For this unit, we have been assessed with multiple tasks for unit 03. "The Tower That Never Was" is a college project with horror themes. These are the following tasks from our brief : Task 1 - create an essay (worth 2500+ words) Task 2 - create a poster in honour of "The Tower That Never Was." Task 3 - Research, review, and revision process
Task 4 - Project review (this blog)
Each of these tasks will have follow-ups for their own dedicated blogs: Task 1 - "There are other words than these" essay.
The essay I've written is 2500+ words long, in my life this is the longest word count essay I've produced to date.
To explain what I did in the essay I wrote the essay into two parts and I will briefly explain the two parts of the essay itself. Part 1 - Historical developments in VFX and traditional to digital.
This section goes over the techniques and skills used throughout the history of VFX and how those techniques go from traditional to digital. How they evolve. Part 2 - Industry professionalism, inspirations and skills. I go over the billing block of people I had mentioned in my essay.
Overall thoughts
The research I put into this has been interesting. I will admit there were times where it was feeling dry. If my enthusiasm, my research wasn't there in the process when creating the essay I would most likely be stuck, might even give up. That said, my enthusiasm, interest and eagerness to study, learn and work is a perk of myself.
Having written over 3000+ words, I am proud of the essay. I made sure to do some grammar checks before submission. The words with grammar checks would then go on to be the final version of the essay adding more graphics/images to the essay itself. Therefore, it makes reading engagement easier for the reader.
I'm satisfied with how the essay has turned out. If I'm being honest,
I will be posting the essay in PDF once everything is submitted.
https://cade-mason.wixsite.com/website-1/post/there-are-other-words-than-these-essay
Task 2 - Creating the 'The Tower That Never Was' poster
The Tower That Never Was is an inspiration based upon the Dark Tower. The poster is a way to promote a working title. So, how did I make the poster? Short explanation: The process was that I chose one of the poster sizes and I went with large. From there the composition dimensions were set in Photoshop. Afterwards, I added in images and the tower asset. What I mentioned in my last sentence were all created by me. I used a couple of composition techniques as well.
Once that was done I added in a billing block font. Because the font I used wasn't a default I had to get one off the internet and I used a billing block font and credited people (hypothetically).
The composition process of the poster:
As for the composition of the tower, I will go over the pros and cons. That said, these are my overall thoughts on the composition itself: Pros: - The look and design of the title - The tower - The lighting - Billing block Cons: - Character designs - Composition feels rather flat If I did something similar to this again but as a passion project. I feel that creating posters was fun for me. I enjoyed it but the next time I try to create a poster, I will try harder but on a passion project. If you wanted the complete process of how I made the poster, click the link below: https://cade-mason.wixsite.com/website-1/post/unit-3-professional-practice-the-making-of-the-tower-that-never-was-poster Task 3 - Research, review, and revision process This task I talk about my future developments, plans and career for the future ahead of me. How I get into the industry, what I want to do after college, what skills need to be improved, finding the best job role for my own skills and expertise etc. Going over my strengths, differences and weaknesses. The research, review and revision process is essentially an analytical process of my skills, techniques, strengths and weaknesses about me. As I've done an in-depth and detailed evaluation based upon the self-analysis and my future. Having expressed this, I feel determined, satisfied and have a clear vision on what to do in the near future. That said, I do have concerns about going for certain job roles namely; concept artist. If I began to start working on concept art for environments and characters eventually, I could create a portfolio that consists of concept art. In a worst-case scenario, it could very well be I will need a year or 2 to work on concept arts. I had worked on a couple of character concept arts in the past but those ones I worked on were either flat or the concept arts I produced were my first concept arts. One job role I desire that I feel I have the highest chance of gaining a job out of it in the industries has to be modelling. I've been working on 3D models (computer-generated) for almost 3 years now. Most of these 3D models are college-related. However, I did have a couple of 3D model assets for small passion projects. I feel that if I focus on the 3D asset and modelling path side of the industry, I can build an even better and bigger portfolio of the 3D asset. The fact that VFX and Video Game industries both have the modeller roles in professional jobs goes