Animation Belfast Degree Show 2016

Planning & Degree Show:

Exhibition Date: Friday 2nd June – Saturday 11th June 2016

Room Setup Dates: Monday 23rd May – Friday 27th May 2016

Objective:

Towards the end of this semester, the university intends to hold an End of Year Show, that will enable the final year students of animation to showcase their work, in a way of their choosing, to whomever is interested; whether that be family and friends, or the general public. The idea behind this exhibition is to create a personal night for both students and their families, allowing them a small glimpse into our journey throughout the course of Animation and allow us as individuals to celebrate and present our achievements, in a creative and innovative way.

Our intention is to have each of the final semester groups to exhibit their work in their own personal stations, however, each of the members of that group will also be given the opportunity to represent themselves as individuals. The current layout in discussion is for each group to have their own workstation, that will consist of 2/3 tables (depending on the size of the group), with each table being divided up into two different sections via MDF walls.

Team Members Responsible For Planning End of Year Show:

• Matt Boyd
• Andrew Brennan
• Rachel Creaner
• Toni Dempster
• Niall Donnelly
• Cal Douglas
• Ceelie Fox
• Kristian Glenn
• Megan Houston

We have a grand total of 6 groups and 4 individuals who need to be represented.

The teams are as follows:

Solo Projects:

• Cal Douglas

• Kristian Glenn

• Peter McNally

• Sarah Scullion

Groups of Three:

• Ceelie Fox
• Megan Houston
• Maelys Soitout

• Matt Boyd
• Toni Dempster
• Rachel Hynds

• Nicole Kennedy
• Fiona McLaughlin
• Mary Stewart

Groups of Four:

• Rachel Creaner
• Niall Donnelly
• Matthew McBride
• Matthew Morrison

Groups of Five:

• Andrew Brennan
• Lauren Patrick
• Cricky McKenna
• Paul McVeigh
• Aimee Williamson

• Sam Hudson
• Michael McCrea
• Aodhan McNicholl
• Bobby Strain
• Rebekah Quinn

Grand Total of 27 Students 

Rooms Available For Use:

• CARL (Screenings)
• CARL JR (Exhibition)
• New Room (Exhibition Extension)

Carl Jr has a max. of 28 desks available for use.

___

Roles & Responsibilities:

1 – Point of Contact: Reporting & Feedback

• Matt Boyd
• Megan Houston

2 – Branding: Personal & Industrial Invites.

• Andrew Brennan
• Kristian Glenn

3 – Combined Course Showreel: Class Highlights & Specific Areas of Interest

• Rachel Creaner
• Niall Donnelly

4 – Promotion: BBC ARTS Show/ Belfast Telegraph/ Social Media/ Postage of Invites

• Cal Douglas
• Ceelie Fox

5 – Degree Show Plan: Layout & Spacial Organisation / Transportable Degree Show

• ALL of the above

___

Board of Planning:

Above we have listed some of the things that we would like to do, as well as further inquire about, however, in order to make this a reality, we will need to take some things into consideration. These are as follows:

• Plug Socket Placement
• Additional Lighting
• Number of monitors available
• Print Funding ( Class of 2016 Head Shots)
• Foam Boards
• Clearing the room
• Painting the room
• Getting access to the room
• Projectors
• Speakers
• Catering
• Regulations regarding Alcohol etc

___

Work Station Layout:

In terms of layout, I was looking into the intended structure of the tables, and drew up some schematics to see how that could possibly work:

Having spoken to the group about this, Toni has agreed to take responsibility for obtaining said boards, as she has contacts who will be able to acquire them for her.

___

Examples of Past Degree Shows:

Considering this is the first ever Animation degree show to take part in the University of Ulster, I felt it was important that we looked into examples of other past degree shows to get an example of how other years had went about doing this.

