Jack Woodcock- Porfolio Crit

Through the Glug event I gained contacted Jack Woodcock, a freelance Motion Graphic Designer who specialises in 2D animation, which is particularly helpful for my personal progression as I tend to lean towards the 2D format.

As well as giving me advice on particular projects, he gave me some tips on how to progress as a designer and agreed to meet up after my current projects are complete to see my progress. As well as giving feedback for the work, he also gave us lots of tips and advice for getting yourself known in the industry. He advised to always keep your contacts and go to events like Glug to build up those contacts and familiarise yourself with the different roles within the industry. He explained how it is a tight knit community and how people do remember certain styles and projects and he is always open to collaborations.

Easy Ease

Jack explained how easy ease graph editor was a tool on After Effects that he believes is extremely important for the animations to flow effectively.

Show Reel Advice

• He spoke of how generally the showreel should be about 1 minute long and how important sound is to emphasise your show reel. 
• Royalty free music is key to supplying an ambience without breaking any rules and that the music is better without lyrical content. 
• Ending the showreel on your name is a good way of making your work memorable, also putting some of your best work at the end of the showreel.

Feedback on Projects

Memory Book Project

• Would be nice for a pace change, making it slower but perhaps also changing the pace throughout in different moments.
• He mentioned how maybe it starts too quickly, an idea he suggested was to start as the blank texture that was in the background and then move through to the baby's head, fading through the page, as a more of a blank start for a more dramatic reveal at the end as well. 
• He also suggested a parallax photo effect, perhaps editing the photos so they move a bit, give them more of a depth of memories. An example of this within the work was the seagull photograph, which he said I could move slightly and match up with the sound, I like the idea and would like to put some time aside to do it.
• There were some images that needed to be neatened off a bit and given a softer, more blurred edge. 

Feel Good Drinks

• Jack noticed a few missing frames that needed to be drawn in or altered, but was impressed by the analogue attempt at producing my own illustrations for the piece. He explained how he pays an illustrator to do his illustrations for him but it's a good skill to be able to draw yourself.
• Again with him mentioning the aspect of Easy Ease previously, he mentioned how I needed to easy ease a few parts of this piece in order for it to flow easier.
• He liked the 'hero shot' where the piece finishes on the illustration of the product, but suggested that maybe there could be a shot of the logo as the final end shot to emphasise the identity. 

Body Image- Current project

As I'd only produced a small amount of actual work so far with this, I showed him my animatic and a few of my compositions and ideas for character design, here was his feedback.

• He mentioned the technique of drop framing and how this adds a more jerky appearance to the animation.
• He liked the aesthetic of the piece and how the lines flickered but also emphasised how important it is to make the animation flow more.
• The feedback on the animatic was good and spoke of how important the sound effects would also be for this piece, I will meet up further on in the year to have some feedback on the work I have produced.