Good thing about my group:

Bad things:

Our feedback was mainly positive since we managed to have most of our outcomes matching the visual identity, the song and video being a bit creepy, and the album cover mixing this horror movie thing with a bit of humor. The only negative review we received was about the instrument, because we did them before becoming a team so they seemed disconnected from the visual identity, and from each other also. For my next projects I’ll make sure to always come back to inicial outcomes and be willing to change them to match the rest of the work, if I think is necessary according to the instructions given.

I think most of the Assessment Criteria can be evidenced on this project, since I researched about instrument making and visual representations of sound, and then in works that were related to the visual identity of my group, as far as possible considering the events that happened in my personal life during this project. I also took responsibility for tasks that ended up forcing me to learn new skills that will help me on my pathway decision. 

As for my action plan, it took me too long to organize it since I’m not sure about my costume and performance yet. And also I’ll need help to record both my scenography and performance, but for that I’ll depend on my colleagues so I couldn’t plan too much ahead without talking to them to see what’s gonna be best to all of us, like when to book the photo studio and this kinds of thing. Next time I have to organize my action plan, I’ll try to skip the spaces I’m having trouble with (obviously leaving an extra time if needed, since problems can happen) and try to fill as most as the planning as possible, coming back later to adjust the activities left on the blank spaces.

As for the syncing aspect of the video, it was the hardest part, because I had to make the background footage go faster and repeat so I could give this breathing idea, but also had to make it interact with the performance, since the background was supposed to look like it was crushing me. I ended up having to make part of the performance slower, so the performer would go down at the same time as the plastic bag. After trying a lot I found a midterm where the gif wouldn’t be too short and the performance wouldn’t appear to be artificially slow, and it seemed the better of all the ways I tried. Finally I thought about how to frame the gif, because both elements (scenography and performance) give an idea of movement, but still the final piece was too static. I experimented three ideas: one with the camera following the movement of the scenography, one where it only closes when the background it’s going to crush the performer and the one I chose, where the camera is closing during the hole gif. I chose it because it was the one were you could see everything more calmly, since it’s the one in which the camera closes slower.

“You showed a very remarkable ability to record and display your creative process in a manner that makes the core message and steps very easy to understand. I see also a lot of experiementation that makes the final outcome feel like a byproduct of a throughout research instead of a sequence of decisions made on a whim. The final product displays concerns for composition, color palette, video quality, shading and lighting. Though I did notice a lack of archiving the filming and editing process in a detailed manner, so listing possible effects and editing techiniques and the likes.”

On today’s class I presented my work on the Crit and, in my opinion, Otávio’s feedback was positive, but also constructive. It was the first project I really felt connect with my sketchbook, and tried to register my thoughts and process as much as possible. I agree with him about the editing part not being detailed on the sketchbook, probably because I’m not used to make things on the computer for more professional proposes, so I have some ideais of what I’ll try with the software and keep deciding things during the editing process. But that’s something I’ll try to work on, since I realize that both physical and digital parts are equally important for the final result, so both should be registered as much as possible in the sketchbook.

Answering reflection questions:

I read the brief in advance and it helped me to look for inspiration, especially because since my mother was here, we went to a lot of places like CasaCor and Pinacoteca and I could register and analyze sculptures and other art pieces in a way more directed to this project. For this project I did a lot more of primary research because I noticed there was a lack of this type of research on my previous projects, and the influence was really positive since I could visualize better 3D objects and see also how they were disposed and how they talked to the space they were in. I have to admit that I could have searched better for materials, and since since I gathered more raw materials like wire and fabric, I ended up doing something that required more this type of materials. I tried to follow my action plan but right in the beginning of the process I already had to update it so I had some difficulties to keep up with it, on the other hand, when I saw some things couldn’t be finished, I already reorganized and changed some goals so they could be more achievable in the remaining time. Since it was my first time doing this time of object, that require a lot of different steps using a range of materials, I found it challenging to mold epoxy and clay, sew really small clothes on my puppet and also find positions that expressed the movements I wanted but at the same time kept the puppet balanced, but I can surely confirm that I acquired new skills during the process, skills that I motivated me to look up more for a specific progression opportunity. During the digital documentation I learned that when taking photos of a sculpture, the surroundings are really important, so you have to position it in a space adequate to its size and theme, and you have to use angles in your favor, for exemple angles that show a vanishing point to give an idea of depth, or a camera coming from bellow to make it feel like the puppet is falling. Since only photos wasn’t the technical choice of representation I initially wanted, I think it ended up being better them I expected, but I still intend to make a stop motion for the next weeks.