First and foremost, I thought it would be interesting to look into some of the displays put on by the Ulster University itself, and although a lot of the content in this video may be deemed irrelevant, there are some parts that can also be considered beneficial, especially when considering how they utilise the space and work the designated areas to their advantage:

Though not necessarily showcasing an animation degree, this compilation of work to come out of the Northumbria’s School or Design could also come in handy when designing our own end of year show. The set up of the Motion and Graphic Design displays, in particular, were very nicely represented with a collection of selected work laid out on a table, with a monitor showcasing their website/film, and the wall behind featuring chosen print outs of the students best work. This is a pretty similar idea to what I have in mind for our final end of year degree show.

The following clip is a pretty interesting little teaser video created by a student from the London College of Communication, which features them both planning and setting up their end of year displays in a really fun and innovative way. There are some nice wall displays in here also, hence why I felt the need to share:

Again, there are some very nice setups here, especially in regard to the Illustration and Animation displays. Very similar to Northumbria’s School or Design, their setups consist of a monitor, a table layout and a wall of their best pieces, which I feel is a pretty solid design for any exhibition. I particularly like the way the character illustrations have been displayed on the walls, and this gives me some personal ideas on how to present my own concept pieces and illustrations when creating my own personal space: 

___

What Makes A Successful Degree Show?

Our end of year show is a potential opportunity to make a start in the animation industry, so it’s important that we make an effort, and try to make the most of this experience.

This final year show will allow us to showcase our work to a wide range of people, at any given time, whether it be family, other art students, or possible employers, so it’s imperative that we maintain the quality of the show throughout its duration, and make sure that it looks its best at all times. It is also important to make sure that we make ourselves available and contactable in the months that follow, in case of any follow ups from potential employers.

Having done some research into degree shows, and what it is that make them successful, I complied a list of things to take into consideration when planning out our ideal show. These are as follows:

Preparation:

• Preparation is something that is hugely important, and should be started at a very early stage, quite like we are doing now. It is important for us as soon-to-be graduates to ask former students what their experience with the degree show was like, as well as ask tutors who were present for them. This way we can gather as much information as possible, and try to avoid as many issues as we can.

• It’s also important for us to maintain a healthy relationship with each other, meeting regularly for group discussions, and dividing up tasks amongst ourselves in order to make the show a reality. This will help to keep things running smoothly and avoid any mad rushes or comprises due to time.

• It is also important for us to maintain a healthy relationship with each other, meeting regularly for group discussions, and dividing up tasks amongst ourselves in order to make the show a reality. This will help to keep things running smoothly avoid any mad rushes or compromises due to time.

• It’s also important to keep in mind, at all times, how the set up of the show will tie together as a whole, and keep a sense of consistency within the room; though of course not removing individuality altogether.

The Show Itself:

• It is important to try and find a well-designed space to hang our work rather than using makeshift spaces such as hallways, though due to the rooms we have available, this should not be a problem. That said, even a poor space can be enhanced by good lighting, cleanliness, and prepping walls for mounting so it is important to make the best of the spaces available to us.

• It is important to create some form of reception for visitors and passer-bys to find out information about the show and the students exhibiting, that way there will be more word of mouth which could potentially lead to a larger crowd. It is important to make sure that this information is clear and in space that is easily locatable and welcoming so that it will appeal to the larger public.

• Most importantly, when the displays are set up, it is essential, that arrangements are made to ensure that all equipment is switched on and working at all times whilst the show is open, especially the days after the opening night, as there will be a huge swarm of people constantly entering that room, and due to time constraints, it is not likely that they will return to a piece of work that is inaccessible or that isn’t looking it’s best, so it’s important to stay on top of this.

• Business cards and information sheets should be on display as well, and classmates should be encouraged to be as accommodating and helpful as possible, and willing to talk about not only their own work but also that of their colleges.

• It’s also important to remember that this whole experience is helping us to build a network, so we should be conscious of tracking all interested parties, and make sure that cards are available in case they decide to contact any of us at a later date or follow us up on a lead.

