Skillset and Job Roles/ Individual Learning Plan.

There are a number of jobs, in the animation industry, that I am interested in once I leave college: 

A Digital Painter:

http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_4106_1.asp

Skills Needed: 

"Digital Painters need a good eye for both detail and colour. They must be methodical and conscientious about follow up, have good computer skills and be able to adapt quickly to new programmes. More senior artists need to understand the Animation process and should be able to use the relevant software, but new entrants can expect to be trained on the job. They must be able to take direction and to work as part of a team."

• As it states in the quote above, Digital Painters must have a keen eye for both colour and detail. - I feel as though this is something I am always working towards and improve on every time I create a piece of work, as the situation I am currently in is that every new piece of artwork I create is my favourite, and when I try and replicate that in my next piece, it ends up being improved upon even more. And that is something I think is vital as a Digital Painter. 
• It also states in the quote that Digital Painters need to have decent computer skills and be able to adapt quickly to new programmes. At first i felt as though this was something I most definitely needed to improve on, as I was always reluctant to try software I hadn't used before. However, now that I have been weaned into a number of different programmes such as After Effects, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and Cinema 4D, I feel as though I can quickly move between programmes and get a general feel for them quickly. 
• Finally, the quote also states that Digital Painters must be able to work as a part of a team. When I first started the year I know for a fact I was rather reluctant to engage with people I didn't know, as the childish thoughts of "What if they don't like me?" would spring about. But now I do feel much more confident as an individual and as part of a group and I feel as though I can take charge or show direction when necessary. 

Concept Artist (2D in Games Design.)

http://www.skillset.org/games/careers/profiles/article_4733_1.asp

Skills Needed: 

"Usually using traditional materials (eg pen and paper) rather than computer software, the Concept Artist sketches ideas for the game worlds, characters, objects, vehicles, furniture, clothing and other content. They also suggest level designs, colour schemes, and the mood and feel of the game. They are usually very good at perspective drawing and architecture. Although not involved in creating the actual game art, their concept will determine the look of many aspects of the game."

• One of the key aspects of Concept Art is that artists would be using pen and paper rather than a computer. I feel as though this is something I can definitely work towards, mainly because as my digital skills have developed, my traditional drawing skills have also improved, especially when it comes to facial expressions and features of the face and anatomy. However, I do lack some confidence when drawing in a traditional format, mainly because of the lack of accessibility when it comes to mistakes (in other words, I'm lazy about cleaning stuff up.)
• Another point that the quote makes is that Artists would need to be able to draw objects, either everyday or something unique, and that is something I need to work on a lot I think, starting with scenes such as cityscapes and alleyways!
• It is also stated that Concept Artists must also suggest level designs colour schemes, and the mood and feel of the game. This is something I really want to work on not only with my personal work, but to have under my belt when applying for jobs too. And recently I have been taking a lot of care into my colour schemes, not only constraining them to a certain degree, but using colours that I wouldn't normally that also work together. 

My Individual Learning Plan.

Here, I am addressing some of my weaknesses and  how I plan on over-coming them using simple and effective methods:

• Time Management - As I may have made clear throughout this blog, I get distracted by absolutely ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. I consider this a very serious problem when it comes to my work and it's something I've been trying to knuckle down on since the start of the year, and within the past few months I've found a solution. What I've been doing is cutting myself from any from of television, DVDS, videos, and online distractions (Facebook/Tunmblr/Twitter.) And I have done this by finding a website that completely blocks me from accessing specific websites for a certain period of time, no matter how hard I try or what proxys I use. It's been literally fantastic! I've found that I quickly get over the urge to pop up Facebook and forget the internet even exists for a while, and even when the amount of time I'm blocked runs out, I'm still in the mind frame of doing work and just continue on! I also listen to the radio a lot, so as to keep my mind occupied with someone talking, but not enough for me to reply or try and look something up. 
• Confidence in my own work - It's no secret that I get anxious to the point of no return when I'm urged to talk about/present/contact people about my work, and it got to the point where I was convincing myself I wasn't going to be able to get a job once I leave college. So to conquer this fear I decided to take at least a little step forward and begin to talk online  about my work. The reason for this is that being on the internet is a whole world away from real life, and if I do something to embarrass myself or I don't get a reply or I receive some sort of message I don't want to is all helped by one word - "DELETE." I've started a "F- this" kind of attitude where I might as well try something and if it doesn't work I haven't technically lost anything, I just haven't gained either, and that's good enough for me. 
• Loss of interest in work - There have been a number of times where I have completely lost any motivation towards my work and it's left me feeling awful, run down, and wanting to discontinue my education. Although I know I'll never be able to bring myself to quit, it's left me feeling awful and down. So. in a way to battle this, I will be making myself try something completely new every time I create a piece of work from now on. I have started to do this with new pieces of work and because all of these pieces are things I want to get right, learn from, and display and show people, I have ended up being so much more interested in my projects and love the final outcomes of my work. And when it comes to personal pieces, I'm hoping this process will help me improve my workflow and over all style every time I'm painting and drawing! 

