Level 5 Reflection - [University Second Year Overview]

My second year of university has been very interesting. And by interesting, I mean a bit depressing. The UK was forced to go into lockdown during my first year of the course, and were in another by the time my second year came around. Working from home has not been easy and the inability to see my tutors in-person and be able to spend one-on-one time with them has definitely detrimented my working ability and focus this year—I'm using pretty poor with my time management and procrastination, but being forced to work from home for the whole year took a real toll, worse than usual, on my productivity. Despite this, I was still able to complete all of my project this year, albeit some a bit unfinished and others submitted late.

The projects I had this year were:

1. Personal/Professional Development (PPD) (focused on professional this year)

2. Digital Storytelling

3. Experimental Animation

4. Visual Effects

5. Research and Development 2

You can find module overviews for each of these on my blog already so I won't go into much detail about what was involved in them.

I think my favourite project this year would probably have to be... digital storytelling. I never think about creating work specifically targeted towards children, so having to be wary about the way my work looks and how it comes across to a younger audience was unexpectedly challenging. It was also a great project because we were able to work with Seven Stories, a local centre for books in Newcastle. Although I didn't finish my animation to be displayed for Seven Stories (this exhibition didn't go ahead anyway due to Covid-19 restrictions still in place), I was still happy with the direction it took. It makes me eager to continue working on it and get myself around to animating the idea to completion in my free time.

All projects this year have been beneficial to my practice, going forward, through the content or the techniques explored. For example:

PPD:

• Allowed me to work on creating a brand for myself and start thinking about setting myself up for employment by means of business cards and showreels.

Digital Storytelling:

• Learning what it is like to work on a live brief for a client.

• Having to tailor work to a specific target audience.

• Working through all stages of production independently.

• Allowed me to see the kind of animation I'd like to focus on creating (frame-by-frame).

Experimental Animation:

• Learning new ways to animate.

• Learning how to work together with other animators.

Visual Effects:

• Gaining a better understanding of camera shots and why they are important.

• Rotoscoping in After Effects.

• Tracking footage in After Effects.

Research and Development 2:

• Insight into stop-motion productions.

• Learning new techniques about creating stop-motions.

• Developing academic writing skills.

Going into level 6, my final year of university, here are some things I need to be doing to improve my skills and help give myself opportunities for exployment:

• Improve time management skills—this will harm me for 'real' client work if I am unable to finish projects on time.

• Start focusing on the area of animation I'm most interested in (frame-by-frame) and spend time practising and learning more about this medium.

• Spend more time creating smaller personal works to buff my showreel and improve my animation skills, generally.

• Don't be afraid to reach out to possible clients for work opportunities.

All in all, my final grades this year were a little disappointing. My procrastination was at an all time high and it was difficult to concentrate on work with the world in such a depressing state, though I suspect many people also felt the same way. Hopefully level 6 will bring new vigour and excitement to the projects and, with it, fewer lockdowns (hopefully fewer Covid cases, too). I look forward to my final year of university and am interested to see the kind of work I can/will be producing.