Group:
Year 2: Tianyu Wei
Year 1: Yu Liu/ Yuxiao Liu/ Jia Wei

What roles am I given?
At first, we were assigned to do the 10 seconds animation based on the script he provided. However, due to a lack of preproduction references, and didn’t receive a clear instruction about what kind of work in specific he wanted us to do (such as storyboarding, rough animating, or others). After communicating and discussing the progress with the year 2 student, he seemed to be still unclear about what to do and hard to explain his work in progress, couldn’t give us positive feedback which made the project hard to progress. I assigned myself to take on the tasks such as research and gathering references to have a clearer direction for the project.

Did you complete the roles and what feedback you received? 
Instead of drawing the animation as originally planned, I completed the research and moodboard aspects of the project since there was no clear style to follow. I took a watch on some short animations and found references and animation styles that might be able to guide the animation production. 
I did not receive direct feedback or any form of response about the research work I have done by the project end date. Lack of communication from the year 2 student made it difficult to know if my contributions were valued.

How did you perform during the project?
I adapted by taking some properly research and attempt to structure the preproduction part of project. I conveyed my concerns to the year 2 student and suggested a more organized way for progressing the project, even though the year 2 student seemed not well received my suggestions, being hard and aggressive to communicate with. I believe I had kept myself calm during the conversation with him and handled the situation professionally and remained focused on trying to contribute to the project.

How does the role you were given related to industry roles?
In professional animation production, clear pre-production work is very essential before stepping to the animation stage, teams rely on solid preproduction to avoid confusion and inefficiency. Based on my experience on this group project, I learnt the importance of proper and effective communication between different roles in the industry.

What was the challenging about your experience?
The biggest challenge was that the project was not organized, lack of clear information, work in schedule or drawing direction from the year 2 student. Without references or completed storyboards, only written script, rough animated work, and rough character design provided, it was hard for us to know what the director was expecting. Even though we had asked him for several times, but most of the responses from him were still vague and unclear. In addition, the aggressive responses from the director himself to my attempt to clarify things made the communication stressful, frustrated and unproductive.

What was successful during the collaboration?
The most successful aspect was my ability to see what important works were missing in the project, dare to put up questions and take the initiative to conduct research. This allowed me to contribute something valuable despite the challenges. Additionally, I was able to maintain professionalism and problem-solving skills throughout the communication with the year 2 student even though his improper communicating way was bringing a lot of mental pressure on us.

What would you bring into your practice from the experience?
This simulated work experience reinforced the importance of preproduction work in animation workflow. In future projects, I will ensure myself or team a clear planning, references, and storyboards are established before starting the animation production. I also learned the importance of maintaining a professional and calm heart when communicating with the work problems, and addressing miscommunication as soon as possible to avoid frustration in the workflow.
In addition, I learned how to navigate difficult team and work independently under unclear situations. I also improved my research skills, learning how to find relevant animation references and styles to support future work.