The Outcome
For my publication I didn't want to create a book - that isn't an area which has been relevant to me this year. Animation and web design is something which I have concentrated a lot on, and so I knew I wanted to create one of those. I felt animation was the most appropriate as it would be easier to effectively communicate my methodology than through a website where usually the main purpose is to sell a product/service. Recently I have also felt that I don't want to be known as a 'web designer' - I don't want to pigeon hole myself, or have others see me as this because I know that I can do more. I think this is what people would expect me to do, so I decided to go with animation. I also think that an animation would be clearer to communicate my thoughts as well as incorporate illustration which is something I have been doing more this year.
I also decided that the content should revolve around my work/life balance. This is something which has been really important to me this year, and I have made it a big focus. The first two years of this degree I spent too much time doing work and felt guilty if I had a night of - when in reality I wasn't that productive by doing this and wasn't enjoying life outside of uni as there wasn't any!
Over Summer I had the chance to experience the 9-5 work hours at an agency, and I really enjoyed it. I got so much done within the day and then had the whole evening and weekends to enjoy myself. I found this was a much better way of working than I had been used to, and gave me time to see friends more and have new hobbies.
I carried this on into 3rd year, and continued to do the things I did over Summer - go to the gym, cook fresh meals everyday, see my friends and watch boxsets when I wanted. And the result is that I have become even more productive, produced more work, focused my practice, learnt new things, networked more and been offered job & placement opportunities. So I have proved to myself that I can do both - I can have my life and work hard and still achieve things while being happier at the same time. So I felt this was the most appropriate and relevant thing to focus on since I have completely changed the way that I live and work, for the better.
What Have I Learned Throughout This Project?
I feel this has been a great project to end the year on, as I have taken it as an opportunity to practice more with animation and learn as much as I can before I leave. Previously, I have done animations but picked it up as I go and taught myself - meaning I probably haven't been doing things the best or most efficient way.
This time however, I took it upon myself to sign up to Skillshare and watch lots of tutorials on how to do things the right way. This is very evident in my animation and the improvement is clear to see. I watched several tutorials which are about an hour long looking at different tools within After Effects such as the graph editor, easy ease transition, shape layers and precomposing. Although it took me longer than it usually would to create this, it is because I was doing things the proper way and referring back to these tutorials when I knew there was something I could use from it.
I feel I have a much better understanding now of why the way things work, and if a problem arises I have a better idea about why it has happened. I do not feel as limited within my design as I know I can animate more than I previously could. I don't become as frustrated with it now because I know ways around the problems I was having, and feel more comfortable with the interface and tools.
The area of the animation I am most happy with is the transitions stages - when one part goes and another comes. I spent a lot of time learning and testing the tutorials on this as I wanted to make them smooth and professional. Although there is a long way to go, it is a big improvement and I feel more confident with After Effects now.
What Could Be Improved?
Whenever I need to start a project that I think could work really well, I always think of a reason why it is a bad idea or why I shouldn't do it. I put it off because I'm worried it won't turn out very well and think that I might come up with a different idea. I didn't have a long time to do this project and I didn't have time worry about this, yet I did anyway and ended up starting later than I should have - with the same idea I had in the first place. I thought I would have learned after YCN to 'just do it', but found myself having the same worries again.
I was worried that the outcome would be cheesy and not in the right direction, but I've realised it doesn't matter if people think it is cheesy as I have learnt so much and can apply what I have learned to new projects in the future that I would like to share on my portfolio etc.
I do feel like the illustrations could be improved as they are not great, but as I was doing animation I am unsure as to create textured shapes in the programme since I recreated all of the illustrations in there so they could be easily animated.
I also feel like music choice could be improved. This is not something I am good at selecting, but have started to following prior feedback from people about not including audio on my animations.
Overall
I am very happy with the outcome since I did not spend a long time on it, and yet I can see how far I have come with my animation progress. It has definitely motivated me to start new projects after deadline, particularly the ones on Skillshare they provide with each tutorial.
I think that it is very personal to me, and shows exactly what this year has involved for me. My 'methodology' has been to incorporate a balance between work and life and is very important to me in being able to still enjoy doing what I love and being more productive in every aspect of my life.
I know that I made the right decision in creating an animation and not a book, as although it is not conventional, it is the direction I have been taking my practice in this year.
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