Studio 2: Cross Discipline Post-Mortem

Graphic Design with Johnny

My first Cross-Discipline began when a family friend approached me, asking if I could design him a logo for his new business. I happily accepted and we began talking about what he wanted. His idea consisted of 6 main elements: A sun, a eagle, mountains, balancing rocks, a river and text that said 'Mountain Rise Sourdough & Goods'. After creating 3 concepts from his brief, I was told what elements from each he liked and from there created the final logo:

I sent him multiple designs all in different colours, sizes, and for different things such as Facebook banner, profile photo etc.

We communicated initially face to face, then proceeded through Facebook. I sent him the files through email via sharing a one drive link.

What went well in the project, and why?

I feel as though the communication was very consistent and so both Johnny and I were very happy with the result. This was my first proper attempt at Graphic Design and so I didnt quite know what I was doing, but as stated, due to lots of back and forth communication and a very solid brief I was able to give him exactly what he wanted.

What didn’t go well, and why?

Personally I feel as though there wasn't much that went wrong, maybe except for lack of access to a Wacom tablet, but when I did have access there were no issues.

What would you do differently next time?

I would probably have research a little more, but I quite enjoyed this process and would definitely do it again, probably very similar to the way I did it this time round.

What did you learn about other discipline’s workflows?

That its very important to have a strong communication as what you create for them effects what they are able to create at the time. I learnt that sticking to the brief and producing what they want rather than what you want is crucial as its the only way everyone is going to be happy.

Audio with Dan Ngamotu

After last Trimester, I really enjoyed working with Dan, and so I approached him again and asked if he could make me a piece of music for my Show-reel/Specialisation project. I created an art bible, and sent through reference audio tracks so that he knew what I was wanting. We organised a meeting and discussed what we had been talking about over email. From there, we organised one more meeting where he recorded my voice for the vocal part of the song. Then after a few more back and forth communications through email where he sent through audio so far, he sent through the final piece of music:

We mainly communicated through email, however we also spoke through text and face to face. We organised face to face meetings through email, and he sent through his work in progress audio clips through one drive.

What went well in the project, and why?

I felt that communication was really good this time, and Dan got quite excited for the project so there was a really good dynamic. I really like the atmospheric sounds in the track, which was one of the main things I wanted, and Dan was really good at taking on my input and changing the things that I didn't like in the demo tracks.

What didn’t go well, and why?

I felt as though the vocals could have had more reverb, and the balance between the vocals and the background didn't merge as well as I would have liked, however these are nitpicking problems that weren't really that bed at all (I'm probably more critical of my own vocal performance than Dan's work).

What would you do differently next time?

I would definitely practice my vocals before recording again, and I would definitely try and be more involved with the music making process, maybe make more face to face meetings where Dan could show me the track layers and could listen to pieces separately. I would also maybe not have my own voice as the vocals for University purposes next time as I become too critical and embarrassed.

What did you learn about other discipline’s workflows?

I learnt that music is temperamental, and trying to explain ideas even with reference is difficult. I also learnt that creating a piece of audio takes longer than expected as well.

Unreal Lighting with Damon Binstead

As I came to the end of this trimester, I realised that I hadn't had time to learn how to create and edit lighting in Unreal, and so I asked Damon if he could set up all my lighting for me. This consisted of giving all my working files to him and explaining the mood and lighting effects that I wanted:

Damon and I completely communicated via face to face and sent through files with hard-drives. I told him what my ideas for how I wanted the lighting and he taught me a little while he worked on my project.

What went well in the project, and why?

I felt as though I learnt a little about how lighting works, however it really makes me want to investigate lighting more in the future. I am generally happy with how the scene looks however there many issues preventing a better outcome.

What didn’t go well, and why?

For starters my roof mesh was not allowing lights to be baked on it without it going all sorts of strange patchy shading, to bandage this problem we had to move the roof mesh after the lights were baked to cancel out the lighting on the roof. Damon also had problems with setting up the post processing in the different lighting environments, as the outside post processing changed the inside post processing which was a pain. There were multiple more mesh problems that changed how the lighting appeared on certain objects which was very annoying.

What would you do differently next time?

I would spend more time researching how to create lighting myself and adjust my models so that they were lower poly so that bake times didn't take so incredibly long. In general I would spend more time on lighting in the future.

What did you learn about other discipline’s workflows?

I learnt that it is important to have everything done earlier so that the lighting can be adjusted for longer and generally more time could be spent on this. I learnt that animation has many different sectors and not everyone knows everything about animation or are not confident in all aspects of animation. Having someone else doing the lighting was a huge help and really made the scene look much better than I could have ever done at this stage.