Personal Development in Specialist Pathway 30/01/14

For today, I had to construct a detailed timeline of my plan for my final project, which did help me to see what tasks I will have to do, and also what exactly I need to research. This was added to my project proposal, which I handed in this morning.

This morning I also started to watch one of the DVDs I lent from the University library last week, but I didn't realise until this morning that I actually lent out a seminar about rigging characters in Maya, instead of a tutorial, so the DVD was around 100 minutes long. However, it was interesting to hear that Neil had actually watched that DVD, saying that it teaches a new way of rigging, called the Component Editor, which I may look further into. Although the seminar was informative and detailed, I  don't think it was exactly what I was looking for, as the seminar discussed more about the coding and programming, rather than the creative side of Maya that I'm interested in, and what I will be discussing in my video tutorials. However, I did find some useful ideas in the seminar which I could present in my video tutorials, in the way that the speaker of the seminar was explaining all the things in a friendly way.

Neil did seem pleased with how my timeline was structured, saying I have left some good time to gather research and ideas. He also advised me to watch at least one video tutorial a day, which seems very reasonable.

It was then all written work this afternoon, reflecting on the week that has just gone. Although it helps to break the silence for me, I do like listening to music while doing practical work, but I feel it can sometimes distract me when doing written work. However, at times I can listen to music while doing written work, but I need to block the music out somehow, which can sometimes be hard to do.

29/01/14

Neil had to get a few things ready this morning, so for the first 30 minutes or so the class had to further explore how to write artist's grants for work. To be honest I do find the business side of art quite confusing, but I do understand the importance of it. After much consideration for ideas I could write a grant for, I eventually signed up to the Arts Council website, because I see my future work involving helping others using art, and there was an option to apply for funding that sounded quite similar to what I see myself doing. Just to be clear, as I am still a student, I am not eligible to apply for funding, but the purpose of this exercise is to write an almost draft proposal for a grant for work. This did take me a while to understand, and what we have to do is to use the application template on the arts council website to help us to understand how these grants are written.

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk

Neil had then got today's presentations ready, and at this time I had only just signed up for the Arts Council, so after this I was too busy participating in today's lecture to further explore the Arts Council website. The first part of today's lecture was about ownerships to work, and how that works. We were all given copies of the presentations, which I did find handy, and will be very useful to refer to. Something else I found useful for me to understand the lecture was that there was a small quiz about ownerships of work, even though I did get a lot of the questions wrong. It was also interesting to hear about the relationship between ownership of work and online and social media, such as Facebook, Pinterest and DeviantArt. Also, I found the strict laws in some countries about online file sharing scary but interesting, which was also mentioned in today's lecture.

The second part of today's lecture was about how being self employed in the art world works, and we were all given a large booklet about all the different ways of being self employed, which was a lot of information to take on, but again, I feel that the quiz that we had to do about this definitely helped make the lecture more exciting and informative.

These lectures I have on Wednesday mornings are very similar to the lectures last year with Neil W, but I feel I am a lot happier with where I am with college and the future than I was this time last year. I also feel that Neil B is a lot more considerate towards myself, Ananda and the photography students than Neil W was in the ways of making the work easier for everyone. Being on New Media this year might be an advantage to understanding these lectures, but I do feel that Neil B definitely involves the photography students. Also, it could be easier this year because there are less students in these lectures, so it could be easier to make your voice heard.

However, I did feel a little bit confused as to what to put in my portfolio for these lectures, as some of the other students have already started recording work, but Neil B said not to worry and that he will give me a list of things that I will need for my portfolio, which felt very reassuring. As far as I'm concerned, I think that I will need the journal, what we have worked on in the lectures and the application for the artist's grant.

I should also note that because of my work placement yesterday, I am really enjoying drawing, which sadly is something I haven't really done for a while due to being quite busy recently. I was even polishing up some drawing in the class today!

Overview of Personal Development in Specialist Pathway

During my time at college I have learned so much in my creative skills and using digital media and software to express my creative skills, which have expanded and grown so much over the past few years, and this has helped me to produce work I am proud of. I still feel there is room for improvement, but I have always done my best with every project, even when I haven’t fully understood what it is I need to do. Some of my favourite projects I have worked on, which could help me decide what I am going to make, include a dragon mascot for a football team, a trading card franchise, an angel character and a futuristic sleigh kart image for a Christmas card.

