During the run up to coursework hand-ins and the graduate show I talked a lot about rebuilding my website, and focusing on branding including business cards and my YouTube channel. After coursework hand-ins I was able to resume the process of re-creating my website which I had made a start on earlier.
Rather than using a website builder I was going to acquire shared hosting and build my own site using WordPress and potential themes I discovered. I've taken the first steps on this process and as of today, the new blobstudios.com is live and will be built up over the next few weeks.
I didn't consider this until working within the new site editor but I've also migrated this honours project blog so that my portfolio and written work can be found on the same place. I will consider migrating in my blogs from previous modules so that they can all be found on the one site as opposed to being spread out in different locations. While not as useful for current reading, they do provide a history of my thinking, evidence of improvement and a one-stop-shop for accessing my old work when necessary.
While this honours project blog is now coming to a close, I hope to continue blogging, documenting the process of my future work as I have found the process to be beneficial and also fun. I've kept this blog mostly quiet from sharing so on my new site hopefully it can be of use to students in the future or general interest to anyone who wants to follow my work.
This is the last post on this blog site but the journey continues at blobstudios.com/blog
Note that this blog site will stay up for the time being in its current state while being assessed for grading and for future reference.
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Thursday, 5 May 2016
Exposition Setup
Despite completing coursework last week, its still a busy week with preparation for the Abertay Digital Graduate Show. Yesterday I picked up my poster from Abertay Copyshop and while it my design did print darker than intended (even with a pre-brightening) it still looks pretty good. I did a decent job at mounting it to the foam board (I wouldn't accept anything other than perfect alignment) which I attached to the wall of my presentation space today.
I also received my business cards earlier in the week which I am really happy with. The print quality is very good and the colours are very bold. I'm also happy with the card quality I've chosen and the overall design. It might still be a little cluttered on the front with the addition of the pictures of my work but I'm very happy with these.
The deadline for setting up was noon earlier today which I met with ease. I encountered no problems with using the interface software although setup wasn't entirely smooth. When I arrived to mount my poster yesterday I found that I was not given the plinth I requested. Many other classmates seemed to have been given a small table which at the time I assumed they had also requested. There were no small tables left for me to choose from however there were two 2 plinths sitting aside. I thought it was weird that I was only one of two that had requested a plinth but assumed that as I hadn't been given a table then the plinth must have been mine. Apparently many of those who had requested a plinth had been given a table instead which was weird since I had been given nothing. However no-one has told me I shouldn't have the plinth that I am now using so I guess I'm good to continue using it. I am glad I do have a plinth over a table as I don't think I'd be able to fill all the table space, and I do not have an appropriate cloth or covering for the table to make it look good.
So my setup is good to go and as good as I could have made it. While I could have explored the possibility of a creative space, had I known I could have benefited from it I may have chosen to utilise them. However I'm happy with my little booth and look forward to the prize giving ceremony and preview event tomorrow.
I also received my business cards earlier in the week which I am really happy with. The print quality is very good and the colours are very bold. I'm also happy with the card quality I've chosen and the overall design. It might still be a little cluttered on the front with the addition of the pictures of my work but I'm very happy with these.
I underestimated how long thumbnails would take to produce but managed to complete them all on time for today's setup. I opted for putting a short text title on each thumbnail to easily grab the attention of the viewer and so they know exactly what each video is before opening it up. I used the same font as the showcase software with an outline so it is visible. For videos with multiple clips I arranged four images in a grid to show the video is a compilation of work. I also included an overview image because if I included a video first it would autoplay that when selecting "Student Two" so I didn't want people to get caught off guard, they should be able to start the video in their own time.
I have five videos in total: Final Animation, Timelapses, Practical Work, Showreel and just to be cheeky I also snuck in the Lego Batman v Superman Trailer I created in March. While I was originally intending to produce one showreel video I realised the video was quite large in length. I made a last minute decision to split up the showreel from my Honours practical animation tests. The Showreel contains a selection of my work from 2015-2016 and includes some clips from my Honours project among other projects. The practical work video contains all of my animation tests and experiments. I feel this is better for people to choose what they want to watch and it helps reduce the length of the showreel. I also found decent music to add to the timelapse video in addition to the showreel and practical video. These new videos can be viewed below:
The deadline for setting up was noon earlier today which I met with ease. I encountered no problems with using the interface software although setup wasn't entirely smooth. When I arrived to mount my poster yesterday I found that I was not given the plinth I requested. Many other classmates seemed to have been given a small table which at the time I assumed they had also requested. There were no small tables left for me to choose from however there were two 2 plinths sitting aside. I thought it was weird that I was only one of two that had requested a plinth but assumed that as I hadn't been given a table then the plinth must have been mine. Apparently many of those who had requested a plinth had been given a table instead which was weird since I had been given nothing. However no-one has told me I shouldn't have the plinth that I am now using so I guess I'm good to continue using it. I am glad I do have a plinth over a table as I don't think I'd be able to fill all the table space, and I do not have an appropriate cloth or covering for the table to make it look good.
