Ten Rounds With Taylor (The Formative)

Ok so today was our formative and I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting an overly brilliant response as I knew Jared would be reviewing our blogspots, aaaaannnd mine had only one post which was my series of photographs from our first trip up London...not even any desciption alongside it!

Team Lunchbox were each given a formative form which we would complete about ourselves with imput from Jared. We would also comment on each others contribution to the project as well as each others strength and weaknesses as an individual and team member. 

We were all very honest with each other, and were able to comment and give examples where each other could improve as well as where we thought each other had done well so far. Jared is all to comfortable to tell you your strengths and weaknesses which we did have a laugh about like when he descibed Matt as a sniper - reserved when other people suggest ideas and then shooting them down in one word, but it was none too funny when it got round to your turn.

"SO...Sarah...how I have been looking forward to this one" he did say with a smile on his face...

"O...K" i replied thinking of nothing original off the top of my head.

*que The Apprentice Music*

In terms of my blogspot, I knew it didn't reflect what work I had been doing and in terms of my potential as a student, so the criticisms were entirelly justified. I know I need to pull my socks up, start scanning my drawings, updating and reflecting this blogspot. So these comments came as no suprise to me...

Yet I was shocked when Jared continued to nail comment after comment when it came to my character. Terms like worrier, little self confidence, Im my own worst enemy came flying out which I've heard time after time and scribbled them onto my comments box. "Stop wasting peoples time with your lack of confidence in yourself" Yes Im my own worst enemy, I can rip my own work to shreds without prompting. This comes from being a perfectionist yet I think I've headed down an extreme route where Im trained to evaluate/reflect too much until I cant see any good in what I do (sounds like one of those scientific experiments that went wrong!) I only wish to learn and improve as anyone does but yes I know I need to see the positive in myself and the work I produce.

"Oh-wo-est me, Im Sarah, poor me!" ok this was a little dramatic but I understand what Jared meant. Obviously my lack of self confidence could look like pathetic attention seeking, as if i victimize myself sometimes. I HONESTLY DO NOT AIM TO DO THIS IN LIFE!

"You take things too personally" I sure do and in all honesty I took all of this too personally at first (which just proves a point doesn't it) but criticism is there, is always there even in industry and is there to help you improve. So get used to it and learn from it.

I certainly DO NOT aim to sound so negative either. I know I can be a tad moody ("You are the only one whose cried over this project so far" said Jared...thanks for mentioning that by the way haha) but I do like to think of myself whose happy and has fun. Maybe thats the point though, I've misplaced what university is supposed to be about. At the moment Im worry so much about doing well that its preventing me from progressing, which inevitably makes me worry more, which hinders me more, which worries me...you get the point!

My fellow group members added that my worrying does affect the way the group feels about the project, causing them to feel negative. Again this is not like an "O yes!" moment for me either, I only wish to talk my concerns through with group members, not put them off the project either. 

I try to please everyone which is something I shouldn't be doing but I probably seem to do this as I only want everyone to be happy with what they're doing. 

I was commented about being a good group and individual communicator (you can check reports from when I first started school though that says this : "Sarah can work and talk" :) ) Its true though, Im not scared of speaking to anyone, and it was quite funny when people admitted they didnt feel like they could say certain things incase Matt said anything back. Im not afraid to challenge ideas and for my own to be challenged as (I know its not a famous historian but bear with me) Brad Bird said "The good ones will withstand it whilst the others can be improved" and at the end of the day why wouldn't you want your work to be at the best possible standard. HOWEVER! If I feel I have a strong idea I should believe in them more otherwise how can I expect anyone else to. 

I feel I've explained a lot here :) I shall post up my formative form when Jared returns it laminated and framed! 

SO in short I felt knocked for sixes and sevens after this formative, but I want to thank Jared for seriously kicking my up the arse with his honesty. Someone close to me later said "I will shake that man's hand" and I would too for getting so much right in the matter of a morning.

SO WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT?

Well Im glad you asked. The group got together and delegated jobs to break up the research:

Matt and Sarah - work on design of the spider creature, model and rig. Research movement ready to animate.

Dan and Yaviv - research in lighting and texturing so we can make the style of John Virtue a reality

Khalid - creation of storyboard and animatic ready to take in 3D over the coming weeks.

We also made our floor layout by importing a google map of our chosen street from London and blocked out the area we wished to create. Everyone was given a block and will need to start modelling as soon as possible. 

So something happened to everyone it seemed and we were all kick started into doing the practical after it was commented our group are all to good at discussion (not that thats a bad thing as were very thorough) Since we have all the research were basically good to go, we were obviously all apprehensive about starting. We need to stop being so precious with our ideas though and just experiment, if they work then great, if they don't then we've learnt even more to take onto the next project. I think we all realized this though and definite progression is now being made, Im feeling better about it all already :)

Sarah will return bond style...

The Imperial War Museum

The animation group met with Jared and Dan up London around 10:30, and headed off to the Imperial War Museum. I had never been there before, but was interested to learn that it was built on the old Bedlam Mental Hospital grounds. The museum itself covers only a third of the grounds, so the hospital must have been such an eye sore when it was there! To think how many it must have housed is quite scary and now its an example of how environments change over time.

We then had a couple of hours to wander round the museum at our leisure, sketching the exhibits and people walking round as well as taking photos that would most benefit our project. I managed to draw a few sketches but found as it was so busy there (what with it being half term, I think every set of grandparents in the country had taken their grandchildren to experience what they had!) So I found myself snapping away with my camera as there was a lot of material there we could use as reference for our project:

• Art Inspired - Some artwork we saw that was relevant to our project which I thought I'd post up here. Its interesting to see how art will change according to events happening in the world and how it can be an outlet of panic, fear or a way to promote strength and unity of a nation. Propaganda images are a key example of this. Imagery might be useful for recreating the chaos from the nuclear explosion in terms of smoke, fire and debris. 

