#y2reflection

So, it’s all done now. And I managed to do it with a day to spare, which is a record! This might have been the first semester I’ve ever had where I’ve worked on everything across the board, and really looked at the bigger picture of things. I think that helped more than anything else. Doing sound design for the first time was also rather fun. I blasted it all in 2 and a half hours, and I’d definitely would have done more foley and looking for sound effects if I’d given myself another week or so, asking people what they needed then. My animation for the project itself is clearly lacking, and it definitely would have done better with more frames put in, but it’s been a balancing act between that and literally everything else about this project. I had to remind myself that the biggest focus of this was working in a group rather than your own individual entry. That’s definitely something to take into next year. My previous experience as an editor helped me with both sound, and when Kat needed help with something. I’d forgotten just how much of it was about what file type would produce the right results, based on what you needed. The industry report proposal was easy to write up, but I ended up finding myself frustrated that I would need to find a much older source from NUA’s library database just to source on Blockbuster’s financial model, which I’ve known since I was a small child (okay, a very small child. Okay, I mean when I was 5). It’s heartbreaking when you find that all the articles and such that you find will only report on the downfall of the giant that loomed over your early days. Overall, this week has been just absolutely crazy, but I managed to work everything in by really, really breaking it down and focusing on a specific thing for one or two days. By the end of Tuesday, it became just a bunch of small, easy-to-do things. I know the industry doesn’t work quite that nicely, but if I can do it like that as much as I can, then maybe I have a shot. Here’s hoping I graduate and make it into next year! And now, I will wait until tomorrow to turn everything in, and then go see Detective Pikachu. For research, of course.

We just got back. We just got back??? And there’s only one week left? And I still have to finish the industry report proposal, and a lot of the collab project still needs to be done, and oh boy, there’s quite a lot to do. Really, I have a lot to be doing, and I should probably stop typing this. See you next week. Will update then.

I’m not sure how much there is to report on this week. The Coraline project hasn’t really updated that much and we haven’t gotten much further. I’ve started working on cleaning up frames and really getting them to look more finished (compare this to last semester where I did this far too late into the game). I don’t have many frames right now, so it’s not a big undertaking. I just want this to get going, really. I also just started having some good ideas for the animated loops, so I’ve done storyboards for them and finally, two of them work. I still need a third. I’m pretty disappointed that I couldn’t think of good ideas until now, though. Also, maybe concept design isn’t my thing. If not, then I need to figure out what else to model my website after. I don’t really want to be drawing rocks and chairs my entire life.

It’s Easter week. Everyone seems to be more focused on that, so I haven’t heard anything from the group. I’ve been reading a book about concept art, and it seems like it’s something I might want to get into. But there’s a lot in it, and it covers all the questions I could want to ask. I’ll definitely be keeping a hold on it to refer back to. I’m also hearing from my fiance that he wants to start up a company, which is a very different path from what I’m studying right now. I kind of wish he said this was a more solid plan earlier on, so that I could tackle that. Maybe doing this streaming stuff might help. I certainly hope so.

We got a color palette for our collaborative project now, which means something will make it more cohesive! This also involved several people including myself, so I’m very happy about that. It’s a pretty far cry from what the original was, and I’m glad to see the kind of progress we just made with it. Maybe this will be the model we have for the project overall! If so, then we’ve got something really good on our hands. For personal branding, I’ve made some steps to tie my twitter and Instagram with my website. My plan here is that they’ll all work as individual pieces as part of a larger whole. The website will be the main hub for stuff while my Twitter will show my personal thoughts and experiences, while my Instagram showcases more of my artwork. Twitter should also showcase artwork, but I want more on Instagram. And then once I get the first chapter of Tokens done, then Line Webtoon will be the main hub for that while potential employers look at the more filmic aspects of Tokens and see what I’m seeing when I imagine it as a show. Anyway, the week’s been kinda slow. I’m getting pretty antsy about that, and Easter break is basically tomorrow.

For our collaborative project, we’ve decided on Coraline. Thus, I went to HMV and grabbed a triple box set of Laika DVDs so that I can watch Coraline again, because it’s been a while. Currently, things are going rather smoothly. We’ve already got a template out, people are talking left and right in the chat (which is really good because half of the collaborative projects I’m on, almost nobody talks and then people get confused on everything until a week before the deadline), and it looks like a color palette might be coming up soon. At this rate, the project is in the bag. For the report, I’m still finding articles left and right about Hollywood and media streaming, but still no dice on the older sources. Maybe I’ll have to restructure my paper. I also had completely forgotten about my website until this week. Oops. So lately, I’ve been researching on the places to build websites. I really don’t want to have to use Wix again because I don’t want someone looking at my website and going “Oh, this person doesn’t have enough experience” because they saw “.wix.com” in the url. So, Wordpress and Google Sites are what I’ve found so far. I hope to see if I can build a good site there. I’m thinking maybe I want to get into concept art, as that’s a pretty wide range of things, helps me build on skills I already have, and maybe I can hone something through that if I take it as a career.

So, I got a rejection email about bringing Tokens to ScreenSouth. Guess I’ll have to continue working on it, then. Good news means that April is still going as originally intended. I’ll probably feature some of it on my website though. I’m not entirely sure if I really want to do it though, because I don’t want to entirely spoil people who might want to go through the comic, but I also want to show that, hey, I’ve been working on this thing for quite some time now. The other thing is that Tokens has still evolved over time. For my industry report, I’ve really got to figure out where I’m going to find older sources on some things because this is about streaming. It’s kind of frustrating though, because it’s a very new thing, and almost all the information I need regarding it is on websites like Variety, who used to publish magazines. The nice thing about it though, is that because it’s so contemporary and ever-changing, I hear something new to put into it almost every day. Sometimes this happens by complete surprise. We also got briefed last week on a collaborative project. This makes me a tad nervous, but still excited. I tend to find myself doing better work in groups. We’re doing a collaborative essay, though right now we’re unsure of what we’ll be doing - Coraline or Adventure Time. We made a banner that included parts of both, but it looks very hodge-podge. We’ll definitely need to do something to keep our project cohesive. I’m a little apprehensive about it though,  because it sounds like it might be a whole lot of work to do. I’ve been selected as the sound designer, and I also took up the role of animation director on top of the animating I’ll be doing. I hope I can keep up.

I’ve attempted to bring Tokens to a project done by the BBC and Screen South. I should expect a word on that fairly soon. But as I said before, what if this doesn’t take off there? I’ll be looking very soon into the world of media streaming, and all the reasons why and why not to go into it, what to expect and such. Actually, I should probably put together a survey for my siblings and other kids to fill out. I really want to know where everyone’s getting their media from. I shouldn’t discount the possibility of Youtube, and the market it’s always held. I’m basically knee-deep in thought as of this moment, this week. I almost feel a kind of mental whiplash going between all this theoretical stuff, and then going into animation practice. Kind of wonder here if that’s something that couldn’t be helped. In any case, it’s all worlds I’m new to. All this stuff regarding streaming, it’s still a brave new world for that, and I think maybe I’m getting excited about getting my hands dirty for it? It certainly seems so.