OUAN503:End of Module Evaluation

I think this is a module with a large flexibility as the set briefs are not specified, therefore it gives freedom to us especially helped to shape our individual directions, to give us a chance to practice skills that we have passion in and would probably do in the future. I enjoyed the module a lot as we can choose our own set of briefs and respond to it, and on the other hand, in the collaborative brief part, I am able to practice my skill of communication, collaboration, and organisation.

The set of briefs I chose are mostly character design challenges as I responded to 3 character-design challenge among all briefs that I have responded, which is also what I am most interested in doing. The submission of the first one I did back in February was late, where I did not take a screenshot as well, therefore I did not miss any of the other deadlines to prevent late submissions happening. The other three briefs are all animation briefs, with the 11 seconds club challenge being the main project for the studio brief 1. I did three of them in three different styles and methods, traditional animation papers, digital compositing and assets in After effects, in order to test that which one works for me the best, and to gain experiences for all of the skills. In conclusion, I think I have made the right choices of briefs to respond to, I had chances to practice different skills both digitally and with traditional methods. What I could have improved is to respond to more briefs that covers more skill range, and to manage time more efficiently to prevent the situation of not submitting stuff on time. I wrote short evaluations for each of the animation or character design I did, and I found that it is a great way of keeping up to date, to give the project a proper finish and to look back seeing the improvement that could be applied to it.

The second part of this module, is the first time that I work with other individuals of other courses beside the collaborative team in the other animation brief. At the first we were asked to present our skill set with four images composited together on a sheet of A3 art board, and to choose a brief on either D&AD or YCN. I was firstly considering between quite a lot of briefs as I can find my individual roles to contribute in all of them. But eventually decided on two briefs to present on the interests’ sheet. Both briefs require animation skill, which is the role that I can possibly take. Finally, I decided to respond to the brief set by Hasbro, to create a new board game facing teenagers aged 16-26. The biggest problem that we all faced was the communication between us as we are from different courses, and we did not arranged enough seminars to discuss the progress of each of us, therefore it lagged the speed of me to complete the final presentation video. Another improvement is that I could have do more research of the background of the game company to produce minor details to the game itself to embrace the culture of the game industry. Eventually we gave it a nice finish and submitted the video along the design boards in time, overall I am pleased with the final outcome, it demonstrates the role and the concept of the appearance of the card game, which on the other hand, I like the idea as it is an engaging game, and a resolution to the life spam of card games, with constantly produced booster packs.

To conclude the process of this module, I have responded to several briefs both individually and collaboratively, I kept my blogs up to date to record the process I went through and gave myself evaluations for the purpose of reducing problems and pushing the quality of works higher for future references. There is still a huge space for me to improve myself, such as on self-management on all sorts of aspects, and the importance of communication especially being an individual with vital roles working in a creative group, that if the team members can work efficiently with the right directions after an agreement approved by all of us. But in general, the module has given me a very helpful guidance to my self-interests and clarification of the roles that I could be taking in a team.