END OF MODULE EVALUATION

PROJECT REPORT

Studio Brief 2 COLLABORATIVE

Autism Unmasked

Studio Brief 1 INDIVIDUAL MINI BRIEFS

Art Doll Quarterly: Country Fair

Art Doll Quarterly: I Am Woman

Hobbycraft: Share Your Heart

Studio Brief 1 INDIVIDUAL SUBSTANTIAL BRIEFS

Roald Dahl

Puppet Animation

ART DOLL QUARTERLY COMPLIMENTARY COPY

I wasn't expecting to receive my complimentary copy of Art Doll Quarterly until after May 1st (that's when they hit newsstands, plus it's an American publication so it would take a while to get here), BUT IT ARRIVED TODAY! I'm so pleased because it means I can put it on here before the 503 submission and I'm just so proud of it. MY DOLLS PUBLISHED IN AN ACTUAL MAGAZINE.

I'm so proud and impressed and pleased and I'm positively beaming, dancing around the house with my copy. I'm going to have to visit any of the UK stockists I can find, just so I can stand next to it and cry at it being my dolls in a real magazine. I don't know for sure how many stockists they have here (I MISS BORDERS BOOKSHOP), but Art from the Heart in Harrogate definitely stock it.

It's so sweet of them to send it to me, I was worried that maybe I wouldn't get published just because they wouldn't want to send it all the way to the UK when they get plenty submissions from the US alone...  but they did still publish my work and they sent it to me free of charge. There were also submissions from Greece and Germany published.

I'm looking at the photos I submitted though, and I'm seeing so many flaws. Things I would have changed and how the photos could have been much sharper. I think this is definitely something I need to work on and it could really benefit my practice if I learned how to take super-sharp high quality photos, for both print and screen. Hopefully I can learn for next time and keep submitting to ADQ, I hope to keep this relationship going with ADQ and that this is only the first of my entries!

I don't know how they pick the doll artists to profile as the main feature each time... I don't know if people apply to be featured or whether the magazine contacts the artist they would like to feature? It would be useful to know more about their process. Each magazine retails at £14.99 so they must make quite a bit of money from it, but it's a huge magazine (144 pages). I may email them and ask some questions, not only as a contributor but as someone who would love to work in creating a publication like this (PPP research!).

How many readers do they have? (reach and audience - what is their actual audience demographic)

I'm glad I sent the editor a big long response to her questions. Some of the other features are much smaller with just a few sentences explaining their entry, but since I sent a few paragraphs, they've all been published next to the photos of my dolls. They even put in brackets (cotton candy) after I said candyfloss so that the American audience would understand. 

This is my first properly published work and I'm over the moon. I feel like a professional and this had made my decision to submit to more unusual briefs pay off. It was worth it and I know my work fits in this context. Happy Jay is happy!

DESIGN BOARD FEEDBACK

I thought I was almost done with my design boards but this mega crit has changed that... There's a lot I need to sort out and that means going right back to the first board and starting again.

It was useful to see how other people had approached design boards and to see what works well. It's a different sort of looking to see it on the screen and then see it printed at actual size, i.e. seeing it at A2 size has made me realise how huge my font is and that I can reduce it right down!

I've put too much blurb on too, the purpose of the design board is to SELL the product, not explain my process.

I can see the value in design boards - they are professional and essential for pitching ideas and submitting work, I think it is vital that I learn how to do them properly but I really wish I'd had a little more practise before having to submit them to these competitions. Seeing how they SHOULD be done is making me worry that the ones I sent to YCN and the ones we sent for D&AD weren't up to scratch and might have brought our submissions down.

(DRAFT) COLLABORATIVE DESIGN BOARDS

(DRAFT) SUBSTANTIAL BRIEF BOARDS: Roald Dahl

MOVING PARTS COMPETITION

SECOND PLACE! 

I just got an email from Moving Parts Festival to say that I got second place in their stop-motion animation competition, yay! I felt that my video was really rushed and that it would have been better had I kept to the story and not messed around with cinematography effects so much, but it is pleasing to see that it has been awarded second place by a PUPPET festival. Getting into the area of making I want to be involved in and hopefully will make some contacts this way.
I'm really intrigued to see what the 'overwhelming number of entrants' produced, especially to see who came first.
I was worried that entering smaller, independent competitions like this might not be the best idea, that I should be focusing on the larger ILLUSTRATION competitions, but this has paid off and has given me the opportunity to work to my interests.

DESIGN BOARDS NATIONAL AUTISTIC SOCIETY

I volunteered to put together the design boards for D&AD submission because I knew that Molly still had to finish her video and otherJay has a lot to do in his other modules. I summarised our project, intentions and campaign idea but I wrote way too much and the slides were just really bland and boring. Too wordy and not digestible.
I asked Molly and other J to take a look and add/change anything today and we got it sorted: coloured backgrounds and bullet-pointed lists. I'm glad it's ready to go! None of us are graphic designers and we didn't spend huge amounts of time on these design boards but they do the job of pitching our project and they are ready for submission.
We could have started working on the design boards earlier in the process or made a video explanation to better suit our project, but within the time frame I think we made a professional and effective attempt at design boards.

