As with both of my previous projects, scheduling and planning have been an extremely important part of production management and organisation as a whole. Self-assessment and progress tracking also proved useful and have impacted my work simply by being there for me to reference and think about. In order for everything to run as smoothly as possible, I think that having a master plan to follow is the best way to complete tasks efficiently, and this blog post is exactly that: an accumulation of all of my methods and systems that I will be using for the creative project.
Some of the benefits that I have found for utilizing organisation skills include but are not limited to:
- Stress Reduction – clutter and lack of orientation can be stress-inducing, especially for me personally as someone who is thinking of so many different things throughout the day. Having a space to categorise everything and ensure that nothing is forgotten is such a relief, and takes a lot off of my shoulders. For important projects such as this one, a simple to-do list is not only essential but isn’t enough. Whilst it’s great to have one, more in-depth methods with specific target goals mean that the right workflow can be established.
- Healthier Lifestyle – having clear goals in mind and the methods to reach them outlined means that time can be allocated for sleep, exercise and a healthy diet, all of which are incredibly important to function and therefore be able to work to the best of our ability. It comes full circle! Ever since I started using a planner, my days have been so much easier to manage and I can find more time for things I enjoy because work is usually out of the way if I stick to my schedule.
- More Productivity – one of the most obvious and important outcomes of being organised is higher efficiency and better results for the assignments that need to be completed. Knowing how much time to allocate to each task, prioritisation throughout the day and keeping track of current progress are just some of the many ways to work smarter and achieve the intentions set (even if subconscious).
- Promotes Growth – when you come to realise that scheduling is necessary and can only benefit you and start to do it of your own accord, that is the first step in the right direction. Then, with more experience and diverse planning methods, you learn what’s right for you, become more focused and grow professionally! This is in terms of self-organisation mainly, but the fact that it encouraged initiative was the case for me. I gained independence and got to know myself much better, especially with techniques like SWOT, which positively impacted my work and my relationship with work.
So, let’s look at how I have planned out the creative project. Taking into consideration what methods I have used before, I have been able to make the necessary changes to my master plan based on how I feel about the results that I have produced. If we look back at my post-mortem for the Culture Brief, it is clear that despite having done a better job organising my work, I had a problem with execution and timing and was not satisfied with my final products because of it. After a quick overview, I have decided to eliminate the SMART Diary method, which was a new technique I was trying out. At the time, it helped boost my confidence and make me feel as though I had done more than I really had, but this is a false sense of security that I do not want to bring into this project. Writing down SMART targets and adding evidence to what I had completed was stressful and slightly pointless, since tracking progress without a limitation quantity, such as time, doesn’t produce any helpful data. Other than that, here are all of the methods that I will be using:
-✧.*.*.✧-
Project Goals
SWOT Analysis
Gantt Chart
RAG Rating the Brief
Kanban
Risk Assessment
Occasional Updates
-✧.*.*.✧-
You’ll notice that most of them have been carried across from my previous projects, such as Kanban and Gantt and this is because I think that they truly did help me and were best for my work ethic out of all of the ones we were shown. My main problem was my execution, which I will explain later on. The ‘project goals’ one is pretty clear, I will be setting overall targets to aim for. The SWOT analysis is great for self-improvement and the risk assessment gives me something to fall back on in case something disrupts the workflow. After SWOT are the three most useful methods because they give me varying degrees of overview in terms of where I am and where I need to be with work. ‘Occasional updates’ refers to my plan to come back to this post when I am further ahead and reflect on how the project is going so far, how the scheduling is working and put screenshots of the charts to see how they have changed. It is my belief that if I combine these with self-incitement (spurring myself onwards), I will achieve the best outcomes out of all of my projects so far at Confetti.
↳ ೃ⁀ Project Goals ೃ⁀➷
: ̗̀➛ Achieve your vision, but don’t be afraid to experiment!
This happened with both the Fantasy and Culture briefs: I had an idea of what I wanted to do very early on, around the same times as hearing the requirements, images and stories start to form in my head, and from those, I automatically begin to pick out things I want to include in an animation (before even deciding on themes and product formats!). As I decided on an idea and begin to do research, the initial images solidify and form a storyline in my head, which I am then determined to translate visually no matter what. However, I feel that this has left me a bit narrow-sited in the past. With this project, the idea came to me very quickly as before – three in fact, which I went over in my subject research. However, with the added surrealism, I don’t want to limit myself to the same character appearance, animation structure and single-format production. This time, I am going to be open to other mediums and styles and not close the door on something in an attempt to preserve my original vision.
