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I went to some art galleries.

Really inspirational audio interview with probably my favourite design team, a lot to learn from them especially in the realm of industry:

http://readbetweentheleading.com/post/99736282

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I've developted a more critical approach to my work in which even before I start to put pen to paper I am visualising things such as layout, colour, composition and context.
I've also learnt how to communicate the same thing in various diffirent ways through the visual language sessions and specifically how to communicate something using the smallest amount of information using pictograms and schematics.
Its challenged my way of thinking, and completely re-ordered the priorities that I have of what makes a strong image.
On a more practical level, my photography skills have improved tremendously and thats definately not an overstatement!
The SLR introduction was really beneficial as I'd never used an SLR that many times before, and when I did... they were always on the automatic setting.
I actually think I learnt the most when it came to doing my stop-motion. The lighting conditions were very challenging, the best time to shoot was early in the morning as my window faces east, and sometimes I was forced to shoot in the evening so I had to manipulate the settings to get the right quality, I think that through experimentation I learnt a lot.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I think this applies more to 'What is a Line' than anything else as all the other tasks has set outcomes.
For 'What is a Line' I took less of a linear approach (sounds ironic!) and really branched out, I explored many diffirent things before I came to the final outcome.
I found it quite difficult to answer the actual question of 'what is a line' in the sense of whether I was supposed to answer it so it looks more like a definition or whether it should look more like an interpretation.

I think that creatively, viewing it from more of an interpretation perspective has a much wider spectrum to work in and from the way I work I could achieve a lot more, and I think that I did.

From there I started looking at other artists work to see if they had some type of 'line' influence in their work to gain inspiration and started to do a lot of brain-storms within my sketch book. That eventually lead me on to my final idea.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think that I explored a fair amount of options to begin with before I settled on something specific, this definately informed my final outcome.
I think I explored quite a few unique interpretations of the 'what is a line' brief and I think my concepts were quite strong.
I think also from the technical aspect I think I proved to be quite capabale, I still have a lot to learn but that takes time.
I think I'm more of an idea generating designer and I think I need to capatlise on that and explore that more, and in terms of actual production just keep exploring new areas - I really want to do motion graphics and I've decided to teach myself how to use Adobe Aftereffects over Easter.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

The main one is organisation and management of work. When I'm done with work I don't tend to organise or file it neatly and therefore I end up losing a lot of work which is why I don't have any of the work from the original Visual language sessions with my work.
I think its a matter of preparing beforehand, and making sure that after I complete any piece of work that I file it away correctly.


5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Start a lot earlier, I only really started to work on the 'What is a Line' brief about 2 months into it. My work would have been a lot stronger if I had started earlier.

2. Be more organised, as I explained in the previous question.

3. Continually develop drawing skills, rather than just sticking to what I learn in studio sessions as I normally end up forgetting what I've learnt.

4. Write down every single idea, I tend to 'think' a lot and get lost in stream of thoughts where one idea leads to another. I should pause every now and then to jot these ideas down.

5. Try to stress less, and get more sleep so that I can concentrate better and get more work done.

Attendance: 4
Punctuality: 4
Motivation: 3
Commitment: 4
Quantity of worm produced: 3
Quality of work produced: 3
Commitment to group: 4

Its finished at last!


Magic Shoelaces - Final Video from Gareth Smith on Vimeo.

I'm quite pleased with the final outcome. It wasn't easy and took hours and hours to complete but I think it was worth it.
I've made a few obvious changes since the last video I posted, the most obvious one being that its now finished, hopefully the narrative is easy to follow and the little twist at the end makes sense.
I think it worked, but I think its a lot harder to evaluate because I made the video.
A lot of people were saying that it was a bit too slow, so I bumped the speed up from 6 frames-per-second to 8 on most of the scenes that needed it and a lot more photos were taken on the later scenes so that the scenes are not too short.
Overall I've estimated there to be about 1100 photos, I've taken about probably about double that in the form of rejections.
It was also said that it got better towards the end of the film, so I re-shot and edited one of the earlier scenes to make the video of even quality.
The sound was also re-edited to flow better with the film.

Heres the makeshift contraptions I hung strings from inn order to do my puppateering:

I found a use for that odd plastic thing on my ceiling!

Heres where I'm up to with my stop-motion video.
I followed this tutorial for the technical specs, however I've decided to go with 4-frames-per-photo instead of 3. I'm using DV-PAL settings which runs at 24fps, so that works out as 6 frames-per-seconds, which isn't too shabby at all... however it does mean I need to take a lot of photos for each scene. I've worked out that the video so far consists of around 560 photos.