1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Having a developed a fundamental skill base throughout 1st year, 2nd year has been about developing in skill specific areas - none so much so than the digital module. I now feel very confident working with After Effects, and though I have only experienced a fraction of what the software has to offer, I am looking forward to another opportunity to build on this skill. This has been my first experience in working for screen based media so with regard to technical knowledge and ability (which build the foundation of this practice) I have improved a great deal. I'm not a particularly technical person, the idea of working with a media that doesn't allow room for technical errors is something I find quite worrying, however I think I managed to overcome this - and more importantly I allowed time to ask advice and correct any potentially fatal mistakes. Last but by no means least is the dramatic improvement in my organisational skills, which have always been a little rough. I began to develop a great digital filing system - necessary for avoiding missing links when working in both pieces of software - and I hope to take what I have learned and apply it to the physical world.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
As this was such a new way for working for all of us, not just myself, I found it difficult to apply what has come very naturally in the past. I feel the most beneficial of my research came from very specific pieces of motion graphics detailed on my context blog, and the information graphics I gathered from a variety of sources. Both of these informed my design decisions, and I think this is clear from the process of development documented on my blog. The way I moved from the title sequence of 'Euro Trip' through to 'Catch Me If You Can' and such like, are all decisions based upon what I was doing in my own work, and what was inspiring me in the real world. I do feel however that as I was concentrating so much on the new software and acclimatising to the new way of working, that this was an area I neglected to document as well as I should have.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
Without a doubt my strengths lay within After Effects. I focussed a lot of my time working through the software, with guidance from Mike and what I found on the internet. It's obvious that areas of the submission suffered as a result of this, however I literally feel that I could not help but want to be working in After Effects, I wanted the final resolutions to reflect how much I enjoyed working on them. As I have already stated, I am looking for the next excuse to develop my skills in this area further.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
Weaknesses are quite rife in this submission - I have let myself down with regard to both research and development.
It's not so much that they were not present at all, I failed to document a lot of the progress I had made and therefore the evidence of my progress through the software is somewhat lost. Though I hope the animations speak for themselves. I know that a lot of this is to do with a new way of working throwing my usual design process out of swing, however I think I have learned enough of this new practice to be able to apply research and development more throughly in the future. You could say I felt a little bit like a child in a toy shop thorough the module, neglecting the important bits for the fun stuff!
5. Identify what you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
- Take advantage of story boarding. I feel I developed a nice range of different story boarding techniques, only a few of which were actually helpful when working in After Effects, and even less of which informed decisions made in the software. Upon doing this again, I would have more of a back and forth process between the two.
- Apply my fundamental design skills to this new method of working. Research and develop accordingly, as I have done throughout my time here, and not be put off by the enormity of the new things I have to learn.