Autism Unmasked

Abi's Story

(Jay Stelling)

Luke's Story

(Molly Halson)

Alex's Story:

(Jay Foster)

Successes:

Each story is suited by its animation style. It is clear that they have been created by three different artists but there is an obvious reason behind this and you can see that just by watching all three. Each story has a different perspective and by a different artist interpreting each story, there are three different visions to suit those perspectives.

I'm really proud to have made this animation and worked so well in a collaboration with Jay F and Molly. Our videos compliment each other and I would love to work with these two again!

We've made a substantial amount of work and I think that they are all of a high quality.

They all work together as a series. The title and end credits are consistent across all three animations, as is the colour palette.

They're all heartfelt, honest and insightful documentaries.

I think we were successful in achieving what we set out to achieve: we have humanised autism in these documentaries and we have made videos that could be used with a positive impact on the world.

The typeface is playful and attractive, much better than the ones the brand guidelines told us to use!

Could be Improved:

I think my animation is very basic and simple compared to Jay F's and Molly's. Mine isn't as dynamic as their's, but this is suited to Abi's story. Her recording is quite slow, quiet and considered, so the animation matches this.

Mine only features head shots of figures whereas Jay F's and Molly's are more interesting with varying compositions and camera angles. I could have done more storyboarding to make my animation more exciting.

Jay F's is the only video to have video still playing behind the logo at the end, which is an inconsistency in the series and the orange against the logo is a little jarring here.

In the brand guidelines, The National Autistic Society said not to use any other fonts than those they suggested so I am worried that 'Molly's Hand' might go against this guideline.

Group Conversation 4

We had some issues with submitting because the D&AD website crashed, but we did eventually get it up, with Molly doing the upload and me writing the descriptions.
We submitted for the white pencil award too because our autism unmasked video could make a positive impact on the way autistic people are treated and viewed.

RESPONSIVE SUBMISSION TIMETABLING

ADQ: County Fair                                                     -  15th December     COMPLETED AND SENT  Successful

Hobbycraft Share Your Heart                                   -   End of February    COMPLETED AND SENT

ADQ: I am Woman                                                   -  15th March            COMPLETED AND SENT

Moving Parts Animation                                           -  15th March            COMPLETED AND SENT  Second Place

Moving Parts Poster Photo                                       -  15th March             COMPLETED AND SENT

Roald Dahl                                                              -  23rd March            COMPLETED AND SENT

ADQ: I am Woman                                                   -  15th March            COMPLETED AND SENT

Completed Extra Briefs (smaller briefs - not as important/relevant to my practice) :  2 x Illustration Friday,  1 x NEST Magazine Submission, 1 x Hobbycraft Monthly Submission, 

NATIONAL AUTISTIC SOCIETY (COLLABORATIVE)         - 22nd March

MOLLY'S HAND

The fonts in the brand guidelines were really uninspiring so we decided to make our project a little more personal, less robotic, by making our own font.

This is Molly's handwriting and I love it! It's informal and soft without being childish, the kind of typography you see in an Oliver Jeffers book. The kind of typography I've always wanted to use, but have never found anything quite like this... thanks Molly!

Animation

Getting on with my side of the project. This is a very different approach to what I've seen other groups doing, because we're all responsible for our own videos rather than working on one video collaboratively. 

I am worried that maybe we are doing it the wrong way, that this doesn't 'count' as collaborative practice, but it is working well since we can all just get on! We're still meeting up regularly and reviewing our videos as a SERIES, they are designed to work together but the animations are made mostly independently.

Character Animation

I had a go at using the character animation tool controlled by webcam and it's so strange. I'm sure it can look good when done properly and it's a really clever feature but I'm quite freaked out by it! It's copying everything I do and it looks possessed.

SUBMITTING TO ROALD DAHL

I chose the Roald Dahl literary estate brief because I have a passion for storytelling. Since reading Roald Dahl's books as a child, I have become enchanted by his world and the magical stories he told. Dahl captured my imagination and I was excited by the idea of re-imagining the scenes from these modern classics. Dahl had a very unique approach to writing for children in that he was bold, truthful and often quite scary. I enjoy making illustrations for children, trying to visualize the excitement of a scene, so the challenge of translating Dahl’s unconventional tone of voice thrilled me. Quentin Blake is renowned for his illustrations in Roald Dahl’s books, but I believe that readers may rely on his illustrations instead of imagining the characters independently. It’s time for a change and I tackled this brief with the intention of encouraging a more imaginative reading experience. The Roald Dahl Literary Estate shares the original intentions of the author and I appreciate their dedication to Roald Dahl’s legacy. When I think of Roald Dahl, I don’t just think of the stories or the characters, but I remember the worlds he created. Roald Dahl caught the attention of readers by bringing them into his magical worlds, showing them the wonders of the imagination. I am an illustrator but I enjoy working in three dimensions, physically constructing props and puppets to bring illustrations to life. Each of the scenes I made exists beyond the screen or a printed medium, they are standing models that can be touched and moved. I wanted to be brave and bold in my approach to the illustrations, echoing Dahl’s memorable narratives. The handmade figures and scenes I produced for these images are combined with hand drawn foliage and leaves to blur the lines between what is real and what is fantasy. Dahl’s stories speak of fantastical creatures, bizarre events and real-life scenarios, so I made my illustrations to exist between dimensions. I chose to illustrate three different scenes from Roald Dahl’s stories. For the villain character, I made my own Grand High Witch from The Witches. The Grand High Witch is the scariest character I have ever encountered and I wanted to capture her ferocious power. The child character I showcased is James from James and the Giant Peach. James is a brave and adventurous character who encourages children to explore and appreciate the nature around them. The fantastical creatures I featured are the tiny Minpins folk from Roald Dahl’s The Minpins. Unlike most of Dahl’s books, this story was not illustrated by Quentin Blake. The original edition was illustrated by Patrick Benson and it is a lesser known story, so I attempted to bring these forgotten creatures into the spotlight. The Minpins is a lovely story and it deserves more recognition.

