Our product was called the MyPhone, a highly advanced a futuristic smartphone that could be customized however you see fit. While it isn't as creative as some of the other teams' products, I think it was very interesting and I could imagine it being a real-world product. Each part of the project was done in rotations, coming in at a grand total of about 4 to 5 weeks spent on work. Some challenges I faced were lack of time to spend working outside of class, no access to proper resources following rotations, and occasional lack of team input. I built upon the basic skills I had learned in the previous three quarters in order to complete the project. The feedback I received was mainly some requests to fine-tune the assets in order to fit with what was envisioned, and feedback regarding the presentation was mostly revolving around having all parts of the project done and having a better understanding of our script. Many things changed, including the product itself (which started out as a tablet with a built-in printer that could print the screen at any time onto a sheet of paper), the web banner and other various assets, our color scheme, and so on. The change that affected me was the most was in regards to the product logo- I designed it about two weeks in advance only to be told to rework it and add typography (which, to me, is probably my least favorite part of design). I feel that the work I did in 4th quarter paid off and was definitely worth the effort, despite the rough designing periods and often unbalanced work loads.
I used most of my time in class working, mostly on designs and animations. If I somehow managed to finish something before the deadline, I would show what I had to a teammate and have them critique it so I could go back and revise it. Rinse and repeat until we're all happy with it. Outside of class, I tried to continue brainstorming ideas for our project and product, even coming in early one day to work on the commercial, only for it to be postponed to actual class time. During the allocated time in our second rotation for video, we hardly did any work and spent most time either brainstorming or preparing (and shortly calling it off). Some of my teammates even ignored the working process at times, and while I know it wasn't to be mean or inconvenient (they were trying to help others) it still rubbed me the wrong way.
After a whole year of e-Communications, I feel that I have learned a great deal about the basics of electronic media, and even a bit about entrepreneurism and advertising products. The areas in which I plan to work the most are animation and video production. In order to achieve this goal, I'm going to try practicing video editing and animation in my down time (which shouldn't be hard at all, because I very much enjoy doing both of those tasks). Overall, my strongest area is animation, which is good since this is the field in which I plan to major in dreams of becoming a full-time animator/cartoonist.
An area of mine that needs improvement is web design. While I've been fairly good at it during the allocated times during the year in which all students were required to fine-tune their web design skills, I doubt I could do very well on my own without the templates provided and Mr. Olson's helpful tutorials. I'm good at designing assets for websites, but my skills in coding are highly comparable to the finest form of crud. I plan on making a webcomic someday, possibly with its own site to go along with it. If I'm going to do this, I should consider trying to hone my web design skills in my down time.
The thing I loved the most about this semester was being able to collaborate with others in order to produce something amazing- not just my own team members, even. I would often give a few tips to friends and team members alike, making this project feel less confined to a small group but more like a community effort. (I also enjoyed working on our animation.) If I could change something, I would provide a very small rotation for work on web design, and not just putting it there for people to work on in their down time. Someone might be too consumed with other work to put aside time for the website, leaving it as the last thing to do and forcing them to cram in order to get it done. I speak from experience on that one. I've not only learned more about digital media from this semester, but I've learned about how different people collaborate and work in groups, alongside some employee and business skills. In an earlier paragraph, I mentioned my dream job of becoming an animator/cartoonist. I have some plans for long and short-term goals, such as practicing whenever I can (short-term) and producing a fully polished character animation before my sophomore year ends (Long-term).
My final thoughts on this project can be summed up in one word- Rewarding. There were many gaps, bumps, and potholes on the road to the final product. Design changes, group disagreements and agreements, lack of time... the issues we faced were undeniably difficult to overcome. But once we reached the end goal, everything we had done felt 100% more rewarding. I love everything about our final product. And with the assets provided, I hope you think so too.All I have left to say is... thank you so much, and hopefully I'll see you all sometime soon.