It is very exciting that I will be learning lots of new things for my final project, as well as using the skills I have learned during my time at college, and it will be a satisfying and rewarding end to my time at college.

Career's meeting/Work Placement (27/01/14-28/01/14)

I had arranged a meeting with the person who organised my work placement to discuss possible options  for after I finish college, which took place on Monday (27/01/14). I did find this meeting very useful, and because now that this person is aware that I am now considering what to do after my time at college, they can now help me further into finding this. This also made me aware that I have a lot more options than I thought I had, which was very reassuring. They also said that I could always volunteer at the school my placement is taking place after my placement officially finishes until I find something different that will help me find a future career. I think right now, even though most people my age seem to be at Uni, I don't really want to go to Uni, as I feel I would find it too much for me to get used to.

My placement has been going well, and I do feel I have tried my best on my placement, and I feel it has truly been a success. My art therapy sessions I organise for the children at the special school my work placement takes place are very well received, and I feel I have a good working relationship with the students and staff, which does make me feel really good. I do sometimes find it hard to explain things on my work placement, and the children sometimes find it hard to understand, and I feel I'm still not used to the authority I have there, and I really don't want to get frustrated with the children, but overall it has been a very positive experience so far.

Tutorial Competition RESEARCH

In this part of the research, I will be looking at different video tutorials, mainly relating to my work at college, to help me to understand how to explain things in a friendly and detailed way, and I may learn some new skills I can use in my work while doing so.

3D World Disc 147 Oct 2011, Future Publishing

On this disc included a Fluid tutorial in Maya 2012. The guide creates some flowing water coming from a very impressive looking fountain.

The guide's approach to the tutorial is casual, and feels like he is talking naturally. He sometimes backtracks (e.g. "I need to do this first"), and shows us work he has done previously, but is still very informative. Also, because this is a Maya tutorial, this is quite accurate to what I am aiming for. However, I'm not very confident with fluid techniques, so I'm not sure whether I will include this in my tutorials, unless I do end up building something that involves fluids, such as fountains or waterfalls in my tutorials. It is useful that the guide goes through the tutorial step by step and that you can see how he is making the fluid effects in Maya.

3D World Disc 160, Oct 2012, Future Publishing

Texturing Game Props

On this DVD I found two video tutorials. The first video tutorial showed how to create a stereoscopic image using V Ray in 3DS Max, a program very similar to Maya, but since I will be using Maya in my tutorials, I may not include this in my tutorial. This video was 2 minutes long, so very to the point, but one thing that really bothered me about this video was that there was no sound, even though I turned my laptop and my laptop's video player onto maximum volume. Having no sound on a video tutorial was a major hindrance, and I feel that without somebody talking on the video, regardless of how their voice sounds, makes the video tutorial much easier to follow, and I feel that if I needed to use a tutorial with no audio, I would probably find myself watching it several times before fully understanding what it is I need to do.

The second video tutorial showed how to control feathering using a variable mask in After Effects, which again is a program I don't use and is a topic that I probably won't cover in my video tutorials, but it seems simple enough. This video did however have audio, with somebody talking through the tutorial, explaining what he was doing. This definitely made the tutorial much easier to follow, and I'm sure this is a very useful video tutorial if I ever use After Effects. He also broke down each step to make the video tutorial easy to understand, and the end result looked quite impressive.