: ̗̀➛ Make sure to group work and stick to the brief!
This one may seem like a more menial goal, but it has greater importance than you think. With my previous projects, I have used the required posts on the brief as a guideline and created each one accordingly. However, I also diverged from this when my work required a different format and categorisation system e.g. the character lookbooks for my fantasy brief were outside of the concept design post. While I understand that it made sense at the time and it helped separate everything and give it its own distinct spotlight, it created a mess on my blog and made it hard to navigate through all of my work. With this brief, I have promised myself that I will stay organised no matter what, not just in terms of scheduling, but also in my presentation. This means that I am sticking as closely as I can to the brief blogs and avoiding creating new posts outside of the main ones. I have also added a ‘creative project’ tag to my blog in order to make it quick and easy to access all of the relevant work. I am planning to continue with this method, and hopefully, by the end, I’ll have only detailed methodised and relevant publications.
: ̗̀➛ Measure audience reaction and understand your product(s) effects!
Before, I feel that I made forms and asked the audience questions purely to fulfil that section of the brief’s criteria. I don’t think I understood the potential that audience engagement had, and what kind of opportunities it created for improvement. Since I am sending a message that is important to me through this project, understanding how it impacts the target audience is not only essential but is something I want to do. I want to know if my animation has helped them recognize how absurd our actions are or made them more aware of the beauty and wonder that our planet provides. To do this, I will be sending the products out to as many friends and family members as possible, as well as uploading it to my social media accounts for the public to react to, linking a form everywhere I can that will ask of their opinions in specific detail. I am going to encourage comments, criticism, discussion and sharing so that the project will reach a bigger audience and I can gauge how well my message has spread.
: ̗̀➛ Improve your animation skills enough to step confidently into university!
The final major project of my time at Confetti is my final major opportunity to create an animation I’m proud of. I want to enter my course at whatever university I am going to, knowing that I have the basics mastered and with experience behind my back, which is not where I am currently. I feel like I still have so much room to improve in terms of hand-drawn animation and I want to focus on upgrading my skills in Adobe Animate, Photoshop and fbf animation programs in general. Even if it’s not perfect, I want this animation to be of much higher merit and quality than the one I did for my culture brief. This means a higher animation rate (15 – 24fps), good linework and colour (not the scratchy mess we had last time) and a story that makes sense (the last one was hard to grasp). This way I will be confident in my next steps in the journey to my dream job.
⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ SWOT ｡୨୧˚⋆ ˚.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Each of these categories refers to the situational assessment prompt points that are related to business competition or project planning. However, it is also a strategic planning and management technique that can be used to identify the above categories in an individual, thus tracking progress effectively and providing a starting point to devise a successful scheme in the future. It has been useful in the past and for the project and I also want to identify how I, as a junior animator and character, stand at this point in tackling the project. A few pieces of information fall under this, such as what unique perspective I can bring to the client and what potential short backs I will need to plan for.
S t r e n g t h s :
Presently, I think that one of my strong points is my determination to improve for university. With this goal in front of me, I have greater motivation to complete this project to a high standard. The past two projects have also given me the much-needed experience to refer back to, meaning I know what to avoid and how to streamline my work. I also have a social media presence and a good location, both of which aid in my project theme and goal. There is a greater number of people that could see my animation and I have a lot of parks and fields near my house, so I can potentially add a short film to my list of products, both of which help with increasing the overall standard of the work. I am also quite creative in my design work and love art and fantasy, which again, provides a solid foundation for this project, which is full of visual media.
W e a k n e s s e s :
Limited time for my idea! This is a great weakness that I am surprised I didn’t touch on before, but the ideas that I tend to gravitate towards for my projects are quite grandiose and meaningful. I am prone to forgetting or ignoring the limited time and worker availability, the fact that it’s only me! I have to remember that I am the sole person working on this project and set realistic goals around this otherwise my greatest downfall will be in production, like last time. Another hindrance is my lack of experience in fbf animation. Yes, I have been animating for a while, and have done frame-by-frame hand-drawn before, but not nearly as much as computer animation in After Effects for example, and I foresee that there may be some problems with the methodology of the animation. I might struggle with how to effectively communicate certain actions. However, I am working on this by experimenting with Adobe Animate myself, comparing different techniques I know and seeing which works for me.
