Monday 9 November 2009

Maya House progress

3 comments:

  1. Interim Online Review - Unit 2 : Space 10/11/09

    Hi Bharathi,

    I'm not going to dress this up too much - put simply there's not a lot of work in evidence here; you could/should have reached this stage at the end of week one; add to this the fact that, in an earlier comment, I had to remind you that brief was about 'spaces' and not characters, and I get the impression that I don't have your fullest attention; go visit Ruben's blog, or Leo's blog, or Richard's blog, or Jolanta's blog etc., and you will soon understand why they are on course to score highly, and you are in danger of achieving less; and no, it's not about the quality of their drawings, it's about their process and their workflow and the actual amount of thinking, developing and doing that they have undertaken by the beginning of week 3.

    Meanwhile, it's clear that your drawing isn't as strong as it could be, so I strongly suggest you 'self-medicate' - there are loads of books in the UCA library about the techniques and principles of drawing - go up there, learn something and improve; the course can't give you everything - only you can do that.

    More work, more engagement and more focus - don't get left behind creatively and technically. Be amazing, right?

    See second comment for general advice re. the written assignment

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  2. Written Assignment stuff…

    Some general structural advice regarding framing your essay in the more general context of ‘production design’ – by way of introduction to your specific case-study (i.e. the movie or game of choice), you’ll need to demonstrate your understanding of the purpose of production design/designers in enshrining certain ‘narrative values’ within the look of the production; you should discuss the general aims/objectives/definitions of production design – see below:

    “Before designing anything, the designer develops a "design concept," an overarching metaphor for the film's appearance that governs individual choices. This "concept" may or may not be established in conjunction with the director. Once settled upon, however, it structures all decisions made, helping the art staff to give an individual film visual distinction.”
    Read more: http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Production-Design.html#ixzz0WRjZ6wTX


    You’ll find alternative definitions that you may want to include, but your following analysis of your chosen exemplar should be an in-depth discussion of that ‘overarching metaphor’ that organizes all the various components of the production’s design; you need to be looking for recurring motifs, colour values, use of space, set-design etc. that, collectively, create ‘the look’ and be able to talk insightfully about the narrative contribution of ‘the look’ – i.e. – how does it assist in the audience’s understanding of the narrative or thematic framework.
    IMPORTANT; try and think of your written assignments as ‘complete worlds’ – i.e., that they must contain all information necessary for your reader to follow your discussion coherently. Never presume prior knowledge on the behalf of your reader; do not, for instance, presume that your reader understands or is familiar with ‘Production Design’ – you always need to define your terms WITHIN the essay; likewise with films and games; give their release date, their director etc. Use footnotes to give definitions or information that would otherwise interrupt flow of argument; for instance, if you don’t want to pause rhythm of sentence by giving reader additional information about a particular artist or designer, use a footnote to put this data into the ‘margins’ of the discussion. On Word, goto to Insert and then ‘Footnote’ to install footnote at bottom of page.

    AVOID DESCRIPTION – obviously, you will need to give some plot details to contextualise the scenes you want to discuss, but I don’t want a blow-by-blow account of the game/film; give a brief prĂ©cis and get on with the ANALYSIS.

    Below is a list of useful websites; use them in addition to other sources of reference (books, docs, making ofs) to SUPPORT your observations; you need to gather EVIDENCE to corroborate with your analysis. GENERIC observations (i.e. ‘stating the bloody obvious’) are to be avoided at all costs. Tell me something I DON’T know!

    http://www.filmreference.com/
    http://www.imdb.com
    http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/
    http://www.screenjabber.com/
    http://www.empireonline.com/
    http://www.metacritic.com/
    http://www.totalfilm.com/
    http://www.channel4.com/film/
    http://movies.nytimes.com/ref/movies/reviews/

    WORD COUNT!

    The gloves are coming off; the brief asks you to produce 1,500 words… and that’s what I want; shortfall assignments will be penalized accordingly – or failed.

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  3. Okay – just a few important reminders for week 10…

    1) !IMPORTANT! Hand-in for Perception essay is Monday 23rd November (Tomorrow!) between 10am and 12pm at the Design Office (Jackie’s office on Lower 4th – just up from the CG Arts Baseroom). Ensure you complete the plagiarism form; if you’ve misplaced it, ask Jackie for a new copy and attach to your essay.
    2) Your crit on Friday starts at 9am in Lecture Theatre 1; we will be reversing the register order – so we’ll be starting with Simon Watts, then Richard etc. There will be a named folder on the Lecture Theatre 1 computer: as soon as you arrive please copy your 3 finished scenes into the folder in readiness for your presentation.
    3) All Maya exercises should be completed for Friday morning so Alan can assess them while you are in your crit.
    4) Upload to your blogs your 3 final concept paintings plus a minimum of 5 preparatory studies for each painting that demonstrate clearly your comprehension of the source material and the representation of space. Your supporting research into source material and for written assignment. All drawings from life-drawing classes. Your modeling & UV layout tasks, lighting & rendering tasks, and first digital set as specified in your technical classes.
    5) Please can you ensure that you have a printed copy of your essay to submit in addition to the digital file on your submission disc.
    6) Also – please ensure you copy 3 scenes and essay file into named folder on computer in baseroom by the end of the submission day.
    7) Good luck! Have a great final week – work hard, be amazing, be successful! I genuinely look forward to seeing your work ☺

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