However, the main focus of this DVD is to learn how to create impressive textures for game props, such as tanks, cannons, vehicles etc. The DVD divides how to create these textures using 3DS Max and Photoshop into 15 video tutorials, so it's all very nicely broken down. Since it's about texturing, I have had to texture my models many times before, so texturing may feature in my video tutorials. The guide also shows the end result at the start of the video tutorial, which can be a good thing, so that the audience will know what they will be working towards, and this can really help motivate people, which is certainly ideal for a tutorial. The guide is also very thorough, making five "lessons" (video tutorials) showing how to UV map each part of his model (a cannon for a game). He then discusses the UV Layout, bringing all of his UV Maps together. In part 8 the guide shows how to "render" the UV Maps ready to go into Photoshop, ready to edit, which is all something I've done before in Maya. However, his UV Maps look so much more professional than anything I've ever done, and he makes it look so easy and quick, whilst I find it really time consuming! He then just basically designs the textures for the UV Maps in Photoshop, and uses many different Photoshop skills to do so, and includes photographic images for certain details for his texture map. I think this video is even giving me tips on how to improve my texturing! Cannons also seem quite simple to model, so modelling a cannon could be an idea for my video tutorials! Finally, he applies the textures to his cannon model in 3DS Max! This is also a very good tutorial for newcomers to texturing, and this is the sort of level I'm thinking I would aim my tutorials at.

Maya Techniques: MELbot Wars: Virtual Fighting Robots, July 2004, Alias/Wavefront, Kolektiv

This DVD shows how to make a robot wars style fighting game, using two very simple robot models in Maya, so this is a really good idea to base my video tutorials on. The guide even shows you the simple basics, to build simple polygons, and has a bit of everything in this video tutorial. A very basic idea, very good for getting beginners used to Maya. However, I did find the pace of this video a bit slow, even for a beginner tutorial, so

Maya Seminars: Anatomy of a Maya Character, July 2004, Alias/Wavefront.

Very technical, so definitely not for beginners. However, speaks very clearly.
As title suggests, not an actual tutorial, but a recording of a seminar. This seminar teaches us many details of character rigging, so that your characters are ready to animate. Uses slides to help explain the seminar, but goes into great detail of the slides, even if it is in technical terms. Brief details on slides, but speaker expands on the slides, to give audience a better understanding of the seminar. The seminar is presented by Maya Developer Barbara Balents. The recording often switches from the slides to Barbara speaking herself. She sometimes shows signs of nerves, such as using the phrase "you know," and using her hands to speak, but I feel that presenting a seminar or being in a situation where you have to speak in front of a large group of people can be quite daunting and definitely does take a lot of courage.

My course leader, Neil said that he had actually used this DVD in his research in the past as well, and told me to look out in the DVD for something called the Component Editor, which he said was a different kind of rigging. I may look further into this, because I might find more detailed information about the Component Editor elsewhere.

I feel that this can be quite difficult to follow, because even though it is informative, the seminar doesn't really offer much in terms of a live demonstration of what is being explained, which I feel would have made the seminar a lot better and easier to understand. There are also lots of graphs and coding shown on the slides, which is visually unappealing and not fun, and I would like to try and make my tutorials as fun as possible. However, I feel that this tutorial applies more to people studying coding and programming than the creative side of Maya, and I am focusing more on the creative side of Maya.

Also, before the seminar, Barbara listed everything she would talk about in the seminar, something I feel would make my tutorials much clearer, if I can edit text into my video.

Art Attack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F329Rxp7NjE

Something I remember from my childhood that could help greatly in terms of presenting my video tutorials in this project is the children’s TV programme Art Attack. The aim of this show is to get children interested in arts and crafts and being creative by showing the audience how to make art in a very fun kind of way.

The presenter, Neil Buchannan (who was also born on the same day as my mum) would show the audience what art product he was making (in this instance, a “Halloween monster”) and told the audience how to make it by a step by step process. 

One thing I find particularly interesting, which I could do in my own video tutorials, is how the guides were presented. What would happen is that Neil would show an example of how to achieve each step, but then, probably to keep the show at a reasonable length, and because some steps require preparation, he would show the completed step using another example he made earlier. I feel that this could be a possible method for me to use for my video tutorials, because a lot of things that are done in Maya can be quite time consuming, and it might not be very easy to follow if I am actually building everything as I go along. Even in the video tutorials of Maya I have watched, a lot of them have had quite a lot already built before the tutorial begins.

Also, one thing I noticed today that I didn't pay too much attention to when I was younger, was that a 3D animation is used for the title sequence, bringing many different art tools to life. Since this programme is quite old, the quality of the 3D, especially the textures aren't as good as the professional 3D of today, but I do really love the animation. Also, the quality of the 3D won't need to be worried about as much because it is a children's programme, so they might not pick up on the quality of 3D animation as much as older people.

