Due to the recent completion of my 6th project
studying my level 4 Animation & Illustration foundation degree I shall be
completing a self-assessed analysis to determine my current skill set regarding
this project and how I want to move forward in development. The way in
which I shall be analysing my work is using a structure called 'SWOT'
Analysis. 'SWOT' is an acronym for the questions:
- Strengths - What are the strengths of my unit, research, Pre-production, time scaling & final result.
- Weaknesses - What are the weaknesses of the afore mentioned.
- Opportunity's - What are the opportunity's that I have come across during this unit, did I take full advantage of them and what opportunities am I looking for moving forward
- Targets - What are my targets to consistently improve my creative works and skill set. The aim of these targets is to set the goals to becoming more industry standard.
SWOT
Analysis – Digital Skills Acquisition
Strengths
The aim of my Digital skills acquisition project was
to focus on the development and creation of a character turn around sheets for
the purposes of serving as a catalyst when developing new digital skills. The
digital skills I set out to explore in more detail was the utilisation of the software
Adobe Illustrator; a vector-based software. I am confident that my project has
been successful in achieving these goals due to the strength of detailing I
recorded through my software workshop and production sessions. By writing about
those sessions in the amount of depth I demonstrated I believe that I was able
to get the most out of this experience pushing my work to as high a potential I
could get out of this project. To put it simply I believe that the strength of
my project is the amount of engagement and dedication I put into the task at
hand which is identifiable in my recordings.
Another area of my project that I feel is a strong
point is the mixture of skill applications I made sure to experiment with and
incorporate in my final design outcome. This consideration and willingness to
experiment has clearly transferred into my work resulting in something I would
consider to be of a high technical standard. Arguably the strength doesn’t end
there and has another layer of depth to it by combining such applied techniques
with good character design as outlined in my researched teachers by artist such
as Stephan silver I have shown the optimum combination of theory and technique
to create a piece that transcends the ingredients.
When creating content in such a fashion that the end
goal needs to be captivating and engaging to a specific audience or oneself it
is important to have many options and take the time to really flesh out each
design with certainty. The technique of doing this within the industry is
accumulated under the titled of ‘visual development’ which consists of all the
drafted drawn ideas in one place for one goal. I believe that a core strength
of my project development both in digital skills demonstration and concept
generation is the visual development I have shown within my project hand in.
The strength of this scale of visual development enables my design outcome to
be its highest potential possible regarding demonstrated technical standard. I
believe this due to the demonstration of scripted consideration and artistic
designs contained within my documentation.
Weaknesses
In every creative project no matter how confident I
am in its technical standard there is always room for improvement, one area of
this project that I feel could have helped push my designs impression higher if
I had done it differently is by creating a more playful final result. The
character turn-around I made was created with quality performance that will be
clearly well received by industry professionals, on the other hand after
discussing with a few of my tutors I identified that my character board is a
‘safe’ design. There are areas I could have exaggerated and innovated upon to
really excel the design if I was willing to experiment with it better which
could have turned my turn around for a ‘good’ design to an ‘amazing’ design.
For example, in my turn around sheet I have followed good design principles,
composition, and colour theory but I did not innovate against that idea, I
could have added sewn stitches around my board based of the topic of my
character been a seamstress. Small gestures like this could have spiced up my
design and added more charm to it. I believe that my final design outcome is
strong but could have gone further if I had applied such principles into my
thoughts and innovations.
Another aspect I outlined within my production
documentation I believe could have resulted in a more unique design outcome is
the use of custom brushes within Adobe Illustrator. In my workshop sessions I
explored and suggested the potential that the technique of ‘custom brushes’ had
when explaining the process required to create it them, but I did not venture
far past this experimentation session. I believe that if I had made the
decision to explore custom brushes further and applied my findings to my
character design that I would have increased the enhancement that my linework
could have portrayed generating a more unique charm to my creations. To put it
simply, I feel that a weakness of my final character design is a plainer less
experimented linework which could have been enhanced if I had dedicated the
time to exploring such a concept.
