Blog post #10

Individual

1. As an artist an animator, I really had to step outside of my comfort zone and grow in areas that I am normally not comfortable in. This was scary for me at first, and I was dreading a lot of my work leading up to it. However, I kept pushing forward and worked hard to troubleshoot issues that I came across. I also was able to grow in group work, communication, confidence in my work, and ability to receive and give critique.

   
   

2. I gained much more experience in modeling and creating concepts for a group project. Going into pre-production I felt confident in my illustration skills for concept art; However, making something cohesive and right for the film is an entirely different story. This was a big shock for me, and I had to spend a lot of time on drawing revisions when I didn't think I would.

   
   

3. I was surprised by how much communication is involved and how hands on the process was. Even if I wasn't actively working on an asset, a group member might be and need to reach out for help. Unexpected parts of the pipeline briefly involved each of us in some different way. Challenges that we faced were talked out, and overall, we gave each other a lot of grace. I took a long time on the fiddle model and made sure to communicate that with my group.

   
   

4. I am most proud of the fiddle model I worked on. Again, I had to re learn a lot of modeling techniques, and the fiddle itself was not an easy prop to figure out. I spent a lot of hours on it and was so happy with how it came out.

   
   

5. Time management could have been a lot better for me. It was difficult to balance working hard on Gumbo while also making sure my other projects got some attention. Towards the end I had to pause on some Gumbo assets to try and catch up with other classes. I want to be able to figure out a balance, it would honestly help my work quality all around.

   
   

6. Goals:

   - Work hard on improving communication more and create a stricter schedule when I will be available on discord to talk or when I need a break.

   - Balance Gumbo work with other classes a little bit better.

   - Continue to push myself out of my comfort zone so I can grow further!

   
   

   Group

7. When challenges would arise, my group would normally try to solve the issue over a call or in class when we were all sitting together. There would be small things that could be addressed over text, but we wanted to prioritize having the time to talk it out. We made the choice to proceed with solving issues right as they arise rather than pushing them off to the future.

   
   

8. By holding ourselves accountable to our film references and making sure everyone was getting a good critique, helped to keep us on track. After our first production pass, we wanted to make sure to keep focus on our goals and film ideas. It was easy to get so caught up in momentum, we needed to remind ourselves to slow down and double check each other's work.

   
   

9. If any of the group members had interpersonal issues, we seemed to talk them out. Some of us felt like communication was falling short and brought it up to be worked on. I didn't feel like a hostile environment was created and for the most part we would bring up matters that bothered us. I think we're all still learning not to take critiques and work too personally.

   
   

10. I felt like we are just scratching the surface for a lot of people's strengths, we didn't do much animating, texturing, and lighting at all this semester. I think that by next semester more of us will be able to do work where we shine! But even with limited tasks, everyone was given something to work on and apply themselves too, even if it wasn't necessarily a passion.

    
    

11. For the most part I think work is being shared fairly. I felt like overall I wasn't scheduled to work on as many assets as some people, but I think I have much more ahead of me just based off the stage of the pipeline. I think that a leadership role has fallen on the people in charge of documentation, asset lists, and scheduling which appears to be running smoothly! It would, however, be nice to see some of that leadership passed around a little bit more to others interested in helping! Even splitting up some of the tasks might help with more collaboration.

    
    

12. I think my group did amazing this semester! We had our challenges and disagreements at some points, but we always pushed pass and grew from it. We are all very hard workers, and we applied ourselves as much as we possibly could to what we were assigned. When we get off track, we are able to get right back on and keep going in the right direction, I also think we do a great job of staying consistent with feedback we were given. We also had a lot of grace with each other, when we needed more time on something or help, everyone was understanding and willing to be there.

    
    

13. My group is still learning to communicate better, we are writing down discussions and trying to figure out the best way to engage with conversation remotely. We are steadily getting better at this. I also think we can get better at receiving critique and pushing past minor inconveniences without taking it personally; Letting things roll of our backs a little bit easier.

    
    

14. Goals:

    - Continue working on group communication and pushing past little issues or roadblocks.

    - Work to make sure people can try out certain roles or pipeline steps if they're interested, maybe revisit how everyone is feeling

    - Constantly remind ourselves of our goals and references.

    - Keep enjoying the process!