This module has been hard work but ultimately good in terms of my personal development, as I have always had a keen interest in moving image but never really pursued it very much as I didn’t know how to use software such as After Effects etc. therefore when I found out that this was the focus of Design Production – Digital module I was looking forward to it.
Throughout this module I have developed skills in areas that I had none before i.e. the software and storyboarding. In terms of software, it has definitely shown me easier ways to do things that I would have known before so thinks that would have taken me hours or days before are much more realistic to do in terms of time management. I don’t think that my final resolution shows a particularly wide range of skills of using After Effects to its full potential however, it allowed me to create what I intended to from the start and I didn’t really need all the 3D tools etc, so I am content with my technical competence with After Effects and for this reason, would be comfortable using it again in the future and working more with it to develop skills. I didn’t spend as long working with DVD studio as I did with After Effects obviously but I think it is a really good piece of software to know how to use. Once again, I’m not sure my final resolution fully shows a great understanding of the software but I have a basic understanding that could be developed in the future if need be. On the non-digital side, I found that storyboarding is actually a lot more useful than I primarily thought. While taking part in the storyboarding workshops I did find them useful but found myself thinking that it wouldn’t exactly benefit however, as my work developed I was proved very wrong. I realised that all my storyboards didn’t need to be hugely detailed; as long as I understood them, it made turning my ideas into digital a lot easier; especially the pacing timetable.
In this module, I think that because I knew we were only handing in a DVD at the end and all my work would either need to be on there or my blog, the documentation of my work has got a lot better and so has updating my blog; at the beginning of the module it was terrible and I think I maybe did 10 posts in one day ‘panic updating’ and to save myself from doing that again, I updated a lot more and this made organising my work in the end for the DVD a lot easier than creating the PDF was for the last print module.
One of my weaknesses I feel in this module has actually been my research, particularly for the Top 10 and DVD brief; I did a lot of initial research at the beginning of Top 10 brief and then didn’t really do much more and I didn’t actually document any research into DVD interface design or DVD packaging. I am disappointed at myself for this, as research is usually one of my strengths and in the future I hope to find a balance between my Design Practice and Design Context blogs.
In terms of my final resolution, I am very happy with my title sequence; it captures the humorous tone that I wanted to portray and it works well with the subject matter, obviously there are things I could develop and when watching it over and over again I see tiny things that I want to change but for the time we had and the fact I didn’t know how to use After Effects at all at the beginning of the module, I am content with what I have produce and I think it reflects me as a designer as well. If I could go back, the thing I would probably spend more time on would be the DVD, it was somewhat left to the last minute; especially the final interface design (as documented on blog) and when played on a TV DVD player, it responds quite slowly so I would have spent time trying to rectify this but once again, in terms of building new skills and presenting my work in different way, I am quite happy with it. Also, even though it wasn’t a big part of the module; I feel that my DVD packaging works well with the context of the digitial work, I just wish I had done it earlier so that I would have posted my development work for it up on blog before the module deadline but I will still document it for my own purposes.
Overall, I am happy with the work that I have produced this module, I feel my biggest weakness has been making a decision and sticking to it and if I had done this, I would have probably got a bit more sleep.
5 things that I will do different next time:
1 – Experiment more with the software.
2 - Prioritise time better – don’t rush the DVD at the end.
3 – Communicate with tutors more – once I had eventually asked Mike for help, my work went a lot easier.
4 – Leave time for improvements at the end of the module – so then I would have had time to try and get my DVD to work better.
5 – Sleep more.
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