Collaboration reflective statement

Collaboration has been a massively positive experience for me. I discovered a lot about myself, working as a studio, the software and the production pipeline.

A big difference for me, with this project, was learning how to deal with something that really held me back last year. This was my mind block. When I get stressed or frustrated I tend to get more and more clumsy in my work. Last year this really caused me issues, throughout this project, I have discovered how to combat this through meditation and mindfulness colouring.

I also got a lot better at organising my work to make it clear, open and easy to use. I was careful to give all groups and elements names and use naming conventions. This was specifically important as we would be sharing scene files and models.

I have also learnt just how important Dope sheets and reference footage are. These make the difference between a snippy, entertaining, well timed animation, and a mediocre one. Reference footage ensures smooth, lifelike and entertaining animation. I’m excited for more of Dan’s lessons to help with this. The other big thing for me, that came out of this project, was the value of timing, editing and spacing to aid storytelling. This is something I still need to work on more. 

I also learnt a lot more about how I work through different stages of pipeline. I figured out that I don’t work the best in a linear workflow, but rather in a more collective mode. I also learnt that once I have got pat the creation process and get green lit for production. I work in a much better and more efficient way, and am able to work a lot quicker.

I also discovered how valuable working from uni in terms of getting help with any problems and also bouncing ideas off of colleagues, which will be come particularly useful for premise. This means next year I will be in uni as much as possible. I also learnt a lot more about digging and skinning, in terms of how easily they can break, and how important it is to have everything built first. 

Overall I enjoyed working in a group. I learnt a lot about myself and how to effectively communicate with colleagues and other creatives.