shannonkoha

[shannonkoha]

Reflection

This half of the semester has definitely been a learning experience. Though stressful at times, I’m very proud of the way mine and Ash’s project has come together! It has been very awesome to be able to work together with someone I feel is mostly on the same wavelength as I am - able to understand and articulate one anothers ideas, and sharing the same level of enthusiasm (compared to some other group projects, whereupon people don’t participate and couldn’t care less). Working in a group also meant having to compromise on some small details - good practise for a future in this industry, as not everybody is going to like your ideas!

We found Trello to be exceptionally helpful for delegating and keeping track of tasks, as well as keeping us accountable - it really helped us to keep on top of our work - each class we would asses what we had completed so far, and add in our new tasks, to be completed by our next meeting! The splitting up of work was good too - Ash is extremely proficient as illustration, so she produced much of that, and worked on the posters. This allowed me to craft the website - something I really enjoy doing - and complete the technical side of the animation, which I found difficult, but was glad to do as it helped me improve that skill. I also did the majority of the written work, as writing is something I really enjoy. 

I don’t believe there was much that could have been handled better - I think what we’ve produced is the best outcome of the situation. Ideally I would have liked the technical side of the animation to look less amatureish - the bit I’m most unhappy with is the transition from the drip to the white bird branch. I’d have liked to make the drip into a tree which sprouts the bird branch - but it proved to be too difficult. I tried many different ways to round out the bottom of the drip also, to make it less flat - but nothing seemed to work. I felt that the first part of the animation didn’t flow quite as well as the middle to end - from the bird branch onwards. But I’m very new to after effects so I won’t be too hard on myself, the more I work at it the more I will improve - I’m proud of what I managed to create. 

[shannonkoha]

Koha Week 6.1

Today I did the last few tweaks to the animation and uploaded it - see finished version above! With the posters submitted for printing and our website, rationale and poster wall printed and posters and website tour zipped and ready to be handed in, the last thing we have to do is collect and mount our posters! I’m proud of how organised I’ve been, and how we have been able to finish everything well on time!

I am actually very proud of how the animation has turned out - I was struggling for a while there, and whilst I don’t believe it is perfect by any means, I think it is smooth, pleasant to look at and shows an understanding of basic animation. Though I sometimes find it tedious and frustrating, seeing a finished animation project come together feels really great - its definitely a skill I’m going to try and build on and improve. 

[shannonkoha]

Koha Week 5.2

Today in class we finished and submitted our posters - one item ticked off the list! I’m very happy with how they looked, and the lecturers that looked at them told us they were very strong. We also edited our website colours as we were worried that the colour scheme might have been too soft, not matching with the vibrant oranges, purples and blues of our animatic and posters - I think it looks much better now. With website practically finished and posters handed in, I am focusing on the animatic! Despite several audio issues, I’m well on my way to finishing for the Tuesday animation timeline - I’m proud of how much I’ve achieved considering my limited animation knowledge / experience!

[shannonkoha]

Koha Week 5.1 - Interim Critique

Today in class we had an interim critique - we recieved some very helpful feedback, which is detailed on our group blog. I have mocked up our website in its entirety, and it will require only a few minor tweaks - the same for the posters, which Ash is focusing on. This allows me to spend the majority of the next two weeks refining the animatic - which is good, as this is the part I’m finding most difficult. It was incredibly daunting seeing other peoples animatics in the interim today, as some people are incredibly skilled animators - however I know I can only do so much with my limited skillset, and will just have to try the best I can. I really would like to improve in this area, and over the summer I’m going to try and practise with after effects to improve my skills. 

[shannonkoha]

Koha Week 4.1 and 4.2

This week I focused on working on the website and animation - I have now completed an almost finished mock up of the website for the interim critique on Monday of Week 5. I’m very pleased with how the website is looking - designing websites is something I find I really enjoy doing. The scenery illustrations at the top of the pages are stand ins - once Ash completes the illustrations for them they will be swapped out. 

The animation is coming along, albeit slowly - I’m finding animation a struggle, but I just need to work on it and make it look smoother, and then replace the temporary sprites with the more detailed final sprites that Ash has completed, and then our animation will be complete! I am having an issue with adding the music, it either won’t play or is distorted / slowed down - I will ask about this issue at Monday’s class. I’m also struggling to transition from the drips from the sun to a branch for the birds to sit on in our animation - I’ll ask for some help / ideas for this on Monday too. 

Our posters are looking pretty solid, and our website is mocked up in its entirety - I think we are pretty on track!

Will post a progress video of the animation when I figure out how to shrink the size of a video. 

[shannonkoha]

Koha Week 3.2

This week I have been working on mocking up our animation in after effects; familiarising myself with how the program works and trying to teach myself new skills. Despite my best efforts, my animation feels very clunky and looks incredibly amateurish - I’m worried we might have overestimated our abilities. I’m struggling to see how we can finish not only this animation but a website and two posters within the next few weeks, as well as assignments from our other classes. 

[shannonkoha]

Koha Week 3.1

Today in class we had our first interim critique - we presented our storyboard for our animatic, our wireframe and our concept / moodboard to the class. I’m really happy with how our storyboard is looking so far - it was really fun for Ash and I to make together, and we got some really good feedback and suggestions which reassured us we were on the right track. 

My wireframe I constructed is in the rough stages, so I couldn’t really get much feedback on it yet - my main focus will be on refining it and mocking up a more detailed version / making it clickable in XD before Thursday. Overall, I am pleased with our progress and our concept! 

[shannonkoha]

Koha Week 2.1

Today in class we watched many examples of motion graphics - paying particular attention to the strategic direction, tone, narrative, pace and emotion. 

I particularly liked the Dexter and Six Feet Under opening credits - simple shots of somebody opening a packet of bacon, or squeezing a blood orange can be made to look so gruesome and violent through use of colour grading, soundtrack and tone. 

There was an illustrated motion graphic of ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allen Poe - I’ll be dissecting and analyzing this further on our group blog, as it was short and impactful - the kind of length and style I imagine my pairs motion graphic might be. 

In pairs we created posters using emotive words and stills from the ‘A song for Europa’ animatic - our favourite was our patriotism one. To me, the red sky and the tower remind me of Russia, nuclear power and Chernobyl. 

The image above this is mine and Ash’s moodboard for our group project - we each made a separate one, and mashed together our best finds.

[shannonkoha]

Koha Week 1.2

In today's class, we completed an exercise which involved listening to Warren Maxwell’s music and responding to it - either by doodling, or writing whatever came to mind. Most of my responses were written scenes I was imagining playing out with the music, emotions or messages I felt the music was conveying or references to specific art styles or aesthetics I felt would work well with each song. 

[shannonkoha]

Koha Week 1.1 

Today in class we were introduced to Warren Maxwell and his musical works, and the brief for this assignment was outlined for us. We were given an exercise to complete in pairs; we were tasked with creating two promotional posters for stage productions of Romeo and Juliet. 

The first poster is a more traditional take, a juxtaposition of the themes of life and death, love and loss - the limp yet still entwined bodies, the lily flowers growing from between the two figures - a symbol of death. 

The second poster is a different take on the play, a combination of the genres ‘High School Romance’ and ‘Farmers vs Townies’.