• Why is there War? - These quotations were found dotted round the museum and was a point Jared discussed with us that day: What are the reasons for war, and are they all negative points? Can war actual be a good thing in terms of change and progression of the world we live in? Its good to consider these points...perhaps our spiders would eventually rebuild our destroyed city? 
  
  
  

• The Trench Experience - Although this was only a short experience I found this a very good example of an environment that recreated a moment in time and experience for those walking round. As soon as we walked through the door the stench of death hit you. The space was small and narrow and made you feel very claustrophobic. Having no separate space of your own Im sure the lads at war found it very hard to be in each others company all the time, though this could have also brought them together as a group - not knowing who was left out there, and these could be your last days alive, treasuring the time with one another. Spaces can have different affect depending on how you look at them. Of course, everything was very make shift as you knew that the soldiers would move on once ordered to, so the set itself was very basic. Also, the trenches would be constructed by materials found nearby such as branches to help strengthen framework - links back to years before housing when people would construct homes out of whatever they could find. 

• The Blitz Experience - Another key example of recreating a moment in time AND was incredibly useful to walk round, photograph and experience for our project. Whilst we waited, there were photographs taken from the Blitz covering the walls depicting destroyed houses and people taking shelter in London's underground. The first room we were in played a voice over of someone talking about the neighborhood, places nearby them that had been bombed and loved ones they'd lost. Even in the darkest of times it seems society will unite and stay positive as the voices began to sing. It encourages a sense of belonging and the belief that no matter what happens they have each other. Through to another door we were led to a recreation of a destroyed street. Although we didn't have a lot of time (Im not sure we were supposed to be taking pictures) we managed to get some good photographs to use as reference when designing our own street. Extremely useful to the project!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The destruction of buildings. Matt had mentioned the use of a red sky in our project which does enhance a sense of choas though it does seem to distract your eye soley to the sky here. We will have to complete a few tests to see if this works or not.
  
  
  

• Other photos from the exhibition

A good find here by Dan as we almost nearly walked by with the amount of crowds around. This is a model depicting a destroyed city after bombings during the war and therefore EXTREMELY good reference for our porject!

Warning! Radio Activity! Keep clear! Will we include any signs like this in our project or will no one have survived in order to say this? 
Example images depicting town destruction from the aftermath of the war. 



Nice scale model of the battles that occurred on the trenches. You can see the vast amounts of destroyed open spaces and where battles commenced. Good to keep in mind how the scale affects how you view the environment. 

I do like old signs (a bit weird I know) but the designs, prints and texts have always interested me. I like this shot in particular as the children are standing next to the sign saying "Suicide Corner"
An example room I imagine would have been for an army general or officer. Another great example of an environment: everything is sort of flung together in one room, its so squashed, claustraphobic and lonely with only a tiny window with no view. I can imagine its very cold in there by no means of heating and the fact the man has so many layers on. 

Further example images of town destruction. 



Thousands of people were gassed during the war but I've always found the design of the gas marks quite frightening. They make you look alien like! I can imagine they would be very uncomfortable to wear even if they serve strict purpose of saving your life.




Bombs away! Maybe this is what hit our city? Its strange to just see weapons in an exhibit too but then again, its probably the only time you can see one up close in safe knowledge it wont explode!

• The Design Museum - After our visit to the Imperial War Museum, the group headed on over to the Design Museum to view an exhibition of work by Alan Aldridge. Its a shame you weren't allowed to take photographs as the bold sense of design and colour in his drawings were amazing. His work did remind me of some tattoo/graffiti artists and was very impressive. There were some great storyboards to look at as well all drawn by hand but again had considered everything such as camera angle, tone as well as depicting some great exaggeration in the drawings he truly was "the man with the kaleidoscope eyes" I didn't really see anything that would be helpful to our current project, but there was lots to see and take in that could be used for another project in the future. At any rate, his name is forever down on my list of people to research and reference and its great to have seen something new today.

• London Town - 2nd visit to the Imperial War Museum (returning so we could see the Blitz experience when it would not be so crowded) we returned to the street we'd located last time to set our environment in. As Dan had not had the chance to visit it before it was the perfect opportunity to go and see it as well as take some more reference photography:

On our way I spotted this mirror. These are dotted all around London but I'd had an idea to include it in our environment and have one of the spiders walk past/react to one shattered on the ground. 

By the time we'd walked to the street it was nightfall so apologies if some of the shots are a little blurred. However, this is great as now we have some great reference shots from day as well as nighttime!

• That Evening... - The trip to London inspired me to get creative again when I returned home, and I completed a few sketches/concept work for the project:

Some sketches of crushed/damaged cars completed in biro, charcoal and orange pencil to reflect night lighting. Trying to incorporate the style of John Virtue again. Perhaps we could have a few of these dotted around our street, would need to keep the model simple though! Notes around the edge are points I would like to mention to the group tomorrow when we meet up. Top left depicts an example camera angle which I would like to display in our fly through sequence to emphasize the chaos

Concept sketch completed on black card with white chalk. Based on a photograph taken in the Imperial War Museum but altered to look more London. 

Overall, it had been a very good day to experience both the new and old, to take in new artistic movements and reflect on moments of the past. There has been a lot of reference material collected here and I was inspired to go home and draw after everything I saw today.