This video is also relevant to one of my projects on my work placement, which is to design a monster based on what people find difficult. Up to now, I have just been drawing these monsters, but this video does give me ideas on ways I can improve this project, by making craft ideas as well.

The "Big Art Attacks" are really clever too. These just show you can make art from pretty much anything, and is always a good way of expressing yourself.

Neil even discussed ways you can improve on art, and also discusses how professionals work as well. Even areas such as animation is covered, as to how animators draw very simple shapes and "matchstick men," and this is also something which means a lot to me and my work. Also, in the show, to show possibilities of each project, Neil shows different results of each project, which shows that you can still follow these guidelines and still be imaginative with the project.

This show also does well with trying to relate to the younger target audience. This is shown by the language used by Neil during the show which would appeal to children, such as "bogey green" and "babyish" to help explain what he was doing.

The show also lets the audience submit some of their work, and Neil shows several highlights in each episode, which is another way the show is appealing.

Personal Development in Specialist Pathway 23/01/14

For today I needed to finish a detailed project proposal of what I wanted to do for my final project for my Foundation Degree. I enjoyed recording my idea for making some video tutorials for beginners of Maya, although I did feel like I was repeating myself quite a lot while writing the proposal. Whilst writing the proposal it made me think about how the project was going to be done, and what I needed to know, which is all written in the proposal. Because it's early in the project right now, the whole project does seem quite daunting, but manageable if I keep on track.

I showed my project proposal to Neil, which he thought was good, but was also able to give me some constructive advice on how to make my project proposal, and the structure of the project better. At this point I was still undecided in what I was going to create in Maya for my tutorials, so this needs to be decided ASAP. However, I did think to ask Neil about what projects he sets for first year Interactive Media students, and was able to give me some good ideas. He even mentioned me observing one of their lectures, and perhaps testing out my tutorials on them, so I can get some honest feedback from them, which also sounds very good. I also plan to test my tutorials out on other people, such as my parents, so that they would understand exactly what it is I do at college and how to use Maya.

I was very happy with Neil's feedback, because I could very much discuss my ideas with him, and I could definitely understand completely what he liked and what needs to be considered for my project, such as the product I will be designing in my tutorials.

One area I do feel more confident in is my written work. I think my written work is of a good quality, and I wrote everything I needed to in my project proposal. There were only a few things I needed to change, such as the grammar and vocabulary I was using, to make it sound more professional, and to put some references and images in the project proposal, and a timetable of my project, which all seemed reasonable to me.

I spent the morning thinking about what I could show people how to design in Maya in my video tutorials. I noted Neil's advice, which was to make something not too detailed and "blocky,"which also matched my interests, so I thought of things such as robots and landmarks. A robot seemed a more diverse project than a landmark, which led me to think of other simple characters I could model, and what already exists. I also thought back to when I first started using Maya and what projects I was working on back then. I particularly remembered a project I enjoyed where I had to model a 3D version of a 2D character, such as Donald Duck or Felix the Cat, and wondered if I could base a tutorial on those. Neil said it may be a bit too difficult for total beginners, but it would still be something to consider. I then wrote a list of characters I thought would be simple to model. Vehicles may also be a good idea, as they are "blocky," and they also move, so that's another idea.

However, I did feel quite tired today, so today didn't feel as productive as I would have hoped. I think I need a strategy so I'm not so tired when I am at college. This did feel weird as well, because I wasn't tired when I was at college yesterday.

Professional and Contextual Studies 2 22/01/14

Today we had to write about PESTEL and SWOT. These are things that could affect and influence our work that often can be beyond our control. These are both reflective terms to help us improve our reflective writing. To be honest, I did feel that these exercises were very useful, and it felt a lot clearer what it is we had to write about in our reflective journals.

SWOT stands for:

Strengths. (skills, positive qualities, advantages, resources, and strengths other people see)
Weaknesses (improvements, risks, what other people see as weaknesses)
Opportunities (events, jobs, volunteering, activities, advertising, self promotion)
Threats (cost, commitments, other's work, technology, weaknesses, social and family commitments, accident and emergency)

In the lecture today we had to write a list about what we thought our personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats were, and what we thought other people thought these were in us. Even though eventually I listed a lot of my strengths, I naturally find it hard to do so. To make the lecture feel more involved and interactive, I asked the other students what they thought my strengths/weaknesses etc. were, and I helped some of them with what I felt their strengths, weaknesses etc. were too. Although the other students are Photography students, and therefore not in any of my other lectures, they did give me some very good things to write about, and I gave them some good ideas too.

