Berlin 2015 - Pictoplasma Festival

Over the last week, starting on the 28^th, I was in Berlin for the Pictoplasma animation and illustration festival. The event holds various talks from guest speakers, animation screenings, and exhibitions, of which I went to throughout the several days of the event.

On the first day of being in Berlin, Pictoplasma had not begun yet, so we checked into the hostel we would be staying in, dropped off out luggage, and basically just got to know the area, in and around Alexanderplatz, near to where the events would be happening.

The official opening was held on the second day of us being in Berlin, at Silent Green, an old repurposed crematory, featuring an exhibition with works from a variety of artists who would be speaking at the conferences, which includes:

• Animalitoland (ARG/ES)
• Birdo (JP)
• Brosmind (ES)
• Stefano Colferai (IT)
• Joan Cornellà (ES) (His work was featured at the exhibition, but unfortunately he couldn’t be at the event for his conference due to an illness in his family; Fons Schiedon stepped into the gap however.)
• Yves Geleyn (FR)
• Loup Blaster (FR)
• Nicolas Ménard (CAN/UK)
• Mr Kat (ES/PER)
• Akinori Oishi (JP)
• Nadine Redlich (GER)
• Andy Ristaino (USA)
• Hikari Shimoda (JP)
• Sticky Monster Lab (KR)
• Tado (UK)
• Wong Ping (HK)
• Yomsnil (KR)
• Lucas Zanotto (IT/FIN)

There were a lot of amazing illustrations and sculptures there, with a lot of different styles and techniques from different artists being shown off. My favourite illustrations from the opening exhibition were mainly from Brosmind, a duo of two brothers, and Tado, another duo artist pairing, as I really like the style that they use in their work, often using super clean lines and very vibrant colours to create illustrations. One of my favourite illustrations from Brosmind was a meat-man, made from stacking cuts of meat into the shape of a human. I really liked the way this was done, and the added lines and shapes around the outside of the character really helped it seem alive and squishy. I also enjoyed Mr. Kat’s 3D and sculpture work, as he created stylised skull models, with varying materials, which were super polished and looked really nice.

On the second day of the event, the animation screenings and conferences held in the Babylon Theatre began, of which I tried to attend as many as possible. On this first day, the speakers were Lucas Zanotto, Brosmind, Nadine Redlich, Stefano Colferai, Wong Ping, and Fons Schiedon. Of them, my favourites were Brosmind, with Fons Schiedon coming in a close second. This is mainly because Brosmind was very casual with their presentation; not taking it too seriously and showing their work and how they make it in a fun way. I liked Fons’ talk mainly because of the content, with it being about a project called ‘The Land of the Magic Flute’, which was a cool concept, a kind of interactive animated comic book, and it had some really nice artwork.

Over the course of the next few days, I attended all of the conferences and screenings, with my favourite screening possibly being the ‘midnight’ (that actually happened at 10) mix, which featured a bunch of cool, weird animations. All in all, the entire event itself was great, but one of the main reasons for me really enjoying the trip was the things we did outside of the event, and just around Alexanderplatz. I got to hang around with a great group of friends, and I feel like I met some great new people as well, which really added to the experience of the whole trip for me. I’m very glad I went this year, and I hope to go again next year if the opportunity is there.

Personal and Professional Development Evaluation/SWOT Analysis

During this module I needed to create several different pieces of work, including a creative CV, my own business card (or at least mock up designs for one), research on animation companies; both local and national, and many other things. For this evaluation, I will mainly be concentrating on the production of my CV, the business card, and this blog.

I feel my main strength during this module was the way in which I dealt with the creation of my CV and business cards in terms of theme, as I felt like I tied both of them together well in terms of looks, font etc.

Otherwise, I feel like there could have been many improvements to how quickly I actually got round to creating the CV and business card, as I feel like I left these quite late in the module. If I had done this earlier, I wouldn't have been on such as time crunch as I was, meaning I probably could have produced higher quality work overall. I feel the same way about this blog to an extent; I feel like I could have benefited from updating it more regularly throughout the year to get more information onto it.

The main opportunity for to come for me from this will be the ability to use the products I created here later on in life, such as using my creative CV for sending to companies and my business card for getting myself out there and noticed. I also feel that my blog could become a more personal out put for me in the future, and I could start using it to host some of my work.

