Studio Brief 3 - Reflection

This brief initially terrified me. I’ve never used After Effects and the idea of having to create an animation never seemed appealing to me because of the complexity of other animations I have seen in the past. I think that using the work from the previous brief in the sting took a lot of pressure off and I began to enjoy making the work as the brief progressed.

I finished Studio Brief 2 with a strong body of work in good time, meaning I could entirely focus on Studio Brief 3 which gave me time to experiment with different animations that I had planned using storyboards.

The most finalised animation that I created includes a number of different techniques that I wanted to experiment with and to show off my abilities as a creative, especially in an area that I am unfamiliar with.

To produce the animation, I used a screen print from Studio Brief 2 which I believe is one of the strongest designs, in both colour and texture. This design seemed most appropriate because I could make light out of a sinister quote from George Orwell’s 1984 “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” I was proud of the final outcome as I used a range of new learnt skills, until I realised that I’d done it in the wrong preset which couldn’t be solved (even by IT) unless the image was stretched out. To resolve this problem, I quickly created a new sting in the correct preset to prove that I am able to make work in that layout.

Storyboards are not a strong point for me. When visiting lecturer David Bunting came in to run a storyboarding workshop he advised me on how I should make a storyboard not seem too animated and just include vital areas of motion. As well as giving me ideas on how the animation should look. Although, I think he forgot that we are not advanced in moving image and some of his ideas seemed too complex so I had to tone them down slightly when I started making the final animation.

Overall, the brief has taught me new skills in After Effects which I didn’t know how to use beforehand, as well as making me a lot more open to creating animations in the future which I wouldn’t have considered before this brief.