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OPPORTUNITY 1:
We see that you are able to observe and come to artistic ideas and translate it to a design. Your methods are still somewhat unclear and the basic intention of what you want to say remain unclear and broad.
Formulate your personal intentions before and during your proces to come to a more grounded direction.

OPPORTUNITY 1:
You are able to reflect on formal choices you make, like color etc, but you do not expres your relation to the work of others and the field.

To bring your own work to the level you want, you have to start reflecting critically on the work of others. Name what you see, experience what it means to you. What does the work mean to your own work, your own medium. Start doing that and your own work will become more rooted!

OPPORTUNITY 2:
In your introduction and in the rest of your portfolio you clearly analyse and reflect on how your relationship with your work has developed and how you want to position yourself in the world, and the field of animation specifically. It would be interesting to think about positioning yourself more as an author. You have something to say, but are also hesitant to take your space and present yourself seriously. You do not have to start compromising even before you start.

OPPORTUNITY 1:
You show that you are able to have the right attitude to improving your craft and interest in developing your skill sets, however it is not yet guided by a clear goal or vision. Part of this problem is your frame of reference.
You are the only one that can make this change. Commit yourself to an active attitude towards the 'world outside'. Changing is always a result of an active choice. We do not doubt that you are able, but you have to start doing it! Go out and feed yourself with inspiration and don't be afraid to have an opinion!

OPPORTUNITY 2:
You describe clearly how you have developed on a personal level, you came to important new insights about your own interests, vulnerability and obsessions. The next challenge is how to connect these personal aspects to your work, and how to develop, produce and expose the work - in order to have a dialogue with your audience through the work.

You are able to create and maintain an inspiring and professional working situation. Your documentation is lacking and it is not providing enough information for yourself on the choices you make in the process. Try to make conscious choices and document right, formulate why you make these choices.This will help you a lot!

OPPORTUNITY 1:
You do understand the power of media, but you do not formulate your own position in that. You formulate your OWN power! You have to step into the arena and accept the position that you as a maker always say something, whenever you make something. Whether you are aware of it or not. Become aware, and you will see that you get more and more satisfaction from your work as well!

OPPORTUNITY 2:
You are able to clearly communicate your interests, ideas and workprocess. You are starting to develop a more clear vision on what you want to achieve with your work.

OPPORTUNITY 1:

Although we see the beginning of a very broad interest, for example in your practice assignment, we still do not see enough context awareness. Start looking around you. Do not only look at animation, but also theatre, architecture, fashion, artists, puppet playing. It can be anyting, but do it wildly. Then formulate your opinion and position yourself towards it. Integrate all these experiences into your work and how you relate to it.
Look at work from other artist about diversity and inclusiveness and be inspired!

OPPORTUNITY 2:

You are sensitive to but also critical about the current discussions happening in society. You are able to express your position within these, but then are quick to compromise your ambitions - or focus on what you think people expect from you.
As we wrote in Critical Reflection: "It would be interesting to think about positioning yourself more as an author. You have something to say, but are also hesitant to take your space and present yourself seriously. You do not have to start compromising even before you start."
We challenge you to research other designers, animators, filmmakers that position themselves in ways that you can relate to. Look at how they work, how they present themselves. Take yourself and your work seriously.

I believe I’ve accomplished to find my art direction and the first push in that direction was the resit I did at the end of 2.3 (for the animation of 1.3).

The task was to show the transition (or contrast) between two feelings. I realised often we’re strongest in creating art that comes from experience. I made it based on mental states I had been in for months at that time, depression and manic states. It ended up being one of my favourite works.

My research went as usual; visual research (including the classic Pinterest board) taking inspiration from photography, film, poetry, contemporary art. I drew up sketches and style frames including the contrasting palette, followed by storyboards and animation.

I realised I want the visual storytelling to be strong and more abstract as emotional states are better explained that way; I came up with imagery that would work in that sense.

This feedback was actually one of the things that made me be more confident in my idea to direct a music video.
Even though I became more stable in knowing what I want to do in the field of animation (concept art; character design, storyboarding) I wanted to explore the other branch I was interested in, film.

My first idea was coming up with a pitch bible for an animated movie with a story of two characters but I realised I also really wanted to try live action for awhile now. Directing was challenging to me; while I don’t mind taking lead in team projects, it’s completely different when you’re the one assigning and guiding everything. I’m not an assertive person and at first it felt odd giving everyone instructions but I became comfortable with it quickly enough. I feel like it gave me a stronger sense of confidence in my abilities.

I also realised I can create work at the border between animation and live-action, as well as strenghtening my storyboarding and cinematography skills in order to later work in storyboarding for both animation and film projects.

The two projects where I implemented my experiences and interests are the "moodswing" animation and the "Jupiter" music video. I specified previously I want to create work with themes of mental illness and LGBT and they focus on these subjects.

I have an instagram where I post my work pretty constantly but I never posted assignments content as I felt it wasn't necessarely a good reflection of myself, until these projects. Through displaying it and talking about my experience I feel like a dialogue is opened with followers and whoever comes across it.

While for "Jupiter" I would occasionally discuss ideas or shot compositions with Sanya and the actresses, the time constraints didn't allow for a lot of this back and forth. I think for my future work I want to work with others again and have an even more collaborative way of working.

I realise now my process documentation, while more organised this time around, could be even more extensive.
For "Jupiter" as it was different from how it'd go as an animation, I separated process in pre-production, production and post-production.
It was an interesting experience having to explain to the actresses and my camera operator, Sanya, not only how but why I'm making the decisions. Projects so far were very individual but this time I'd have to tell the girls things like "sit apart then slowly inch closer to eachother to represent the way you slowly become comfortable with someone, which is seen in your body language".

I feel like the Opportunity 2 feedback is indeed what happened; it feels like both my assignments as well as my personal work became more defined and has a direction, compared to before.

For school I used to just "go with anything" as I felt like I couldn't express myself much through the work. I believe this changed with the studio assignment, when I made the character designs for "Electra". I loved conceptualizing them and the end result, as well as everyone else; I enjoyed the process as much as the end result. It made me realise I can have more fun and be more expressive in my projects.

It was interesting to see the feedback say I tend to close myself off as I hadn't realised it until then.
The biggest step to overcoming this was doing something I wasn't confident in: making a live action project. I previously researched and followed people in the animation and illustration field that inspired me but this time I had to look for film creators.

For "Jupiter", a strong inspiration was the music video for "Headaches" by Raveena, who collaborated in its production with Everett Orr.
Petra Collins was also a big inspiration for the visuals and use of colored LED lighting.

In the meantime I also ended up discussing with the owner of All Things Moving studio, Cristina Garcia Martin. Even if I end up not interning there I'm inspired by the fact that she's running the studio on her own and has an impressive collection of projects and clients; animation, mixed media, illustrations. Her projects really feel like the sort of work I want to make later on as well.

I ended up working in a group again for 3.1 of my own making; (gratefully) Sanya for camera operating, and the two actresses, Jowi and Naomi. It was the first time I was actively and positionally leading a project and in the very beggining it made me a bit anxious but I quickly got used to it. I realised I might love working in a group even more than on my own; ideas bouncing back and forth, improvising or adjusting (and thus improving) things, and even just the feeling of togetherness, of creating with other people.

*I have taken a resit on the CA2 so I'll be adding the feedback from both opportunities.

You have the right attitude to work in group situations. It is good that you are critical on your role. You could be more outspoke and you could bring more of your ideas and vision into the project.