Week 1: Introduction to Module

Lecture

In the lecture we discussed the end of year Degree Show. This is set to take place at the ACCA on the 30-31st May. This would also include a high quality publication featuring everyone's work. Another possibility would be to publish everyone's work on a website. I like the idea of having a degree show, to celebrate the end of our degree and all our hard work. I think it would also be a great opportunity to see everyone's work.
Our submission is on the 11th May so this would give us a couple weeks to prepare for the degree show, which I would be fine with. However the preliminary deadline for the book would be the 16th March, which may add to the stress of completing coursework. Knowing this information from now is useful so that I can prepare and manage my time accordingly. I will conduct some research into how I should present my work for the book. This should include film stills and a short paragraph.


Workshop

As this was only the first week, we used this session to discuss our current thoughts and feelings towards the module and this upcoming term.
Last term my biggest challenge was coming up with an idea. I feel as though I was rushed into coming up with my concept, and am still not 100% confident in what I've chosen. Due to creating my concept so late in the term, I then didn't give myself enough time to put together the other submission components such as the practical experiments. Although I haven't received feedback yet, I think my poor time management may be reflected in my grade. This may not necessarily hinder my progress this term, as I will push myself to create a strong piece of work. If anything it has inspired me to work harder.
On the plus side, I think last term I was successful at working on my process book. I conducted lots of research into my genre, using a range of animations and films as inspiration. I think that this helped me to gain a new perspective, and adapt my work from last year. For example I've changed my aesthetic from using thick weighted lines to flat design. I believe that this has helped me form my ideas overall, especially in terms of design, which will be useful for my progress this term. I'll still continue to be engaged with existing media, which might mean I slightly change my work if I'm influenced my something new.

Practical

In this session, my classmate Kat identified a problem that she was having with Adobe Illustrator, which I was having too. This was the inability to place pictures onto the layer. Paul suggested to change the scratch disk to Macintosh HD.
Also, my classmate Gaby suggested using the website www.kylebrush.com to download new brushes for Photoshop. This could be useful when creating the backgrounds for animation, as I would like to add more details in them.