Responsive Group Tutorial

Brief: The National Autistic Society brief asked for 1-8 videos with a combined length of 2 minutes. The videos should be about Autism (specifically adults with autism and the struggles of trying to find work as an autistic person). They want this to follow on from, but not imitate, their Too Much Information video for their Autism Uncut campaign.

Intention: We wanted to answer the brief by creating an animated documentary series. Our aim is to humanise autism and tell the stories of the everyday people it affects.
We decided to produce one film each, but make them to work together as a series/collective campaign. They will each be produced by a different artist and have their own visual language, but will be cohesive and standardised in their colour scheme and fonts (following the brand guidelines).

What we've done so far: We have conducted interviews and recorded audio. We've each chosen an interview to work with and cut them down to around 30 seconds (combined length 90 seconds, so we have some breathing room to expand if necessary).

We have a group Pinterest board that we have been pinning to, creating a mood board of illustrators and animation that we are feel is relevant in content/visually appealing).

We have all started to develop characters and drawings that will be used in our animations.

Jay F has done a lot of work, much more than Molly and I have done. However, he's been neglecting his other modules so needs to make sure to balance his workload. I do feel like I need to catch up and that by not having as much work as Jay F, that I am letting the team down. We don't have long left at all (13 days) so it really is time to get moving (literally, animating!) 

I have started to colour my character sketches but I am aware that my animation might be too simple. Will it be engaging enough?

Questions: Is is appropriate? I usually work for a much younger audience, typically children, so I am concerned that my illustrations might not be appropriate for an adult audience. Will they find it patronising? The other groups told us that it's fine, it's endearing and charming, not too child focussed but still child friendly. Reminds them of Nick Sharratt.

Do they work together? Yes! They work together as a series really well. Some groups said that it looked like they'd all been created by the same person, but Steve said that it looks like three different artists but deliberately catered to the individual stories we are telling.

Feedback: Use Edge Animate to voice the frames. It's a really easy way to lip sync 2D illustration, especially for beginners. Lots of tutorials out there (animation is getting easy for non-animators to do).

Hashtag - Iamnotmyautism is too long! AutismUncut is better and already used by the National Autistic Society, so we should use that one.

The other groups: Kat, Neneh and Guy are working well together. Each have their own roles, working to strengths.

Ash, Bash and Mary had some communication issues and it's very tense in their group at the moment. They'd chosen the Roald Dahl brief, which is more of a personal illustration project and they're struggling to make it a combined effort. I suggested that rather than Bash and Mary doing the inital sketches and Ash 'cleaning them up'/redrawing them, that they each work on different areas or layers of the illustration e.g. someone does backgrounds, someone else does character design and another does costume/objects.

Life, Animated

Jay F, one of the animation lecturers and Patrick all recommended watching this, so I had very high expectations.

Rightly so! What an incredibly insightful film, and from the perspective of an adult. So interesting to see how the boy in this film grew up learning how to interact with the world through Disney films. I've never been a huge Disney fan (I don't even remember watching many) so I don't think I related to this documentary as much as Molly and Jay F did, but I did find it inspiring and eye-opening to the reality of growing up with autism.

The little I knew about autism already was through my Psychology A Level studies and I have realised how generic and scientific that understanding was. I didn't really understand the human element and, like most people, generalised the 'symptoms'. I expected that everyone with autism had difficulty making eye contact or empathising with others but it's much more complex and varied than that. Every experience is unique.

I knew about 'Theory of Mind' and thought that was all there really was to autism, a lack of this undesrtanding/perspective, but like most theories, theory of mind doesn't explain the whole story.

The main message I got from this is that autism is not something that is suffered. It's not a disability and there are so many people who are affected by it. Everyone has their own ways of interpreting the world and dealing with sensory input, there are things (like Disney films) that can guide individuals through challenges like making friends.

This documentary was a bit cheesy and twee at times, focussed on this 'miracle' 'breakthrough' and how 'heartbreaking' it is. It was very americanised and dramatic but it definitely had good and honest intentions.