 Since I knew I could probably only find the materials I needed during school time (and because of the game on Wednesday the stores would be closed on my independent study day), I took this week to make research related to the ideas I choose and start developing different approaches to them so I can build the outcomes during winter vacation. 

 I’ve considered working with wire, copper and paper for the spinning top sculpture and with wood, junk, clay and old clock parts for the waving hand one, and will try my best to execute this projects, that are already well explained on my sketchbook to guide me during the making part.

 About the research I tried to find references not only for the content and ideas I intended to represent with my sculptures, but also for different techniques I wanted to use, even if I didn’t find something really similar to what I was looking for, just things that would help me visualize better ways to develop my ideas, for example researching about Maneki Neko just to understand the physics behind it that would help me with the waving hand.

 My aims and objectives were to make more things, varied outcomes that could show different ways of representing movement through sculptures, and I think that, since the project it’s not over yet for me, at this point of the process I did achieved what I set out since I’m almost ready to really make the sculptures. My only limitation is the time to go to stores to buy specific materials.

 I can affirm that my work already improved since the first time I did this project, because I can see evidence on my sketchbook that I did not make the same mistake as three weeks ago. This week I spent a lot of time thinking about the brief and the ideas I had, researched about different areas related to those ideais and specially did not jumped into the first one that seamed better to start making it without looking to the other ones, I took time to think about the project itself.

Since my idea requires complex model making techniques it was hard to list all tasks I probably will have to do, and even harder to find time to include portfolio related ones at this week, so, based on the research I made during the weekend, I prioritized the tasks that will be more time consuming and, of course, portfolio preparation, leaving blank spaces just in case some new project tasks appear.

How important the building is for me to use as a resource for my project?

Since the architecture of EBAC’s building is really similar to the style most people visualize when they think about big cities, I think that for my theme it’s important to include it because of the big contrast between nature reclaiming its space and the concrete destroyed building occupying it.

Did I have the materials I wanted to work with today?

I imagine that today I had enough materials, like markers and colored pencils, to represent elements of EBAC while documenting the place. Adding color to the drawings helped me to have a more realistic documentation, and since I intend to make a model, the more realistic my references are, the better.

This activity probably saved my project, because I could develop better some small thoughts I almost ignored at first. I decided to substitute my initial idea for another one that would not be too complex to make and still have a meaning and interesting narrative, because this week I’ll have to manage my time between this project and the portfolio. By choosing to represent the stairs being painted I’m also trying to protest against this decision, and since it’s a issue that involves a lot of people, the narrative will be clear for my peers.

Did I follow the creative processes of the project as requested? If not why?

In my opinion I did, because after having the problem with the first idea (since it would demand a lot of time that I don’t have) I decided to try not to rush things and spent some time considering the other ideas I developed during today’s activity. And after choosing another idea as the one I’m using for this project, I remade the process of studying the space I wanted to intervene before actually starting to make my outcome, because the first time I did it I focused more on spaces like the rooms, so now I had to focus on the stairs.

Since at the beginning of the week I was able to change my idea to a meaningful yet not so complex to do one, I was able to stick to my action plan, today asking my peers to make interventions on the model (with delimited areas so the stairs don’t cover it) and finishing cutting the duplex paper pieces. 

What do I need to plan and do for my BA application?

Since the project is going as I planned, I’ll hopefully be able to organize my sheets for the portfolio tomorrow and reorganize the drafts for my personal statement by the end of Monday. And if I have time, choose previous projects I like (but didn’t include in my physical portfolio) and put them in my online one, so it won’t have only videos.

