Agaté Studio

As stated in previous blog post, I am emailing some studios in Indonesia to ask for work experience. Today I emailed Agaté Studio; Although they are a Game developer company, they still have '2D Artist' as a position in their company which is basically what I'm interested in doing (but for animated feature films and television) so I thought, why not! every experience is a learning experience!

From the videos they have on their website about their company, it seems that everyone working there really love it and seem to have a lot of fun! so it'd be pretty interesting if I get a chance to experience it for myself!

Ambitions

I mentioned in my PPP presentation last year that my main long term/career ambition is to be a children's book illustrator and to work within the animation industry (character design/vis dev in particular). This is still an ambition of mine and I've decided to actually start doing something in order to get closer to that goal.

As I will be going to Indonesia this July for a month to visit some family, I thought it would be a good idea to contact some animation studios there to ask if they would be able to offer me a work placement at their studio so that I could get an insight to what it's like to work within the animation studio. I will mostly be staying in Bandung for most of my stay in Indonesia so I decided to look for some animation studios based there.

Today I sent an email out to Kumata Animation Studio. After looking at the work made by different animation studios on their websites, I thought that Kumata was the one most suited for me and the studio isn't too far from my house in Bandung so if I do get a placement, it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to get to the studio hahaha.

Might also contact some other studios, we'll see..

OUIL 501 End of Module Evaluation

Similar to the previous year, I found Context of Practice the hardest. From the beginning of this module I found it quite hard to decide what topic I wanted to focus on. I found that I am actually quite an undecided person as I kept changing my mind almost all the time when it came to Context of Practice. As working digitally is something that I have come to really love, I decided to go with the topic of Technology and how the development of it has changed Art. I thought that this would sustain my interest throughout the module, which I found it didn’t really.

Writing the essay I found quite enjoyable. Researching, reading into books and writing out a response was a task I found strangely gratifying. However, synthesising and linking theory into practice was a task I found a little more challenging. Maybe it was because of how broad of a topic my essay is, that made it harder for me to focus on an idea, or maybe it was because I started losing momentum, but overall I felt that it was a real challenge for me to decide on a specific idea. With all the things going on around me, I also found it really hard to concentrate on CoP and I feel that out of every one of the modules that I have undertaken so far since the beginning of my degree, my time management and organisation has been the poorest yet for this particular module and feel that could have given it a lot more effort.

I soon found out I was running out of time and decided to go with the simplest and probably most obvious idea, which may explain for the lack of development/ sketchbook work. I really did feel that I struggled so much throughout the practical side of the module and didn’t give myself a chance to really delve into the subject practically and explore other ideas that may have worked better. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t anxious about what I have done and produced for this. Firstly, I feel that maybe it isn’t as strong of a final product than what I could’ve produced if only I invested more time into the module. Secondly, it isn’t printed to the size that I wanted it to be, as I wasn’t aware that you couldn’t print double sided on an A1 in the digital print room and I didn’t have the time to rearrange them so that it would print like how I first intended. Thirdly, I just really feel that I have let myself down with the amount of work I have produced.

If I had the chance to revisit this module again, I would definitely pick a topic that really holds my interest, what I’m passionate and confident about. This way I think I would be way more invested in the work and I would enjoy it much more as well. This is something that I really need to focus on for Level 6, and hope that the mistakes I’ve in this module will be learnt and won’t be repeated. I can’t say that I’m proud of what I’ve achieved for CoP this year, only because I think I could’ve done better if only I stopped being so caught up in worrying and comparing myself to others and instead apply myself more into the module and be confident about it.

OUIL 503 End of Module Evaluation

Each module that I have come across has been really challenging and has taught me different things each time. This responsive module has definitely been a challenge, but it has also been one that I have really enjoyed the most so far as well. One of the reasons why I found this module the most benefitting so far since starting my degree, is because it has made me apply myself into the real world of work and has therefore been really useful in providing me an insight to what it would be like working out of education, with real clients and real briefs and preparing me for it, which is really what its all about at the end of the day!

I also liked the freedom of being able to choose our own briefs for this module. For example, the projects I chose were the ones that I thought would be most useful for me, the ones that were based on my interests, the work that I wanted to gain the experience of doing and the skills that I wanted to improve. Choosing my own briefs and trying out different ones have also given me an idea of the kind of work that I definitely enjoy doing, and also helped to identify my strengths and weaknesses as a creative and a designer/illustrator. For example, I now know that I am not as good when it comes to packaging design/layout or that I am not as good at designing something for the more mature, older audiences. Although I don’t want to limit myself with the kind of work and the audience that I work to, I know, and it is evident from the outcomes of the projects that I have taken that my work is a lot stronger when I have younger people as the target audience. I also think that the visual aesthetic that I like to work in is better suited for them.

Out of all the other modules that I have completed over the two years of my degree, I believe that this module has been the one that has taught me the most. Time management, organisation, punctuality, communication, decision-making, are a couple of things that this module has thrown at me. Having a lot of different projects going on simultaneously, forced me to think in a more organised manner. This module has somewhat trained my brain to plan ahead of time, to ensure that I was able to tend to other projects and give it equal attention. On the whole, I realised that time management is key for success for everything you do.

Pressure of working for real clients, I felt, was a lot more intense than the big competition briefs. This caused me to discipline myself more with my punctuality and I felt I was more motivated to do the work. With my working professional mindset turned on, I wanted to leave them satisfied with my service, so that hopefully they would come back to me for further design work if and when required. My attitude towards the competition briefs was slightly different. I didn’t feel the same kind of pressure of the deadlines or from the competition organisers. Because of this, I knew that I wouldn’t let anyone down (except myself) if I didn’t complete the briefs. Despite this, my competitive personality still wanted me to do well. So I applied myself with the same kind of enthusiasm and completed the briefs to the best of my ability. I had looked at more briefs too, as evidenced on my blog, but I found that I was balancing too much work and simply did not have time to do them.