___

Examples of Other Class Showreels:

Seen as Niall and myself have been put in charge of the class showreel, I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at some examples of other degree shows and how they put their showreels together. Below are a some of the examples that really stood out:

Sweet merciful Zeus.. content wise this is really intimidating, however, I think this is a great example of a class showreel. Even though the content itself is quite diverse, they manage to tie everything together very well without making anything look out of place. The content itself is very engaging on its own, however, when combined with the timing of the track, it works even more so in captivating the audience.

I absolute love this one! There’s a great variety of different mediums, with an engaging track that helps to tie everything together. I personally find the diversity of the clips in this one, to be very mesmerising and it is due to this that I found it difficult to look away. I also like the use of additional sound effects, as I feel it adds an extra layer of depth.

Though I’m not too keen on the quality of the soundtrack used in this one, I think the content itself, and the way it’s laid out is done very nicely. Again, the is a good range of diversity in the clips, and it’s edited together in a way that it flows very nicely, so I would say that this is another great example of a class showreel.

This is another one from the University of Dundee, but once again, it was just too good to pass up. It may be the same track as the last one, but it still continues to compliment all of the content seen in the reel and ties everything together really well. Simply put, this is another great example of a varied class showreel, that was executed beautifully.

___

Setting Up A Dropbox:

Seen as there are quite a few videos that need to be put together before the End of Year show, mainly the London/class showreel and the course video, a group of us were discussing the idea of putting together a shared dropbox/google drive folder so that everyone could access the files when necessary.

Having agreed on this idea, Rachel Hynds was awesome enough to set one up and invite everyone in the class to share their best work and whatever animations they want to be featured in the reel:

It’s been a little slow on the uptake at the moment, so while people continue to sift through and post their work, this will give me time to focus a little more on both the Major Project, and how I intend to approach this ‘Industry Facing’ business. 

___

Board Design:

So we finally have the boards sorted for the displays, which you may notice have changed slightly from the original design: 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Due to having seen images from the VIS COM department’s end of year show, last year, the group opted to have a half way board across the table to allow more openness in the exhibition space, and avoid blocking out and closing off each individual area. This will also allow for more light to filter through and maintain that nice open space area that the room is famous for.

Currently, our only issue with the boards is the fact that the legs are slightly too long, so we will need to cut them down in order for the base to reach the table.

[Images acquired from Andrew Brennan & Lauren Patrick]

___

Showreel Update:

Unfortunately due to the extreme amount of pressure brought forward by our other ‘ Major Project’ module, as well as attempting to balance a full time job, Niall has had to opt out of doing the class showreel which I am completely understanding and accepting of, however, unfortunately, this means that I am now going to have to do it on my own.

As I mentioned above briefly, our other project is undergoing a lot of unforeseen issues at the moment so at this current moment in time it simply isn’t possible for me to make a start on the reel, as I too am currently under an extreme amount of pressure with being the only current animator with close to 3 minutes of quadruped animation to get through; which you can imagine is an incredibly stressful situation. However, I am still holding onto hope, and am justifying this in the fact that, despite messages in the group from the likes of Rachel and Paul urging people to put their work into the google drive folder, it is still looking a little bare, so this is giving me that extra little amount time to work on both of my other modules.

___

Utilising The Space:

Now that we have the boards ready, and they’ve been tested in the space, we now have a clearer idea of what the setup is going to be for the end of year show displays, so it’s probably a good time to start thinking about our potential set up and how we want to utilise the space to our best possible advantage. Due to the fact that our animation is still pretty far off from completion, it’s difficult to say what exactly we would like to present content wise, but we could still have a think about the layout and how we could best convey the journey and process of our project, in a clear and aesthetically pleasing way, as well as how we ourselves want to come across as individuals within that space. 

Things we will need to take into consideration when thinking about this are as follows:

• How much content is going to be shown?
• How much of that content will be written/description work?
• Do we want the visuals to speak for themselves?
• How much of the process should be presented?
• How will the layout of computers affect the design?
• What do we want people to know about this project?
• Audience and floorplan of the room.
• What will we have on the desks?