12: Since I couldn’t find enough colleagues to intervene on my model on Friday, I decided to take some elements from photos I took of the stair and recreate them smaller to occupy the blank spaces. It’s also a good way to make people associate the model I’m making to the actual stairs they know. After I glued the stairs and noticed that at some point they started to glue a little bit lower them what my calculations predicted, and because of that I had to make some adjustments on the drawings, and that took me a lit bit of time. For the actual stop motion I started experimenting with lighting and backgrounds to see which scenario was best to get the black background without underexposing the model itself. I ended up making an seamless background with a big piece of black fabric and used the lights of my kitchen, because if I used the other lamp I was planning on using, the model would be overexposed and there would be too much work to do during postproduction, and one thing I learned during some Masterclasses at Anima Fórum about stop motion is that you have to leave as little as possible to postproduction. While taking the photos I realized that the white plaster was mixing with the color from the drawings and becoming lighter versions of them, but since I could only make this process once, I decided to keep it that way and be able to finish the animation. I took all the photos of one side first and them of the other one, so after, while arranging the photos in Photoshop, I alternated the groups of photos of the walls showing side A, then B, then A, etc. to make it seam like the paint “going upstairs” and covering the drawings.

I had difficulty to write my personal statement, because I spent too much time this weekend doing manual work, like gluing photos to the portfolio sheets and taking the photos for the stop motion, so when I stopped, I was only able to write short sentences for the draft, because I was exhausted, and didn’t expect that writing about myself and the future would be so hard, especially because I already did it once last year.

What could you have done differently to avoid this kind of situation?

I could have written the personal statement before, because since I was going to travel during vacation it would be difficult to make the portfolio sheets due to transport and time, but the personal statement was something that I could’ve written in any computer or cellphone, even if it was just to make better drafts than the ones I have today.

I realized that even though most of the things I researched looked like higiene methods being taught to kids, some of them, like the importance of using sunscreen and brushing teeth, also referred to a older public and even the workers themselves, like in the sunscreen case.

Which idea generation did you choose? Was it appropriate?

I choose the “10 ideas in 80 minutes” we used for the last project, because I really liked how I have time to develop my ideas, not letting the ones I already thought about be forgotten, and also because I can differentiate ideas that are too similar, something I find difficult in the “30 ideas, 30 minutes” process. At the end it was useful because after registering 10 well developed ideas in my sketchbook, the essence of each one of them was clear and defined in my mind, so it was easy to choose the ones I liked better.

How were the first hours of working in pair? What did you learn from working with your colleague?

It was good, because both of us shared interest in similar themes for the animation, and listened to each other’s ideas without wanting to impose our own. I was also nice that Igor liked my proposal of trying to make the animation with a After Effects style, because I think it’s easy to get and has an informative language. By working with him I noticed that he has experience with animation, specially the frame by frame type, and I noticed that he’s willing to use it in part of our animation if necessary, even with the time limitation.

How did I manage to express my ideas to my partner?

During my first meeting with Igor I think we both shared similar interests on the themes that were given to us and on the type of animation that we wanted to do. We didn’t have communication problems at first, while revealing and developing our 3 ideas, but I think that after that something changed because we weren’t focusing on the same things anymore, he wanted to go straight to computer, and I was still working o paper.

How did we organize the work?

How did we deal with planning, communication, division of work?

At first we didn’t talk about it explicitly, so each one ended up working alone. The communication wasn’t so good because were used to work in different ways, and that led us to work even in different floors. I think it was kind of implicit that I was going to make more the concept, storyboard and mood board while he was experimenting with the hand animation and trying to learn how to animate with After Effects.

How can we do better in our teamwork from now on?

I think that after the talk we Sol today we’ll probably start to work better, specially because we broke this wall of working separately and also created an action plan for both of us, setting goals that we can complete on a daily bases til the end of the project, and also because we realized that we have to work side by side to make it easier for both of us to have an idea of how the whole project is going.

I noticed that today my work with Igor started to get better, we sat side by side and asked for each other’s opinion during the whole process. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to complete my tasks for today because I did not separate the props creation and scenes animation in my action plan, so I did not expect that making this scenes would take so long.

What do I need to plan/ improve in my planning during this week?

I need to put as a priority to finish all props before animating the next scenes, and that’s something I can try to complete today after class, because I noticed that after the props are ready most of the scenes can be animated very quickly using After Effects.

I learned about the importance of working together, sharing the same space, because we could evaluate each other’s work during the process, and unconsciously the project ended up having an unity. Also was very important to sit down and organize our action plan, because that set small goals for each of us and made the work flows much better afterwards.

How you think is the best way to present the project tomorrow?

