Poster Development
The Creative Futures Module is focuses on our industry materials, like our CVs, Portfolios, Showreels and Professional Profiles. This is to help with the Major Project End of Year Showcase to go on our physical displays and to help appeal to potential employers who will be there.
The first real task we focused on was the Poster for our Major Project, mine being Dimension Hopper. We went to our Miro Board and began collecting visual references for our poster based off of the theme of the project. Our project had ended up as a Comedy / Action / Sci-fi type short and so this was kept in mind while finding poster inspiration.
We decided to make a couple of concept sketches each and then refine them later after picking the ones we like the most. As out short was 3D we were aiming to have the models of the characters posed on the poster in some way. I created these ones, focusing a bit more on the action part of the movie as I felt like that was one of the main aspects, though I’m not very proud of them. I have decided I need to research more on composition and movie posters in general before attempting to refine any of them or making any more.
I ended up not being too involved in the process of making the poster, though we did change our direction later, going with a 2D poster based off a 3D render to help with shadows and rendering the 2D one. We went this direction as Megan had been developing some of her poster ideas further and when she showed us the progress on them, we fell in love with one of them, deciding to let Megan take charge of the poster. This was our final poster;
Art Book
We have begun to create the art book for our project, but haven’t got it fully done yet as we’v been working on other things. Hopefully we’ll be able to get it ordered and delivered in time still.
Industry Facing Materials
CV
I did some research on CV’s last year to create the original CV that I’m going to update for this module as I’m quite fond of it.
I rewatched my feedback from the second year Professional Practice module, making a list of the little details I was advised on changing. (Including spelling errors.)
I also did a little more research into CV’s this year to refresh my knowledge and learn new things.
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-cv
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-cv
https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/how-to-write-a-cv/
https://www.ucas.com/careers/help-and-advice/how-write-cv
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/artist-cv
https://flyingarts.org.au/resources/resources-for-artists-artsworkers/how-to-write-an-artist-cv/
Old CV
For updating the CV I first edited out the spelling errors from the feedback and then looked at the extra changes I wanted to make. I had decided I wanted to change the colour scheme already, but then I also wanted it look more cohesive with our table display so I settled on using blue instead of the yellow after discussing with Megan about our display.
I also decided I should add a section in the experience part that further details some of the things I had done during this course so employers would have a better idea of what skills I’d picked up here instead of jut listing it under the education tab. I also added some more references for lecturers on the CV as I read it was ideal to have 3 references, and I’d worked closely with some lecturers this year that I hadn’t before. I edited the layout a little, to make the headings smaller as well, as I thought they were a bit too big and took up too much room.
I also updated the Profile Picture part to a newer 2D art, to showcase my 2D talents and the improvements instead of keeping one from last year – it also matched the new colour scheme of the CV. I also updated the banner part to have an image of one of my animation renders from this project so far, to tie in my newer work as well and replace one of the weaker images on the banner – the wine glass.
I kept my title on the CV as 3D Generalist / 3D animator as I’m mostly interested in 3d work, and I think I’ve gotten to a point where I’d be comfortable working in animation and not just 3d modelling or environments. I did add illustrator as well as I’ve become quite interested in 2d concept work and 2D artwork, as I’ve gotten more comfortable with working in 2D over the past year in my personal projects, although I’m not sure about keeping it there in the long run.
New CV
Business Cards
This was an optional thing to make, but I thought it would be a good opportunity for potential employers to remember you afterwards, as they have a card to take if they are interested, as well as being a good networking opportunity.
I looked into business cards on Pinterest and looked at the past year’s examples on Blackboard for some inspiration and guidance, as well as looking at ones I’d collected from Rendr and cons.
I wanted to tie it in with the CV to have a cohesive display of my brand, so I went with Blue and grey/black for them, as well as using the same font. Unfortunately, I hadn’t left myself enough time to fully design new artwork for the business card, so I looked into using some of the art I already had done. I was interested in making it visually appealing and was quite drawn to the 2D artwork style, and due to limited time, I decided to go with this route as I didn’t have any 3D artwork renders that would fit business cards.
I had been interested in matching it to my final project but due to us not having the final renders as some of our group had extensions, it didn’t really work out.
The lecturers had mentioned using a QR code to me for links to different social media, and I thought it was a really good idea so I wanted to incorporate it into the business cards.
https://www.vistaprint.co.uk/hub/business-card-design-rules
I found the printing company I was going to purchase my cards from, as the market business I work with had used them previously and they were very fast and good quality. I took the measurements and scaled them up to make my design.
Showreel
To prepare myself for making another showreel, that was hopefully much better than my attempt last year, I watched some showreels of 2£ and 3d animators and some generalists. These are some of the ones I looked at.
I then went to find some music I could use for my showreel, so royalty-free music, and found Uppbeat. I picked one that I really liked and that had a good beat to it.
Royalty Free Music Used – Pina-Colada [Link]
I used Premier Pro to make the showreel, as it’s the editing software I’m the most comfortable using now.
Portfolio and Online Materials
EOYS
Fundraisers
We set up a Pub Quiz and a Craft Fair to raise funds to go towards our EOYs displays, to cover the costs of printing posters and business cards, refreshments, and extra costs for table accessories etc.
These are the posters we agreed on the theme for as a year, although they were made by specific people, they have little doodles of each of our projects and I think that’s adorable.
I had signed up to be a vendor at the craft fair, but due to unfortunate circumstances, I couldn’t go in the end, though I did offer to still pay for my table.
I did donate some of my own money that I’d been setting aside form markets to the funds though, donating £100.
Physical Display for EOYS
We discussed what theme we wanted to use for our table setup, and discussed table props that we would like to have on our display. We ordered a CCTV camera, and caution tape and used a flashlight and work vest that Megan already had. The overall goal was to make it look like it was the security guard’s desk with the monitor displays being his CCTV cameras showing what happened in the film. Megan also was able to get Manilla files, from her mother’s workplace, for us to put our CVs inside to make it look like we were suspects or agents working at the facility, which was really fun.
We didn’t have a desk with a wall so we couldn’t really display prints or paint the walls or boards to fit our theme so we focused mainly on the desk and our layout of our industry materials.
We went in to set up the table and realised we hadn’t got a table runner, which really helped pull the whole table display together, so we took a trip into Belfast to buy one along with some extra supplies. Although it was obviously a little hard to find props that fit the security desk/ sci-fi vibe of the film and table setup.
Megan also had stickers printed of some of her early concept art/ work, which we displayed as well.
There are some extra things we want to add to the table that we displayed through paper placeholders, like an art book and I had the idea to make a replica of the dimension button from our film and put it on the table, so I’ll be doing that before the EOYS now.
Reflection
I wasn’t as involved in the fundraising part of this module as I would’ve liked to be unfortunately, though I am happy that I contributed something even if it was just funds.
As a group, we had kind of neglected this module a little, only beginning to work properly on the poster towards the end of the year, as we were a little focused on the actual project, though in the end everything worked well, and I think it looks good. We could’ve planned our display more beforehand though, and not been as tight for time looking for things that fit the aesthetic or idea.
Overall, I’m glad I used this opportunity to make some things that weren’t strictly necessary like a business card, as it gave me some experience in designing more things for my ‘brand’. Additionally, I feel more ready for the industry part of the EOYS and networking as my stuff is mostly up to date. Although there’s definitely some more refining I have to do, specifically sketchfab – as I need to update the models on it and make them more visually appealing, like setting up a scene with the smaller assets or the ones created for the same project.