Simulated Work Experience Review

For the simulated work experience I was paired up with the second year Ruby Clarke. Ruby was just finishing her animatic when we the simulated work experience began, and I helped her animate some elements of scene 1. Stylistically I think we were a good match for each-other, as Ruby works in 2d in a style heavily based on line drawing, and this is not dissimilar to my own approach. I have not had the experience yet of working for someone who draws in a very different style, but I imagine it would be harder to get into the rhythm of their drawings, whereas I could quickly with Ruby’s.

The parts I animated from scene 1 were the girl scrolling on her phone, and the bird blinking and tapping on the window. It was quite a bizarre experience working on someone else’s animation, and I found the animatic very helpful. I completed both parts pretty much as soon as I could, and the feedback was positive. One specific bit of positive feedback related to animating the thumb scrolling. As I wasn’t sure what speed the thumb was supposed to scroll at, I animated 2 different versions and sent both, and Ruby fed back that this was helpful as she decided to use a combination of the two speeds.

The things I learnt from the experience include how important it is to be very organised and neat when you are sharing projects- Ruby’s scene 1 file was very well organised, clearly labelled, colour coded, and the frames I would animate in were already there. This all made it easy to work in the file. I was also very conscious of keeping things just as they were, and not making any messy guide/rough layers then not deleting them etc. I also realised what specific instructions you need to give when telling someone else what to do in your work, for example I struggled to find a specific pencil (even though Ruby had sent very informative and clear emails) and then me being unable to find the right pencil delayed me for a few days at one point.

Overall I enjoyed the experience and it was my first insight into what it is like working on someone else’s creative project. After completing scene 1 I didn’t so any more, partly because Ruby is now working on sound for the animation, and partly because we have a deadline in a few days, however, I have offered to continue helping over the Easter holidays.