Evaluation!

Right well I must first say how pleased I am that we've all managed to wrap up our project and get it handed in without too much horrible horrible stress. I think our group got off quite lightly compared to other teams with the same project. We managed to produce a fairly decent final film clip of our environment we all designed.

I will briefly go over some points I'd like to make about how I feel about the project.

What did I enjoy doing?
Fortunately, the members of my group had a range of different strengths. We had a modeler, a compositor, an animator and an all rounder. They needed someone who was able contribute more of a 2D aspect to the film, and I feel that is my true strength. So I was able to do stuff that I loved, like doing concept work, animatics in Toonboom, and some animation in 3D. Toonboom is a fantastic new tool that I have had fun getting used to.
I also enjoyed working with some people I don't often talk to that much. I feel that we all worked well together, and this helped us think positively about our work.

What did I dislike doing?
I can't really think of anything that I really hated about this project. I guess I was a little apprehensive about animating in Maya, but once I had gotten the hang of how to do it properly, I found that it was a lot of fun.

What did I struggle with?
Like I said above, I struggled with Maya at first, but that was because I needed to get a good flow going. I will definitely do some more animations on there, now that I feel more familiar with it.
I think we all struggled to get the rendering done without any hitches as well. It's a very tedious, time consuming, and important process that we kind of took for granted. However, we gave ourselves enough time to make mistakes and still get it done, which is a relief.
We also had the idea of doing our film in 3D, but it would have taken too long to render everything. I'm glad we considered this idea though, because it would have added a whole new aspect to our work, and it has made me realize how much the animation has progressed, in terms of quality and technology.
I think I should have done the sound a little sooner too. I had a lot of fun sounds that I would have liked to add to the film, but I just didn't have the time. Oh well, I feel that we can still add those sounds later on for our showreels, to excel our work further.

Have I worked well in a group?
I think I worked pretty well in our group. I did all the tasks that I was assigned (2D, concept, sound and animation) and I made sure I finished them in time for the other group members to incorporate with their work, in order to progress. The maya animation was challenging, but I managed to get it done quick enough for it to be put into the finished environment.
I think that maybe I should have communicated some ideas I had a bit more, but because we had to hurry due to two weeks of snow putting us on hold, I felt that it was best to get on with everything. I also feel that if I had done a few more pieces of concept work, it may have projected my idea of how the environment should look a little better.
I also regret not doing a bit more rendering too. My group members rendered a lot and came across a few problems with it, causing them to stay up late to get it done. I did one scene without any major hitches, but I wish I had made more of an effort at the beginning of this stage to do more to help.
Despite this, I am glad I worked with some different people and I feel that we all had fun working together

What have I learned during this project?
I have learnt to animate properly in Maya and Toonboom. I have also learnt that it's really important to make sure that you synch these two programs when animating. Animating 12fps in Toonboom for a 24fps clip in Maya was not one of my brightest ideas. They ran a little too fast, which was annoying
Another valuable lesson I have learnt is not be afraid to speak up. Occasionally I felt that my ideas were not worth mentioning to the group, but when I did they really liked them.
I also feel that I find it hard to learn new things sometimes. I must try and push myself harder to break down these barriers so I can learn new things and master them

What could I have done differently to improve my work?
I think practise makes perfect, basically. I really want to improve my skills in Toonboom and Maya, because I reckon I could really show my potential in these areas. I should also try not to shy away from the idea of doing other things outside of my comfort zone.