So my setup is good to go and as good as I could have made it. While I could have explored the possibility of a creative space, had I known I could have benefited from it I may have chosen to utilise them. However I'm happy with my little booth and look forward to the prize giving ceremony and preview event tomorrow.
Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Exposition Preparation
Although my portfolio and this blog have been submitted, my project is not yet complete. I shared some research and ideas for my showcase poster earlier and I've now completed the digital design which I will get printed out. While I would have liked to have shared the process of creating this poster, I have been focusing my writing towards dissertation amendments. The dissertation has also been completed which I may post to this blog at a later date.
During last Monday's supervisor meeting I showed Lynn the poster sketches I created and we discussed potential animation title ideas. The three titles we both agreed were the strongest were "Set in Motion", "Off the Set" and "Building Character". While creating the design in Photoshop I stuck with "Set in Motion".
My first digital poster drafts were these:
As discussed in the ideas post, I wanted to create movie poster style text at the bottom of the poster. I found a font which is similar to that used in movie posters. The font conveniently uses key binds to insert "Directed By", "Produced By" etc. phrases in smaller sizes. I used these key bindings where possible however I also had to create my own smaller text for non-standard credits such as "Animated By" and "Filmed In". I also used this opportunity to include a couple of humorous lines which people can see if they choose to read deeper into the text. The text was re-arranged a couple of times until I got the layout and content that I was happy with. I also plugged my website and Twitter handle.
From feedback to my ideas, I also incorporated the use of a cardboard texture as the background which added visual interest over a plain black background. I chose to use a frame from the animation which I altered to remove the background and enhance the armature so he stood out from the background more. I would have liked to have composed a new scene and taken a photo with a higher quality camera but due to the state of my animation studio after completing filming and the time I have left before the graduate show, I will just have to make do with a lower resolution photo from a captured frame.
The first drafts included a placeholder title which I acknowledged needed work on. Lynn preferred the first title layout and suggested that the text be tweaked so that letters would line up with each other. In the final draft I amended the E and the T in "SET" to better line up with each other. I also pushed the letters in "MOTION" closer together. The final design features the updated title logo and the spacing for the credits text were altered. I used the colorless logos as they were less jarring and also brightened up the background texture which was not always so visible when viewing outside Photoshop. I also cleared up the photograph included in the poster so that the blending of the photograph to the background didn't look messy - again this was only showing up outside of Photoshop and I didn't want to risk it showing up on the print.
I was a little worried to the actual printing of the poster, I'd seen that other people's posters were printing darker than their designs when using Abertay's Copyshop. While the price was the cheapest at the Copyshop I wasn't entirely sure if the paper quality was as good as it could be. I wanted to have a movie poster quality, similar to what you might get from a movie poster bought from a shop. I found little information on what paper is used for this purpose and found that various print shops don't make it entirely clear on what all the paper qualities are like. I visited various print shops in Dundee yesterday which was unfortunately a bank holiday so PDQ Print Services and Urban Print were shut. Mail Boxes Etc was open however only printed up to A3. I returned to PDQ today but they were unable to give me precise information on print quality or the darkening of the design. Their price was also higher than the Copyshop and I had not encountered anyone who had used them so couldn't make a guess to what it would turn out like. So I ended up brightening my design up to send to Abertay Copyshop which I will be able to retrieve tomorrow.
I've found the exposition process, particularly the printing aspect, to be more stressful than it should be. The course handbook gives very little information in to the process of designing a poster and setting it up for print, e.g. colour mode, where to print, pricing, print quality, etc. While I have discovered a lot, to add on the PC interface content (thumbnails, images, videos preparation) immediately after completing hand-ins on the project leaves very little time to research this process.
I've also began to prepare other parts of the exposition including content that will be presented on the PC interface. This includes an animation showreel of my work which I will probably also include some of my work from 3rd year in addition to side projects. I will convert my final animation to the FLV format which works with the interface and also find music to add to the timelapse video I created for portfolio submission.
