Crit week 1st-3rd years

And how did crit week come round so quick again? ahh well it always happens! anyway here is a summary of what my 1st-3rd years have been up to, how they have been progressing and advice help I could give to them.

Madison

For Madison's professional practice there was a significant and it was evident in her work that her team have been working well together as they found a problem with the way that the art was being made and how it fitted in with the build. Since then Madison has refine and iterated her title designs so aesthetically they are a lot better. For her communications and interaction her interactive piece is coming well together. I suggested that she could an extra element to her interactivity by integrating sound into her project so that it could be used by more people and it would probably get her some extra brownie points. For innovation and specialization this is the module that she really has to work on. She is looking into how lighting effects environments and i suggested, if she is stuck in a bit of a rut, just go out and take pictures, play around with different lighting in her room, use all sorts of stuff, but just do something as usually just getting stuck in and doing something generates ideas better than sitting stuck.

Lewis

For lewis's personal project he is the graphic and U.I designer. The group had a bit of problem with their clients as they didnt like they way they were creating the game. It is upsetting when that happens, but they are focusing on a new direction that the client are happy with and I hope they get back on track, but in regards to lewis's contribution he is doing well and producing lots of ideas. For innovation and specialization, like i mentioned in pitch he was very much inspired with what I was doing last year and he too is looking into the relationship between audio and visuals. He showed some of his videos that he has been working on and I asked him, what are you wanting to do, are you wanting to visualize the music or just have visuals that aesthetically go well with the audio. I think he needs to figure that out and he will have a better idea with what he is doing as he was pretty stuck with his idea.

Dale

For communications and interaction, Dale is using youtube as his platform for his interactive story. Its quite a clever idea and he is not confident in flash and programming which is understandable as not many vis coms are and I think that effects our grades sometimes as we cant do what we actually want to. Anyways I asked hims how he is going to use youtube to play out his story and he will use different videos to link the story together with embedding them into each other. For innovation and specialization he is carrying on with his logos. He is progressing well with lots of research to underpin his work. For professional project, Dale is the graphic designer. He has currently been focusing on the start screens and buttons which he showed us and they have already been integrated into the game. They are looking very good and work well with the art from the other artists so they are obviously working closely so that the over all art is the same style.

Sophie

For trans media- This is the module that she didnt have the brief for on pitch and has just got a week ago, so she hasnt really had time to get into it yet. She was thinking about doing some sort of real life interaction like projections in someones house of their memories. I suggested that she go look at some bear 71 which is an interactive documentary about bears and their habitat. For entertainment design, she is still having some problems getting in contact which is worrying but as long as she had done a decent amount of work, her grade shouldnt be effected. She has created a start screen and animation which is looking really good. For information design, sophie has stuck with her coffee idea and she has produced a really nice set of information based posters that looked really good!

1st- 3rd year pitch week

Had a few people missing today but Belinda took note of them. Over all everyone seemed to working on their projects well and getting into the swing of work after the Christmas holidays. Here is what they have been up to.

Jay- first year

For Visual Literacy Jay was well on his way in the research and development stage. I gave him some pointers on how he could further develop his ideas just to help visualize his thought process better and let the Lecture who is marking a better idea of his thought process.I also reminded him that if he needs help with modeling there is an after hours maya class. For Dynamic Communications, Jay mentioned that it was to be an interactive flash piece and that he was struggling with coding in flash. I suggested that he could speak to his lecture about an alternative animation to show how his interactive piece would look and he would be able to animation things that he could program in flash, giving him more of an imaginative outcome that being confined by what he could code. I did also say that learning flash is a good thing to at least attempt and that there are flash classes on at night so he could go get help.

Sophie- Second year

For Entertainment design sophie is that splash art , fonts, tittle screen, hud and a little concept development  artist for her group. She didnt have much to show as she explained that she had to wait for the other artists to finish so that the art style was the same. She also mentioned that they have yet to meet up yet. I suggested that if they cant find a suitable time, speak to her lecturer and voice her concerns as if she leaves it too late her work might suffer I also mentioned that she would have to be careful that she doesnt leave herself enough  time to do all her work if she waits for the other artist have finished theirs, which is why weekly meetings would help to keep the art style on track. For information design she has got her idea down to four possible themes, coffee, the underground and I cant remember the other two but I said that one of my friend used the london underground as a project and she should go look at her blog to look at how my friend displayed the information and to also look at the research. I also gave Sophie some links to research that I thought was appropriate to her coffee idea.

Lewis- Third year

I had a lot to talk to Lewis about. He was really inspired by my forth year project and he is doing something similar in his 3rd year. I gave him a link to my blog for him to go and have a look at the things I have been looking at and to help his research and development process and he said he was struggling to find resources for his project. I too really struggled at the beginning so I gave his some useful links and names to go away and research.