Not only did I think about my Foundation Degree during this exercise, but also skills I've acquired on my placement as well. My placement is going very well, and I can think of lots of good and creative ideas, but I feel that my confidence could be improved and that I am very hard on myself when I make mistakes. I recorded all of this in this exercise.

PESTEL stands for:

Political Factors, such as: funding for projects, taxes, and foreign trade.

Economic Factors, such as: money for software, insurance, money for technology, income, project budget, change in pay.

Social Factors, such as: People skills, helping others, promotion of work, advertising, education.

Technological Factors, such as: access to software, internet access, portability, new technological discoveries, new updated technology, technology becoming out of date.

Environmental Factors, such as: extreme weather conditions, access to different places, energy costs.

Legal Factors, such as: copyrighting others work, protecting and backing up original ideas, backing up work, health and safety, responsibility for others, employment, product safety.

Careers Advice 20/01/14

Today I went into college to discuss the next steps after my time at college, and on my work placement. This went really well, and I found it very useful and helpful, but at the same time, it has made me quite worried about the future, as it may seem that my options are more limited than I thought they were.

Personally I feel going to Uni to do another degree course would be a bit too much for me to cope, and a bit too much for me to get used to, and to become an actual art therapist, I would need to do a degree and a post graduate course, and also there aren't any jobs going for an art therapist right now. So now I'm thinking that it would be good to try and find a job where I can still help others using art, but will also have other elements to the job, such as being a teaching assistant.

Also, and the careers advisor was a bit confused when they looked this up, because I'm on a degree course, I'm a bit overqualified for an apprenticeship, so if I still wanted to do an apprenticeship, I'd have to pay for it.

So for the next step, I was advised to ask on my current placement if there will be any teaching assistant apprenticeships or jobs going there, relating to what I am already doing on my placement, which I will be happy to do, but I feel I still want to think if there are any other jobs other than a teaching assistant that I could use my artistic skills to help others.

16/01/14

This morning I had to decide what it was I wanted to do as a final project of New Media. After writing down a few ideas during the week, and having a chat with my course leader, it was still a hard decision for me to make, but my course leader, Neil, seemed very happy with my ideas, especially where I would make a series of detailed Maya tutorial videos. I realised I needed to make a decision, so I decided to look further into the tutorial videos, and how to make them, what software and equipment I would need, and how much it would cost.

I found a brief YouTube video explaining how to record on screen videos on a Mac (or in my case, a Macbook Pro. Although I can use the Macs at college, I much prefer using my Macbook Pro.) The video used Quicktime Player, a program that fortunately is already pre installed on my Macbook Pro, so  that doesn't seem like too much of a problem, and Neil said that college have headsets I can use to record sound/audio, so initially it looks like I might not need to pay too much at all. I just hope that, because I have never used Quicktime Player before, and even though I tested it this morning briefly, that I will have no problems using the software and that it will be sufficient enough to complete this potential project. I also need to decide what I will make in Maya to show in these tutorials. I think I should make something quite simple, but shows all the areas I know in Maya, so that Maya newcomers will clearly see how they can make what they like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJbYGcOlj_k

After some consideration I decided that I will work on the video tutorials of Maya for my final project, as I thought it will give me a skill I could easily use after my time at college, both as a hobby and professionally in whatever career path I choose. It is also relevant to my career goals, which right now is to help others, and this can be easily done by making fun videos. Video editing is also something I have always been interested in, but have never really understood how to do it, or where to start. I have found this website which discusses the best video editing software I can access for free.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-6-free-video-editors-mac-os/

It was also quite exciting talking to Neil about this project, and he suggested that I could borrow from college a headset to record my voice, which certainly sounds intriguing. It would also be ideal for people considering coming to college to study a course which would involve Maya, such as the BTEC in Interactive Media, or, of course, the course I am on now, the Foundation Degree in New Media.

