Responsive Collab - Wrap & Submit

As far as the 'practical' side of the project was concerned, it was all wrapped up. While i was making the last few alterations with the final audio versions, Tilly & Chay were pulling all the development work and animation stills together to create our Collaborative presentation boards for the Mega-crit on Thursday, as well as making the 30 sec process video that was also required with our submissions. 

I wasn't available for much of the hand-in day, as i was attending a meeting about a Public Art Project - so i'd made sure i'd completed everything i'd needed to, without leaving the group in the lurch. I saw them briefly during the day and they reported that happily everything had gone through without a hitch, and that is was all DONE. Big relief,great work by all!

For Mega-crit presentation purposes only, i put all 3 animations together in one long sequence with some brief titles to go with it -  even knocked up a super-quick,mock JICT production company logo for ourselves to go on the showreel & presentation boards, for that extra touch of professionalism. Plus, it gave me a chance to practice a bit more with animating icons in After Effects. As simple as it was, the logo basically represents the 3 illustrators, who were mostly drawing in boxes on paper,(the squares are paper or boxes) with our animator, also working inside a frame, but adding movement to it - hence the curved edges. A load of guff right, but like i said, it was a 5 min job, and a bit of fun!

JICT final animation showreel.

I feel the collaborative project ,as a whole, has gone pretty smoothly and to my mind without any real hiccups. I've been fortunate enough to have landed myself with a good team, who were easy to get hold of, made themselves available for group meetings, and knew how to put in a shift, even if  the brief or production process wasn't everyone's cup of tea. The project turned out to be largely digitally based - wether it was colouring in photoshop, drawing in illustrator or animating in after effects, so i can understand if it was a bit out of peoples comfort zone, or field of interest. As far as generating ideas, being in a group set-up was hugely beneficial, with the possibility to bounce them off of each other, and develop them into something i probably wouldn't have come up with whilst working individually. I'm not sure I've learn that much from the whole process i wouldn't say, without wanting to sound too negative. If i'd had group full of scum bags who weren't pulling their weight,then i might've picked up a few lessons in patience and diplomacy.Skills-wise, i was able to brush up on the initial After Effects skills i'd learnt during OUIL504, but as the clips we were animating were so short, it was hard to really explore much new ground. Storyboarding is one thing that i could say has been improved upon, having not done a whole lot of it in the past. It's useful in getting down exactly what you plan do do on screen before you actually start making your artwork on screen - and also good for explaining to other group members what you're trying to achieve.