This blog was created to document and demonstrate my development and growth over the course of 2 years studying my foundation degree in animation and illustration. Much has happened over the course of 2 full years including the completion of 16 modules, 8 modules per academic year split into 3 terms, 6 terms in total with a full summer break in-between each year with active work and development over that summer in 2018. I started this blog in September 2017 as a recent graduate from a level 3 diploma course in animation, games and visual effects, with moderate digital skills and unrefined professional abilities. I had aspirations to work within the animation industry and I could not wait to jump in to test my abilities in developing a refined industry standard skillset.
It has been 20 months since my first blog post and I am confident in suggesting I have vastly grown from the novice creative I was when approaching the starting line for my foundation degree. I have had more opportunity's than I could have ever expected and feel deep pride in the demonstrated portfolio that I produced for my commercial animation and illustration production module which is intended to secure future progression past this point. I could never imagine the body of work I would produce as a result from my time spent on this foundation degree and I believe I have secured my chances at future progression due to the dedication I have taken in focusing my efforts on each module since start to finish. This blog from an academic standpoint was intended to cover the criteria for both modules of personal and professional development in my level 4 and level 5 years of this foundation degree. But from a personal view was intended to showcase my growth and distance travelled since the beginning enabling myself to view my change in ability's and install confidence for myself and future prospective’s.
Therefore, to end my final module, 8th of this level 5 year and 16th since the start of the blog, I will be performing a self-reflective analysis and final evaluation of my overall progression, development, distance travelled, resulting skillset, and overall experience since my first blog post in September 2017. This post will end on 2 targets laying the foundation for my future progression upon graduation ensuring that this is just the start of the next chapter in my creative career and not the end of my journey as an animator and illustrator.
Concrete experience
Although this blog was created to document my experiences and opportunity's over the course of the past 2 years, the hours I have spent reflecting, researching, analysing, and discussing each blog posts content in detail has in itself been an opportunity to gain first-hand experience and insight that is invaluable to my future progression moving forward and will serve to inform each project I work on moving forward into 2020 and beyond. I am confident in suggesting that the insights I have gained whilst producing scripted content for this blog could only be developed due to the hundreds of hours, I have dedicated to considering, digesting, and discussing the topics and information at hand for each blog post. As I have discussed many times during this blog, modern industry is a vastly competitive market that is only getting harder to break into, the development of specialist skills and key insight such as the ones I have documented during each post on this blog adds value to my creative practice setting me apart from the typical crop of my competitors. Being able to define myself through a diverse range of approaches and specialty’s in contrast to the markets current set of creatives gives me an edge that will benefit my future progression moving forward.
As stated, I have had many opportunities over the course of two years studying this foundation degree in animation and illustration and I have also had many opportunities creating content for this blog. The following bullet points highlight all of the skills and experiences I have developed or taken advantage off in response to each opportunity:
- I have gained experience and insight into animation techniques including: traditional hand-drawn, stop-motion, digital 2d animation, motion graphics, 3d animation, pseudo 3d, pixilation, and mixed media.
- I have gained experience and insight into multiple different print-making techniques including: Screen-printing, Foil-printing, Relief Printing, Lino-printing, Mono-printing, and Risograph-printing.
- I have developed first-hand experience and insight utilising multiple software such as: Dragonframe, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Animate, Adobe After Effects, and Cinema 4d.
- I have gained first-hand experience and insight due to diligent research regarding animation pipeline production including understanding about: Idea generation, scripting concepts, visual development, storyboarding, character design, background illustration, creating animatics, colour-scripting, character animation, VFX animation, character rigging, scene and camera set-up, colour up process, editing, compositing, and rendering.
- I have both gained deep insight and experience practicing and experimenting with over 20 different art styles from a plethora of different inspirational artists that have influenced and impacted my work and research.
- I developed integral insight and first-hand experience in interpreting and responding practically, professionally, and creatively to industry briefs such as open competitions during my study and through contracted work during work experience over the summer of 2018.
- I have gained first-hand experience in developing collecting, curating, and refining a body of work and portfolio for the purposes of gaining future progression and achieving opportunity's for industry work.
- I have gained insight into the practical and theoretical application of lead generation such as the experience of striving to gain exposure as an aspiring artist seeking new opportunities.