O p p o r t u n i t i e s :
I think that the main opportunity I have lies in my background and age. I am a part of the target age group for my project and have a background in art, which is a major concept in ADDOED. I can take advantage of this and apply knowledge from past experiences, such as art museum trips and animations watched online. I have a good idea of what people my age find interesting and can direct my style towards that. Being a student at Confetti College also surrounds me with opportunities, since being a college for creative subjects, they have specialised equipment I could borrow and tutors who have had training and education in the animation field that I could ask for help.
T h r e a t s :
I’d like to touch on something I mentioned in my strengths, that can also be considered a threat. I do have an online presence, which puts me in a favourable position to spread the project further, however, my accounts on social media are still unfinished and very small. I haven’t completed my re-branding yet, which means that viewers might not take the project seriously and there also isn’t that many of them. I have quite a small following on Youtube and Instagram and that’s about it, which pales in comparison to what kind of reach I could have if I were part of a studio or organisation of some kind. Another potential threat is the internet at my location faltering or ceasing to work altogether. Now that we’re approaching the colder months in England, outages and power failures tend to increase in frequency, albeit still being very rare. I have also seen a lot of construction in the surrounding area where 5G hot spots are being set up, and I need to watch out for any disruptions that may because in the case that they come to work near my house.
. . . . .
As always, the SWOT analysis has helped open my eyes to obstacles that I might have missed, such as the danger of being without internet or power during the crucial aspects of my project. I can now prepare for this by checking my backup location and ensuring I can go to college when needed to continue work there.
-ˏ͛⑅ ‧̥̥͙‧̥̥ ̥ ̮ ̥ ⊹ Notion vs Excel ⊹ ̥ ̮ ̥ ‧̥̥‧̥̥͙ ⑅ˏ͛-
So far, my organisation of college work and my life, in general, has taken place either in a physical planner or in Excel spreadsheets. The former was where I kept track of events, deadlines and to-do lists and the latter I used for projects such as this one, where I could easily check where I was in terms of work and how much I had left to do (officially). Unfortunately, this system wasn’t sustainable for me. As more things piled on, I realised that everything was scattered and I was working in between so many different methods and apps. Nothing was cohesive and I was torn between wanting to have all of my work in one format and being eco-friendly and healthy. I had heard about this brilliant program called Notion, you see, and it really drew me in. I had to compare and consider the pros and cons of not working on paper and I found that there was a significant number of disadvantages and advantages for both paper and digital planners. Eventually, I decided to take the leap and transfer everything onto Notion – a.k.a commencing 2022 I have been using a digital planner only, and it’s been fantastic so far! Notion is easy to get a grasp of and the customisation capabilities make it so much more enjoyable and personal (I have slowly been moving my whole life onto there, in terms of notes, lists and things I keep on my phone continually). My main priority was setting up the ‘College’ section, which I did first before moving onto more private pages. I won’t be going too much into-depth with that, but I would like to put this little extract here which sums up how Notion works before moving on:
“Notion is a notetaking software and project management software that is used for note-taking, task management, project management, knowledge management, and personal knowledge management. The app uses databases and markdown pages for use in personal and collaboration work.”
Gantt Chart
This is a type of bar chart that shows the dependency relationships between activities and the current schedule status. I’ve used it for all of my projects, streamlining the type each time until I found my ideal one, which is a monthly overview (sometimes weekly depending on how detailed I want to be).
Here is the old chart that I created at the start of the project. There wasn’t anything incoherently wrong with it, but it hasn’t been updated in a while because I have been using the one in Notion instead.
The structure is the same but I personally think that this one looks far more refined and minimalistic. As always with my Gantt charts, I check this page occasionally to see where I am in the project on a larger scale and in relation to the time frame that I have set out. The deadlines are underneath for reference, but in general, each month relates to a stage in the process and is underlined when passed (not highlighted like with the previous one). In terms of Theory and Industry, I have underlined it since the deadline has passed, but I do still have some things to add to some of the posts, which I can see more in detail with my other scheduling methods. I can see that I am on track since February is the main month for pre-production, for me.
