Final Project Evaluation

Animation Skills has been an enjoyable learning experience for me which I feel has definitely broadened my understanding of the processes and fundamental principles of animation as well as how to go about applying them to my own work. Time in this module has given me the opportunity to explore more in-depth the tools used for animation, allowing me to refine my already existing set of skills and apply them to an animation context. Working on the blog, researching Animation from across a range of different mediums, has also given me a broader insight into the industry itself and knowledge of where my own interests lie in regards to animation, which is important to know before I decide what to specialise in. 

I feel my strengths over the course of this module have been in regards to the practical work. While I may not be great at managing my time to ensure I have enough time to produce high quality work, as a whole I am satisfied with most of the actual work I produced, particularly my finished animation. I also feel I have a fairly strong idea where I want to expand my skill set as well as the processes and techniques I hope to refine over the course of the next span of briefs. This module has given me a direction for me to work towards.

For the most part, the work I produced reflects my very best effort, however with this being my first module of the course I feel that I still have a lot of room for improvement, particularly in the areas of time management and experimentation with different forms of media. I've never excelled in managing my time and generating ideas within a manageable time frame, which I feel had a partial effect on my final animation of Studio Brief 4. I struggled a lot in the pre-production phase coming up with an initial idea to use as the basis of my animation and ended up scrapping one of the frames which I storyboarded in the interest of time. In order to amend this in any future projects I will allocate a certain amount of time for each stage of the production process and set mini-deadlines to ensure the final product properly reflects the quality of the pre-production material. 

Another goal I have set myself for the next project is to experiment more with different styles, techniques and materials. A lot of the work I produced over the course of this project was developed digitally, based off scanned sketches and the workflow remained within my already existing set of skills. While i did experiment with different processes for the studio exercises, when it came to the more open ended studio briefs in which we were given a choice I often played it safe, working within the styles and techniques I was comfortable using already. 

In conclusion, I am satisfied with how my first module of the course went. I acknowledge I could have managed my time a bit better, but on the whole I feel it has given me a clear idea of where my strengths lie, where I have room to improve and what my hopes are for the rest of the year. I very much look forward to working on my next brief.