P6

3D Animation:
Unit 63 was one of the most interesting units. We were tasked with creating a 3D character on Maya. We had to create is, rig it, texture and animating the character making its way through a map that we also had to create. I have had previous experience with 3D modelling in a different unit where we focused on the environment design, so the more symmetrical and delicateness of creating a fully functioning character was much more difficult. 3D modelling isn't what I want to pursue as a career, but having background knowledge in it will definitely help me to get a job in the industry. 
I struggled a lot with the rigging and weight-painting of the character, but I really enjoyed creating the map that the character had to make its way through I found it a lot easier than the character creation and I found it much more interesting. 
Animating the character was quite easy for me, I looked up a picture of how someone runs and followed the basic movements off of that. I quite enjoyed the animating as it was quite a fun process and was interesting and challenging.
Creating the map was also useful for me as I can use it for concept art to help lessen the drawing time. Concept artists sometimes use 3D modelling to help them get an idea of the environment they need to create and I feel like I can adapt to that skill well.  


Games Art:
For unit 65 we were tasked in groups of four to come up with and create a game. I chose the role of the concept artist, as this is what I want a career in, and was tasked with the job of creating the initial sketches of the map layout and character designs. This role was quite challenging. It's a very time demanding job and you need to constantly converse with your team members about the layout and design or maps and characters. I have never created art for a game before so this was definitely a new experience for me. Although it was quite challenging I really enjoyed it and enjoyed working with my team members. This unit really helped with my communication and team working skills, and I really felt like this was a small insight to what working in a games production company would be like. My team definitely made the experience much more enjoyable and towards the end of the unit I felt strong in my creative abilities.


2D Animation:
For this unit we were tasked with creating a 15 second long animation using three different styles of animation. I chose to use Adobe Photoshop for the first part of my animation, I then used Adobe Animate and then used DragonFrame for a stop motion style for the last part of my animation. It was quite a difficult process, having to draw each frame individually was quite tough. I created my backgrounds separately so you would only have to draw them once. The animating part of the unit wasn't that difficult but getting it to a standard that I was happy with was definitely what got me behind on my work, but I am happy with how it came out in the end. I enjoyed animating, learning how characters move through drawings is really interesting to me. I enjoyed looking at how animators use their drawings to make it seem like something is moving really fast when it's not. This unit helped a lot to heighten my knowledge of Photoshop and helping me to draw faster. After this unit I was able to draw the same character in different poses and have them still look similar which is a really big help to my drawing skills.

Camera Work:
For a friends film studies coursework she asked if I could be her camera operator as her other cameraman was unable to make it to all the filming days. She asked me because I take photography and have a knowledge in camera angles and shot types and I am quite good at getting good focused images. I have always been extremely interested in filming and the role of a cameraman, to the point where I was considering it over conceptual art, so I was more than happy to agree and work on this short film. Me and the director of the film talked a lot about different camera angles for different shots, talking about how it would affect the film if we shot it one way rather than another. I also did a lot of work with the lighting, trying to make it look dark when it was supposed to be night or faking an artificial light from a computer screen. I enjoy the hands on work of a cameraman, the idea of working on sets and being able to control the shots that are used in films and tv shows is extremely interesting to me so I really enjoyed helping my friend with this project.