First day of third year - eek!

I attended my first classes of the year today - my last year, cry! Everything is still moving slowly at the moment while timetables get sorted out and we get given some information, but at least I do now know a bit more clearly what I'm doing.

Our group project is limited to one minute, which means we as a team need to edit our idea as it was heading towards two minutes. While this is a little inconvenient as it means changing things, I am happy that we're being forced to keep it shorter as it means we know how much work we're taking on and it's less likely to become overwhelming - animation is time consuming!

The individual project is pretty much as open as I thought it would be, so my current idea should be alright. The only thing I need to start thinking about differently is how I'm going to structure the project as a whole, with an assessed proposal and a report that must detail the main parts of the process: deciding what is required (what I want to show at the end of the year), creating a way of fulfilling this (planning), following it through (animating, yay!), and evaluating. I also learned that my individual project must be submitted by the 21st March 2014, before my Easter break - seven or eight weeks earlier than the group project. I'd better stay focussed!

"The Life of a Student Animator" is still in the script stage; my first meeting with my supervisor is on Friday, so I'm going to work on my proposal until then rather than putting lots of effort into storyboarding something that she might not even be on board with! I'm excited for Friday to finally see whether or not my project is on the right lines.

Caitlin :)

Third year team - Inky Squid!

My 'I'm back' was a bit optimistic for such a busy summer! I did take on a large creative project, though it was very different to animation... If you fancy a gander, I made a blog about it here.

I have been thinking about my individual project and I think I've settled on an idea that will be diverse and fun to make, based on or titled "A Day in the Life of an Animator". Animating someone animating sounds like a healthy challenge! I want to incorporate those moments of the animator impersonating the character they are animating and of them posing in the mirror; it should be an accurately strange representation of computer animators!

The other half of third year is the group project. I've mentioned this briefly before without going into detail about my team as we didn't have anything going online yet. Our blog is now up and running, so head to www.inkysquiduk.blogspot.co.uk to see a spot of pre-production. The story we've decided on, which will be created in full 3D over the next nine or ten months, is one that shows how vivid kids' imaginations are. Two brothers are playing in a garden and a fight for some cookies begins, switching between real life and multiple different imaginary scenes. We're all excited for it -- though it's going to take a lot of work -- and having a very balanced team is something we all appreciate.

Caitlin :)