For our Animated Narratives project we were tasked to create a 30 second animation that involved the theme of “Escape”. I was in a group with Andrea, Ellen, Aaron and Kaitlyn, and although my doubts got the better of me and there were times I shied away from the work, looking back, I’m glad I got to work with this group again. We all worked together in the first semester and always found ourselves working alongside one another again, and I’m glad to say I couldn’t have found a nicer and more comfortable team to work alongside.

When it came to the practical side of the project we all banded together and focused on our strengths. Our plot was revised through on multiple occasions through the tutors feedback, and although discouraging having to redo our story and material it gave us the opportunity to work based off of feedback and strengthen any weak parts we once had in terms of narrative. It only increased the quality of our work, so I’m grateful for all the feedback that was offered. Despite the multiple revisions our main story structure saw the light of day, simply altering our storyboards and synopsis to make sense of the outcome we wanted to achieve. Big props goes to Andrea for keeping the group organized and focused on our goals, as the course was going by in a flash and sometimes it was hard balancing work life with university life. By keeping us grounded we were able to focus on getting our individual work done while progressing together as a team. I very much am no leader, so when someone else naturally takes on the role I’m very relieved to follow along. Once we completed tasks that were set that week we would either upload them to the discord to see where everyone was with the project and give feedback, and uploading files to one drive so we can download/view blender files. Although I didn’t get as involved with the work that I would have liked I’m proud to have helped Ellen with the environment, because I feel like our setting was very strong. I had asked Alec and Mike for advice to help with the ambient lighting, as from the very beginning I wanted the arcade to have a blade runner/retro vibe with various different neon light sources. Mike showed us how to view the emission lighting in our scenes while Alec shown me and Ellen how to light up our arcade machine screens. Seeing our environment come to life was a very exciting experience, and our group was delighted with the environment outcome.

In terms of characters we all modelled our own characters and rigged them/added our own drivers and shape keys. As every model was catered to our own knowledge of using them we uploaded videos to help our group understand how to animate them/their physics. This was a god send when it came to animating our scenes as every model’s rig was different from one another. This led us to have expressive movement and emotional range in our characters that we probably couldn’t have done without.

If I could start this assignment over I would be sure to communicate more effectively with my teammates and keep myself on track. I got very self conscious/unmotivated as I thought I was becoming overbearing in terms of the project, however this is simply something that I need to grow out of in terms of working in a group. I would have also liked to have resulted in more physical blender props as my work mostly consisted of illustrations.

Regarding the overall first year experience I’ve had my highs and lows (Mike, unfortunately, seeing the latter. Sorry!!) I had never touched any 3D program before so the thought of working in a 3D space was VERY daunting. There’s some area’s that I need to revisit, topology and UV mapping being a big contender, however I’ve picked up skills I wouldn’t have done without the course alongside gaining a massive insight into the animation industry as a whole. I adored the film studies section of the course and the research behind it and would like to experience more of this in the future. I’ve come a long way in terms of using blender and become more experienced in it’s tools, and hopefully with a bit more practise over the summer I can refine what I learned during the course.

The lecturers provided the best they can in terms of helping with work, however sometimes I felt at a loss in terms of asking for help but this is mostly due to the sheer size of the class. I believe in general mental health needs to be a huge factor in sitting through the classes as it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the workload/pressure to perform well.

I had my eye on the joining the animation society to get to know other people in my class, however travelling home conflicted with the event times. I hope to join the society come and become more involved next September, I’ve grown close to a few people in the class however I feel as though the society would be a good opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and befriend others in the animation courses.

To conclude I hope to reach out more in terms of help with my work and attending classes. A lot of the time I couldn’t afford travelling up, so I’m going to ensure I have a stable plan in place to not miss out. I hope to branch out and get to know more people in class while also developing my skills as an animator through other programs, like unreal engine and maya. I better understand how to use these programs and hope to build a stable portfolio that reflects what I’m capable of. Despite my hardships during first year I know the areas in which I could improve and hope to better myself come next semester.