Miniature worlds - t1ara.com

Assessment evidence

Part of the final assessment criteria states that we are supposed to highlight the areas in our blog that reference our assessment evidence. However i really feel that all my postings in unit 3 are relevant to not only the assessment but the journey of the project, and when taken in context make the most sense. so here is the link for the first posting of unit 3 and the starting page

Other important/relevant pieces for assesment are:

• Key project reflections, analysis and developments A B C D E F G H I
• The main website for the project www.t1ara.com
• The finished animated picture book
• Project illustrations
• Colloquium presentation
• Artists statement paper
• Exhibition set up/organization A B C D E F
• Final exhibition display

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3w26

This week i made the 10 hr round trip to Camberwell to set up for the exhibition and the long travel was more then worth it. I really enjoyed the whole experience. Meeting fellow students from the online and ftf course and the tutours for the first time just further enforced what a great experience these last two years have been. We are so lucky to have this community of artists working in the same field all online giving invaluable critiques, advice and support.

Setting up the show was a much bigger job then i envisaged and the full time and online students that are there all week should be commended, as they are really going above the call of duty for us onliners. I had it in my mind that the space would be all gallery ready and it would literally be us just installing our finished works and testing that the systems worked fully. The rooms were the exhibition is taking place are studios that needed to be painted, cleaned, boarded over and prepared before any installation could take place. What struck me about the whole experience was the sense of team and community the students took on, all getting stuck in and thinking on there toes whenever any problems cropped up.

The room i am assigned to needed the most work and with only one day i was a little worried that i wouldn’t be able to set up before the end of the day. My big concern was the wall art, as the room has brick walls and i needed a flat surface to install the stickers. Thankfully Andy was on hand to advise about a wood board and i was able to get the board painted in time to install the stickers before i left that evening. You can see the finished results below.

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Exhibit display | Camberwell

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3W25

The chat session this week was more disjointed due to the imminent timing of the end of year show. They’re seems to be a lot of stress and panick which is all to be expected, but happily there is lots of excitement also.

I managed to join Flickr and upload photos of my work to the new flickr MAO8 group http://www.flickr.com/groups/ma08/ and i am know handling the image updates for the main site http://www.ma08.org.uk/madigitalarts.html, which is a really easy to use CMS site designed and built by Sean. Being involved in the show planning and organization for such a large group of people from start to finish has been a real eye opener, but a process i have enjoyed.

With the assesment and end of year drawing closer i feel quite sad to think that are weekly meetings will soon be coming to an end. I will be interested to hear about this new open forum andy mentioned as i don’t see the MA to be a finishing point rather a jumping board to the future.

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Final animation

My final animation is now live and viewable at http://www.t1ara.com/index.php/picturebook

Baring a final tweak to the loading bar code it is all ready for the exhibition. As the animation is circular in that it can be built and built on with no cut of point, i used my project aims as a guide. The original brief stated 12-20 scenes and i now have 23. But of course the quantity is not as important as the quality of the experience, so each scene and link has been tested and re worked on until it now all gels and works perfectly together.

I would love to see this animation used as a creative tool for futher development, whether it is a student using it as a quide to create there own story, or an artist taking inspiration in the multiple possibilities and using it as a spin of point to create there own work.

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Sound

It occured to me that as yet i have not documented my decision on sound. I looked at incorporating the voice of a child reading into the animation but found on testing that it made the length and feel of each scene too long and repetitive. It was also inappropriate for my target audience.

My project is all about visual stimulation and choosing to take your journey through the piece at your own pace. I was against the idea of many different non narrative sounds from the start as they don’t lend well to this project. They put a timeline on each scene and when you hear the same sound twice it becomes annoying rather then visually knowing you have made a wrong turn on seeing the same image twice and choosing a different direction. This is why i choose to make my piece without audio and i strongly believe it was the correct choice.

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Wall stickers

The wall stickers arrived from the printer and look fantastic.
As i am not able to see our exhibition area until i arrive in London, i decided to get two different colour ways printed. It never hurts to be prepared.
The all silver way will work better in a lighter small space, where as the 3 colour bright set will work better in a darker bigger room. I am really looking forward to going down to London for the set up next week, with all the print arriving it makes the exhibition seem more tangable.

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Show help

I originally voluntered to help out with any design elements of the show as i thought it was the area i could most contribute to, but after countless emails unanswered i decided it best to help out any way i could. I managed to attend a fair few planning meetings online to put forward the onliners views and suggestions, which with the help of the full time students was very succesfull. I have tried to keep comunication lines open with the full timers and offered to help out in any way i can, as i have a great deal of respect for the amount of work and dedication they are putting in to making the show a success. I am in London on the 19th to help with the show set up and before then i am due to work on populating the show site with content.

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3w24

Over the last couple of weeks i have been on a real emotional rollercoaster. I think it’s only natural when you come towards the completion of a project that you start to over analyse it, in your quest to make it as perfect as possible. For this piece it was the coding or the way the project worked that i kept changing, i must of tried it a million different ways, hidden buttons, zoom tools, scene triggers. 
Looking back i think i was too ambitious with all of the different elements to the piece, the hidden meaning to the story, the non linear direction, aiding visual literacy, the fairytale narrative, etc, etc. In the end there are elements of each to the piece, but to make the animation work effectively i had to strip it back to its true concept. This meant cutting back on the text, increasing the user options/paths, making the transitional scenes stronger and having fun with the piece. It is really easy to loose sight that the process is just as important if not more so then the end piece and when you truely enjoy your work it always comes together in the end.

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The bookmarks are in!

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