So the major projects for both half of the semester this year are external. That means that I will be working for client outside the university. Back at the start of term I was sat in a small lecture theatre trying to decide what kind of projects I wanted to embark on this academic year. Before me I had several presentations only a few of which appealed to me. Most of them were far to commercial and business headed for my liking. I work with far more quirky often silly subject matter given half the chance and the thought of spending 3 months animating the mechanics of a hospital bed, meets stretcher bored made me want to cry. There's no other way to put it I was simply bored and uninterested to the point of physical tears by the majority of projects laid out to me.
In addition to the seriously un appealing stretcher-bed, dubbed by myself as I forgot the intended name of the product, were several labour intensive and confusing options such as a daunting project set by a company who create monster noises using a software known as dehuminiser. An interesting product with a great clientele and while it seemed initially appealing to be offered a chance to be a part of that world, it didn't take me long to figure out that the cons outweighed the pros with this project. On top of an already strenuous workload in terms of modelling and rigging a character before the animation could even begin, there was not even a fully designed character on which to begin modelling. If we ass in the fact that what they were asking for was very mundane and uncreative it made for one seriously off-putting proposed animation in this animators eyes.
As for the rest of the projects, now that I am a few weeks into my chosen options the only remaining one that I can even remember was a project set by the Scottish Office on policy visualisation. It was memorable because it offered money to its participants. An enticing offer indeed. However I am currently not strapped for cash and that meant for me I could entirely focus on the proposed project and whether it was something I wanted to be a part of or not. The project was about policy visualisation and on the whole was a pretty swaying project. I could see myself engaging with it so I made a mental note at the time to consider it as an option.
Yet when it came down to picking the things I wanted to be involved in I was pulled in by a playful and quirky gay man and a charity that wanted to make a video for children. I was hoping and praying for some quirky playful alternatives to the options already provided to me and when Alistair from gay man's health took to the podium to pitch for GMH I knew that I knew I was listening to the pitch for me. They were looking for something silly and fun, quirky and a bit out there. No dancing around sensitive subjects for these guys. They're more of a roll your sleeves up and get stuck right in kind of charity. Which I like. Stop faffing and tell me about my sexual well-being! I hear gay mean everywhere shout. Well fear no more here comes GMH and several short animations to explain things to you. Erm Ok sorry. That was a bit weird. But in short I like these guys. They are my kind of company and thus an instant choice for me.
So what about the other one I have chosen? I also chose to work with a second charity called PBC foundation. Which coincidentally is about supporting people with, and the families of people, with PBC. I can't entirely remember what drew me in about this company any longer but I do know it was something to do with the message they wanted to send and the fact that this animation was aimed at children. Thus again letting me do something quirky. Which is very much a me thing.
So those are the projects I'm currently working on and I'll fill you in next on what all my thoughts on it to date are in my next post!
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