The primary target I have after this module is to simply keep everything up to date, including my CV, contact details, and other things. In the future, I also aim to be more prepared with tasks like this, as I don't think I handled this project very well, and feel that it was largely down to preparation/research, and the speed at which I completed the work.

Commercial Animation & Illustration Production Evaluation/SWOT Analysis

During this module I needed to create a portfolio of work I have completed in the past, as well as a show-reel of my animations. The portfolio I created features both still from my animations, as well as illustrations I have done in the past, for my own work, or college. The show reel features past animations from work I've done on the course, as I feel like only this work is actually up to standard, as a lot of the animations I did prior to the course were either very basic, or just of poor quality (compared to now).

I wouldn't necessarily say I had any glaring strengths during this module, other than the timely manner in which I actually put together my portfolio after putting it off for so long, which in itself shouldn't have happened.

My main issues during this module were mainly that of me being, frankly, lazy, and putting off my portfolio work for too long. This is something I am trying to work on, and I feel like I am improving on this. I also feel I was very picky about the work that went into my portfolio, which to an extent I should be, but I feel like I was leaving out too many good pieces of work.

The main opportunity to come out from this is the fact that I can use my portfolio later in life and work, and can show it to companies or potential clients to show my work, with up to date work for the time of course.

My main target for after this module is to continue to add work and update my portfolio for the future, keeping it up to date with the way I work and the quality of work of which I produce.

Work Based Learning Evaluation/SWOT Analysis

During this module, I needed to complete a few different tasks, including a Proposal, Treatment, and Script for the animation production module, as well as a live brief of my choice. The proposal and treatment were centred around the animation featuring my character 'Goop', and set out what the animation would do, and I chose a T-shirt design for the gaming inspired live brief by Influx Clothing. Below is my completed design for the gaming t-shirt competition:

During the clothing brief, I would say my greatest strength was, after gathering my ideas, actually producing the illustration itself, going from idea to realisation within a short amount of time. I also dealt with type in a design for the first time (properly, anyway) during this brief, and it was a good learning experience that I feel I dealt with somewhat well. For the proposal and treatment portion of the module, I felt like I didn't have any particularly strong suit, but I don't feel like I had a particularly bad points either.

I would consider the fact that I only did a limited few live briefs to be my greatest weakness, as I feel like I could have taken fully advantage of the competitions and briefs to add more work to my portfolio and show reel.

The best opportunity to come from this was more so about myself than my work, as I feel like this module opened me up to open competitions a lot, and I now feel as though I should take part, rather than ignoring them as I used to, spending my free time doing it, which is something the 'me' from a few years ago would have struggled doing.

My main target to take from this is to simply take part in more competitions and live briefs, as it will both add more work that I can use in my portfolio, and get me used to completing set briefs, and not having total control over my work.

Trip to the Game's Museum in Berlin

While in Berlin, on the last day when Pictoplasma was over (or at least the talks and screening), I had a trip to the Video Games museum there to check it out. While there's not too much to talk about, I had a great time there on the retro arcade machines, and I thought I would post a few pictures here instead of the main Pictoplasma post I am going to make later.

Tado

Tado are an artist duo based in Sheffield who's work I got introduced to during the Pictoplasma event in Berlin (I had seen their work in the past, but it really caught my eye after the opening exhibition and their conference talk, which I will write about in my main Berlin post).

A lot of Tado's illustrative work has a super clean style that I am a big fan of, using clean lines and awesome colours to create (while the content might not always be) a very cute style, using really cool characters along with this to produce some great work. While they have a very noticeable style, it doesn't stop them from varying quite a bit, While a lot of their work is illustration based, they also create physical models and animations, both of which carry their style well. Some of the models they make are carved out of wood, which creates a really nice aesthetic when combined with the cute style of their illustrations, as seen below, and they even use these models for animation, as seen by the 'Hello Kitty' animation they made.

After Pictoplasma, Tado are now some of my favourite artists, as I am a really big fan of a lot of really clean (in a style sense) 2D illustration, and I hope to continue to see great work from them.

Third Year Offer

Just making a quick post to say that after having an interview on the 27th of April, I finally got access to my UCAS account and was able to see that I had been offered a place on the third year (top-up) at Newcastle College, which I made my firm choice. Very happy to have been offered a place, and I just need to pass the current course to make it onto the top up year.