During last Monday's supervisor meeting I showed Lynn the poster sketches I created and we discussed potential animation title ideas. The three titles we both agreed were the strongest were "Set in Motion", "Off the Set" and "Building Character". While creating the design in Photoshop I stuck with "Set in Motion".
My first digital poster drafts were these:
As discussed in the ideas post, I wanted to create movie poster style text at the bottom of the poster. I found a font which is similar to that used in movie posters. The font conveniently uses key binds to insert "Directed By", "Produced By" etc. phrases in smaller sizes. I used these key bindings where possible however I also had to create my own smaller text for non-standard credits such as "Animated By" and "Filmed In". I also used this opportunity to include a couple of humorous lines which people can see if they choose to read deeper into the text. The text was re-arranged a couple of times until I got the layout and content that I was happy with. I also plugged my website and Twitter handle.
From feedback to my ideas, I also incorporated the use of a cardboard texture as the background which added visual interest over a plain black background. I chose to use a frame from the animation which I altered to remove the background and enhance the armature so he stood out from the background more. I would have liked to have composed a new scene and taken a photo with a higher quality camera but due to the state of my animation studio after completing filming and the time I have left before the graduate show, I will just have to make do with a lower resolution photo from a captured frame.
The first drafts included a placeholder title which I acknowledged needed work on. Lynn preferred the first title layout and suggested that the text be tweaked so that letters would line up with each other. In the final draft I amended the E and the T in "SET" to better line up with each other. I also pushed the letters in "MOTION" closer together. The final design features the updated title logo and the spacing for the credits text were altered. I used the colorless logos as they were less jarring and also brightened up the background texture which was not always so visible when viewing outside Photoshop. I also cleared up the photograph included in the poster so that the blending of the photograph to the background didn't look messy - again this was only showing up outside of Photoshop and I didn't want to risk it showing up on the print.
I was a little worried to the actual printing of the poster, I'd seen that other people's posters were printing darker than their designs when using Abertay's Copyshop. While the price was the cheapest at the Copyshop I wasn't entirely sure if the paper quality was as good as it could be. I wanted to have a movie poster quality, similar to what you might get from a movie poster bought from a shop. I found little information on what paper is used for this purpose and found that various print shops don't make it entirely clear on what all the paper qualities are like. I visited various print shops in Dundee yesterday which was unfortunately a bank holiday so PDQ Print Services and Urban Print were shut. Mail Boxes Etc was open however only printed up to A3. I returned to PDQ today but they were unable to give me precise information on print quality or the darkening of the design. Their price was also higher than the Copyshop and I had not encountered anyone who had used them so couldn't make a guess to what it would turn out like. So I ended up brightening my design up to send to Abertay Copyshop which I will be able to retrieve tomorrow.
I've found the exposition process, particularly the printing aspect, to be more stressful than it should be. The course handbook gives very little information in to the process of designing a poster and setting it up for print, e.g. colour mode, where to print, pricing, print quality, etc. While I have discovered a lot, to add on the PC interface content (thumbnails, images, videos preparation) immediately after completing hand-ins on the project leaves very little time to research this process.
I've also began to prepare other parts of the exposition including content that will be presented on the PC interface. This includes an animation showreel of my work which I will probably also include some of my work from 3rd year in addition to side projects. I will convert my final animation to the FLV format which works with the interface and also find music to add to the timelapse video I created for portfolio submission.
Monday, 2 May 2016
Final Presentation
My blog has been submitted as part of the Professional Practice module and Honours Project module however I feel the project is not yet complete. I still have things to discuss such as my final presentation and preparation for the Abertay Digital Graduate Show. While this post and those that follow it are technically not part of the submission (and therefore not gradable?) I hope that they are taken into consideration as part of my Professional Practice grade as the Graduate Show has not yet started and therefore I am still working on this part of the module.
Last week was pretty intense with my Honours Portfolio submitted very close to the deadline on Monday night and working day and night to amend and finish my dissertation for Friday evening. There was a big sigh of relief following the dissertation submission but I quickly got to work on my presentation and preparation for the graduate show.
The presentation followed this structure:
Last week was pretty intense with my Honours Portfolio submitted very close to the deadline on Monday night and working day and night to amend and finish my dissertation for Friday evening. There was a big sigh of relief following the dissertation submission but I quickly got to work on my presentation and preparation for the graduate show.
Presentation Practice
All the students who Lynn supervises were invited to a presentation practice session on Thursday afternoon. While my dissertation was still being worked on I managed to wrap together a presentation draft on Wednesday night which I presented the next day.The presentation followed this structure:
- Introduction of project - aim and objectives, recap of previous presentations.