Morrison is going to mock up a the table layout in Maya using the exact dimensions so that we can work out exactly what space we have available to us for prints and visuals which should come in really handy when working out the likes of how many A3/A4 sheets we can fit per board, or whether it’s worth printing out a large poster to help draw people in, but that’s future us’s problem, so for now, we’re going to have a bit of a think about it, and once Matt mocks up the layout, we can start planning out how we want things to come together.

___

Concerns About Showreel:

I feel miserable. I had never anticipated so much to go wrong in such a short space of time regarding our other project, and I am still continuing to working flat out to achieve the work expected of me for my other team, and maintain the speed that is expected in order to keep up with the render que. Now that we’ve lost Aimeé back to her own project, which again I am completely understanding and acceptive of, I am now back to being the only animator, which with the upcoming deadline, has the pressure amplified.

Having spoken to Andrew about my concerns, he has once again offered his help in the matter, as he knows that it’s a lot of pressure for one person and should definitely be a collaborated effort, so I am incredibly grateful to him as he has offered to make a headstart using the files that are there.

It’s really upsetting because I know the reason Andrew chose me for this task is because he knows I’m a hardworking and reliable person, and would work super hard to get it done.. which is exactly what I intend to do. I know me, and I know the great lengths I would be willing to go to to get things done as I hate letting people down, but I’m aware that this might leave other people on edge to know that it’s not yet ready, so I’m really starting to feel the pressure. The annoying this is that I actually making showreels and would be MORE than happy to do so if I were able, but I’m just so swamped and under pressure from this other project, that is simply isn’t possible just yet, so it’s an incredibly frustrating situation.

On a side note, Andrew himself isn’t able to work on it for a few days, so I have suggested that if things go to plan, and I manage to make the dent in these next set of scenes like I am hoping to, that I can hopefully back onto the reel and help out from there, which Andrew is happy and completely onboard with.

___

Showreel Solution:

Having had further discussions with Andrew and how we were going to move forward with this showreel business, I made a suggestion in that Paul had pretty much made the same thing when creating the showreel for London, so rather than start the showreel from scratch, if we simply asked Paul for a duplicate of the one he created we could insert the new animations when they are finished which Paul was more than happy to do.

Due to the fact the animations, of course, have not yet been finished, this gives us both a little more leeway with time to get things finished off for other modules, so this most definitely alleviates some of the guilt and pressure. I just wish that it didn’t have to come to this, but it’s definitely a solution to this much-needed problem. 

___

Showreel Update:

Now that I have finaaaally made my way through the what felt like an unending list of animation for my other module, I contacted Andrew about the showreel to see if any headway had been made and if I could help in any way possible, however, Andrew informed me that Matt Boyd had decided to take over the showreel as he was pretty much caught up and finished with the bulk of work required of him for this semester.

I genuinely don’t know what I’m feeling right now as I am both absolutely elated as this will give me time to catch up on my blogs, prepare for the end of year show display and fix up my own showreel etc but at the same time I feel incredibly guilty and disappointed that I wasn’t able to help out with this task to the extent that I wanted which I would most certainly wouldn’t have let happen if the circumstances had of been different. In order to unburden this incredulous amount of guilt, I intend to lend my services in whatever way possible when it comes to setting up the room for the show, whether that be painting, cleaning, or getting down on my hands and knees and scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush, anything that will help out with the setup of the show. 

___

Setting Up The Room:

Due to a mixup with the marking dates, clean up has started much earlier than expected and the deadline has now been brought forward. However, this didn’t stop everyone from coming together to help get the room prepped for the show.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Even though it’s been a pretty hectic few days, it was nice to see everyone working and spending time together, as it’s been a while since we’ve had the opportunity to do so. Over the past few days, the room has undergone a number of changes, from painting and cleaning to, of course, the general layout and clearing out of sofas and chairs. As I said before I wanted to be involved as much as possible, so minus the first day in which everyone had gone to London, which unfortunately I was unable to attend due to family circumstances, I tried to be onboard as much as possible taking on as many tasks as I could. This involved the likes of helping to gut the room of chairs and whiteboards, clear the tables and remove any/all of the first years work from the cleaning area, scrub down the whiteboards and walls, and of course my main job, which alongside Paul and Cal, was to paint all of the walls, pillars and, of course, the screening room.

