Self Evaluation of the year

LAST YEAR EVALUATION;

Mistakes I have made this year;

I feel I focus on aesthetic far too much. I want things to look pretty, and for the other side I feel that restricted me , I focussed too much on everything being too neat and nice, that I felt the movements were neglected when that’s what animation is mainly about.

Im also a massive perfectionist. So much time has been wasted from me refining and perfecting my work, I know perfectionist can be a good quality too, but I feel it always limits me, it also limits my experimentation because I want everything to look perfect all the time.

With the Other Side project, I felt I focused far too much on capturing a realistic movement that my animation almost started to seem quite robotic and unnatural, it went the other side of the spectrum of what I wanted. To work on this, I need to stray away from the perfection side and be more exaggerated with the way I approach animating to bring my drawings to life, rather than just alive.

I also feel I didn’t approach things as confidently as I could have, with the expectation to make mistakes, to learn and encourage experimentation.

What I identify as my strengths now at the end of the year;

I am very observational, I am good at focussing on the little details, finding little errors within my frames and being able to correct them to get the movement fluid and realistic.

With this comes my strength in patience. Animation is a long process, it takes a lot of time. So having patience is crucial, for being dedicated to tasks and having that persistence when things aren’t looking the way you want them to look.

I feel I am also good at making myself work.

I feel another strength is the fact that I ENJOY animating. Theres nothing worse than forcing yourself to work at something that you don’t like, which is probably why I am able make myself to work so well.

The whole labourous process of animating I really enjoy, its like a dream job.

Weaknesses;

I have difficulty balancing work and play.

Outside of college I have a part-time job and when im not working on that job I’m doing uni work, I hardily give myself any time to play. Ive not played any video games since I started the year which is a very sad fact, having being on them non-stop all last summer. I recognise it’s a weakness for myself but I am  a self confessed work a holic, when im not working, I'm thinking about working so it makes me happier just working.

I am very unconfident in my work and I often like my work at the start then at the end after seeing everyone elses, I then begin to realise how bad it is and end up hating all that I have done.

I did this for The Other Side, after seeing so many flaws I hated it so badly, luckily this was after I had animated it so none of this negativity showed in the production.

Obsessing over little things comes directly from me being a perfectionist. If something isnt right, however little it is, It will annoy the hell out of me till its finished. I know this can be a good quality too in areas but, I consider it a weakness how I spend so much time correcting things other people would believe are pointless and time-wasting. With animation you have to have that element of perfection but being far too over the spectrum would mean you would have issues producing things on time.

These weaknesses are hard to address, they will take a lot of time, its about building my confidence in my ability which is a long process.

THIS YEAR EVALUATION AND HOW ITS CHANGED;

This year I have really gone out my way to excel my own personal professional practise. Last year I found when I was evaluating myself that I didn't experiment or go out my comfort zone much , this is a complete contrast to this year where I have tried all sorts of different mediums of animation from CG to stop motion to even VR.

From this wide expansion of experimentation I have finally been able to find my specialisation within the animation industry , and that's the ambition to become an immersive storyteller utilising VR , CG characters and a strong narrative.

Character development and animation is crucial to storytelling and to complement a good narrative, so as part of developing my own professional practise I have taken it upon me to become more efficient at character animation. I have done this through 11 second clubs as part of responsive where I picked up skills of lip sync too , previously untouched. And also a competition I entered as part of PPP with Craig about the secret life of humans a parody of secret life of pets for the animation career review competition. My loopdeloop as part of responsive also possessed some technical character animation , all these contests put together have made me a much more competent character animator.


As part of PPP I have attended loads of events to develop my understanding of being a practitioner in the world of animation. These include MAF, Manimation and even volunteering at leeds young film festival in the VR Zone and Animation Central. At LYFF I got the chance to network with professionals and even looks like il be back next year on the board for helping out with VR stuff. I will also be attending a digital futures VR conference in Scarborough where I will have the chance to demo my VR project in front of professionals , an amazing opportunity with people like Tom Box from Blue zoo there.

My confidence has taken a great leap from last year, just from talking to professionals for my creative report. This confidence has aided me in these events, to talk to such people and even, fingers crossed, get me some runner work at superla.tv a 360 company in Leeds.

