Author: Jiachen Ding

Final project: Traveling with coins

Critical reflection

The basis of this animation project is the type we decided on based on the abilities of the four members and the direction we wanted to take. Two of us are studying 2D animation and two members are studying VFX. Based on this we decided that the type of project would be a composite animation using 3D environments and 2D characters. The theme we chose was “From an everyday object to a fantastical object”, we wanted to bridge reality and fantasy through the medium of the everyday object “Coin”, which will show the meaning and influence of human beings in society and history in relation to coins (money). Through this project, I have learned that there is a balance between planning and revising plans. I also learned that frequent communication is the most effective way to work together.

The first problem we encountered was the timing and completion of the project. After we had decided on the content of the project, I completed the Time Schedule and Beat Sheet for our group in the third week, as the initial content of the whole project was my initial idea, so I was the project planner, supervisor and compositor. Two weeks after the completion of the Time Schedule, two of my group members discussed with me that the time needed for the three scenes was very tight and would bring down the quality of the whole project. I agreed that this was one of the potential problems, so it was a unanimous decision by all four members that I put the last scene, “Hope”, on hold.
In the first three weeks we only had 2 face-to-face discussions together, but after the time schedule discussion, I felt that we needed to communicate regularly as a group. Only by communicating more frequently can we adjust our plans and confirm each other’s progress. So I proposed in the group chat group that we use Discord every Wednesday and Saturday to discuss and communicate with each other. Although not every discussion is about something important, it allows us to ask each other questions about the software or share ideas. We had a lot of ideas that came out of these discussions. For example, in the end, both 2D animation members ended up using Blender software for painting, which greatly accelerated the project.

My work included writing the story beat sheet, scheduling, Layout Artist (planning and creating the initial camera and staging of shots for animation), camera animation, sound effects, and compositing. There were a number of problems encountered during the project, such as time constraints, lack of discussion in the early stages, unfamiliarity with the software, use of the render farm, etc., but these were resolved one by one during frequent discussions in the later stages. Through this collaborative project, I have learned that efficient and high-frequency communication with a common goal is the most important factor for a team to complete a project successfully.

(words: 490)