Where are you in your hours that you declared earlier in the semester? Looking at your work now, are your current accumulated hours enough?

I think I’m definitely on track with my expert hours, especially since I ended up taking way more time on things than I first thought I would. I think I’m averaging about 7 hours a week on my work, and while I don’t feel like an expert on any level, I do feel as though I am progressing and understanding the concepts a lot better than when we first started. I’ve had a ton of technical difficulties along the way, and I’ve had to make decisions about design due to the motion maneuvers I was capable of, so it’s definitely been a solid learning process; far from perfect, but still sophisticated.

Has your definition of “sophisticated” work changed from last semester? If so, how so? What is sophisticated in your weather report?

According to what I said last semester,

For the sake of clarity, we’ll define sophistication as meaningful complexity. I believe the three categories for this section are also quite straightforward. High sophistication implies a level of discernment in the work that not only meets criteria, but resonates with a theme or some other element that makes the choices relevant and meaningful. Medium sophistication is similar to high, but only scrapes the surface, showing you are aware of your decisions, but perhaps not fully conscious of their implications. Low is the absence of any of the criteria in high or medium, and is simply the lack of any thought whatsoever.

I think that this definition still rings true! I believe that according to this, I did create something sophisticated. While the main point of the project was to simply include 40 points of data in different structures and in motion, I went a bit farther. I could have done bare-bones outline art and used a simple, generic font, but I didn’t! I tried to give the interface a theme, and tried to make sure it was consistent. I tried to give it a little futuristic twist in the way the font and shapes were picked (i.e. the concept of a modular, shifting interface), and I think if I managed to turn it into the whole “projection” style of video, it would be really cemented. Nonetheless, while the execution could be further developed, I think that the work is still sophisticated.

Describe how the new things you’ve learned so far connect to what you already had coming into the semester.

While we already knew how to design an interface (in the most basic sense) as well as how to make sophisticated maps (in other words had the knowledge to organize data in a functional and clear way), we did not really have a lot of experience with the actual animation side of things. I think that even though I was already familiar with Premiere and how that works, this was a whole other beast compared to the level of complexity Premiere allows for (it’s really not that much). I think that getting used to the workflow of Premiere was the hardest part, and just needing to really plan out what layers had what elements was a huge deal for me. Once I kinda got my footing around those aspects, it was pretty smooth sailing.

What are somethings you are still unsure about in this project that you would like to know more about?

I think one thing I really want to learn more about is working in 3D space or the idea of masks. Like, I know that sounds like a super simple thing to want to learn about, but from what I understand masks have a huge variety of uses, and I think that learning to move in 3D space could be equally beneficial and versatile. I think if that’s too simple, the next thing on my list would be the idea of maybe more advanced special effects, like making the video into a sort of real-time projection, or if on a screen, maybe the idea of scan lines or something like that? Kind of like how the Star Wars movies have holograms that have visible scan line. Maybe that’s a little advanced for this class or project, but it’s something I have great personal interest in.

Assign a level of value to this project. Identify two other projects in your creative life and place this weather report relative to them. How close or far are they from one another? What qualities did each project have that the other’s didn’t that would rate them higher/lower?

Wow, okay. Well, I think if we’re talking about anything we’ve ever done so far, I think the things I’d like to line them up with are the interaction/app design project from Image Methodology and one of my favorite personal YouTube projects (a Samurai Champloo game review). I think that I can kind of view this as a sort of upward linear progression, the lowest being the YouTube video, the middle being the Image Methodology project, and the top being this project. I see these three projects as a learning process, each sort of building up my skills and “conceptual toolbox”. I think that the personal project taught me a lot about timing, which is obviously incredibly important for any kind of animation work. I think that having to time the video clips to music, as well as presenting clips in a way that wasn’t temporally disorienting for the viewer was really essential to my growth in the video editing and composing department. the UI Lesson was obviously a lot more involved, and handled all the most basic elements of AfterEffects, mainly being x and y-axis movement, as well as some careful planning of keyframes and perhaps opacity when it was required. I think that project gave me the base understanding for the weather project, which was almost a sort of proving grounds in terms of complex motion, as there were a ton more layers to work with and way more factors to consider at any given time. In this sense, they all have value, but I think that the level of difficulty they had and what I actually learned from them was what set their value, more than anything else.

Break down the percentages of what entities are responsible for creating growth within the creative you. Am I part of it? Part of it is on you, right? Do you consider your classmates/friends as influencers on the course of your trajectory for success? At the end of the semester you will be evaluating me, but right now within your own pie piece, how much have you brought to the game? How did it end up that you brought that much?

I think that my classmates have a huge influence on me, as does my mother, you, and my own experiences and thoughts. I think one of the most key elements of my growth is what I do myself, however. Recently, I created some symbols that were viewed as “cartoony” and “adolescent”, so I kinda had to think about why that was. I ended up having a big conversation with my mom about it, and it kind of makes sense that I’d make something like that. A large portion of the media I intake are animated cartoons (mainly Japanese anime) and it’s been that way since elementary school. While I like a variety of different types of media (The Princess Bride is a classic), I have a rather adolescent, silly preference. My room is covered in posters regarding things like Minecraft, Star Wars Battlefront, and the James Webb Telescope. I have a single anime figurine (don’t worry, I don’t plan on buying more) on one of my many shelves of books, which also have everything from Choose Your Own Adventure to Harry Potter  to Slaughterhouse Five. Regardless, I have a very adolescent (or maybe youthful is a better word?) way of living, and it definitely shows up in the work I make and affects my creative growth in that sense. However, that’s not a bad thing, either. I am developing as an artist and designer (especially if I plan on doing any sort of cartoon or videogame-based work), but I think I need to take more responsibility to make sure I get some exposure to other styles, as well.

Anyhow, I think the percentages would be something like this:

Classmates/Friends (clap clap clap clap): 15%

Professors : 20%

Mother: 15%

My Own Actions/Thoughts: 50%

I already kinda explained the reasoning behind that, but I guess if I need to sum it up…

I care deeply about my relationships between those in my life, including professors and classmates, and I really take their advice to heart. However, I also have my own personal biases, preferences, and aspirations, and those are always going to be apart of my work and the fuel for my creative growth, as those stay with me for the rest of my life, and will only develop and grow as time passes.