Professional Practise 2: Study Task 1

Professional Practise 2

Study Task 1 - Networking

1. aNEmates - Show and Tell
• On Thursday 6th February from 6.30pm-11pm
• A free networking event for animators, illustrators, games artists and other creatives, located in Newcastle upon Tyne
• aNEmates have regular networking events and it would be useful to meet with other creatives, specifically in video games animation.
2. Motion North
• On Thursday 16th April from 6.30pm
• A networking event based in Manchester, for animators, motion designers, film-makers and VFX artists.
• I would be attending to meet other animators and mainly to improve confidence in talking to other people and confidence in myself. I haven't been able to find any specific people attending, yet, but I would look this up beforehand. 
3. Manimation
• The Childrens Media Conference runs an event called Manimation which is in the run-up to Manchester Animation Festival. The dates for 2020 have not yet been confirmed.
• If I were to attend, it would be as a run-up to Manchester Animation Festival and to meet with professionals working in children's animation.
4. Manchester Animation Festival
• Unfortunately there are no dates set yet for Manchester Animation Festival 2020, however it would be an opportunity to talk with professionals and view other studios animations. 
• This event is not free, so tickets would have to be bought and transport and accommodation would need to be figured out also.
5. GAMAYO
• Game Makers Yorkshire (GAMAYO) is a regular event for those who make videogames in Yorkshire and the North of England. The event is held twice a year in Leeds.
• As it is the largest game-developer meet-up in the North of England, it would be useful to try attend to connect with developers and producers. 
• I would be able to offer animation and art skills to help in the creation of videogames.
6. Leeds Young Professionals Network
• Leeds YPN is a regular networking event for young people, from any occupation, which could help with collaborations and meeting new people who are in a similar situation as I am. This is additionally a free and local event, which I would need to apply to attend, however I would be able to make connections with other courses and possibly more people interested in videogames, media and film.

My LinkedIn Profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisha-little-3a89bb199/

Professional Practise 2: Employability Fortnight

Professional Practise 2

Employability Fortnight

• During employability fortnight, I made a series of notes on each of the lectures. I found the presentation and networking sessions the most useful, as I struggle the most with networking and talking with people (especially about myself). I can continue to improve on this by talking more freely and confidently about my artwork and engage in conversations with professionals, like during the ones who visited during the fortnight.
• These are all of the notes I made to help me forward in my professional career.

Character and Narrative: Final Animation

Character and Narrative

Final Animation

• This week:
• We finalised the animation, adding the final textures and credits!
• Final Evaluation of the Animation:
• What Went Well:
• The backgrounds and character is relatively consistent, despite the issues with sticking with the style, at first! I think that the team worked well together in sticking with the schedule and all giving input into the final animation.
• The aesthetic and style of the overall animation reflects what we wanted to go for with it, that being aimed at children ages 7-12 years and the art style reflects this. Another addition of the style was to make it look almost like a storybook, with the sketchy line-work and bright, painted backgrounds.
• What Could Be Improved:
• There is a few inconsistencies with the smoothness of the animation and quality, which could've been improved by having more work on inbetweening the initial inbetweens. I think that the inbetweening and animation roles could have been divided and shared better to overcome this issue.
• There are some inconsistencies with designs, also, which can be improved with further practise in adapting to others' styles and practising drawing the character more, with the model sheet.
• Next project:
• I would like to focus on my 2D Animation work, keyframing and inbetweening and also provide more concept work!

Here is a link to the final animation on Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1eMCXj7q4PPerzWzsR8VC3ZErgZLvqXjD

Character and Narrative: Camera Edits

Character and Narrative

Camera Edits

• This week:
• I edited the camera movement of the final edit of Coconut Conundrum!
• What Went Well:
• After Afnan had finished the soundtrack edit, I offered to do the camera work using a software I hadn't tried as much before, called Sony Vegas Pro. I had used Premiere previously, however I wanted to also try using this software also, to try learn more ways of editing and expand my knowledge of a wider range of software. I found Adobe Premiere a lot easier to edit in, so this was a challenge, however I was able to create smooth camera-work, with easing.
• What Could Be Improved:
• One thing I struggled with was trying to make the camera movement almost feel invisible. Sometimes the movement was a little too harsh, so I had to keep adjusting it.
• Another thing I would keep in mind for next time, is that despite we drew and rendered the animation in a 2560x1440 ratio so that the quality wouldn't be reduced as much when editing and rendering to a 1920x1080 aspect ratio, the quality could still be better.
• When I work on the next project, I'll keep this in mind and understand better ways of keeping compression low.
• This week:
• I will be finalising the art-book and preparing for submission!
• The camera-edited version will be passed onto Mark and Afnan, who will be finalising the end credits and adding textures.

Here is the camera-edit version:

Character and Narrative: Study Task 5

Character and Narrative

Study Task 5 - Evaluation

• Now that the final animation is almost complete, I was able to produce a final evaluation of the entire module. I found this both difficult and easy to produce, as I knew where my strengths were and I fully understood areas of improvement from this module. Something I struggle with is deciding what I would like to focus on for the next modules, in the animation work-flow. I am still not completely sure whether to focus on pre-production work, or to improve my 2D animation skills, or even focus on background art. This is something I need to decide and explore in the next module.
• Here is the final evaluation: