Reflective Statement
The WIM project was a little rollercoaster for me. While I had a great start, I had a low in the middle but was able to get back up again at the end.
First of all I absolutely loved my artist and felt connected to her from the very beginning since she is mainly working in clay as well. Jessica Stoller has a very unique style and I was fascinated by the critic in her work, that was hidden under all those shiny surfaces.
But exactly that hidden critic was the hardest task to realize within my digital shot. To have a city that doesn't look just like a nice candy land but on the other hand also doesn't look like a female nightmare.
While I had multiple light bulbs on after doing some research and creating my first thumbnails I didn`t know which ones to keep on or which ones to turn off. A very inspiring talk with Phil a couple of weeks ago helped me to create the look of my city.
Even though I now knew what my city should look like I wasn't`t able to visualize it. After creating multiple thumbnails regarding the composition I created a concept drawing I wasn't`t satisfied with. I took a break from the project for a week to then tried to get back to it with new energy and started modeling the first objects.
While a lot of people feared and struggled with Maya, I have to say I just had positive experiences working in the program. However I sometimes was a little lost since we haven`t dealt with a lot in the program yet so I sometimes stumbled over challenges since I didn't know how to create certain things in the program. But I often could find help from Simon, Alan or third and second year students.
After finishing all my objects I started creating two different set ups. The first one was based on my concept art. The second one was a spontaneous idea I had while playing around with Maya. Inspired by "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", that I watched in the beginning of the project as an inspiration, I created a chocolate river. But I only created the river because of the Swan boat I modeled. The swan boat is probably my favourite model I created and textured in Maya. While the Swan stands for the rising glory of a new day it was my rising glory for my final scene.
But I have to say the biggest enemy in this project was myself since I was so looking for that decisive light bulb that I found in my Invisible Cities project early on. Haunted by that I did so much research, but no matter what I did, it never felt right. That is the reason why I was so tired in the middle of the project but once I started modeling the objects for my city the puzzle slowly solved itself.
Personally I think it was especially interesting for me to work with Stollers style as a men. It might have been easier for a women since Stoller is mainly influenced by her own experience and body but it was very fascinating to research into the whole topic of female sexualization and how women feel in particular situations.
Looking back at the last few weeks I have to say I really enjoyed the project and, even though I never thought I would say this out loud a couple weeks ago, I am happy with the outcome. I am not very satisfied since I know I could have improved a lot if I had more time, but at least I am happy.
This project was a challenge for me as an artist but also as a human, to be able to overcome your frustration and don`t get lost in the negative feelings - but focus on the good ones.
First of all I absolutely loved my artist and felt connected to her from the very beginning since she is mainly working in clay as well. Jessica Stoller has a very unique style and I was fascinated by the critic in her work, that was hidden under all those shiny surfaces.
But exactly that hidden critic was the hardest task to realize within my digital shot. To have a city that doesn't look just like a nice candy land but on the other hand also doesn't look like a female nightmare.
While I had multiple light bulbs on after doing some research and creating my first thumbnails I didn`t know which ones to keep on or which ones to turn off. A very inspiring talk with Phil a couple of weeks ago helped me to create the look of my city.
Even though I now knew what my city should look like I wasn't`t able to visualize it. After creating multiple thumbnails regarding the composition I created a concept drawing I wasn't`t satisfied with. I took a break from the project for a week to then tried to get back to it with new energy and started modeling the first objects.
While a lot of people feared and struggled with Maya, I have to say I just had positive experiences working in the program. However I sometimes was a little lost since we haven`t dealt with a lot in the program yet so I sometimes stumbled over challenges since I didn't know how to create certain things in the program. But I often could find help from Simon, Alan or third and second year students.
After finishing all my objects I started creating two different set ups. The first one was based on my concept art. The second one was a spontaneous idea I had while playing around with Maya. Inspired by "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", that I watched in the beginning of the project as an inspiration, I created a chocolate river. But I only created the river because of the Swan boat I modeled. The swan boat is probably my favourite model I created and textured in Maya. While the Swan stands for the rising glory of a new day it was my rising glory for my final scene.
But I have to say the biggest enemy in this project was myself since I was so looking for that decisive light bulb that I found in my Invisible Cities project early on. Haunted by that I did so much research, but no matter what I did, it never felt right. That is the reason why I was so tired in the middle of the project but once I started modeling the objects for my city the puzzle slowly solved itself.
Personally I think it was especially interesting for me to work with Stollers style as a men. It might have been easier for a women since Stoller is mainly influenced by her own experience and body but it was very fascinating to research into the whole topic of female sexualization and how women feel in particular situations.
Looking back at the last few weeks I have to say I really enjoyed the project and, even though I never thought I would say this out loud a couple weeks ago, I am happy with the outcome. I am not very satisfied since I know I could have improved a lot if I had more time, but at least I am happy.
This project was a challenge for me as an artist but also as a human, to be able to overcome your frustration and don`t get lost in the negative feelings - but focus on the good ones.
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