Group Project People Collaboration Source: Depositphotos, 2024
The overall aim of this hands-on, studio-based module was to help students develop, evaluate, and refine animation designs by actually creating and testing them. Through teamwork, project planning, and problem-solving, we learned to develop effective and technically feasible designs suited to a specific target audience. Additionally, increasing our confidence and preparing us for the future in an industry role where we will face more advanced challenges, by working collaboratively within a team in a real-world setting, we gained a deeper understanding of the creative and technical requirements of animation design, and by discussing and defending our ideas, further developed our negotiation, reflective, and communication skills.
Three creative pathways were available, with each designed to simulate industry working and provide an understanding of a studio’s professional workflow, from concept development through to production, and final polish.
- Game Art and Animation,
- Narrative Virtual Reality,
- VFX and Animation for Advertising
In each case, working as a team, students would be required to deliver a coherent group project as close to professional standards as possible, based on a specific brief, and informed by a pre-production plan and art style guide developed within the first two weeks of the project. Introducing students to virtual production and other real-time pipelines, which are becoming increasingly prevalent in the modern industry, the project will be presented in Unreal Engine, which can handle both 2D and 3D elements capably.
Students on the Narrative Virtual Reality path would design a concept and deliver a 60-second VR experience without interactive elements, while those on the VFX and Animation for Advertising pathway would create a 60-second advertisement for a real-world product, such as shampoo.
In a multi-disciplinary approach, Animation students like me who chose the Game Art and Animation pathway would work alongside students from the University’s Games Design course to develop the art direction, art assets, and animation for a computer game, while the Games Design students focused on the narrative and level design, and game mechanics.
Choosing the Game Development pathway was an easy decision for me. While I was also interested in Visual Effects, my experience building multilevel 2D platformers made me eager to strengthen my existing knowledge and understanding of game development and interactive design, and I could always pick up new VFX techniques through online tutorials. This pathway also felt like the most practical route to prepare me to step into roles within the local animation industry, and the opportunity to improve my communication and teamwork skills, both in person and online, by collaborating and exchanging ideas with a mix of Animation and Games Design students from different creative and technical backgrounds, would also be hugely beneficial.
Despite the tight twelve-week deadline and it being more time-consuming to create an immersive 3D game to a professional standard than its 2D counterpart, ever up for a challenge, I chose to be involved in a purely 3D project, and having become part of ‘Group I,’ I couldn’t wait to get started and up my game!
References:
Depositphotos. (2024). Group Project People Collaboration. [online]. [Accessed: 16 July 2025].
Image available at: https://depositphotos.com/photo/group-project-people-collaboration-46023117.html