Seeing I was running out of time and had not had any replies from companies I contacted for a portfolio crit, I decided to contact an ex- student / student support tutor from my former college to see if he can make out time for me to show him my work.
Richard Malcolm used to attend the same college as me at the Manchester College of Arts and Technology now known as the Manchester colleges. He came in on the course then with a lot of experience and skills of his own as he had been working as a freelancer for years before coming on the course to brush up his 3D skills and was also looking at the prospect of going into teaching someday. At the end of his year at MANCAT (Manchester College of Arts and technology, he was taken on by the college on a part time bases to be a support tutor for students working on mainly flash projects. He also had a day during the week where he thought us action scripting in flash.
Christmas E-card created using illustrator and flash
After sending him a mail followed up by a call, he was excited to meet up with me after 2 years of leaving MANCAT. Though I quickly mentioned to him that a bulk of my work is moving images and not interactive but that I had two interactive projects I was going to show him. He was happy to take a look at any of my work.
Book Design for stdent pack
We met up at the ConerHouse on Saturday at 1.30 pm where we both grabbed a cup of coffee and caught up on a few happenings since leaving college. It was a relaxing time for me as he was not a stranger.
I started off by showing him my Current TV promo which I did form the YCN competition brief from 2nd year. He liked the way the lines in the animation flowed with the music and how the camera moves from object to object. But he mentioned that it would have been a lot better if I made the lines thicker or shiner so it does not get lost in the animation as at some point where the camera is not as close as the others, the lines appear to have faded away. He also thought that the elements that link up with the lines need to be bolder so that they are easily recognisable as soon as they come into view. He mentioned that seeing the camera is moving fast from object to object it does not leave the viewers to too much time to contemplate what the object is. That I thought was a very good point and I hope to adjust for my portfolio in the future. Being form a design background, he mentioned that I should also pay attention to my fonts which was also a point raised during my crit with Michael Tabner on my first portfolio crit
He really like the way the animation finished off in the end with the mask covering to reopen to reveal Current TV logo. And that the choice of sound in the end worked really well.
I moved on to show him my Beck’s Fusion ad. He instantly mentioned that he noticed my interest in fusing sound and images particularly using lines. He thought the becks fusion piece worked really well and synced with the sound. But advised that I should look into more dynamic ways of using 3D stroke the plug-in I used to generate the lines for the animation. He gave me the red giant website address where I can find tutorials and samples of projects that have used 3D stroke. He thought a look at that will help improve my knowledge of the capabilities as well as limitations of the plug – in . He thought 3D stroke was a very powerful plug-in for after effect.
I went on to show him my portfolio website I designed from second year. He liked the style of the graphics as he works a lot with illustration. He also mentioned the technique of building in single frame a very professional way of working within flash. He said most students mostly like to build up in multiple frames which is not exactly bad but sometimes can become confusing as the layers build up and will be difficult to work with someone else when layers are all scattered around. I then asked him questions about putting the actual website online which id didn’t have a clue on how to go about it.
I showed him a personal project I was working on. A flash website for my friend who just got married. He liked the intro page. The way the sound works with the images and quote on the page. He commented again about the practise of building in single frame for the project as I did with my portfolio website.
I lastly gave him a rough idea of what I was working on for my final major project. He was quick to mention I was doing ‘the student’ thing again. Leaving stuff to the last minute as I didn’t have a lot of stuff to show him on the project besides my experiments. He expected that with a few weeks left to go for the deadline, I should be up and running with the actual final piece of work. He encouraged me to push my self and have it done and that he’s looking forward to seeing the final piece as soon as I am done.
The portfolio crit was two things to me, the fact that I can get professional and educational feedback on my work as well as meeting up and being able to talk about other stuff. We talked about the realities of the industry, the challenges and expectations that potential employers may want.
In all I think it was a successful crit and I hope to take on the advice and implement them in my future work.
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