On top of that, other jobs that I was not involved in but were currently going on was the sanding down of the board legs, the final painting of the boards and board feet, and of course the clearing of the new room. So with that, we are making good headway and have managed to mark off quite a bit on our to do list which is a very satisfying feeling:

Also, I would have liked to have taken a picture of the room now that it’s all clean and painted, however, due to paint covered hands, and well uh.. just general forgetfulness, that didn’t happen, but I’m sure you will be in for a pleasant surprise if in the room at all over the next few days! 🙂

___

Eyeing The Competition:

Whilst all this set-up business was going on, Conaan thought it would be a good idea to take us upstairs to see some of the other end of year show displays that were currently being set up. Below are some images of the displays that I found to have had the most impact:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Though these exhibitions may not be the same format, or layout that we are hoping to achieve, regardless, I feel it is important to at least try to match the level of quality seen throughout.

___

Working Out The Layout:

Ok, so we’re currently undergoing a major concern in terms of how we are going to present this project as a team, mainly for the fact that even though Morrison, Niall and I have plenty of content that we are happy and willing to show, McBride has shown no desire and has made no effort whatsoever to prepare or partake in the end of year show which means that whichever one of us that is placed beside him is going to suffer due to lack of content on board.

To counteract this, Niall has suggested that we take a leaf out of Mary, Nicole and Fiona’s book and have all three of us present on the one side of the table. so that each of us can share the boards and the content. This can be justified in that we all worked across the board on this animation, and that the jobs of each individual member can become blurred when it comes to who did what specific job in each scene.

I am more than happy to do this, and would feel much more confident in presenting my work this way, however, my only concern is that we will be penalised for not taking full advantage of the boards given to us. That, and that McBride suddenly decides that he does want to join in and manages to pull stuff together. I find this option very unlikely though as there is very little, if any content he has to show from the past project. In case of this option, however, we plan to have a backup solution and prepare a layout for a fourth board in case we are told that a three-way option is not allowed.

Disregarding that thought for now though, with the three-way plan in mind, Niall, Morrison and I went into the uni to set up the boards to see what we were working with, and see how the addition of a third monitor would affect the content seen on the board behind, however first, I feel it is important to point out that McBride was aware of this meeting and the invitation had been extended but he didn’t show up:

Having further discussed what we would like to have on the boards we began writing up a plan for how to proceed from there. We started off by thinking about the layout of the table, and what we would like to have on display there, which for me personally would be, other than my monitor, to have my bio, businesses cards, a possible tablet to show my website and 2/3 booklets containing all of my concept art from both this project and the one from last semester. I also feel that by doing this, this will leave more room on the board for other work, and so if people are interested they can have a browse.

I think that’s what’s most important to us, though, in that we want our board to be visually appealing on its own, enough to draw attention so that if people are interested they can then continue to look through the content we have left out desks. In other words, we want the visuals to speak for themselves, so we intend to use HD renders of the best bits from the animation, keeping process to a minimum, and allowing people to have a further look into the process in interested, through the concept books etc. Both Niall and Matt are very determined on not wanting to show projects from last semester, hence why I’m putting a booklet together, however I completely agree with this as I feel it would be better to utilise the boards with a stronger project, and due to the lack of space now that there are 3 of us, it would probably be better to limit it to a project that we all partook on rather than try and cram three different projects onto two boards.

Another slight factor that we will need to take into consideration is the fact hat Morrison wants to add a second monitor to his display so that he can showcase both his showreel, and his website, so this may affect the board content even more so. However, as I said above even though I plan to have my website address plastered all over the content of my desk, I may bring in a tablet to display it, just in case anyone is interested.