- I have gained insight into sector relevant trends, enabling me to pursue opportunities to gain popularity in industry relevant areas.
- I have taken advantage of each briefs opportunity resulting in the intuitive development of creative thinking skills and the application of well-informed strategies for a project's purposes.
- I have visited multiple different co-operative events, gained creative peers from class, talked to industry professionals and gained connections which I could leverage in future areas of my progression.
- I have gained clarity into my continued strengths and weaknesses allowing me to constantly refine my capabilities to ensure further progression.
The important information and skills that I have developed due to the concrete experience I have gained from try and testing each and every opportunity during my 2 years studying this course has provided me with a refined skillset that has grown as a result of this process. I feel that as a result of the thousands of hours' worth of workshops, production experiences, research, refinement, and development that I have taken part in during this course, that the knowledge I have gained will continue to inform my work for many projects to come. Creativity is what defines a creative but a designer produces their best work when they are informed with a skillset that empowers them, I feel as a result of the time I have spent dedicated to my foundation degree I have a skillset that empowers me in my professional and academic endeavours to produce content that pushes the boundaries of my potential as far as I can take it.
Reflective Observation
Strengths
Through multiple peer reflections and tutor one to ones, I feel it is agreeable that one of my greatest strengths demonstrated over the course of 2 years on this blog as well as one of my assets as a creative is my ability to critically analyse and reflect on any given scenario or topic. The application of this ability in example could be identifying key elements of an artist's style, identifying in detail areas I could improve on during self-reflection, or highlighting a concise method of execution of actionable and measurable targets. In other words, I would define this strength as being a proficiency in creative thinking abilities. I believe that this is my greatest strength as it is the guiding force behind my actions and demonstrates an ability sought after within industry as it further informs multiple other sought out attributes such as: the ability to create content in a consistent style, the ability to identify and adapt to a new art style quickly, the ability to communicate intentions in a professional format to clients, the ability to reverse-engineer a creatives content to replicate or reinterpret in my own way. In its essence I believe had it not been for this strength that I have brought to this past 2 years and refined over the course of it i don't believe I would have managed the amount of success I have had on the course without. Moving forward into future progression I am confident in suggesting that my creative thinking ability will be the tool that I utilise to ensure I continue to push my boundaries as far as I can take it.
I define my second greatest strength which has been developed over the course of my 2 years studying this course, is my utilization and application of software knowledge, most notably Adobe Photoshop, and then Adobe Illustrator as my second program of highest capability. They say a bad worker blames his tools, however a worker who has mastered the utilization of those tools will continue to succeed day after day pushing his boundaries further and further. When originally planning the creation of this blog post I considered attributing my second strength as my competence in the applications of patterns and textures, the reason I decided against it is because this ability would not be possible without the software knowledge that I have within my defined skillset and creative practice. Therefore, as an extension from other abilities I believe my software knowledge is one of my greatest strengths because it raises the quality and technical execution of next to all of my creative practice including, workflow and pace, application of creative thinking abilities, adaptation and development of styles, organization, image manipulation, and workflow shortcuts. I feel that if it was not for the latent potential, I have held within my software knowledge that I would not have achieved the level of success I have had throughout these past 2 years was it not for this ability. I am confident in suggesting that this refined skillset that I have developed through my foundation degree will continue to inform my practice for many projects to come upon graduation.
Weaknesses
I feel a limitation that has consistently held me back throughout the past 2 years is my management of time and expectations of pace when planning and executing productions. Coming onto the course in September 2017 I had been battling with my understanding of how long aspects of production take as well as a poor ability to manage time affectively. I feel that I have made significant strides towards handling this weakness better, but I still attribute it as one of my limitations in comparison to other aspects of my skillset and or abilities. Although in the past I believe much of my time management mishaps has been a consequence of not understanding my own limits, having now executed a further 16 modules since the beginning of the year I believe I have improved this aspect of my weakness due to the benefits of first-hand experience which has informed my decision making during the execution of my planning process. When I calculate the time it will take to complete portions of my production in the future, I believe I should double the time I allow for my expectations regarding how long it will take to produce a piece of content resulting in a more accurate management of time. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong and I should and will account for this moving forward ensuring that I continue to work at an ever increasing professional stanard.