For next week, I must finish my project proposal, as well as think about what product I will actually make in my video tutorials.

Professional and Contextual Studies 2 15/01/14

Started a new module today, something I think I always feel a bit nervous about, especially with today, as at first I felt really unsure of what I have to do in this module, because it seems that this module is all about planning ahead for the future, for when I will have a career. It also seems that I might have to promote my work, something I don't really feel very confident in right now, because I don't really know how good my work is and right now I don't see myself working in New Media as a career.

However, as the morning went on, and after reading the module handbook a few times, it was a bit clearer to me what I needed to do. Neil also kindly gave me some ideas for an imaginary grant I could write about, which is one of the things I need to do in this module, which helped me very much. I feel that, because of what I would like to do after college, perhaps maybe an event or trip with a school would be a good idea, or teaching children how to use some software I have been using during my time at college, such as Photoshop or Maya, or perhaps another art based class, or art therapy class. I even mentioned an "arts based" trip to Disney World, where I could either organise a trip there, or work on a project, or suggest ideas for new characters or attractions etc.

The objective of today was to get more of an understanding of how to write an artist's grant, as a lot of artists are self employed, and need funding for lots of things for their work, such as equipment, travel etc. I was referred to two notable websites, http://www.artscouncil.org.uk, one of the best known websites that fund artists and their projects, which was more for general arts, and  http://www.nesta.org.uk, which is more for New Media based projects, but is still sponsored by the arts council.

A huge part of this module (50%) is writing a reflective journal about these last few projects on the course, so I will really need to update my journal as often as I can, every time I do some work.

Final Project Ideas 9/1/14

Today is the beginning of the end, and now I need to decide what I would like to do as a final project for my Foundation Degree. Also, the reflective journal has been enforced again, so I will be reflecting much more often, pretty much every time I do my work.

This final project needs to be:
A large project, I will have 3-4 months to work on this
Something I will enjoy
Relevant to something I'd like to do in the future
Will need to feature an element of work I have had little to no experience in.

IDEA 1

One idea for my final project is something I can do to reflect and celebrate my time at college, or at least a highlight of my time at college, so I thought of an animation cycle featuring a plane flying over the places I have been on my overseas trips, Rome and Paris. These trips were definitely major highlights of my time at college and I don't think I'll ever forget them, so I feel that this would be a great finale for my time at college to say goodbye and thank you to college and all the people who have made my time at college special. I would also like to use cartoony style graphics, because firstly, I like cartoony style graphics, but also because I feel I can be more creative using this graphics style. Also, it won't be the entire cities I'll be modelling, just the famous landmarks I visited during my time at Rome and Paris, such as the Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower, as well as the plane, of course.

As with the last project I completed at college, I will be building a vehicle in Maya that I haven't really built before. Also, I'm not very confident in using 3D animation, so this project should improve my 3D animation skills.

If I have time I might want to make some digital paintings based on my time in Paris and Rome, using a non realistic artistic style, because if I tried to make it really realistic, it would take me much longer than the allocated time.

I also feel I will be able to efficiently manage my time during this project, so I shouldn't have too much or too little to do at any one time. Before Feb half term I will try and get as much research and written work as possible.

To do this, I will research different adaptations of Rome and Paris in cartoons, TV, games and films
Other things that have come to mind whilst thinking about this project that I could use in my research includes:
British Gas Advert.
Playstation All Stars Battle Royale/Paris
Kingdom Hearts World Map
Streetpass Puzzle Swap

This should easily be plenty of work to keep me busy until the project deadline in May, and this project should be able to improve my confidence using 3D animation.

IDEA 2

Another idea I have is based on my Art Therapy sessions I have been organising on my work placement. One thing I have done in my art therapy sessions is drawing monsters that represent difficulties a person may be facing in everyday life, such as anger or anxiety, and afterwards getting them to reflect on the drawing, set them goals, and to draw a hero character that will help overcome the "monster," the difficulty, so another idea is for me to model some monster and/or hero designs, and perhaps make an animation sequence of them fighting each other, or a digital painting featuring the designs I have modelled.