Opportunities I am going to pursue.

• The Northumberland National Park - Even though I was in the middle of a project, I went ahead and designed a small character for the competition which took place back in December. I feel as though that small live project was the starting point in my new work flow, as I'd been looking at a number of Artists in the Juxtapose magazine articles online before hand. I also found that looking through other artists work does not make me jealous at all, it literally spurs me on to create something as good as what I've seen and is a great motivation. 

• The Young Illustrator's Award 2014 - I plan on taking part in this competition as an Illustrator and will document all of my workflow, which hopefully depicts my new style well and gives and insight to my thoughts throughout the project. 

• Illustration Friday - This weekly competition will definitely enhance my timing issues, as the projects are only a week long, and finding inspiration, obtaining materials, drawing and painting in just a week will actually get me setting my priorities right and have me planning around a few different things, which can only help me at this point. 

• Anxiety Awareness Week - Although this isn't really a competition, anxiety is something that controls every single aspect of my life down to the very last minute of every day. And I think it will be rather therapeutic to do something art related for that week. I do have plenty time ahead of me as it isn't until May, but noting it now for the future will help me plan. 

SWOT Analysis for 2014.

Strengths:

Knowledge of Digital and Traditional methods – Can use both traditional and digital means to create pieces of work, with a basic to well-practiced understanding of software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Paint Tool Sai.

Self-Taught – Didn’t conform to traditional, and inconsistent methods of teaching when at school and took to the Internet and nontraditional artists as a basis, giving me a broader and extensive amount of inspiration.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Open to Ideas and Alternatives – usually listen well to alternative ideas both when I’m struggling or not. Usually the best advice is given during group work and tutorials, and comes fro a lot of different practices.

Took Risks during Animation Process – I was advised during our Digital Skills Application project to try out a number of different ways to create animations, using a number of programs such as Cinema4D and AfterEffects – which I hadn’t really used before.

Improved Upon my Digital Painting Skills – During my Essay on how digital painting has affected the Art industry, I learned a vast amount on other processes of Artists workflows that have influenced me, in more depth.

Went out of my Comfort Zone when Making characters – In my most recent animation project, I decided to use animals as my cast, and not humans, to get out of my usual comfort zone and “go to” characters.  This gave me many more challenges when it came to animating these characters.

Improved Time Management – Since using personal timetables, I have become much more aware of work I have left to do and am able to complete work much more on time.

Weaknesses:

Time Management – I tend to give myself less time than I actually need, sometimes resulting in my work being to a lesser standard.

Working using Scale and Measurements – Have a tendency to unintentionally lose or alter the scale of my drawings when creating walk cycles, not a concise tracer.

Confidence in my own work – Lack of confidence or satisfaction with a number of my drawings, leaves me rather fed up of them, and they tend to be something that needs to be carried on through a project. And can sometimes lose interest in the project.

Lack of varying characters – I tend to stick to the same kind of characters, the majority of them being human and don’t feel as though creating more inhuman characters is a strength of mine.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

STRESS – I take too much upon myself and don’t allow breaks between the amount of work I do, which tends to leave me in a work induced coma, unable to figure out which load of work to do first.

Can get too attached to my work – Working on digital illustrations and animations for clients other than friends and familiars, has shown that I must not get too attached to my work, and can’t take criticisms of that work too personally either.

 Opportunities:

http://illustrationfriday.com/category/contestsprojects/ - Competition done every Friday, I fell that this competition would benefit me, as it gives me a major time limit to help improve my time management problems.

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/index.php - A more challenging competition where I would have to “conform” to the rules, as it is designing the cover of a book for someone’s book cover.

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function. – Have completed this project and gained the ability to produce an animation which is timed perfectly to music, something I hadn’t been able to do before.

http://www.illustrative.de/award/award/ - The Young Illustrator Award 2014 is something I want to try out, purely because of the amount of subjects (which relate to illustration) such as Visual Art, Pattern Design, Graphic Design, Animation and Comics.

http://www.panmacmillan.com/macmillanprize - The Macmillan Prize 2014, is a competition set up to stimulate new work from young illustrators when it comes to designing book covers. I think that this project would be perfect for me because of the fact that the company are looking for a very specific kind of design, and it would test my illustrative strengths to their full potential.

Threats:

Other Commitments – Making time for both work and commitments outside of work could be challenging due to the extent and amount of work I sometimes get given.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Panic and Anxiety – Worrying and panicking about certain aspects of my work can make me forget about other parts of work. I have also missed important days of college due to panic attacks

Which have cost me dearly.