Madison- Third year

For her communications and interaction she was wanting to do a kind of Indiana Jones style map interactive piece, I suggested to her that the little princess also has a map style part in it and she should have a wider look into that moving map style. Her group seems to be working well together and their game idea is great and holds great potential. For Innovation and specialization she is looking into how lighting effects environments in games. One the the computer arts guy was doing something similar to that so I gave his name and told her she should go talk to him and look at what he was researching to see if that can help her own progression.

Dale- Third year

For Dale's communications and interaction he was going use a video and upload it to youtube and add on tags, because he hasnt used flash before. I suggested that he could use something similar in flash with buttons and you can find some really easy tutorials telling you how to use buttons. For innovation dev, he is looking into Colour association in logos and brands, so i suggested too that he looks into fonts as well. For his group game he is the graphic designers. He seems to be getting on well and he likes his group and the group staying friendly is probably thee most important thing in that module.

Crit week- 1st-3rd

Overall I was very impressed with the progression that my group has made. There has been significant progression and development in each of their work and I wish them the best of luck for the deadlines. Here is a break down of my group:

Whayne- He has made great improvement, especially with his 3d modelling class. He basically has it all modeled and ready to go. I said that he might need to work on the texturing a bit better as the face that he has put onto the space man's face was quite squint and distorted but thats just nit picking really. I was a little bit concerned with his Screenwriting for digital media as I felt the story lack in any sort of catalyst, good use of characters and a proper structure. But he has a good basis of an idea he just needs to work on it a little bit more. Typography is very easy as because of David Lyons teaching techniques they will most likely have all the typography coursework finished before teaching weeks are over.

Lewis-  Lewis has improved so much. I was so so impressed how well he has worked on his after effects skills. He had only a few media tests done in after effects but they were really great. I have high hopes for him and I'm sure he will get really good grades for his video based coursework. He has followed a lot of online tutorials which has enabled him to do some really cool stuff. But i was a bit concerned that although he is doing well, they are just going to look exactly like an example of the tutorials so hopefully he can put his own style into them. His team project is going well, they all seem to be getting along which is the most important thing of that module really. I was a little bit concerned that he doesn't seem to have that much to do as he is the "graphic designer" or something like that and there is already a character artist and an environment artist so he is a little bit stuck at what to do apart from the name/logo etc just now. But thats for them to sort it out really and for him to stand his ground to get more work or his grade might suffer for it.

Sophie- She has made good progress since week four, in particular her 3d illustration. In week four she had no idea what to do and now she knows what she wants to do and is well on her way to a good coursework submission. Typography, like Whayne is going very good thanks to David Lyons teaching techniques so I have no doubt that she will struggle as if she needed help, David asks everyone how they are doing each week and can ask him. 

All in all I was very impressed with the amount of progress and I wish them luck for the every luring deadlines!

Pitch Presentation- 1st-3rd years

Well I took a little group of 1st-3rd years to talk over their modules with them. They still really need to get into the swing of things, but seem to be going in the right direction

Lewis Taylor:

Although he had been ill he had made a good start to his modules. He is particularly interested in mountain biking so hopefully because it is something he is passionate about he will be more motivated. He already had some interesting idea to do with his personal project module with is great seeing as his group hasn't even met up yet so I think he will have a good impute with his ideas that he has already been thinking about. Lewis has two modules that involve film, he is wanting use mountain biking as a theme for both but was not sure if this was allowed. I gave some ideas that maybe instead of the physical mountain biking itself maybe experiment with making a film that explore the emotions, feelings, environment that enhances the mountain biking experience.

Sophie McMorrin:

For her 3D illustration module, she was struggling to come up with a book for her project. Like her at in 2nd year I was not a keen reader so I suggested on trying to focus on the fact that she is going to have to read, I suggested that she could maybe think about books that she was made to read in high school. For typography, she was unsure about her interactive piece as coding is not her forte, I suggested that she just worked with buttons as they are effective, add the interactive element but does not demand code. All in all Sophie has made a good start, she has to have more confidence in her ideas and just run with them.

Wayne Allen:

For entertainment design, Wayne had some good ideas for his game but there was very little research to show where he got his ideas from, current games that has inspired him, art styles etc. For his 3D illustration, Wayne wants to do an alien scene, I think it should turn out well as long as he doesn't do a direct copy and put his artist impute it should be great.


Billie Thompson:

Billie had very little to say or show, I am not sure if this was because it was her first time pitching or that she hasn't done that much. Because she was still quite unsure I couldn't give much creative input to help her. She had about 3 pages of sketches for the whole 4 modules which isnt a very good start. She really needs to lock down her ideas and get a move on with it or she will struggle to get good outcomes as she will be rushed



All in all, they have made a good start to this year, the one thing I would say is the lack of research. It is so important to have researched what you want to do, look at things to inspire yourself and fill your sketchbooks. It looks good if you have a good researched idea with lots of concept development because if you have that to back you up and your final product doesn't turn out the way you want it, you at least have illustrations and ideas of how it could have looked.