Over summer I plan to elaborate on my personal professional practise even more. Entering an LD Jam contest , attending meetups and festivals , trying to network as much as possible. I even plan to learn some coding and make a VR mini game. I'm looking forward to getting my hands stuck in and coming back to level 6 ready to start my immersive storytelling journey.

My prime strengths this year have been my experimentation I feel, along with my organisation. Juggling loads of modules I remained organised and was able to submit 4 fully fledged animations for my responsive, around 1 and a half minutes of footage.

My weaknesses this year maybe have been the fact I have focussed far to heavily on the character animation instead of rendering, but then that goes against what I said last year about how I focussed on aesthetic too much and wanted to change that, and so I have and I have achieved that too. But i feel learning some rendering skills will come in really handy and I do want to make my stuff look more professional by utilising lighting techniques.

CG Showreel

I decided to create a CG showreel in order to apply for some internships;

I decided on a pure CG one as I have done so much CG work this year and I found it hard deciding on my best pieces.

I plan on also making a showreel to expose how I am a 'jack of all trades' when it comes to animation. Although I have focussed on CG and VR, I can also do 2D and Stop-Motion.

Making this showreel made me realise how much I have done and come this year and how much character animation I have focussed on. I am actually really happy with the work I have achieved this year in comparison to last year.

Branding my collaboration for Exploring Digital Futures.

Since I will be attending the exploring digital futures VR festival where I will be demoing my VR project to professionals and the public, I took it upon myself to create some quick business cards for my collaboration with a computer scientist from Leeds University.

We decided on the name Mikro VR after Michael (his name) and Rosie (me) and think it complements the techy theme of VR because of the relation to 'micro' like 'microchip'.

The logo is very very simple and plain but I don't have time to design anything fancy;

I feel it gets across our collaboration context very well though with the VR glasses.

Now time to hand them out !

GIANT.

Giant VR follows the dangerous narrative of parents and a child trapped in an active war-zone. They face hardships, struggling to distract their young daughter by inventing a fantastical tale. Inspired by real events, this immersive virtual-reality experience transports the viewer into the family's makeshift basement shelter. The parents' fairytale intensifies as bomb-blasts draw closer and closer...

This animation to me drew many similarities to That Dragon, Cancer. Both involving children and that feat of the parents trying to initiate that childish bubble around them so they are unawares of the seriousness that underlies. The soft blanket over the eyes as such.

The director of this VR short is Milicia Zec, whom was raised in war torn serbia. Meaning that many of her real life experiences have probably been implanted into the young girl... Having this first hand experience of war brings another level of writing and essence into the animation as it means it will have that underlying realism captured from someone whos witnessed what this is like. Her work is commonly deeply rooted with issues of conflict, identity and human struggle, exposing how much this probably damaged her childhood...

Through VR she wants to take you there and be with these people and experience this with them, trigger those emotions she felt. 

The live action incorporation is different seen through VR as its usually animated. This realism intensifies the escapism and relatability you feel towards the 'characters' and actors, as they are real people at the end of the day.

The Rose and I

This short little animated VR experience is a reflection how how VR can intensify character development.

There isn't much of a narrative in this animation, but still through the VR your interested and caught, not bored. You want to sit and watch the sunset with them, you feel part of the life of this little plant boy. 

His character animation is beautiful, he is brought to life so fluidly and realistically. With the immersion through the VR you feel like you instantly know him and relate to him through his character animation. Thus exposing how character animation can initiate that realatability and realism within characters, something I want to explore and play with.

That Dragon, Cancer

This VR experience really got me.

Never has a VR experience quite drove me to tears unlike this one.

Heres a play through video which shows the non VR gameplay, and how it really affected the user;

You can imagine how these emotions Jack feels are multiplied in VR because of the immersive presence your presented with, it puts you there, witnessing the experience first hand.

Any animation covering cancer, the dreaded C word, you know is going to be brutal. But I haven't ever seen one as hard hitting as this.

Joel Green was diagnosed with cancer at aged 1. Through the VR you are put in the doctors room as he gets his diagnosis. This part was so poignant for me, so metaphorical and meaningful. The water level rising reflects how the parents are overwhelmed in sadness and depression, that famous saying of your head being under water, suffocation, drowning. Meanwhile in the room Joel plays on a toy which you interact with to see peoples different perspectives and thoughts in the room. This toy is a reflection of his immaturity and naivety to the situation, he is too young to understand whats going on so he sits on his toy without a care in the world, his childish laughing breaking the seriousness.