- Show final animation outcome.
- Show the journey of the project - start with early practical work.
- Explain how case studies were beneficial.
- Show how animation discussions led to further findings.
- Explain some of the stylistic affordances.
- Show side projects and how they contributed to the research project.
- Show pre-production of the final animation including story changes.
- Explain the production process and some challenges.
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the final animation.
- End with project blog link.
As I didn't have much time to practice the presentation, like the first progress presentation I completely messed up the plan for what I was going to say and stumbled over many of my words. Even though I had notes, I get too lost to use them effectively to get back on track. However as I had a very visual presentation, other students were able to follow and understand the process behind my project and so despite my mess-up of the talking, I was able to get some good feedback.
The way I structured the presentation was good and I seemed to be spending the right amount of time on each section. I did however rush the evaluation and didn't entirely conclude what my findings were (what the stylistic affordances actually were) or explain how what I made led me to conclusions.
Again, I was surprised to the positive response to my work. People seemed genuinely interested in what I had made and were entertained by the final animation. Because I spend so long creating the animations I forget there are parts that are funny and an audience laughing reminds me that sometimes I can be funny. I was amused by the reactions to my Lego Batman v Superman slide in which I explained how this side project was a distraction but helped shape the project in many ways. My classmates seemed to find it funny that I did get distracted by that but also seemed to want to see more of it. Lynn described it as a good distraction and it was worthwhile to focus on re-launching my YouTube channel.
Presentation Revisions
Having handed in my dissertation on the Friday I was free to spend more time working on my presentation. I overhauled the design of the presentation, adding a cardboard textured wallpaper, aligning images and improving layout. I also added in the odd quote to make connections to the work I was doing to the literature I was looking at.
Despite revising my presentation in response to feedback, I didn't address the issue of my lack of rehearsal so when I came to practice presenting in front of my housemates, I completely fumbled while talking and so this was disheartening. But I spent the whole of Sunday rehearsing what I was going to say and added in a few additional slides to keep me on topic.
Final Presentation
With a little more confidence and my latest presentation ready to go I was second to present this morning. While I'm usually critical of my own presenting, I can happily say that I thought I did well on this one. Not perfect by any means but I managed to say nearly everything I wanted to and didn't fumble over my words (that much).
I will make the presentation slides available to view here once I reduce the file size.
The structure remained the same as above while taking into consideration the previous feedback and revisions I made to it. Feedback was generally positive with David Lyons praising my practical tests as being "terrific" and enjoyed seeing the progression since my last presentation. David asked again about the research question and noted that my approach to using a research hypothesis still allowed me to be creative and explore things I wanted to make.
Brian Robinson asked about the advantages and disadvantages of stop motion's straight ahead process as opposed to other animation mediums. While I briefly touched on this in the presentation I explained how mistakes and errors aren't so easily corrected and you often have to commit to the shot once you've started. However the subtle changes in light and jerking movements are imperfections which may crop up stay in because you have no other choice but that can add to the charm and appeal of stop motion. Brian also noted similarities to Aardman's Morph animations which I had always been familiar with but chose to research animators I wasn't so familiar with.
Lynn also thought the presentation was good and that I'd taken into consideration feedback from the previous presentation practice. I still didn't entirely conclude my presentation as well as I could have and didn't explicitly state the conclusions of what the appeal of stop motion animation actually is. I explained that my project has identified and explored techniques such as materials, texture, quality of movement, imperfections and the unseen animator's mark as a number of attributes that contribute to the appeal of stop motion animation and this builds evidence to the longevity of stop motion animation. Lynn also praised my focus on professional practice of focusing on my brand, YouTube channel and other things that put me in a better position today. She agreed that my Lego Batman v Superman trailer was a distraction but a worthwhile distraction (which is a rare thing).
Overall I am very happy with how my presentation turned out and I am pretty satisfied with how my project turned out overall. While I know there were certainly things I could have done sooner, the year has been a journey of self discovery and working things out as to what I wanted to do and what I was going to make.
Brian Robinson asked about the advantages and disadvantages of stop motion's straight ahead process as opposed to other animation mediums. While I briefly touched on this in the presentation I explained how mistakes and errors aren't so easily corrected and you often have to commit to the shot once you've started. However the subtle changes in light and jerking movements are imperfections which may crop up stay in because you have no other choice but that can add to the charm and appeal of stop motion. Brian also noted similarities to Aardman's Morph animations which I had always been familiar with but chose to research animators I wasn't so familiar with.
