other artists and the meaning behind it, which I think ha some standing in my essay.

I'm also going to conduct my own research on these creators by looking at their online portfolios and other interviews, since I didn't have the time to contact them directly, and I'm excited to see where this goes in my essay.

[emilydaisymasters]

Contacting Industry Professionals

I've created a list of people to contact in relation to my essay that I think is quite fitting. My hopes is that I am able to approach these people respectfully and to get some great insight from them and answers to my questions. The names are as follows:

Candy Guard, Writer, Animator and Illustrator, most notable for creating 'Dolly Pond'

Claire Grey, director and animator at Kilogramme Studios

Emma Calder, director, animator and author who has created animated music videos and recently an award winning short film 'Beware of Trains'

Between the three of these women, I think I have covered various different sectors of the animation industry and I'm going to email them all with my list of questions, and just generally to strike up conversation, since they are all very inspiring to me.

[emilydaisymasters]

My Question / Questions - Essay 2

I think I've finally put together a solid list of questions and an overarching question for my second essay, and it's as follows:

Subject: 'Women in the Industry, Perfectionism and the methodologies used to manage it'

Questions:

I think this list of questions in comparison to my subject matter fits pretty well, and though it doesn't explicitly have any relation to how I myself could advance in the industry, the questions prompt the interviewee to give their own experiences that may be able to help inform my own journey.

[emilydaisymasters]

Beginning Research for Essay 2

Since it doesn't look like my mitigating circumstances appeal is going to help me with this module, I wanted to begin to get a solid foundation for the second essay. Here is my initial planning:

I find if I write down what is expected of me myself, I come to understand it better. From here, I need to come up with a list of appropriate questions to ask a group of professionals, in relation to a section of my project. What questions will I decide on? Which part of the subject will I choose? I'm leaning towards women in the industry and their experiences with perfectionism, as I think that would most closely relate to all aspects of my project, though it's up for debate. When I have a more solid understanding of my path I'll update again.

[emilydaisymasters]

Meeting with Sarah, Mitigating Circumstances

Today I had my first meeting with Sarah since returning from Christmas Break and we were able to discuss a good few things, such as how my project is going and whatnot, and I just wanted to note a few of our key conversation topics here.

I presented my project progress to Sarah so far, complete with character designs and a progress bar I created for myself, just to make her aware that I have some sort of disconnected roadmap for the time ahead.

Sarah was talking to me about the next essay for the course, a more personal essay that involves getting in touch with people from the industry to ask them questions in relation to your subject and to make connections. This seems like a really good opportunity as a student, and to have tutors backing you is a big confidence boost.

I was advised heavily to apply for Mitigating Circumstances regarding my situation at home, which Sarah is more than aware of. She advised me that given all that is happening currently, having that extra time to complete work would never hurt, and though I made a point of saying that the MC board isn't very forgiving and will likely reject me, she said I should apply anyway, which I intend to do later today. I really hope my situation is understood, because I could definitely do with the extra time.

We keep moving I suppose.

[izzybubs24]

Weekly Update

I haven't been able to work on my project at all this week as I have been using it to focus on getting my Poster Presentation completed for its draft hand-in on Monday 18th March. I also won't be working on my practical project much during the run up to Easter as I am now using this time to start working on writing my second essay for the 'Research in Context" module, and I plan on contacting the people who I have chosen to interview over the course of this coming week.

[izzybubs24]

Essay Interview Help - Ideas for Questions

As I have been struggling thinking of what I should talk about during my interviews with industry contacts I had a chat with my tutor for ideas and these were the questions we came up with along with other things I could talk about as well and who would be best to contact.

When contacting people I should mention how I really like their work and if they have some time for me to ask them a few questions related to their practice to help me as part of an assignment I have been given.

Specialist-based questions for 3D model makers:

Ask questions about model making in CGI.

Talk to them about the craft of creating models and environments in CGI.

What is your job like?

What do you do?

How did you get into your job?

General Questions:

What do they do?

The craft of things? (How do they learn or work out how to develop their work even more to get it to a standard they are really happy with?)

What is their process they go through when working on a new piece for the studio?

Any useful tips they can give for modelling, retopology or texturing?

If possible:

Can they give any advice on my work?