This childish immaturity and his parents trying to make the seriousness of the situation not detected by him at all is presented throughout. From the hospital bed that he drives as a kart, to when he takes his first round of therapy. Even in the title, cancer is referred to as a 'dragon', like cancer is a mythical fierce beast that has taken him away, yet again reflecting the childish naivety.

So many metaphors are reflected throughout. The black tree contrasting with his colourful backgrounds representative of the constant reminder of the tumour, when everything looks okay your brought back down to realisation. Its sharp and jagged style makes it look horrifying and sinister, which of course it is. Colour is also used as an emotional metaphor throughout, dark times have dark hues and happy times have childish hues.

The low-poly fragmented nature of the characters is unique and also reflected of how their family has become fragmented as a result of the cancer. Facial features aren't always needed to get across that sincere emotion, it would merely distract.

The one scene that was unbearable for me to watch was when Joel was being crying and being sick because of the chemo. You never saw any of this but the audio of Joel was enough. It also got me thinking, where did they record this audio from?? Joel himself most likely which made it instantly tragic that a little boy endured all that.

At the end your presented with a spiritual paradise, a bookend from the start as your back in the forest, the place where Joel must have been most at peace. Seeing him laugh and have fun, which he hardily got to do in his short and tragic life. Is so sad.

What got me most about this experience was how it is real. There is no ahh its just a game! Or ahh its just an animation! This is hardcore real life and happens to so many children across the world.

VR and dementia

VR is becoming an application for many things and now even aiding with dementia. Dementia is such a cruel disease, taking away precious memories and parts of their lives. 

Through VR these people are taken to the seaside. The seaside of the english coast being a go to for many of these people in their younger days due to how expensive it used to be to get abroad. This meant that even though the VR may not have awoken taken memories, it initiated extreme nostalgia for these people, which was truly magnificent to watch.

These people are the opposite of tech savvy, which meant even being put in the VR environment however realistic it didn't look, was visually overwhelming for them and felt so real having never witnessed anything else.

VR also helps with brain stimulation, which is established to slow down the effects of dementia. When stuck in a home all day, not being mobile much its hard to find things to stimulate their minds with simple activities such as reading and singing. But VR accomplishes this without the need to get up and get active, which is truly magnificent.

This video is beautiful to see and makes you feel quite sad seeing their reactions. They truly truly enjoyed it, which says everything about its effect.

Notes on Blindness VR

Notes on Blindness is a feature length film which has now been given an accompanying VR experience.

The narrative follows the story of a man named John Hull, whom after losing sight knew that if he did not try to understand blindness it would destroy him. So In 1983 he began keeping an audio diary.

Over three years John recorded over sixteen hours of material, a unique testimony of loss, rebirth and renewal, excavating the interior world of blindness.

Published in 1990, the diaries were described by author and neurologist Oliver Sacks as, ‘A masterpiece… The most precise, deep and beautiful account of blindness I have ever read.’

Following on from the Emmy Award-winning short film of the same name, Notes on Blindness is an ambitious and groundbreaking work, both affecting and innovative – and one of the most essential British documentaries of the year.

Since premiering at Sundance in January 2016 (alongside our virtual reality project) the film has played at over 40 international festivals. It won the Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards and was nominated for 3 BAFTAS (including Best Documentary and Outstanding British Film).

Through VR,  these underlying themes are explored dramatically.

The film takes on a unique visual aesthetic. Figures are fragmented and landscapes created by a series of tiny dots symbolic of brail. These hard to establish visuals are there purposely to effectively transcend you through the eyes of John himself, in not his visual world but his world of audio and touch. Figures that he hears are fragmented and environments that he touches are dotted like brail.

The background is just black as these aspects of the world are beyond these 2 senses. Its also symbolic of the emotional darkness in his life as a result of becoming blind.

This VR establishes the user with a body, who we assume is Johns himself, which increases the immersion you feel.

Its truly beautiful and shows how VR is effective at making you feel and witness aspects of other peoples experiences first handedly.