Week 11: Thursday - BFA Progress Report and Self Critique of Professional/BFA Development

A. BFA Progress Report

Honestly I thought I would have been farther along in development if you had asked me before Fall Break. I had anticipated to be into making the characters different view points and by next week have started making all the backgrounds for each scene. I am presenting my Aniamatic Revision again today and hopefully I'll have very little to change to the point that I won't have to really reshow it on Tuesday.

As far as character assets are concerned I only have made a front view of Nerine and a Profile of the Fish. I haven't had a chance to do the minor tweaks to her and I need to really work on the Fish since his coloring was so greyed out.

I was going to continue with editing the fish but then I realized I don't have any background to compare them to. What was decided was that I should really focus on getting a background fully realized such as the outside view of the lighthouse and an interior so I can compare the characters with the space. Then I can really develop their coloring and texturing further, especially the Fish. So after I present my Animatic today, I'm going to make any necessary adjustments to it and then really get into the characters and a few backgrounds so I can get feedback on them. Then I just plan on making a ton of character views and backgrounds. According to my most current calendar, I'm basically giving myself the last week to have any real animation as it will take a little bit to set up all my assets into organized comps in After Effects.

So basically the last two weeks of school (December) I have planned at this point to have some sort of rough animation of all the rigged characters so there's at least some skeleton of what is happening in each scene laid out which I can develop further over the break.


B. Self Critique of Professional/BFA Development

This is one of the areas that I was for awhile focusing on but then around Fall Break moved to behind the BFA. I have been looking into local internships and considering grad schools. I will send my final resume to Gadsby by tomorrow evening for feedback by next Thursday. I was hoping to apply to places such as Running Pony and True Picture Productions by the middle of November to before Thanksgiving which is in the next two weeks. I plan on trying to tighten up my Demo Reel this weekend so that it looks as clean and solid as possible for potential job researchers. Right now I think I could edit it down a little more or time remap some areas. I need to really hammer down on applying to this internships and really commit more to getting everything in order and ready to meet and show in a possible interview. Also my development with grad research slowed drastically over the last few weeks. At one point I was moving steadily along in both areas of interning and grad school but now if I've done anything in those areas its in internships, such as trying to get my portfolio still, visuals together, etc. I think one of the major reasons I've slowed down is I've been really questioning lately if that's exactly what I need to look for and if I need to do it for the Fall. I've decided that I really need to return to school in the Fall but the major question has just been what kind. Being honest with myself, I believe at the moment that I'm not at grad animation level and say if I was in a scenario where I got excepted to some place like CalArts, that I would struggle and would be the equivalent of say a sophomore undergrad. I think I really need further undergrad schooling if that's at all possible. I know it sounds like a waste of time to go to school twice for the same thing but I just feel that I need to specifically go to a school that has a focus on Animation. I'm still looking in to grad school but I really need to meet with Gadsby and consider more options for what I think I honestly need.