Guarantees and Takeaways
For a bit of background information, the e-Comm program has five guarantees. These guarantees are Technology, Collaboration, Communication, Project Management, and Leadership. These five guarantees are meant to be the supporting framework behind the program, that which help guide students towards their best work. So what have I learned about these guarantees that I can keep with me for the rest of my life?
Technology is a necessity in the e-Comm program. To make our projects, we have to learn the ins and outs of many differing programs, each with a unique purpose. Whether it was building a character piece-by-piece in PhotoShop, making lively animations and intricate special effects in After Effects, crafting 3-dimensional objects in Maya, or putting everything together in Premiere Pro, all of these programs were essential in teaching me the basics that will aid me greatly going forward. Often times I would find myself arguing with the programs when things didn't work out, but with patience and proper guidance I was always able to work through it.
Collaboration applied to a surprising amount of projects in both of my e-Comm classes. While working in a group may be unfavorable to some at first, it's both fun and efficient to get things done with a group. When you're doing group work, it's important to make sure that everyone is carrying their own weight -- including you. I surprisingly didn't have much of a problem with group work this year! More often than not, everyone was ready and willing to do their part of the project and do it right.
Communication goes hand in hand with Collaboration. When you're in a group, it's important to make sure that you can contact everyone if something comes up. Lack of communication often leads to disarray and panic within groups, so having your voice be heard in your group is a major factor attributing to success. Sometimes, messages could fail to send or carry ambiguous context, but we were always able to work through it.
Project Management is incredibly important in a class where nearly every assignment is some sort of project. When assigned a project, you have to carefully plan out when, where, and how you plan to work on it. Leaping into a project unprepared is a surefire way of messing things up, making work stressful and ending in a sloppy final product. I'm usually not one for planning things, but this year helped me learn to take initiative and get things done on time and properly. I didn't have any major issues with time management this year, which goes to show how much project management helped me.
Leadership is another guarantee that seems prevalent when working in a group. While it's uncommon for one person to take all the initiative in a project, there's usually someone who works on planning and making sure everything gets done while also doing their own part. It's a leader's job to get their teammates on the right track when they're lead astray, and make sure everything has a set time, location, process, etc. They're not so much bosses as they are guides to other group members. I found myself taking the leader position in a fair amount of group projects this year, despite the fact that being in charge puts a HUGE amount of pressure on me. A specific example of this was in regards to my Short Film project. A bunch of things came up that forced us to push back filming dates, but I assured my group mates that everything was going to be alright. Thanks to everyone pitching in and getting work done, we were able to finish the project and make sure it was as good as it could possibly be.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Overall, I would say that my greatest strength is my sense of creativity. Whenever I was given a project, I always tried my best to go above and beyond and put my own personal touch on my work. This wasn't just to earn bonus points or approval, but instead to create work that I was personally satisfied with and proud enough to put my name on. Learning different techniques in both video and animation has inspired me to get creative with angles, assets, techniques, and some others. I try to take what I'm given, and have fun while I do it in order to make it my own. Often times, I had to get creative in order to work around bumps in the process.
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| An example of when I had to get creative in order to work around inconveniences was when I was making this container in Maya. I couldn't get it from a NURBs to a polygon, and considered giving up until I decided to play around with random settings as a bit of a last resort. Thanks to my incessant need to mess around with random settings, I was able to successfully convert it and finish the project! |
My greatest weakness this year was time and project management, yet I seem to have taken a huge step forward in eradicating this weakness. When I had a set time frame for a project, I planned what I was going to do ahead of time. When I was in a group, I did my part and did my best to assist everyone else with theirs. When things didn't work out, I hopped on fixing them immediately. When there were things that needed managing, I actually tried to manage them for once. This would've been unheard of either last year or at the beginning of this year, where I was an unplanned, schedule-hating mess. Of course, there are still instances in which I slip back into my unmanaged habits, but I'm hoping to fix that in the future. Working in my e-Comm classes has helped me better my sense of management, and hopefully it'll remain that way going forwards.
What I've Learned, What I'd Change
Last year, I learned the bare essentials of every program. This year, I was able to learn the ins and outs of the programs and processes we used, alongside the guarantees mentioned earlier. I entered this program bright-eyed and ready to learn all I needed to know, and I came out knowing more things than I ever thought I would. As I plan on pursuing a career with a focus on visual storytelling, knowledge of how to make effective scenes and dialogue alongside telling engaging stories will be a huge help going forwards. Aside from helping in a career context, this program has also aided in fulfilling a childhood dream of mine. I remember seeing animations, movies, and special effects, finding myself absolutely blown away by them. I said to myself, "I want to do that." And by taking these classes, I've began to pave the road towards accomplishing that goal. Hopefully, I'll be taking what I've learned this year and continue to build upon it next year.
After thinking about it for a while, I don't think that there's anything I'd change regarding my e-Comm experience. I was able to do everything just fine the way I did, and even the bumps in the road often couldn't be changed. Sure, I'd have changed my reaction to these events, but other than that everything went very smoothly. Hopefully, next year will be just as good.
Conclusion
I've learned a lot of things this year. Not only about video and animation, but also about cooperation, management, creativity, problem solving... the list goes on and on. I've been able to fortify my strengths and diminish my weaknesses. While I may have chosen animation as my focus for next year, I'm sure that the things I learned in video will be far from useless. This year wasn't so much learning, but rather preparing. Furthering my knowledge of the strand I'll go into eventually. Helping me make the right decision on which path to go down.
Freshman year held my hand and walked me through each strand, showcasing both the benefits and the downsides. Sophomore year continued to teach me about the two strands I was eventually going to decide between. Next year, my path will be set. I'll go forward, continuing to learn about animation, until the day comes when I've learned all I can, and I'll be free to use what I've been taught to do what I previously thought was impossible for me. I've got no doubts. I'm going to be just fine. And most importantly of all...
Next year can't come soon enough.
Thanks for reading,
Tate Johnson
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