Since the beginning of this course I have considered my drawing ability to be sub-par compared to my creative thinking abilities, software knowledge, and manipulation skills. I feel I have achieved a marginal amount of success due to the dependency of my other skills however I don’t believe I have grown in capabilities regarding my traditional drawn rendering abilities. I chalk this limitation in my ability down to a lack of discipline regarding my practice that I am confident in suggesting that I should have made more effort into trying to achieve personal progression in. There is a common notion that to gain mastery in any craft that 10,000 hours of practice and experience must be put under the belt before any clear signs are shown when executing the craft. I feel that I have not even broke 1000 hours' worth of drawing practice, life drawing studies, and visual development and to this regard believe that as an aspiring industry standard animator and illustrator that I need to put in more hours to cover the gaps in my ability and increase the odds of specialism as a creative. Should I practice drawing from anywhere between 2-4 hours a day morning and night I believe that within 6 – 7 years I will have mastered to a degree the ability to capture form in traditional means by a hugely significant amount. At the age of 22, should I put my head down and tackle this goal by the age of 30 I can begin to spend the rest of my life specialising in my chosen vocation and producing content at a significantly high technical execution. In essence I believe one of my biggest limitations as a creative is my drawing ability and I propose to enhance this weakness I should devise a disciplined plan to practice a couple of hours a day for as many days in a row as I can possible.
Abstract Conceptualization
Since the beginning of this course I have defined throughout my modules a reflective cycle where I have expressed that ‘Abstract conceptualisation’ is the recording of my initial ideas and responses to the practice and results of my previous productions and past projects. The concept of recording and discussing these ideas on paper so that I can better consider and direct the development of my future progression allows me the opportunity to stimulate growth both academically and professionally for my future projects to come. This stage in my evaluative cycle is my response to taking heavy consideration and pondering on the things I have outlined above to see what I want to do with this information and how best I can apply these skills to continue my growth as a creative developing and refining a specialist skillset. I believe by defining parameters and desires for production that I will be better able to apply creativity to future concrete experiences allowing the next creative projects that I create in response to a brief to be produced with a well-informed skillset and defined set of goals and aspirations.
The first thoughts that I have having completed my foundation degree in animation and illustration is a desire to create and study environment illustrations. As an animation enthusiast who both aspires to animate and enjoys illustrating digitally, I have had an affinity for many illustrators who produce animation backgrounds, environment illustrations, or setting based editorials. Having concluded that my strength lays within the production of illustrations I am keen to take part in a self-directed year-long challenge where I create 30 different environment illustrations in response to prompts that I have defined. I aspire to attempt to turn this challenge into a series of speed-paints to provoke a quicker turn-around in the production of each environment whilst exploring new styles from artists at each opportunity. I believe that by doing this I will appeal to a apart of me that just loves to create, keeping the passion alive whilst continuing to push my boundaries as far as I can take it. Whilst dedicating my time to my commercial animation and illustration production module I looked into the Job role of being a background layout artist or background colourist within the animation industry, should I dedicate my time to producing 30 environment illustrations I would be in a position where I had a defined portfolio of work and as a result could pursue a role as a background artists or colourist should I desire.
The second response that I have had upon completion of my foundation degree in animation and illustration is the desire to continue development of my work-based learning modules proposed production. It was discussed in a one to one session with my tutor that I should strive to create style frames for my animation production for the final piece of my graduation exhibition. These style-frames although intended to demonstrate my skillset over the course of the entire 2 years are intended to be the foundation of a project which was devised to be aimed towards entry of the 2020 Adobe Design Achievement Awards in the social impact category. Therefore, a first response upon the completion of my foundation degree is to continue the development of my proposed production utilising the style-frames that I have produced to aid in its realisation. I believe the next step in my development is to dedicate my time to storyboarding the full narrative in full before colour scripting over the storyboard panels to inform the rest of the design stage. Once all of the illustrative assets have been finalised, I intend to begin roughing out the animated sequences in full before executing in-betweens and colouring the process. The final production will then be composited and reflected upon before alterations are made and refinements executed. This production was proposed to be a short-film tackling people's relationships as a subject and I expect this production to take a full year of development should I not focus all my time on producing it.