Overall, I feel that this module has been really insightful and enjoyable. It has taught me a lot about what it would be like working out of education, and how I should go about dealing with it. Due to the fact that I had to keep in constant contact with my clients, I also believe my communication skills have improved a whole lot over the course of this module. Whether it is face to face, over the phone or via email, I feel that I am a lot more confident in talking to people. I feel that I am now able to conduct myself more professionally, and to produce work and present them at a more professional standard.

Responsive

ExtraCake

My friend who is the project manager of Middle East Film and Comic Con, who works within a creative agency, offered to take me to her workplace as I mentioned that I wanted to gain some work experience, or just have a feel of 'real world' work, whilst I'm here in Dubai (but I didn't have a lot of time left so I didn't do anything particularly significant). They were in the process of moving offices as well when I went so everyone was a little busy with their own things, but I got put together with some the interns and helped to sort out some MEFCC merchandise (200 goodie bags in total! phew!) for prize winners and volunteers that helped during the event (they even told me to take whatever I wanted, so I did. a lot of it. haha never say no to freebies).

(Photos on first slide is their current office, which is pretty small, but cosy on the 16th floor. The pictures on the rest of the slides is their new unbuilt office, on the 37th floor - with awesome views I must say!)

Whilst helping out, I got to know some of the people there and surprisingly, they were all really young (still in their twenties and a few in their thirties). But I was just surprised because the team only consisted of about 20ish (maybe) people, all still pretty young but they have done and achieved so much! I mean comic con was such a big thing, and to know that it was managed by this many people was just so inspirational!

I would have liked to have a proper work experience with them but because of the time I had left and because of how busy they were, post-comic con and moving offices, it wasn't really possible. Nonetheless I'm still grateful for the time I spent there as I got to meet new people, who were all really lovely by the way! Hopefully I can come back next time, and they would still be as lovely and welcoming!

MEFCC

So MEFCC happened! Such an amazing experience! Met so many lovely people, learnt so much and I am just so thankful for the opportunity and the doors it has opened for me!

Things that happened:

I went to set up my booth the day before the con, but it was already quite late when I went and I was still exhausted from my flight. What made me more anxious was when I found out that the tape that I had taken with me to put my work up was not strong enough to hold most of them up for very long. I decided then to stop everything, pack up again and off I went to the supermarket near where I was staying and bought new tape and called it a night. I came back the day of the con a couple of hours before it opened and finally set everything up. 

I really thought that my booth would look quite bare because 2m x 2m is quite a big space for someone who is just starting out! but I realised the most important thing is not the amount of stuff you have but the quality. And as long as some thought have gone into the layout, you would still be able to achieve something quite nice and professional looking. My booth was quite simple, with minimal stuff on show but I don't think it was a bad thing as it gave people the chance to look at my work a lot longer and in detail than having a lot of stuff which can distract the eyes or make it too overwhelming to look at because there is just too much information for the brain to process.

I have been really lucky during the three days as I have had a couple of people from different disciplines and media come to me to ask/tell me about collaboration opportunities. Two people have asked to interview me for an online magazine, a game developer company based in the UAE and the marketing team from an animation studio based in Egypt showed a lot of interest in my work and have asked for my contact details and they also gave me their promo pack (below). 

I ran out of business cards on the second day so I used my prints that didn't come out so well and wrote my details on the back of it for the 3rd and last day - but I was quite selective with who I gave these ones out to - mostly special looking people with badges/people from the industry haha. If people are as serious as they sounded on the day, hopefully, I should be receiving a couple of emails soon! (or maybe I should contact them as well). Oh! Also, I wanted to bring a couple of my own promo packs with me but the print room was closed the day before I went back home/bank holiday, so I couldn't.

Selling prints, I was also able to see the kind of work people are into. It was really surprising how many people took an interest in my Marie Curie illustration that I did last year! People even wanted big posters of it which I unfortunately did not have. All the prints I had for sale (except my Coraline ones) were all A5s and people have asked me if I have an online shop where they can buy my prints in bigger sizes - I currently have a Society6 shop where people can buy my prints from, but not quite sure if its the best one out there, so I think I might look around and make more things available for people to buy soon! All my 'Other Mother' screen prints were all sold out as well! In total, I made around 2,370 dirhams (£440) from selling my prints which well covered my flight and printing costs! I was so surprised, I couldn't believe it at first!

Overall I am just so thankful to have been given this opportunity! It was really nice to get my work out there and have people say things to you that makes you appreciate how lucky you are to be able to do something that you really love doing and call it a job/career. It just motivates you a whole lot more!

SO NERVOUS

oh my goodness. They've updated the website and I'm feeling pretty nervous now! Before, I was meant to be sharing the 2mx2m booth space with another person, but I've just been told that I've now got all the space to myself! 2mx2m, I realised is quite a big space and I'm feeling pretty intimidated just by the thought of it!

As I only had weeks to prepare and with all of these other uni modules going on as well, I wasn't able to go all out with giving the actual decoration of the booth a lot more thought than I wanted. So now I'm afraid that my booth will look a little bare. ohhhh maaaan..

I guess I just have to keep in mind that this is my first time and that I'm already so lucky to have this opportunity given to me. There is always a next time if I muck up and I can learn from this experience! Hopefully people won't judge me too harshly, if I'm not up to their standard! hahaha