Minor: Reflective Statement

Reflective Statement

The Minor Project has been a very enjoyable and challenging project for me to work on. From the beginning I knew roughly what style I wanted to use, being the 1930’s style, and I enjoyed developing the story for the two characters, when I first tried to find the right stories for the characters I had hit a bit of a block with the ideas as to where it should be set and scenarios in which the characters would be in, I then settled on the idea of the Catcher hunting for the Fairy in an outside setting rather than in a cottage. Once I started to turn the scenarios I had into animatics I experimented with the movement of the characters and began to establish the character’s personalities through the animatics and storyboards.  I was extremely happy with the feedback of the animatics at the Interim Crit, and feel although not all the animatics were successful, I was very pleased at the reactions to the Door and Tree animatics and consider them a success.

As well as experimenting with the animatics, I too enjoyed in developing the character designs for the Fairy and the Catcher, I produced more development work for the Fairy than the Catcher as early in the project I had an image of roughly how the Catcher would look. During the development of the Fairy I was concerned that I would make a typical ‘lady in a dress’ rather than the more impish and mischievous character I came to for the final design. As well as developing the characters in terms of fitting the character’s personalities, I was worried that I would not be able to replicate the style of 1930’s animation. Again I was extremely happy with the feedback I received for my characters and consider them successful in being influenced by a 30's style as well as showing their personalities.

I did enjoy bringing the character designs into 3D in Maya, spending significantly more time on the Fairy's model as I was unsure of how I would model her hair. During the modelling I ran into problems which I did not expect when designing the character such as the eye and the hair, which I should have considered during the design of the characters. I am quite pleased with the current outcome of the models, especially that of the Fairy.

However, for the Minor Submission I did set out my goals to hand-in two fully modelled and rigged characters but I was unable to. During this project I found that I have lacked in management of the project. I was working frequently and somewhat quickly on the project before the holidays, however I didn't consider or allow time to both model and rig the characters and for the submission was only able to produce two character models with simply bones put in place to pose the characters.

Overall I found most of my project to be successful, and that my strengths were prominent in the developing and designing stage of the project, in which I worked quicker and close to the influence style. I did find that my time management skills were lacking for the project during and after the holidays. However overall I did enjoy this project and look forward into turning this into a full animated short.

Adaptation B: Reflective Statement

After receiving today's feedback I relatively happy with what I presented, but disappointed with myself due to my lack of posting which I could have done and would have given some idea into what I was working on and to receive feedback. One major flaw of mine which has prevented me from fixing and improving certain parts of my characters was that I worked from home on this project and therefore were barring myself from getting any feedback or help, and combined with my lack of posting stopped me from receiving helpful feedback and technical help. This I intend to stop completely as soon as possible by posting frequently, with perhaps a weekly update at the very least to encourage me to start posting again, and coming into the university as much as possible.


Being too ambitious with the project again affected the quality of my characters and final piece, for if I had not attempted to make an animation for my final submission I would have been able to spend more time with the mariner and the albatross, and develop them to a higher standard for a turnaround. I will need to work faster in the future, plan ahead with a reasonable and realistic outcome.


One aspect of my project I am quite happy with is the albatross. I spent a majority of my time on this model, the texturing to make it look like it was part of an illustrative universe, and the rigging and animation to make it move and fly how an albatross would.


Overall I am quite proud of the piece which I have submitted but in the aspects where I have let myself down during this project I intend to post as much as possible in the future so that I can receive feedback and help over the next year.