A new intake and lightpainting

Well another year begins and the new intake of Level 2 and 3 students have had a dynamic week of creative thinking, idea generation, editing, animation and photography. It's always good to hear appreciative comments from students and this year is no exception.

New skills are wonderful whatever age

Im feeling very excited by the possibilities of our students this year... they are showing great potential. After some persuasion most of my students eventually joined up to the free online Adobe Generation 10 week courses available at the moment October - December 2012, these include Photo Editing, Games Development and 2D Animation. Now i've never been one to think I know it all and you won't find a better advocate for lifelong learning, as there is always something you could improve or a shorter way of doing things, so what's good for the goose is good for the gander. In response to this many of my colleagues have been some what puzzled as to why I would do this but as I said there are always new things and ways to do things, Creative Media is always evolving and thats what I love about it. After 10 weeks of hard work it was great to see two of our 1st Year students being highlighted in the best of Finale at the end of the course with Theo winning the best overall student,winning a year of Creative Cloud(free access to Adobe products for a year)and also an Ipad Mini. It was also fantastic to see that there were over 5000 learners involved in the online course with students as far reaching as Canada and Greece involved including both staff and students, and the work produced was diverse and of a exceptional standard...showing imaginative responses to each weeks task. New courses in the New Year will include Photoshop and Photography for owners of DSLRs and also After Effects, so again looking forward to a productive term ahead. For further information see below. I would suggest that any students preparing for University or work join and make the most of these in preparation for their showreels, put the work in and you will have some fantastic pieces of work and learn a lot in the process.

Digital Dialogue: An exploration in Time-based Art

Well today saw the preview of my first exhibition, 'Digital Dialogue:An exploration in Time based Art' which is currently being held at St.Donats Art Centre, Mid Glamorgan, until 15th December 2011

This is a fantastic exhibition space which is a really good size small enough to not loose its intimacy, it has an informal quality through space, light and structure that I think is productive in reading the work exhibited. I can't explain how good it has been to do this now and to be quite honest I feel revitalised by the whole process, not only as a new experience in itself, (I can now say that I am extremely comfortable with stretching canvases and doing corners (those in the canvas profession will know what I mean) and hanging pictures but to also remind oneself of the artist within, often this can get lost or pushed out as teaching takes over, really its about getting your allocation of time right making sure you don't lose sight of your own conceptualisation and craft. I've had fantastic support through this process also as the women involved are all members of Atlantic college teaching staff, a veritable hotbed of support and creativity, so a big thankyou to Maddy and Lucy. The diversity that is evident in the exhibition is wonderful to see, from macro abstract photography of flowers to installation pieces exploring the preproduction process, to my own animations exploring human conditioning from media influence and mind control through peer pressure.

It was wonderful to see my work projected on a large scale and to see the reactions from people and this is a prominent memory of the evening, people watching on mass of my work. Some students said it was scary but I hasten to add thought provoking - which is always my main aim. Many people came to ask questions about how it was made and the time that each piece took to produce as they had not seen anything like it before which is a compliment in itself. Many people commented on the layering and textural quality of the work.

The communication between the 3 exhibitors is key and we have worked really hard to produce a unique and diverse exhibition. I have got such a rush out of doing this that I have suggested that we do this yearly using this platform as a way to show off new work all fellow members were in agreement, we have enjoyed the whole process. In fact I have started on the new animation already inspired by music and pre-empting the '2012' media frenzy that will happen. Watch this space. Storyboards to go up shortly.

An outline description of the exhibition can be found at the following link

http://www.stdonats.com/category/gallery

2011 onwards and upwards

I'm starting the New Year of 2011 with the intention that I actually post things up on here regularly, unfortunately there has been a bit of lull of late. So we shall start with the much anticipated visit to Coleg SirGar by Matthew Gravelle fellow Llanellite, Newport MA Course leader,award winning animator, man of many facets and strings to his bow. I cannot tell you how good it was to see him.
Matthew was his usual lovely self and gave lots of information both about his films and Newport Animation and was a real inspiration to the students giving his time to look and advise on students work. The relationship to Llanelli had a huge bearing on the students, and having an outside speaker who orginated from the area and could relate to the students was a huge bonus.
Needless to say I have had loads of positive feedback from the students with some wanting to change direction to animation!! I have also had feedback from many that they would definately go again if the opportunity arose.
Round of applause for Matthew!!!!!!!What a star!!!

Completion of PGCE and future teaching

After spending two years completing my PGCE majoring in animation and interactive media the current outlook concerning UK job prospects with respect to teaching due to the extended recession, the national debt and the change in leadership, has left me in a state of uncertainty.
A recent visit to my second home of Cambridge emphasised the overall feeling of vitality and vigor with a plentiful supply of vacancies in shop windows and people optomistic at their futures acerbated by the recent heatwave, it was 30 degrees when I left.
Back to Wales, yes it was raining! back to technology and teaching and the cuts implemented include the closure of Becta the government agency that supports the implementation of learning through technology and huge cuts in learning support.

This year we have now gotDRAGON a stop motion software made by animators for animators which has had many excellent reviews and may well be a competitor in industry for reliable and easier to use Stop motion Pro. Other advantages at last a cross compatible software cutting through the huge list of software that either works on Mac or PC although on the down side their list of cameras that are are supported is limited to highend DSLRs and Canon powershots. In my view definately geared towards production companies and institutes. Individuals great if you can afford the camera.

Still in my usual philosophical way everything happens for a reason and this will give me greater time to make animations. Watch this space!!

Sand Animation

Well this indeed is an interesting year, I now have also teaching hours at Atlantic College teaching animation, this has vered me both professionally and personally to experiment with the merits of sand animation I love this type of animation for both its links to the area, the coloration and density you can achieve, the method and freeness.
One of the animations I will be using as an example mixes both music and animation and am hoping that this will be perfect for students looking into this technique.


Marissa Delbressine Seasons was also nominated for the 2007 Aniboom competition this animator's work can be seen at "http://mindmapped.nl"

Channel 4 - Lifeclass

Ok so the summer holidays are here.....
After the difficulties of finding life classes and the bureaucratic elements of arranging a life class sometimes the good ol'television surprises me. Channel 4 put on a life class for 1 week each day was with a different tutor/ artist and model, each having different ways of teaching the subject and each model have their own unique features.
Channel 4 had a lot of stick for putting on this program with nudity before the 9.00 watershed but I have only praise, there must be so many people in the same situation that find it difficult in finding this artistic outlet to hand. After all life drawing is one of the fundemental areas that all drawing skills are built on.
This drawing facility should be available to everyone that needs it/ wants to attend.

Below are several drawings completed from using the life models from the TV programme.

Teaching

After starting the PGCE a couple of weeks later than everyone else have managed to catch up, with assignment1 handed in and the micro session went really well.
Am loving the teaching side of it as usual and finding different ways of getting a lesson across. next week will involve different coloured thigh high socks and cut out people. Single camera production i'm specialising in Storyboarding which again i'm loving with the aim of improving students drawing skills at the same time as explaining the nuances of types of shots, camera movements, focusing, mise en scene etc.
Next week have PGCE teaching assessment and the following week Estyn inspection just hope everything goes according to plan. As Kolb would say planning is the key to good teaching.
Have also been refreshing myself over half term on the wonderful program Toonboom as we will shortly be using this aswell as AfterEffects at the college.
Right back to lesson plans............