Something that I personally feel could have been
improved upon more is the way in which my characters personality is conveyed through
pose and concept. The designs that I created conveyed the physical design and personality
to an extent, but I believe I could have taken this further. For example, I
could have conveyed more personality in my design by experimenting and
portraying expressions of my character with different linework and colour
alterations. I could also have turned her pockets and bag out to highlight what
she keeps on her portraying her narrative visually. If I had taken the time to
include these in my design outcome I believe It would have had greater impact
to the potential client and user.
Opportunity’s
The time I spent exploring, experimenting, and developing
my design outcomes in response to my character breakdowns and digital workshop sessions
has provided me with the opportunity to explore new sources of inspiration,
practice approach, technique and process as well as be informed by the guidance
and teachings of industry professionals. This has resulted in an improvement in
my digital skillset as an artist in all fields of creative works as well as my
technical application of such skills.
Also during this project, I have had the opportunity
to learn from a plethora of artists and content creators due to the research, deconstruction,
and study’s I was able to do during my time spent dedicated to this project.
These specific artists are:
Working full time in the industry often
leaves little time to explore new directions and experiment with innovative new
techniques, materials and processes whilst processing clients requests. This
project has provided me with a mental prompt challenging me to approach such
innovative techniques and make them my own through experimentation. I am confident
that this has stimulated artistic growth as a content creator due to this
opportunity.
Every brief that I have the opportunity
to work one provides me wit the grounds to better myself in every aspect as a
designer from my initial ideas through to my design result. Success in the industry
is not just about be accurate in production creation, it is how an artist can
be innovative with the techniques he has been able to acquire to transcend the
norm and stand out bringing financial success. Whilst studying this project I
have been able to take another step closer to fueling my goals and aspirations
for the future.
Targets
To consistently grow as an artist, it is imperative that I
understand how I can improve to allow my skillset to naturally evolve in a
productive direction. Reflecting upon my SWOT analysis and my project there are
a few key areas which I would like to create an action plan for to balance out
my skill set moving forward
Target
1 – Be bold with my concepts, experiment with unique ideas when possible
Creating
a design with a technical high standard is a sure-fire way to have success in
the industry. Creating
a design with innovative ideas is a sure-fire way to be remembered in the
industry.
As outlined in my weaknesses section of
this blog post I believe that I could have pushed the potential of my design
outcome by applying more playful ideas to my designs result such as ‘thread’
around the boxes pushing the ‘seamstress’ role concept. I stated that if I had
made the decision to apply such experimentation then I could have pushed the maximum
potential of my design further generating more impact and a memorable impression.
In reflection to this idea I shall be
creating an action plan to be able to apply such techniques in the future to
stimulate artistic growth and generate an increased intuition as a creative. In
the following weeks (or during summer if i get to busy) I shall complete a
redraft of my final character board making adjustments based of the critiques I
have made to apply the insights I have given to view the design outcomes, which
If I deem to be more appealing I shall keep in my portfolio. I will also design
1 new character concept which will be included in its own unique character
board which I intend to apply the ideals I have stated. I am confident by
taking these steps that I will achieve the target outlined.
Target
2 – Make use of custom brushes to create designs with more impact
A
designer is not hired to create more of the same, a designer is hired to make
the same feel more.
Previously stated above in this blog post,
I stated the fact that I could have generated more impact within my design
outcome if I had taken the time to experiment with custom brushes during my
illustrator production process. I feel that this would have added a level of
charm that is not usually native the default settings which my creation would
portray. To ingrain this feedback into an intuitive response to future project
designs I will be creating an action plan to develop insight and experience to
improve this flaw in the following designs.
In my previous target I stated how I would
be creating a new character design and character board to practice and apply
feedback and to stimulate growth in my work. When I approach the creation
process of this task I will apply and experiment with custom brushes in both
illustrator and photoshop to generate more depth and impact in my creative
works. I believe that this will enable me to achieve growth based on my
feedback.
Having
reviewed my ‘Digital Skills Acquisition’ project and applied my feedback into a
clear action plan for me to work on, I am satisfied that I have grown from my
time analysing and reflecting on creative process and design outcomes in this project.
I hope that everyone reading this has taken on board from my experiences and
learnt a little something for themselves. Thank you for reading, till next
time.
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