Character Design / SWOT Analysis

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 – Character Design Module

The aim of my Character Design module is to stimulate the development and creation of my own character designs, which will display personality traits that will make them individual and unique. The conceptual personality exploration that I took part in executing was firmly established as they were intended to manifest themselves in physical form and I believe set guides for my characters development. Essentially the aim of this project in contrast to my previous character development projects is to develop a personality which will be represented by the final design outcome of a character model sheet. I am confident in reflection to the design outcome of this module as well as my making off sketchbook that I have successfully achieved the intentions for my module.

Strengths 

The key objective in this module was to a create a character that visually conveyed an intended personality to that persona being the intended starting point of this module. I am confident in suggesting that the strength of this module lays with the succession of this defined objective when reviewing my character design model sheet submitted as my final piece. The way in which I constructed my design outcome placed focus and emphasis on the conveyance of my originally defined personality which I believe lays the foundation that credits the design outcome to its full potential in its realisation. I believe that the success of this strength is due to the careful exercises and planning I utilised at the beginning of this module to be able to define and wrap my head around the concept defining core attributes and recording them to later inform my design outcome. I believe within this that my module would not have been able to push the boundaries of character design that I have been able to achieve in the past should I not have utilised the foundation that has informed my development through out my module. 

The second strength that I identify within this module is quality of the model-sheet itself and how it supports the intentions and objectives of the module. It’s one thing to create a character that represents the personality I defined at the beginning of the module, but quality is truly conveyed when every aspect of the design communicates accurately. I utilised a set of skills I had not previously developed regarding manipulation techniques in Adobe Photoshop and I am confident that the growth I have achieved is the technique to my successful design outcome. The design I created followed the impression a scrap book (An item owned by a very specific personality) to communicate the scripted and visual information of my developed character. I am confident that these design choices not only supported my character but are on the strengths that define the persona of the piece.

Weaknesses

In every creative project no matter how confident I am in its technical standard there is always room for improvement, an area I feel I could have made some improvements on during the inception and development of my character was to visually explore more alternative variations of my visual design choice. Although I am satisfied with my design outcome, I believe I could have refined this area further resulting in a piece that wasn’t just good but was great when generating an impression to my target audience regarding personality conveyance. I could have achieved a more refined exploration by studying more features and objects that typically symbolise aspects of my developed personality whilst iterating in pencil on paper to generate unique design responses to my source information. I am confident should I have approached this topic covering this potential solution I could have refined my perceived character impression further giving more accuracy to the intentions I desired to communicate. 

The final colour scheme I chose was intended to give a warm impression to my target audience due to the symbolism I was attempting to convey through this design choice. Upon reflection of this however I believe that this design choice regarding color was a poor idea and I could have refined the impression that I have given with the current colour pallet in a venture to close the gap between my current impression and my intended personality. I believe should I have dedicated more time into testing and exploring the options that I explored during my module that I would have been able to make a more informed choice regarding what would perform the most justice to my developed character personality when looking to utilise perceived appearance as a method of communication. 

Opportunity’s 

The time I spent exploring, experimenting, and developing my design outcomes during this Character design module has provided me with the opportunity to explore new sources of inspiration, practice approach, technique and process as well as be informed in the guidance and teachings of industry professionals regarding the topic of relevance. 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: 

• ·         Amandine Urruty
• ·         Sara Wong
• ·         Ori Toor
• ·         Kelsi Phung

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 client’s 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.

Although all modules provided me a degree of opportunity to develop theoretical skills regarding all subject matters I believe that this specific module provided me scripted techniques which I will be able to apply to a range of future projects to high impact just like I had the opportunity to during this current module. 

Every brief that I have the opportunity to work on provides me with 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 fuelling 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 – Explore at least three alterative variations in my next module when designing a concept, character, or environment.  

Outlined within my Weaknesses section of this modules SWOT analysis I defined that I did not explore enough alternatives in design during my creative practice which detracts an amount of growth that could have deepened the quality of my design outcome to a significant degree. I believe by creating a clear and actionable goal to apply this into my creative practice of my next module that I will be able to securely grow as an artist resulting in an increase in quality in future design outcomes. I can measure the success of this target by identifying the clear attempt and completion of 2 extra design alternatives within my next module if it is relevant to the topic at hand. 

Target 2 – Experiment with colour theory in my next module.

Just like my previous target, I discussed within the weaknesses section of this SWOT analysis that my poor judgement in colour theory had been identified as a flaw within my design outcome and failed to compliment as well as support my design choice in line with my personal objectives for the characters personality. This conflicted with my goals and lowered the likelihood that I would consider this a success. Therefore, in response to this unsuccessful feature of my design outcome I have created an actionable and measurable goal to utilise colour theory within my next module should the opportunity arise. I am confident this will result in clear growth for my creative practice and my ability to apply skill to produce high quality design outcomes.

Conclusion

Having reviewed my ‘Character Design Module’ 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.