#project evaluation

My final project of the module, ended up being a mixed media, 3D and cel animation. This was in part due to time constraints, and partly due to the limitations of the model I chose to use for it.

Using both helped me to show my full range and ability in animation, but came at the cost of differing quality, depending on the segment. It was split into 6 segments.

I found it hard to use squash and stretch as the limitations of my model made it so that deformations happened in the wrong places when it was animated. While in the 2D sections, the parts I chose to animate in that style didn’t call for squash and stretch to be used. The effect of timing varies. In some places it is used effectively, such as the blood flowing from the tree, and in others it is weak, namely in all movement where the knife is involved, where it is too slow. The jump between the last two segments is also rushed, leaving no time to process how the characters hand went from one position to another. I found it difficult to apply most principles such as these in the larger context of a full animation, especially in the 3D sections. Overlapping action is attempted but stiff and anticipation isn’t used. I believe I used staging to good effect though, even if the 3D segments are all filmed facing the same direction.

A major downfall is my inability to effectively use Maya to animate, as I find it hard to manoeuvre in and even harder to effectively animate complicated models in. This is a major reason why I chose to use 2D as well, since my model had no facial animations, I thought it easier to try and use the 2D elements to help get across the emotions of the animation.

My chosen emotion was anger, and my chosen action was hiding something. While I believe the former is able to be grasped, there are a lot of emotions expressed by the character, including horror and sadness as well. This is my fault for using one of my premade characters, as I find it difficult to limit them to one emotion, especially given the freedom of 2D animation. The latter was harder to convey, due to cutting multiple segments thanks to time constraints. The character was supposed to bury the knife at the end, but animating digging would have taken much longer.

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At the start of this block I learnt where photography originated from which was by a Scottish scientist named Sir David Brewster in 1850.

My original ideas of photography being an art changed when I learnt how much science goes into just taking a photograph, especially when photography was just getting started.

At the start we experimented with pinhole cameras and how light refraction worked. We even made our own Camera Obscura in class as well as some work with depth of field, shutter speed and focal lengths.

When doing the work I would take as many photos as necessary and if they weren’t good enough I’d go back out and reshoot again until I was satisfied with how well they’d fit the exercise brief.

My camera techniques have improved a lot. I don’t just ‘point and shoot’ anymore, I put more thought and effort into what I am hoping to achieve.

At the time I wasn’t quite sure with that I was looking to shoot although I understood the briefs, I now have more of a creative process when it comes to the briefs and can finish them quicker once I have an idea of what I want out of my projects.

The habits of mind that I exercised the most during this was (4) Thinking flexibly, (7) Questioning and problem prosing and (11) Creating, imagining and innovating. The most challenging thing is changing the old habits I had from doing photography in high school as with courses have very different ways of teaching.

I have presented my idea in an online submission to Moodle using my Tumblr links where I have my work posted. I was hoping to have my final outcomes be briefs I have answered online in a clear way that show my understanding of what I’ve learnt so far.

I believe my understanding of this block has come through, whilst I may have struggled a bit at the start I confidently understand camera controls, the origins of photography and how to do more than ‘point and shoot’.

If I had more time, I think I would've liked to learn more about how people from around the world reacted to the start of photography and the purely practical use not creative idea behind it.

The artists/photographers I have researched during this project are Annie Leibovitz who I discovered by researching an image of Meryl Streep to recreate in class for portraits. I have learnt from her that she likes to create odd yet intimate photographs. Another artist I discovered was Jean-Baptiste Greuze whose painting the ‘Le petit mathematician’ I was emulating in studio. I also learnt he takes very natural still life portraits yet always shows a story with them. Another artist I found was Helen Davison Bradley, she was the modern painter I emulated in studio with her painting “Something Missing”.

As I developed my work, I found that I would have good ideas on how to successfully emulate a photograph but would always be unhappy with the results. I eventually learnt that every artist has their own view, that even if you’re recreating a photograph, your own ideas will come though and you’ll see a difference in the photographs no matter how accurate they look to each other.

I have experimented with the lenses that if I can’t get an angle right maybe I just need to zoom in a bit rather than move higher or lower. Another experiment was with lighting, it wasn’t for one of my images but I helped a classmate by instead of using a studio light we used a long exposure and a small light source and moved it around the subject to get an interesting lighting.

