Reflections - End of Year 2 & FdA Course

This year has been pretty mad.

It seemed to flash by in a seconds, scary really. A year at college is really only 8 months, with at least 6 weeks vacation time.

I entered the second year wishing to explore 'motion graphics', and found this to be true; there's far more to it than it seems

Design
Copywriting
Conceptualising
Directing
Typography
Drawing
Film Language
Animation
3D space
Research
Sound Design
Study of form etc

It's been really difficult, and I have been getting quite annoyed that I don't have so much to show for my troubles. My portfolio seems to be full of holes at the moment, and I know I have worked hard.

I have been keeping my timesheet, and have eliminated (or greatly reduced) time-wasting factors. I know what causes periods of procrastination. These are usually due to getting puzzled, stuck or by indecision. I realise that by complex nature of what I am doing is problematic. I have worked on so many parts of my projects, all of which are necessary before the final production can happen.

I set up my own place to work, which is great in many ways, but is isolated. I have realised that in Year 3, wherever I study I will need more guidance. The motion graphics work, due to it's multiple factors (listed above) throws up endless puzzles. Manoeuvring through these is possible, but slow work.

I am quite happy about my progress through basic 2d static images. I feel that these are pretty good. Here is my latest one, which I did under time-pressures for King Unique (n.b. - click on image for full-size view):











I realise that there are always ways to get better, but i do feel satisfied that I can look back at banners i produced over the past 12 months, and see a definite improvement. It's more the motion work which is hard. I have spent such a huge amount of time getting what I have done so far (learning the techniques, theory and software) and would be happier if there were more to show. I will be continuing this work through the summer and wnat to get all 3 projects completed.

I have broken my year 2 work into 3 Main chunks and I will write my reflections on each in the next post.