For our second assignment of this module, we were assigned with creating a group research poster focused on a particular nation’s animation. I put my name down for “Japanese Animation” and was later sorted into a group consisting of myself, Hugh, Sean and Padraig.
For the first first class we had, we discussed possible topics we could cover which included:
- Evolution of Art Style
- Rising popularity and influence in the west
- Specific studios like Ghibli, Trigger or Gainax
We ended up deciding on “Rising popularity and influence of Japanese animation in the West” which I thought could be rather fun and interesting. After we decided on a topic, Hugh created a Discord server for us to use while we work on the assignment.
In our next class, we further discussed what we would include in our poster. We decided that we would create a timeline of the most influential moments in history that boosted anime’s popularity in the West. We began making a note of topics we could touch on, starting from when anime first came to the West, to when it started outselling western movies in theatres. Once we discussed what we wanted to do, Hugh posted a list of them broken down so we could pick from them. I decided to look at “Early anime”, “Disney-Ghibli distribution” and “90’s TV anime”, I chose these as they were the most interesting to me and I felt that I was already pretty familiar with these topics.
I offered to try making some mock-ups of the poster as I was conscious of the looming due date and was worried that others might not have time to work on it over the weekend. I began posting some poster designs into the Discord to use for reference.
I then attempted a mock up design of the poster which I wasn’t too fond of so I posted an image of it in the server in hopes that my team could guide me in the right direction.
The only feedback I received was that the formatting of the poster was weird which I was aware of but was hoping we could achieve something similar to one of the references I had posted. I encouraged them to try making a poster themselves since I wasn’t confident in what I was creating.
After posting these designs I began working on my research which can be viewed here: The World Of Animation Research_Victoria Howells_Assignment 2.pdf
After I had sent this, Hugh had sent a test of my mock-up with text which wasn’t really what I wanted when I said to experiment , I was hoping for them to try out different poster designs.
I later found that I would be busy on 2nd and 3rd of May so I asked in the server if anyone would be able to help me out with making the poster. I asked if they had access to clip studio or photoshop as this meant I could pass files to them if need be but they didn’t seem to have access.
Since I was going to be busy and they didn’t seem like they wanted to look for other alternatives that they could use from home, I decided to use Canva to create the poster as it would allow us all to work at the same time and would probably look cleaner too.
I then send in a mock-up I created in Canva and send them the link.
Once they added in all their notes and photos, I cleaned up some errors that they may have left like mismatched titles or odd spacing. Hugh suggested a brighter red so we went with that for the final poster.
Once everything was done, I made sure to post in the server to make sure everyone was happy with it.
Once that was done, I sent the poster in to be printed off and picked up before our presentation.
I personally wasn’t too confident in how I presented as I felt like I wasn’t covering my points too well and that they didn’t relate to our point much. I think the rest of my group presented well though. I did enjoy researching the different topics for this poster, however I think I would’ve enjoyed this assignment more if it wasn’t a group effort as I often found myself stressed out on what others were doing.
For next year, I’ll be working on bettering my communication skills in group settings so I can manage my workload better instead of offering to do things when I’m unable to.
Final Poster
Bibliography
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Wikipedia. (2021). Cardcaptor Sakura. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardcaptor_Sakura. [Accessed 3 May 2023].
Wikipedia. (2021). Astro Boy (1963 TV series). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy_(1963_TV_series). [Accessed 3 May 2023].
Anime Savvy. (2010). The History of Anime and Its Arrival in America. [online] Available at: https://animesavvy.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/the-history-of-anime-and-its-arrival-in-america/. [Accessed 3 May 2023].
Traxler, C. (2021). How anime is taking over the western audience. [online] Medium. Available at: https://ctraxler.medium.com/how-anime-is-taking-over-the-western-audience-dec5c4cad129. [Accessed 3 May 2023].
Moynihan, C.-L. (2022). From East to West: The Rise of Anime. [online] Impact Magazine. Available at: https://impactnottingham.com/2022/06/from-east-to-west-the-rise-of-anime/. [Accessed 3 May 2023].