Visual Language Evaluation

Overall I have really enjoyed Visual Language as a module and have found each of the briefs in their own right useful and I have been able to apply the practices I have learnt to my own personal studies. Firstly, the Set, Series, Sequence brief that we were first set was, I believe and still do believe the hardest we were set. It was the main task we were given where we had to use our imagination and apply experimentation. I felt the reason I found this task so difficult is because my brain does not work in a way that I can come up with many random ideas in a short space of time. I like to find an idea I like and then spend loads of time developing that particular idea in massive depth. Plus another thing I struggle with is using a wide range of different media and techniques for experimentation; this is also why I struggled with the Take 5 brief.

The next brief we were assigned, Environmental Storytelling was I feel far easier but just as useful for me with my own personal practice. This allowed us the opportunity to do something I really should do more of in my own time, draw from life. Had I the opportunity to do this brief again I would find more interesting spaces for my ‘places I have never been before’. As it was a good opportunity for me to develop my skills I feel it would have been more rewarding to pick a place more visually interesting.

Take 5 was a challenge, as with Set, Series, Sequence, I found it very difficult to not go with the obvious solutions to how to visually represent the sounds I heard. In the end the animations I created were not all successful, some were definitely more successful than others.

Overall I enjoyed the You Spin Me Right Round brief but I did not take to it immediately. I actually found this brief deceivingly complicated to do. I feel this was down to me picking a poor object to animate a turnaround with, why was it poor, simply because it was just too complicated to draw a turnaround with. I had the choice of leaving this brief alone with an animation I was unsatisfied with, or I could spend a day re-doing it with a different object but dedicating more time to perfecting it. In the end I chose the latter and found the brief far more successful in doing so.

The final brief we had was Form, Flow, Force which I found very useful and rewarding despite it being condensed into a very short amount of time. I had never collaborated with anyone on the course before too much of an extent but now we were suddenly working in groups. Our group worked very well together and because we were all working with each other I feel it motivated us to work harder on our drawings.

In conclusion, Visual Language has been a very rewarding module and the skills I have learnt can be applied to any aspect of animation.