This module has been an interesting endeavor for me from
several aspects including time management, style development, and improvement
of practice. Although it was quite confusing as to how the module functioned,
after the initial weeks I managed to understand its requirements and set goal
so that I may respond in the most effective way. Furthermore, it thoroughly
provided me with a flexible choice of both medium of art and requirements that
best reflected my technique of practice. The most didactic part of this module
for me was the Collaborative Practice brief that indirectly stressed out the
importance of compromise and sacrifice of one’s own practice for the sake of
the final piece. Additionally, the brief purged me into escaping my idee fixe of
working within the parameters of my own study without expanding my horizons
through experimentation. What I’m mostly thankful for was the professional
demeanor of it that gave me insight into how working with collaborators would
be in the near future, making me engage and learn more about 3D through the
guise of envisioning the final outcome.
The module was coherently divided in three comprehensible parts, although I believe that the Project Report should have been made live much earlier as it did not provide us with enough information in relation to time remaining to resolve the entirety of the module. Furthermore, in terms of annotating our work, it was never clearly stated nor was it emphasized that we are required to present our works through individual text-including art boards hence much of my peers suffered a state of confusion and compulsion during the final days preceding the deadline. Considering the universal deadlines provided by both DNAD and YCN, I believe that the brief Collaborative Practice should have been administered an earlier beginning to provide us with more time to facilitate our works. Personally, I had a minor inconvenience with time management due to this since it was completely oblivious to the myriad of work we needed to produce for other modules at the time. Moreover, I believe that the module’s brief is not properly synchronized on both an interdisciplinary and structural level. In terms of interdisciplinary, the module in itself contains a predisposition that benefits Illustrators and Graphic Designers more than it does us animators from one simple viewpoint: their practice wholeheartedly emphasizes the expression through annotated art boards. However, in comparison to the latter level, this is minor. During the initial team-constructing session where everyone’s work was cascaded so that other respected creative practitioners may jot down the names of those whose work they admired there were several problems. We were told to leave out our names as the faculty had informed us that they would be projected during the screening. Unfortunately, they were not assembled on time by the course leaders and no amends were made to compensate for this nonprofessional conduct, leaving those that did follow the rules’ names to be omitted, diminishing the purpose of the event. Personally trying to amend this, during the presentation I vocalized a suggestion for people to shout out their names when their work appears, which was not supported or further encouraged by the tutors present; to amend for their mistakes they could have persuaded students to do this without feeling reluctant as they normally would.
On another side, the Project Report, Boards, and Developmental Blog overlap in some aspects, deterring us to engage wholeheartedly since every single one of us were repeating themselves during some part of our documentation – this needs to be reconstructed. I believe it is quite ironic and hypocritical to propagate professionality when there was a presentation that included two deadline dates for the Pitcha Pitcha slide hand-in on the actual presentation, for which I have physical evidence (I always take pictures of lectures), which naturally caused confusion in students which was voiced, only to be cast aside by one of the tutors as our fault. Finally, the module needs to set a bare minimum or a reference rubric for the Individual Practice in order to give students a rough conceptualization of the work they are supposed to do throughout the Brief in order to more effectively self-assign time management cues that will, at the end, benefit their practice more firmly. I witnessed several students being enshrined in perplexity over the quantitative weight of their individual practice which should also account for quality’s weigh on the scale.
Overall, the concept of this entire module is engaging, enticing, and stimulating for animators, graphic designers, and illustrators alike for I’ve witnessed many gaining pride about what they have created under said concept, however, it needs to be solidified and restructured in various aspects, ergo to be more professional and less chaotic in execution.
The module was coherently divided in three comprehensible parts, although I believe that the Project Report should have been made live much earlier as it did not provide us with enough information in relation to time remaining to resolve the entirety of the module. Furthermore, in terms of annotating our work, it was never clearly stated nor was it emphasized that we are required to present our works through individual text-including art boards hence much of my peers suffered a state of confusion and compulsion during the final days preceding the deadline. Considering the universal deadlines provided by both DNAD and YCN, I believe that the brief Collaborative Practice should have been administered an earlier beginning to provide us with more time to facilitate our works. Personally, I had a minor inconvenience with time management due to this since it was completely oblivious to the myriad of work we needed to produce for other modules at the time. Moreover, I believe that the module’s brief is not properly synchronized on both an interdisciplinary and structural level. In terms of interdisciplinary, the module in itself contains a predisposition that benefits Illustrators and Graphic Designers more than it does us animators from one simple viewpoint: their practice wholeheartedly emphasizes the expression through annotated art boards. However, in comparison to the latter level, this is minor. During the initial team-constructing session where everyone’s work was cascaded so that other respected creative practitioners may jot down the names of those whose work they admired there were several problems. We were told to leave out our names as the faculty had informed us that they would be projected during the screening. Unfortunately, they were not assembled on time by the course leaders and no amends were made to compensate for this nonprofessional conduct, leaving those that did follow the rules’ names to be omitted, diminishing the purpose of the event. Personally trying to amend this, during the presentation I vocalized a suggestion for people to shout out their names when their work appears, which was not supported or further encouraged by the tutors present; to amend for their mistakes they could have persuaded students to do this without feeling reluctant as they normally would.
On another side, the Project Report, Boards, and Developmental Blog overlap in some aspects, deterring us to engage wholeheartedly since every single one of us were repeating themselves during some part of our documentation – this needs to be reconstructed. I believe it is quite ironic and hypocritical to propagate professionality when there was a presentation that included two deadline dates for the Pitcha Pitcha slide hand-in on the actual presentation, for which I have physical evidence (I always take pictures of lectures), which naturally caused confusion in students which was voiced, only to be cast aside by one of the tutors as our fault. Finally, the module needs to set a bare minimum or a reference rubric for the Individual Practice in order to give students a rough conceptualization of the work they are supposed to do throughout the Brief in order to more effectively self-assign time management cues that will, at the end, benefit their practice more firmly. I witnessed several students being enshrined in perplexity over the quantitative weight of their individual practice which should also account for quality’s weigh on the scale.
Overall, the concept of this entire module is engaging, enticing, and stimulating for animators, graphic designers, and illustrators alike for I’ve witnessed many gaining pride about what they have created under said concept, however, it needs to be solidified and restructured in various aspects, ergo to be more professional and less chaotic in execution.