I have already considered a lot of things I could use in my research, such as existing monsters and superheroes, because I design the monsters in the art therapy sessions with the children and I have already looked at existing examples of monsters and superheroes. It may also be a good idea to look more into certain traits which make people's lives more difficult, such as anger and anxiety.

IDEA 3.

One more idea I've had since Thursday's lesson (Thought of on Sat 11th Jan 2014), which sort of combines my inspirations for the first two projects (my time at college and helping others with Art Therapy) is to perhaps create a series of detailed Maya tutorials, using the knowledge I've obtained during my time at college to help people who want to learn how to use Maya in an informative, but fun way. I could make videos and upload them onto YouTube, and making YouTube videos is something I've always been interested in doing, but have never really had any idea how to, despite me potentially owning relevant software to make videos. I could break these videos down into weekly entries, where I discuss the basics of Maya, as well as using tools and information that could be quite new to me.

The thought of learning how to make a YouTube video makes me think that I could actually combine this into any project I choose to do, including all the projects I have thought about in this blog. Because of my lack of experience in animating using Maya, I don't think I would upload a 3D animation, but there could be plenty of other things I could upload onto YouTube, such as video blogs about my project, and perhaps about the art therapy sessions I have organised.

Autumn/Winter 2013

Last term at college I'll admit I was quite terrible at keeping track of my reflective learning journal, possibly because I felt writing a reflective learning journal wasn't enforced upon us very much during the past few modules. However, it has been quite strange that I haven't recorded much from the last few months, because I remember on my BTEC Interactive Media course I often kept a journal of thoughts and feelings about college, and back then I didn't even have to! It did make me cope better and to record and remember my thoughts at the the time, which is also important for ideas.

College in general has been going rather well, with very little stress. The quality of my work has seemed to have improved greatly, possibly because I may feel more content with other areas of my life. We have been sharing classes with some of the Foundation Degree Photography students this year, but not so much the art students. I feel this has been good for me to get to know the Photography students better because despite them being in some of our lessons last year, I didn't really get to talk to them much, possibly because it was such a big group. However, I do get on very well with all the Photography students now. They are very chatty, so they can be distracted from their work at times, but are always very friendly and have a brilliant sense of humour, so I get to have a laugh with them. I was even able to help them with their written work just before Christmas, because I managed to complete my written work in a very high quality quite early, and they seemed to really appreciate my help.

Compared to last year there has also been a lot more creative freedom with our practical work, which I have always preferred because it makes my projects more personal and I will also know a bit about the projects before I start them, which is always a positive advantage. Last term I completed two short practical projects, one was designing a football playing dragon character, which was inspired by my dad's voluntary work with a Special Needs Football Team and their mascot is a dragon. This idea was very much approved by Neil because it was inspired by something in the real world. My other project was just really to expand my portfolio of work and what I could do in Maya. Because I hadn't modelled vehicles before in Maya, I decided I wanted to design a futuristic time machine kart in Maya. However, because I was very much looking forward to Christmas, this quickly changed into a sleigh with horizontal wheels, so it could hover. I then rendered this image to use on a Christmas card. I enjoyed both of these short projects, but while I was working on these projects at college, it was very quiet, because of everybody on the course, only myself and Ananda remain, and Neil runs the lessons and lectures and Lynda supports me, so motivation at times could be difficult. There was one other person on the Foundation Degree in the first year, my good friend Jake, but he was quickly removed from the course because he hadn't enrolled properly. This was a shame, because I really enjoy his company and get on with him very well, and it would have been another person to talk to.

I've also started using Pinterest properly, which has helped me greatly to record images and interesting pictures that I can use for my research, and it also records the original source of the image too, great for Harvard referencing!

Something else that is definitely worth mentioning is that I have started my voluntary work placement at a local Special School, to explore a potential career path and learning to become an Art Therapist. I feel that because of my Autism, I have a lot of experience for me to relate to people's problems, and to help them using artistic methods. This has been going really well, and I have managed to come up with some very good ideas for the art therapy sessions that I organise, such as drawing monsters based on people's difficulties, such as anger and anxiety, and drawing heroes and opponents to overcome these difficulties. I also get on very well with the staff there, and have welcomed me very warmly to the placement.