Motion graphics was an appropriate gap in my knowledge to explore for this project, and after the one just gone, i was looking forward to getting involved with it. Learning a software that catered for still image, video, and audio seemed very appealing, especially as i always seem to try my hand at one discipline to another. Maybe this would be a nice centre point for all of them? Either way i was pretty up for giving it a go.
I set out with very much a 'skills orientated' mindset, with the view of gaining as thorough an understanding of Adobe After Effects as possible within the alloted time period. Far from drifting from this mentality, (which i expected), it was one that i maintained throughout. I began by looking at software guides in books, which i quickly found extremely dull due to the monotonous/un-interactive learning format. I then got an A-Z pro series of After Effects tutorials from lynda.com which were a massive help, covering every area of the software in a way that was both educating and inspiring. My learning gradually became more focused towards the animation side of the software, and i started using other tutorial sites such as Creative Cow and Video Co-Pilo which catered for more specific techniques such as plug-ins and exploring 3D space. The college technicians were also a great help from this point - fine tuning specific areas and suggesting more efficient working methods, it was good to start building up a contact rapport for future projects.
Using Vimeo more often and obsessively contributed to a much more creative mind-set. It was a great way of finding outstanding work, gaining insight into production methods, and being able to communicate/network with professionals worldwide - not to mention the free uploads for my animations, which were a concise way of indicating the skills i'd developed at a given point in conjunction with my research blog.
Having an online blog to chart my development proved to be a very successful research method, especially for such a digitally driven project. The chronological layout makes it easy to track how i progressed, and it became habit to illustrate it regularly with stills, Vimeo links, other websites, or short descriptions of where i was. The final animation rounded things off nicely. I wanted to produce an ident or a mini-reel of end bumpers with the ITV2 YCN brief in mind, considering the brand identity and requirements but not being dictated by them, which i think i achieved with two different ident styles in one show-reel.
I want to continue its design beyond the deadline, to produce a more considered final ident that fits the criteria for submission into the YCN Awards next friday. That will give me more time to adhere specifically with the necessary design credentials ITV2 require for their target audience, and also improve my knowledge of the particle plug-ins i'm currently trying to learn. It would have been great to have got to that stage for the end of this project, but i'm still pretty happy with how far i've come along.
My rationale was to gain a sound understanding of After Effects, with the intention of filtering this knowledge into a small scale project which i said could include short idents, experimental film, or VJing. I seem to have stuck exclusively with this, at no point letting final outcomes or designs dictate the nature of learning the software. I tried to touch on as much as possible, and produced shorts on areas that were interesting along the way. Obviously it would have been a bonus to have finished with a concise ident that reflected the skills i have learned and also adhered to a specific criteria, but i've still got a chance to achieve that with the YCN brief next week.
The one thing that has struck me most when i reflect on the last 2 months or so is how enjoyable they've been. I provided more of a structured learning path for myself with this brief in comparison to others past, simply by writing daily/weekly tasks in a diary and sticking to them - something i was unsure of initially, but it was successful. There's also the realisation that i'm barely scratching the surface. There is so much more i want to explore from this point, particle plug-ins and using 3D space as i've said already, but i'm thinking long-term - there's definitely lots more ahead. I've found a learning environment that seems to work, and i'm starting to think on a much more professional level that is geared towards the circles i want to move in, and the work i want to produce.
