Study Task 1- Who am I? Why am I here? What do I want to learn? 2014

Why you chose to study on this programme?

Animation has a great influence on me since I was small and it is a fascinating subject that I have been dreaming to do. Animation actually requires more techniques than other illustration or graphic design courses where I find challenging when considering about the scenery, scrip, storyboard and character design. What is more important, it allows the characters come to live so as to tell a story. I enjoy storytelling and bring out messages, which I hope people can aware of in today’s world. It is believed that pictures have a bigger impact than words especially moving images therefore I hope to embrace what I will have learnt on this programme in order to share my thoughts to the public while entertaining them simultaneously.

What do you want to learn during your time on the programme?

I wish to recognise a specific pathway for my future career through the programme as well as learning practical and theoretical skills so as to produce animation professionally. For instance using computer programs to generate 3D models and backgrounds and also to learn the fundamental bases in creating effective layouts, storyboards and character designs that are able to communicate ideas efficiently. What is more, learning how to present ideas and processes confidently are also the main aims of these three years for myself.

What skills do you think are your strengths?

I think character designs and storyboarding are my strengths and they are the most enjoyable parts in creating an animation in my view. I see myself as an experimental person. Since the characters are the absolutely essential to the whole production, testing and exploring different ways of presenting the characters and the stories enables me to achieve a sense satisfactory. Observation is one of my strength as well. I pay attention to my surroundings and the facial expression and conversation of people where I usually find my inspiration.

What things that you want to improve?

I hope to improve my presentation skill priorly as English disadvantages me in presenting confidently. Additionally, I have an immense influence from the Japan anime which I really enjoy drawing but obviously most of the anime characters are not realistic are not in a prober scale therefore life drawing and sketching according to portion are also my weaknesses and what I really want to improve.

What ways you will evaluate your progress?

I have learnt to document every little step through the working process since last year in the foundation diploma course, which includes taking pictures of during the production and making notes on how I achieve the final product. By doing so, I can identify which methods work and which do not; figure out how can they improve the quality of work or what I have done wrongly. I found making reflection on work daily allows me to improve effectively and more importantly asking other people for feedbacks and suggestion helps me to evaluate my progress.