We need to show that we thought about both content and design. We established a color palette for the animation with orange and blue, having both complementary colors in every scene, and also mixed two types of animation to differentiate the characters, keeping a minimalistic visual during almost every scene, making the animation ease to get. We also tried to create an more abstract character, the Hand, but we wanted to make it clear that it wears the same glove as the worker, showing that it is one of them, and that, at the same time, it is the voice of reason, like a illusory worker that makes all the right thinks and it’s telling our other worker what he needs to do because it’s what’s better for him.

During the Foundation course I gained a lot of new references since we were encouraged to do independent research constantly, and also because of my daily contact with teachers and students that have different interests than me. It taught me the importance of reflection and registering my processes which helps me think on what I did right and wrong and learn from it. Also, I have learned how to present my work in public and improve myself when facing constructive criticism. Sketchbook stimulated me to experiment more and not to stop on the first solution, developing my ideas more thoroughly.  

On the Moving Image pathway I had projects that required manual abilities. One that meant a lot to me was Moving Sculpture, when I had to create a sculpture that moves or represents movement, so I tried to associate it with animation by making a stop-motion puppet. During this process, trying to represent a man almost falling in the subway, I realised how I’m interested in creating visual narratives, no matter how quotidian they may seem. When maturing my practical skills I became interested in making 3D pieces and that helped me improve my three-dimensional perception and, consequently, made it more natural for me to represent 3D in a 2D medium. 

My interest in 2D animation is directly influenced by contemporary children's cartoons, specially ‘Irmão do Jorel’ and ‘Gravity Falls’, created by Juliano Enrico and Alex Hirsch, respectively. Both I admire not only because of their animations, but also due to them as professionals. The first one is an brazillian animator whose path I admire, since he was able turn his life experiences into the first original Cartoon Network program in Latin America. It’s really inspiring to follow closely someone who is successful in the medium I aspire to work on and shares a similar background, specially considering the national animation industry is very young and suffers from a lack of professionals in several areas. This is unfortunately a reality of the market, but it also allows him to be part of the whole process and gives an unity for his creation. The second one I actually admire because of his writing, being able to create a show that has a complex narrative but is presented in a simplistic manner. The narrative he built marked me and made me start considering story telling as a professional path inside the animation medium. 

As an independent leaner I like to develop new skills. In this course I intend to improve my creative writing abilities while evolving my experience with character and environment creation, because I think that to become a storyteller it’s crucial for me to both create innovative narratives and be able to represent my ideas visually. I’m going to learn all the process behind an 2D animation so I can expand my range of skills on this medium. I want to work at studios that are trying to create a path where 2D is used for entertainment in Brazil, like Split Studio and Copa Studio, since publicity still is the main pillar for this type of media in national industry. I think this course will help me not only with technical matters, but also by giving me opportunities to try and make a difference in brazillian animation history.

•How did you manage your time during the project?

•Were you in time for the deadline or did you have to run in the last moments?

•How would you organize your time and work on a next similar project?

I think that during the first week of project our work was kind of stuck and we were trying to start giving too many steps in different directions without going anywhere, but after the action plan and starting to actual make the animation the project started to develop better, specially because we were working together as a team. Probably because of the techniques we chose to animate our video, the deadline was not a problem, at first it was kind of hard to use illustrator and after effects but after half a day I got the hang of it and things started to flow way better, making it possible for me to finish all of my part of the work at 5pm on Thursday. Next time I’ll try to organize my work with my partner at the beginning of the project, so we don’t waste time with communication issues.

Feedback:

•What feedback did you receive?

 •What is your own critique (positive or negative points) on your work?

The clients were very satisfied with our final outcome, they emphasized as positive points our color choices for environment and skin-color of the character, the music that ketp the animation with a calm aspect, not imposing what we wanteded to raise awereness of to the workers. I’m very proud of my final outcome with Igor, mainly because this project provided me time and opportunities to learn a type of animation that I had never done before, and I think both of us communicated what we wanted to show in the best way possible. During the presentation I notice only one problem with the audio and another with Mestres da Obra logo, but we already resolved it before lunch. The only think that couldn’t be changed was was the duration of the lunch scene, even though we agreed with Sol when she said that maybe the scene should be longer since is the most important momento for the character, but because the video was already rendered, we were unable to change it today.