Active Experimentation
Being critical on every aspect of my entire 2 years in full as well as the body of work I produced within this period is an important stage in my development as a creative due to it allowing me to gain insight into the areas I should focus on for improvement and experimentation. I feel I have discussed all aspects of this course in full through-out this blog post and I am confident that I have gained the important insight and experience needed to inform my future productions for many years to come. Having defined this in words it is now important to transfer these skills, insights, and thoughts into a practical outcome which gets me back on the wheel of creativity by pushing aspects of my chosen mediums further than I had managed throughout my development. Essentially the process of ‘active experimentation’ as defined at several stage over the course of my foundation degree is taking all I have come to know and transferring it into actionable goals that allow me to strive for my desires whilst refining my skillset and chances to succeed in industry. These targets will go beyond this course and will be highlighted on my other social platforms demonstrating my progression.
Target 1 – Create a prompt list and schedule to produce environment illustrations every 2 weeks over the next year.
Outlined within my commercial animation and illustration production module as well as in the ‘Abstract conceptualisation’ section of this blog post, I aspire to potentially become a background layout artist of background colourist within the animation industry due to my interest in animation backgrounds as a medium. I have identified this a route for progression because I note that my skillset’s strengths support this as a best viable option compared to other career choices. I also aspire and enjoy practicing new software techniques as well as adapting and exploring style methods which I believe I can incorporate into a consistent environment painting challenge. Therefore, my first target in reflection to my entire time studying my foundation degree is to produce an environment prompt list schedule by July the 1st to stimulate the active experimentation of animation background development. I will measure the success of this task by having posted this schedule onto this blog or a new blog on my portfolio website by the 1st of July.
Target 2 – Draw 2 pages of a sketchbook once a day for a full week.
I outlined within the weaknesses section of this blog post that one of my biggest limitations is my drawn ability. I expressed that I believed this is due to a lack of consistent discipline regarding gaining my 10,000 hours of drawn mastery. I believe by stimulating a routine of practicing my drawn ability that I will be able to consistently gain first-hand experience and insight into approaching drawing as a medium and I am confident that should I execute upon a strategy intended to ensure I keep to drawing at least once a day that over a period of a month, a year, to several years that I will see dramatic improvement. Therefore, I intend to begin by drawing 2 pages of a sketchbook a day of life drawing and or studies for a full week to begin with. I will begin this challenge on July the 1st and end it on July the 7th. I will consider this target a success once I successfully post on a social media platform, this blog, or a new blog upon graduation 14 pictures of pages I have drawn over the period of a week. I am confident is suggesting that by developing a concise routine that I will notice clear progression in my drawn ability.
Target 3 – Illustrate a rough and then refined storyboard for my proposed short film.
As outlined in my abstract conceptualization section of this blogpost, I intend my proposed short-film to be my opportunity to demonstrate my ability, creative thinking, and practical ability in communicating narrative through animation in a commercial setting. I anticipate that should I be successful in my short-films production that I will generate a degree of exposure opening opportunity’s up for me as a creative. Needless to say, as well that the resulting body of work that I will generate as a consequence of producing my short-film will serve to bolster my portfolio securing future opportunities for progression. As it stands my production currently has a devised concept and style-frames which now needs a storyboard to guide the concept of the animation moving forward. Therefore, to ensure the progression of my animation’s production I intend to create a rough storyboard which will be refined in the following weeks. I will measure this target as a success should I have the storyboard create by August the 1st.
Conclusion
I have learnt more than I could define in detail over the course of my 2 years studying my animation and illustration foundation degree. I have gained insight and first-hand experience that is invaluable to my future progression and will inform many more projects to come. I believe had I not taken part in this course that I would not be at the standard I am at currently without the opportunity's and experiences that I have dedicated my time too during both my level 4 and level 5 years of study. I believe it is within these 2 years that my career as an animator and illustrator began and it is my intention and hope that I will continue to pay diligence towards the aspirations that brought me to, though, and out of this course. The industry I am going into is extremely competitive, but it is because of my time studying on this course that I am confident I will find the success I aspire towards due to the reflective cycle I have fostered and nurtured over these past 16 modules and I believe I will continue to push my boundaries further in the years to come.
Thank you for taking the time to read this reflective cycle, and thank you for joining me on my journey as an aspiring creative. The next chapter in my life is beginning and I invite all who haven't followed me on social media to do so as I will continue to document my development as an artist moving forward on those platforms.
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