End of Year 2 Crit reflection

Phew.

Well, I think I expected it to go a lot worse in all honestly. I am glad that there seems to be a light at the end of the 'tunnel' I'm in.

I am most pleased that I was able to demonstrate skill in draughtsmanship as well as my technical skills in maya. I think conceptually is where my work was weakest and I can only attribute that to being torn between a few directions within the course of this project. In some ways, I wish I had stayed true to my original idea of formulating a toy campaign around a character because I was at least certain to some extent with that idea. Nonetheless, I am proud of the character I have created, and I'm really looking forward to finishing the model, including texturing and sorting out the issues I experienced with the foot controls later on in the process. There were moments during the modeling, rigging and skinning process that bore a lot of tedium and late nights, but seeing Olga come to life in front of my eyes was worth all the toil.

Adaptation B has been challenging for me, definitely in terms of putting my drawing skills into the light, and although I attested that I'm not scared of drawing, I think that simply because I am much more comfortable with other things, writing for instance, I tell myself that I will prioritize those things first. I recognize that this is a mistake. I find it almost paradoxical to be able to say "I am pleased with the amount of effort I put in to my model" because the timing was all wrong, and ideally, I should have been near completion a few weeks back. So I feel ambivalent towards today, and ambivalent towards this year in general. Though I have seen my skills increase, as well as my grades, so...in general...ambivalent.

I definitely take the comments from Phil and Alan seriously, frustratingly these are issues I see happening as they occur and yet I continue to let things like this happen, i.e. only getting my backside in gear towards the tail end of a project.

I also realise that it's a self fulfilling prophecy in not posting my work because I fear being ignored, in fact, writing that down here makes it seem all that much trite. My baggage is tripping me up on the way to the airport.

So, moving forward I'll be further pushing into the areas I feel that my skills are particularly lacking in, and trying to work on my enthusiasm, which, I must admit, after the interim crit and to an extent, the first term, has been on the wane. I am conscious of it, I am working on it. And I will continue to work on it.

Narrative - Reflective Statement

Looking back on the last three months it seems apropos to acknowledge the difficulty presented in navigating the pitfalls of group work. Focusing on the positives is the theme here though, and I'm glad to say I feel as if my confidence in myself has been bolstered. I feel as if I have improved on my somewhat 'stop/start' approach to work. But on the whole the pacing, and my pace within the project never faltered. I feel that my own performance in the group marked an improvement on disciplines I had begun to cultivate in the first year, and afforded me a certain sense of progression in terms of my maya skills. I am particularly proud of my rigging and skinning work in this project, since it was the first time I really started to problem solve, with the various and at the time disparate skills learned from the tutorials and from speaking with Alan.

It's been a fruitful experience and further hit home the difficulty of transporting concept art into assets within Maya, developed my skills in writing and visual storytelling - as initially I strived to be almost too literal in the direction I was going - so I'm happy to have produced something with an air of subtlety about it. And essentially, 'making it work' and seeing it come together in the final few weeks has been gratifying, and made the effort expended entirely worth it.

I've always been the sort that has focused on what I can learn from any situation, good or bad, how I can broaden my own skillset from it etc. And I can definitively say that the challenges and successes of this term have given me a lot to reflect upon going forwards.

I'm disappointed that the film remains unfinished as of yet, but I'm confident that the process of getting it to its current state has been a valuable enough experience.

Onwards, right?