Some things I have done to refine my work is take multiple angles and move my subject(s) about even if it looks weird as a lot of photography is based on perspective and even just a small change can greatly effect your photograph.

My investigation changed in that rather than just finding a photograph or painting, I would look for when it was made/finished, the title, and if there was a reason why the work was made. I find this gives me a better insight as to what I’m researching or trying to emulate.

The Habits of Mind I have been exercising are (2) Managing Impulsivity, (8) Applying past knowledge to new situations and (15) Thinking interdependently.  I have found that the most challenging thing about being a photographer is trying to be positive as I find it very hard to create anything whether it be online research or studio work if I’m not in the right mindset. I’ve tried to change this by talking to peers and hearing their ideas as it can occasionally inspire me just enough to find motivation for my own work.

My final outcome for the personal project was to have a piece of work that looked good together as a whole, although I’m not pleased with how they look as a set I’m pleased with the quality I was able to get from this. I presented them on Tumblr, my social medias, as well as online submissions.

I think I had the time to do more exploration with the theme but at the time I wasn’t quite sure what I was meant to be looking for or achieving, I am happy with what I’ve created in that time though and for the next block I’ll be more confident in what I’m doing.

If I had more time I would’ve liked to do some experimenting with gels.

What is personal with my work is the how I view it, when it’s my own work it’s all my ideas but even when emulating I always find a way to make the photograph have a bit of myself in it.

   Project Title   Due to the fact that my screen- based project explore my contemplation of anxiety during and through my morning shower, and due to the fact that that morning shower, meant as anxious circumstance, reflects on my everyday life, I thought to give as title of my project 365 (representing the days in a year, as it is easy to guess); however, after showing my completed project to other people, looking for feedback, everyone would say in response  that it almost seems like I was representing my actual everyday life and I wouldn’t like that as the video shows everything but my routine, in fact, it shows my state of mind; the anxiety, or better how I deal with it in different ways. So, I decided to change the title in Morning Shower; or rather the way I would collocate my anxiety as a step that I take and almost I need to take every day, before starting my day; almost like I had a sort of addiction to it. 

Subject The subject of my project, is not only characterised by the anxiety itself, seen as an object of exploration; it also connects to the matter of how it makes me feel and how I deal with it.   Visual Research Point of inspiration of this project have been multiple: the first one that characterised my choice of style has been A Requiem for a Dream: the movie directed by Darren Aronofsky; precisely the scene where the viewer contemplates the way the characters make use of drugs; it is a scene made out of jump cuts, and I really liked the way Aronofsky depicts those moments, so I tried to make use of jump cuts in my video as well. The other inspirational point has been Psycho, the horror movie directed by the great Alfred Hitchcock which I already knew from a long time, but only watched after the suggestion of my Tutor, who gave me after watching the shower scene from the draft of my project, and made me realise the big similarity of content towards the topic of anxiety. And finally, the third inspirational Artist has been Lydia Lunch, the American singer, poet, writer and actress, who have a very strong style on everything she does, very angry and aggressive, which make me fully feel what she feels and what she wants to say through her works. Aims, Objectives, Concept Everything started when I realised I wasn’t doing great this year, due to the unhealthy way I was managing my anxiety; during this year I would suffer from insomnia every single night, I would wake up very late in the morning and I would hurriedly start my day skipping breakfast and sometimes even lunch, I would suffer of stomach ache and I would eventually have problems of digestion; I would say, almost twice a month I would have attacks of anxiety in which my heart would beats very fast and my mind would go in deep and sad thoughts. I realise very soon that this situation would have been a setback for keeping good grades in my academic year, so I started to make researches about it and I tried a few methods that would help me during those days and I figured that I wanted to explore these feelings. As matter of fact, I discovered since the beginning of my academic career, that what I like the most about photography and visual art in general is the exploration of things that I don’t know very well, especially those things related to myself, exploring those feelings make me understand myself better; so, I decided to relate my project on my state of mind. Hence the idea of the project called Morning Shower which aims to therapeutically explore in deep the sense of distress and anxiety.