Premise | Reflective Statement

As a project I found premise to be challenging as I initially struggled to figure out what to do for the project. I found that I didn't spend as much time on the project as I should have which led to me not having as much done to a standard I would have wanted. I found that working in the Sumi-e style forced me to be more simplistic in my drawings instead of working in a more realistic way. I found this to be somewhat challenging but enjoyable nonetheless. I think that I need to re-look at the way the second act of the story functions as I need to make the parents role clearer in the overall story. This would then allow for the audience to understand the story better. Another thing I need to go back through and re-work are the camera shots as they could be more interesting through more use of close-ups. Something I am going to work on is how I balance my time as I didn't spend as much on premise as I needed to and this caused more problems that could have been avoided if I had managed my time more efficiently.

Collaboration | Reflective Statement

The collaboration project was something I found enjoyable for the most part. I think that it allowed for a new and interesting working experience and allowed me to learn from my group mates. I found that it was difficult as well due to having to compromise and wait for other people's work. During the project one thing I felt went well was that we communicated with each other well and didn't argue over decisions regarding the work. We had discussions and found compromises well and this allowed us to get along with things easier. I think one thing we could have improved on is having a more stern approach in that we often tried to be nice to each other when we should have been a bit more stern in asking for things to be finished. I feel this is one reason we were unable to completely finish the animation.

If I were to redo the project I think the first thing I'd change about how I worked would be to work faster as I felt that I worked fairly slowly to begin with. Another change would be to have a more detail schedule to follow so that everything had time to be done. This was something that wasn't done during this project that I feel we would have benefitted from.

Overall I think the project went well as we managed to work together constructively however I feel that there are things that could have gone better. I think our ideas and designs were good and the way we communicated those at the start worked well but that we should have continued working at that pace instead of slowing down when we were uncertain. In conclusion I think that while there are many things about the project that could have gone better, we managed to arrive to a place that showed our intentions for the animation and conveyed our ideas.

What If? Metropolis - Reflective Statement

I found this project both difficult and rewarding. I first found it quite difficult to come up with an idea that I thought worked well, though after trying a few different methods it became much easier to visualise. I think I could have managed my time more efficiently as I found that since I took so long getting an idea in the first weeks it was difficult to get everything done later on. I think I will be trying different methods to sketch idea's faster in the first weeks and moving on if they don't work as it will help in enabling me to get to the rest of the work faster.

I liked the modelling in Maya that I did, though I feel I could have created more detailed models for the buildings closer to the camera. I liked the texturing I did as I feel it added a degree of realism to the materials while also keeping it looking like my concept art. I felt that I wanted to keep the buildings fairly flat as my collaborators work was very graphical and flat which is something I wanted to replicate in the final render. I think I achieved that goal to some degree though there were things I could have improved upon in my Maya work.

Overall I feel like this project went fairly well and I enjoyed the final piece I created. I will be using the feedback I received on crit day as well as what I will receive to improve my work for the next project.