Making Of Integrated Practice -

Weeks 3 - 4

In response to our previous task, mine and James' collaboration was well received by peers, and it was great seeing it on the big screen at a showing in Manchester, as well as seeing how others have interpreted this mini-brief. Me and James also managed to make some art boards displaying the 'making of' our short animation.

Art Boards

Within these two weeks, I thought that as this entire module is leading up towards a final making of video, it would be beneficial if I were to research some pre-existing making of videos, to see what works well with them, and whether or not there are any aspects that don't hold my interest and how I could change that within my own making of. I selected three making of videos centred around three different properties that I enjoy, as I would be the intended audience to these videos, and I have also analysed a past making of video of my own, to see how I could improve my skills from then.

This is the making of 'Shaun of the Dead', one of my favourite films of all time. This was made by BBC, and primarily features the director, Edgar Wright.

What works well

- The director talks about where his inspirations came from, thus giving a huge insight on how his ideas developed.

- Instead of talking generally about the project, Edgar Wright focuses on a select amount of scenes in depth, explaining what he likes about them and decisions that went into creating them. This is effective because in enables a large amount of analysis without the video going on for too long and becoming boring.

What doesn't work well

- Only gives insight into one person's reflection on the project, therefore despite being one of the most important names to the project, gives little indication to how people worked as a team and how other crew members felt about certain decisions made.

This is the making of episode 2, series 3 from 'Skins', the E4 TV programme, a show which I greatly enjoy.

What works well

- Shows the entertaining personality of one of the main cast members, who talks about his interpretation of the character that he portrays.

- Shows footage of the cast bonding and having fun on set, therefore keeps the video entertaining by not showing bland shots of people working.

What doesn't work well

- Only focuses on the actors, therefore not covering any other elements of the process that went into creating 'Skins', which is good for the people watching who just enjoy the show, but not people who inspire to create content of their own.

This is the making of video for the PS3 video game 'The Last of Us', a game which I played a lot at its time of release.

What works well

- Includes a wide variety of insight from nearly every department that helped work on this ambitious project, therefore whether people are inspiring animators, game developers, actors, directors or more, this video should interest them.

- Talks in depth about the elements of the game that caused it to rise to the popularity that it did at the time, the character performances and story development.

What doesn't work well

- Although managing to hold my interest, I'm sure that the video could have been condensed down into a more casually viewable video.

This is the making of video that I personally made myself, for a previous years project, 'That Mitchell and Webb Cartoon', as part of a brief.

What worked well

- I keep the viewers engaged by showing short, relevant clips from my inspirations.

- I cover all bases in the process in only 5 minutes by only including relevant information that I felt furthered the knowledge of my process.

What I will change for this module

- I didn't record the animation process whilst it was in the process of animating, therefore I had to make up the footage using screenshots from the editing software's used after completion.

During these weeks, I was also tasked to go onto creativeskillset.org and research into a specific job within the animation industry that I think would be most suitable for me. It wasn't hard to find what the job was, as I already had a firm idea of what area I wanted to go into, and that was 2D computer animation. The reason as to why I really want to get into this, is I feel that it offers the most freedom in terms of style and design, therefore allowing me to express myself with the tools that I've got. Due to the fact that most of my illustrations have been produced digitally (despite often originating from sketches), I have grown a large knowledge and understanding of digital drawing software, the most of which, can be translated into 2D animation software.

Even though visiting this site didn't sway my opinion at all into what profession I want to aim towards, it was still worthwhile as this site granted me insight into what skills I would need in order to get a job in this field. Below I have displayed a screenshot of what creativeskillset.org says I need to become a 2D computer animator, and I have highlighted each point in a different colour depending on whether or not I meet the requirements. 

Green - I feel I have this quality

Orange - I feel I need to work more on this quality

Red - I am inexperienced/unfamiliar with this

I need to work on the red sections to improve my employability, these consist of:

• Acting skills - I will help this by continuing to record my own reference material for animation, which is a practice that I have been performing in other modules.
• Working with software's such as Illustrator and After Effects - I have access to these programs, but due to my familiarity with Sony Vegas and Serif Draw Plus, I much prefer to use them, however I do understand the importance of learning these softwares so I will overtime.
• Working to a schedule - I get stressed easily for schedules are often a big concern for me, however I have recently found myself getting better with them since my first year of uni.