Having discussed our intentions, and going by the board set up, we decided to mock up a quick replica using the 3D Maya set up provided by Morrison. And here’s what we came up with:

[Slight alteration of wall & desk content required]

___

Desk Essentials:

Having had the opportunity to examine and test out the space, we decided to start putting things together and gearing up for print. Everyone took care of their own desk space, so we were all sure to write bios, design business cards and take care of any other essentials that we wanted to have present before focusing on the prints for the board. As you may notice when looking through my ‘Industry Facing’ blog, I have a consistent design throughout all of my work, so as simple as it may be, it is also something I tried to tie into both the design of my business cards, and my bio:

I also managed to get all of my own concepts printed and put into folders, which I’m hoping, that when accompanied with the other print outs should be enough to fill my desk, without looking too cluttered, and make it more appealing:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

___

Print Mishap:

For the wall display we wanted to try and take full advantage of the space available to us on the boards, so taking into account the 3D mock-up Matt had built with exact dimensions of the sheet sizes, we decided to go with our intentional plan of picking out our best renders, which we limited down to  three A3’s that could act as a banner along the top, as well as a few select renders of our characters which could be evenly dispersed around the board. We decided to stick with an entire board of full renders, as we feel that the characters and overall outlook of the animation is what the most appealing thing about the project.

As you can see above, our first set of prints were incredibly disappointing as not only were they pixelated (despite them being sent the approach resolution sizes), but they were much darker in contrast that the original images. and they were incorrectly positioned within their frames. Not to mention whatever the hell this is…:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So due to this printing mishap, we decided to take our stuff to the place I had went to get my concepts printed, with, this time, Niall putting everything into a PDF and locking the colour management settings to avoid any further printing issues. As you can see the results are much better, and we feel a lot more confident about putting these ones up for display:

___

Prepping For Set-Up:

With mounting boards, tape measure, a guillotine, and double-sided sticky tape on the go (avoiding adhesives due to health and safety), it was now time to start putting everything together:

Upon arriving at the university, however, I found Morrison setting up his own display at the other side of the table with both his brother and father helping him to build additional installations to showcase his work. When I confusedly questioned him on why he was not longer joining us on the other side of the table, he said that it was just until the marking period was over, which I completely understand, but also find a little frustrating as he did not inform Niall and I of his decision to do this, which meant that we had print outs ready and designed to fit a three-way board, and were now going to have to alter it to fit just between the two of us. If we had of been aware of this change of events, this would have allowed Niall and I the opportunity to prep and design our boards for our own individual showcases, which meant that I could have showcased my concept art, and implemented elements of the last semester project like I had wanted to, however, seen as it’s the actual day of the deadline set-up and time is a factor, this was simply impossible.

Regardless of the new situation, Niall and I continued on with a similar  set up from before and felt that despite our original intention for these print-outs, that it was all coming together quite nicely:

Something that had actually managed to come in quite handy in finishing off our display was created earlier when it occurred to me that we were missing one very important thing… a project overview…

But fret not.. as with that in mind, I quickly drew one up which I later had to print off in the uni. Due to this, I don’t feel that the print quality quite matches the level of quality seen in the other prints, but it will do for now until we have a chance to replace it with a one of a similar print quality to the others:

___

Actual Set-Up:

And here we have it, all of that hard work; not just for this module, but for the entire year, has paid off and is all setup and ready to go for the end of year show:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Despite the last minute changes we had to work around when executing the layout of our display, I feel pretty happy with the end result. Just as we had originally intended, the boards themselves are very captivating and immediately draw attention upon entering the room. The colours themselves are just so bold and beautiful, that when contrasted against the white boards make them stand out even more so, which was exactly our intention.

My only concern though, is that unlike the majority of the other board sets ups, our boards seem to be lacking personalisation and individuality, which is why I have tried to cram as many personalised essentials onto my desk top as possible such as showreel, website, bio, concepts, business cards and even a CV. That being said, though, I am very happy with our layout and am more than happy to share credit with Niall.

I guess only time will tell if our boards are deemed acceptable to move onto the end of year show phase, but for now, we eagerly await feedback and are ready and willing to make any changes beforehand if necessary, but as of now… let the show begin!

___