Lynn also thought the presentation was good and that I'd taken into consideration feedback from the previous presentation practice. I still didn't entirely conclude my presentation as well as I could have and didn't explicitly state the conclusions of what the appeal of stop motion animation actually is. I explained that my project has identified and explored techniques such as materials, texture, quality of movement, imperfections and the unseen animator's mark as a number of attributes that contribute to the appeal of stop motion animation and this builds evidence to the longevity of stop motion animation. Lynn also praised my focus on professional practice of focusing on my brand, YouTube channel and other things that put me in a better position today. She agreed that my Lego Batman v Superman trailer was a distraction but a worthwhile distraction (which is a rare thing).
Overall I am very happy with how my presentation turned out and I am pretty satisfied with how my project turned out overall. While I know there were certainly things I could have done sooner, the year has been a journey of self discovery and working things out as to what I wanted to do and what I was going to make.
Other Presentations
At the previous round of progress presentations I stayed and listened to many of the other students' presentations which I found to be interesting and beneficial as hearing the feedback on other presentations helps to contextualise the weaknesses and strengths of your own presentation.
Some of the projects which I enjoyed seeing the outcome of was Karolina Jacobsson's animation Yuanfen: A Fateful Coincidence which was a mesmerising dance exploring relationships and destiny and how its not always a fairytale ending. What impressed me the most other than the stunning quality of animation was the collaboration with both dancers, a choreographer and a music composer and the end result that all parties involved were able to achieve. Another project which I really enjoyed seeing the progress of was Connor Cameron's biocultural influenced monster designs which consisted of a series of monsters each with a role in the monster world he created. I get a sense of fun that Connor had creating gruesome creatures, playing with a lot of different horror themes such as mutations and sexualised imagery. And lastly Yana Hristova's project impressed me for both her level of artistic ability and use of composition theory. She looked at a lot of films, a few of which are favourites of mine, so the final concepts she created were equally as impressive as the films she researched.
Looking back on the presentations there were a variety of different projects covering a vast range of different practices, theories and outcomes which really shows the artistic abilities of our year on the whole. While my own project doesn't look nearly as visually impressive as some of the projects, I am pretty happy with my approach, the theory I looked at and the different content I was able to create. For once, I do feel like I am on the same playing field as other people in my year as opposed to feeling my work was never worth sharing. This year has been a year for discovery for me and for many others too. It may have taken a few years to learn how to approach creating work and building the worth ethic but I am glad of where this year has taken me.
On a side note, I'm also pretty happy with the overall design of my presentation. Centering and aligning things, spelling things correctly and being overly neat with my layouts is one thing I can do well. I was also one of the people that utilised the 16:9 ratio of the projector screen so could make full use of the screen. The perfectionist nature in myself comes in handy every now and then.
Some of the projects which I enjoyed seeing the outcome of was Karolina Jacobsson's animation Yuanfen: A Fateful Coincidence which was a mesmerising dance exploring relationships and destiny and how its not always a fairytale ending. What impressed me the most other than the stunning quality of animation was the collaboration with both dancers, a choreographer and a music composer and the end result that all parties involved were able to achieve. Another project which I really enjoyed seeing the progress of was Connor Cameron's biocultural influenced monster designs which consisted of a series of monsters each with a role in the monster world he created. I get a sense of fun that Connor had creating gruesome creatures, playing with a lot of different horror themes such as mutations and sexualised imagery. And lastly Yana Hristova's project impressed me for both her level of artistic ability and use of composition theory. She looked at a lot of films, a few of which are favourites of mine, so the final concepts she created were equally as impressive as the films she researched.
Looking back on the presentations there were a variety of different projects covering a vast range of different practices, theories and outcomes which really shows the artistic abilities of our year on the whole. While my own project doesn't look nearly as visually impressive as some of the projects, I am pretty happy with my approach, the theory I looked at and the different content I was able to create. For once, I do feel like I am on the same playing field as other people in my year as opposed to feeling my work was never worth sharing. This year has been a year for discovery for me and for many others too. It may have taken a few years to learn how to approach creating work and building the worth ethic but I am glad of where this year has taken me.
On a side note, I'm also pretty happy with the overall design of my presentation. Centering and aligning things, spelling things correctly and being overly neat with my layouts is one thing I can do well. I was also one of the people that utilised the 16:9 ratio of the projector screen so could make full use of the screen. The perfectionist nature in myself comes in handy every now and then.
I would've liked to have stayed longer and listen to more presentations but needed to prepare my dissertation for printing/binding and to finish and print my poster. I will probably attend some of tomorrow's presentations just to see how other classmates got on with their work.
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