to show I have a good chance. As for other job roles I will need to work on certain things dedicated to the jobs themselves. For example, game testing. I will need to think of every other possibility and think outside of the box when testing the game. Not only that but they may ask me if I have any knowledge for coding and programming. Right now, my coding and programming knowledge is very barebones. What I learned back then may be useful in the future but I scrubbed it right past me. Should I start programming? To be honest, it's not to my priority or concerns right now. I would rather focus on the creative and presentation side of things. By that, I mean modelling and art. I'd rather focus on honing my skills that are required and essential for modelling and art. https://cade-mason.wixsite.com/website-1/post/task-03-research-review-and-revision-of-the-process-questions-about-myself-and-a-future-career My future in education As someone who is nearing the end of their education. Assuming I pass the 1st year of the course this year, I will finish college in 2022. So what can I do within this year and the next academic year? As the future is uncertain for everyone (considering we're in the middle of a pandemic as I am typing this.), the only thing that's certain here is that I know there are 4 upcoming units in this academic year. Having said that there 3 other units I am working on simultaneously. I think what matters the most right now in education is aiming high. By that, I intend and try to aim for merit mark in all of my units. Because we're all in the middle of a pandemic right now and I'm currently on lockdown, I have more opportunities and time to focus on college work and this makes it all the more convenient for me. Who knows how long this lockdown will last? Hopefully, we'll be out of this around march by the time the holidays start. By then the next term will be my last term on the first academic year on a higher national diploma/certificate course for me. Again, the future is uncertain. Maybe we'll be out of lockdown by the end of February. I reckon my last academic year will be much more challenging and engaging. The way it was for me on my last academic year, things were intense and difficult especially the synoptic project. There are mistakes I don't want to repeat again. If we ever get to do a synoptic project in the last year, I will try my best to put more focus and attention into advanced works and synoptic projects since they require more passion and dedication to them. Can I accomplish what I want to achieve? Hopefully so yeah. I'm going to aim higher in comparison to my NextGen course. I feel I'm doing better than I am before. At the rate I am going I am feeling confident about myself though I don't want to be overconfident and lead to naivety and depression. This scenario happened to me when I and my classmates were doing synoptic projects in the second year. I really wanted to do a synoptic project for video games. Then came the presentations and whilst my idea was good enough to get an honourable mention, it still wasn't enough to be one of the 4 main synoptic projects, 1 project being Animation, 1 project being VFX and 2 projects being video games. What made the situation even nerve-wracking and depressing to me was that I was applying to go onto the video game projects. I was so naive thinking I could get into the video game projects so easily. I went over to one of the 2 groups when they bringing up the lists. I didn't realise this one occurrence; whoever was talked to by the teacher was going to be brought into the groups. I wasn't talked to and I thought perhaps I was going to be in one of the 2 groups doing video games so having gone over. My name was shouted out from one of the teachers "Cade you are not in this group. Please go back to the others." That moment I lost it, my name was called out and I was not in the group. I was sad and heartbroken in the process at the time. If anything I really didn't want to do VFX at the time. I was so naive and stupid. If I become to naive, I ignore the possibilities surrounding me and just think inside of the box. I ended up with the VFX group (what I called myself at the time - the unwanteds.) It took time for me to get settled in with the change and I had to accept the facts that I was working on a VFX project. It took me a couple of days I'd say to properly settle into the project itself. At the time, I didn't hold much interest to VFX in comparison to video games or animation. Right now I really like VFX, the work that goes into it and with this course, it has made me put interest into VFX. Accepting the changes for what they are and expect that I may not end up where I want to be in the first place. This is something I need to work on. Developing my weaknesses and skills would be beneficial to me to aim for jobs or apprenticeships in the industries. If I need to go as far as taking a gap year, I will take that gap year and come up with passion projects and create a showreel. If things don't work out on my gap year I will keep aiming and I will not give up into getting into the two creative industries; Video Games and VFX.