RAG Rating / Highlighting the Brief
My second method is more in-depth and one I discovered more recently than the other two. It involves copying the brief onto a PowerPoint, or converting it into a PDF and highlighting the blog posts directly from the official requirement slides. I would always use three to four different colours to organise my progress with the official final work. Red or pink is generally work that I have not started, orange or yellow is work that I have started or technically completed but with some things that I want to add as extra and green is always fully completed work. I later realised that this is called RAG rating, a project management method that issues status reports based on the traffic light system.
These are some examples of my old brief highlights. I used powerpoint’s highlighter tools to categorise each post depending on the favourable, unfavourable or neutral value of the work status. Again, it is out of date but in the second image, you can see the full range of categories from the green, completed section, the orange work that I haven’t finished and the pink, pending posts. I did this for all of the slides in the brief that have specific post requirements.
Here is the new and improved version! I put my key at the top and made sure to have everything clear, in order and accurate. The descriptions and titles are all copied word for word from the brief so that I can be sure I haven’t missed anything and am titling my posts correctly as well. Similarly to the Gantt, this document gives me an overview of my progress, but instead of just the main sections against time, I track all of the required posts that I need to hand in, which is very useful! I can keep myself on track in a more visual manner and the use of colours makes it more enjoyable and easy to understand for me, which is why I check back here more often than the Gantt.
Kanban
The methods that I have shown so far, however, pale in comparison to my favourite, most-used technique; Kanban. A kanban board is an extremely agile project management tool that uses cards, columns and continuous improvement to maximise efficiency. It can be both physical or digital and can have as many columns as deemed necessary by the person or team. A sticky note or card has the task/work written on it and is placed in the column relevant to its status (similarly to RAG but colours are optional here).
Once again, the original version was made in Excel. It’s very simple and I used the underline method to separate official blog posts from general tasks, such as adding mood boards to a post for example. At some point, I attempted to colour code everything so that the tasks matched up to their relevant post, but that became far too messy. I wanted something more cohesive and detailed since this is my main organisation method.
Notion delivered! When I was still doing research, exploring and getting to know the site, I found out that you can create your own tables and charts and there’s even a built-in Kanban template. I was so excited to try it out and that’s exactly what I used to make this one for the project. It’s so much easier to manage even though it is more detailed. The main principle is the same – the cards can be moved to any of the columns, which can be named and added to your desire. Thanks to Notion’s use of pages, you can also add icons to each, which is another level of categorisation that I appreciate. The research posts all have a notepad icon, pre-production is a lightbulb, professional practice is a briefcase and I chose a film recorder for final products. Using icons makes it faster and easier to recognize the type of post and the Kanban is overall more interesting and fun.
For the subject research post, it is still under “In-progress” even though I’ve pretty much completed it because I wanted to add some extra things that link to another post. Other than that, everything else in that category is truly well under-way. Probably my favourite aspect of Notion’s kanban is that you can click on a card and add notes underneath.
I mainly use this for a to-do list of work I information and other content that I would like to add to the post but it is simply incredible to have a space for notes and ideas. This wasn’t the case for Excel and I found it frustrating whenever I had something to add in relation to a particular post, I would have to put it in google notes, hence separating things even more. Now, if I want to remember to reference a PowerPoint (e.g. check lesson 4 in Teams) or put specific sections that I thought to add into a blog, I can write it all down on the right card and have peace of mind that I am not forgetting or losing data. Notion makes it so much more cohesive and detailed.
You can also open up the card as a full page on its own, which I would do if there was a lot of writing underneath, such as with the subject research post. Whenever I found useful websites, I would also save the links in case I wanted to come back to them or I accidentally clicked off of the tab. They are highlighted in green to show that I have taken all of the information that I need from them, essentially ‘finished’ with the link. This method of having tick boxes helps me a lot, since crossing things off a list is both satisfying and motivational to me, and gives me an idea of how much work I have left so that I can plan out what work I am doing for each day.
♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥
I have summarised as best as I can, but there really is so much you can do within Notion. It’s brilliant not only for scheduling projects such as these since all of my work is now in one place but also for day-to-day activities and the general tasks of life. In my agenda, which I have a whole page dedicated for, I have a weekly overview and my Google calendar embedded underneath, besides monthly goals and other little tit-bits. I can plan out each day in detail and don’t have to flick back and forth between pages to see my month at a glance; I can simply scroll down. This also means that I can manage myself through my phone, which is essential for someone who is out and about and often thinks of things on the go or has to double-check the schedule with the pop-up of an event. In my Notion, I have a section specifically for college, and in the ‘Master To-Do List’ page, I keep all of my scheduling and lists with general blogs to complete. It’s a folder-within-folder system, but this method of categorisation is easy to comprehend and map out in my mind. At first, I was worried that it would get tedious having to go into a million pages to get to a specific one, but I quickly realised that Notion has shortcuts and tools around this. For example, I have my most used pages favourited, and I can easily access them in the ‘starred’ section to the right. You can also click the ( Ctrl + [ / ] ) command to go back or forward a page, as well as ( Ctrl + P ) to view recently visited pages, allowing you to easily jump to the one you need. I have only been using it for about a month, but I am already so much happier and less stressed – the decision to go digital with my planning was one of the best of mine yet.
ヽ｀、☁ヽ｀ Risk Assessment ☂˚｡ヽ｀☽ヽ｀
Bringing back another method that I have used in the previous project(s), most recently the culture brief, I have also conducted a risk assessment for my FMP. The combined method of identifying and analyzing potential risks, hazards or other events that might negatively impact something. In this case, it is a project, but the assessment can also apply to individuals, assets and/or the environment. You make judgments based on the tolerability of the risks and plan according to these influencing factors in order to have a contingency in place if they were to happen. I didn’t use my previous assessment, which will hopefully be the case for this project as well, however it reassured me that there was a plan to fall back on if something were to go wrong. This is why I have considered the main problems that could have an adverse effect on my work, how likely they are to happen and how great their impact would be, as well as a quick scheme on either how to prevent them or what to do in their case.
Numbers 2 and 3 are the most dangerous risks and even if I have outlined what to do in those situations, it would greatly affect my work, stress levels and entire routine for the remaining months. I can imagine everything spiralling downhill if I am truly forced to work only in the local library or Confetti since I’d have to work around opening hours and deal with external distractions. My room is where I focus best and where I have created the right atmosphere and energy for research and production – it is ideal for concentration and big chunks of time doing a task. I am not too worried, however, since the chance of either risk happening is quite low. I only put the impact of ‘Loss of Work’ as a 3 because it has happened before, but in reality, I have learned from my mistake and am taking care to back everything up frequently.
━ ◦ ❖ ◦━
On the whole, I am quite pleased with how this project is going so far and I think my scheduling methods are most up to date. I’ve picked up techniques, and small hacks from previous experiences, such as the Pomodoro method which I started out with and adjusted to my liking. Moving over to Notion was definitely the biggest leap I’ve taken this year and it has already helped massively with my college work. I’m much more motivated to complete my tasks, and I very rarely procrastinate, which is a big achievement for a perfectionist! That is why I have a positive outlook on my production management and the creative project currently.
– – 15/03/2022 Update – –
As I said previously in this post, I will be coming back here for updates when I feel they are necessary since this will help me actively keep track of where I am in relation to my goals and motivate me to carry on. Here is a screenshot of where I am with the work:
Currently, I am nearing the end of pre-production and although I have completed a lot, I am a little behind schedule. Concept art took much longer than I anticipated because I had a lot of different areas to flesh out in preparation for the animation. The world will be quite full and I have included many different characters and environments, with a total of six main scenes and the last being the most complex. This ties into why I decided to give an update at this time; having recently posted a blog with my tutorial notes with my updated SMART goals, I started that I would be making adjustments to my schedule/plan to fit my current situation. I am having to deal with quite a few major personal events/issues and am also travelling towards the end of April because of one of them. This falls on the final week of the Creative Project and I know that amidst the chaos of flying, settling in and doing various activities throughout the day, I will find little to no time for production. I can, however, bring my laptop and work on my blog posts (especially on the plane). This is why it is absolutely essential that I finish my animation before this point, so here is the new plan to accommodate this.
- Leave ALL blog work until last. There will be plenty of time to complete them when on the plane and also at our destination but this won’t be the case for my animation as there is insufficient space for my tablet.
- Focus on finishing pre-production and starting production as soon as possible. If I complete all of my poetry research and pre-vis this week, I will have around a month to animate.
- Scale back the animation. I had plans for the first and fourth scenes that would have made them much longer, but I will simplify greatly in my starboard so that I can complete everything to the minimum that I expect of myself.