Introduction
Hello, and welcome to my showcase page! My name is Ashley Dillon, and I am a Senior in Animation at Freestyle Academy. This fall, I will be attending Chapman University as a freshman, with the hope of double majoring in Animation and Biological Sciences. My time at Freestyle has been incredibly enriching, and I look forward to continuing to pursue the passions I discovered here as I move on.
On this page, I will be showcasing my Senior Zenith project, the final assignment I created for my Freestyle animation class. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to review my work. Any feedback on my work or general advice you have for me will no doubt be helpful, I’m excited to hear what you think! Thank you again, I really hope you enjoy reviewing my Zenith as much as I loved making it!
My Senior Zenith Project
The word “Zenith” symbolizes a peak or the time when something is most powerful or successful, and this project truly challenged us Freestyle seniors in the final weeks for we graduated. For Zenith, we were tasked with designing our own entirely self-directed assignments, and managing our timing and planning completely independently.
For my Zenith project, I chose to focus on exploring the essential skills for a career in storyboarding, a career that I recently fell in love while researching animation during my college application process. In fact, my current aspiration is to find a career in storyboarding or a related area after I finish at Chapman.
Throughout my Zenith, I developed a series of four mini-projects, each centered around a different key skill. For this showcase, I would particularly like to highlight my favorite mini-project: a storyboard presented as a rough animatic.
Showcase Video
Next, I would like to take you through how I created the rough animatic, including what applications I used and some of my process for planning.
Showcase Animation Reel
Finally, I would love to show you more of the animation work I have done at Freestyle in the form of a Reel I created. It contains my best animated work in both 2D and 3D mediums, covering both my Junior and Senior years at Freestyle.
Showcase Reflection
While I enjoyed the process of creating my Zenith immensely, I learned a lot from it too. At Freestyle, we focus heavily on how projects build on a set of 21st century skills. During my project, I developed a wide variety of both 21st Century skills and technical skills related to the technology I learned to use.
During my Zenith, I think I improved the most on the skill of self-direction because I was successful in sticking my ambitious plan for my entirely self-directed Zenith project. I had attempted similar animated creations in previous projects, but ran into several issues in which my poor planning and time-management lowered the final quality of the product. I think that my Zenith project shows a clear improvement in quality because of how much thought I put into my self-directed planning this time around. However, I believe that I improved the least in the field of teaming and collaboration. That may seem like a given, since this was an independent project, but I wish I had been able to find a way to incorporate a collaborative element into my final project. I listed collaboration as one of the 4 skills essential to a storyboard artist, and I dislike that I was unable to present anything for one of the main skills I had themed my project around. I could have improved my project by at least attempting to add an element of collaboration into the project, even if it was something simple like asking peers to give me feedback on my storyboards like a producer would in the animation industry.
As for technical skills, I would say one of the most important things I learned during my Zenith project was how to use After Effects 3D space. I did not use this skill in the mini-project I showcased, but if you are interested you can learn more about how I used it on my Zenith Website. I will definitely be using what I learned about 3D Space in After Effects again, I really liked what I was able to create with it. I think using 3D space helped me achieve effects that I would not have been able to using only 2D animation, and without a lot of the usual hassle that comes with other types of 3D media I have used (like Maya and Z-Brush). I will definitely be working on my animation skills over the summer by producing youtube videos for fun, and I can see myself using what I learned about Z Space in those creations.
The Zenith project had several objectives, including “ignite your own passion; elevate your skills and experiences; create your ultimate or most successful Freestyle project.” I think that I best achieved the objective of elevating my skills and experiences. My choice of creating several mini-projects instead of one big project let me tackle a wider variety of skills. I further diversified the skill set I was practicing by incorporating what I was doing for my advanced learning project Digital Media assignments into my Zenith. Additionally, I would count self-direction as a skill I practiced during the project, which hopefully elevated my ability to engage in self-directed work. This is something I predict will be incredibly useful as I transition to college.
One of my main takeaways from my Zenith project was that sometimes the best way to discover a passion is to just dive in and try something, even if it feels a little forced at first. Projects like Senior Zenith have been amazing for pushing me to explore the “someday” ideas I have that never get done otherwise. So, if I were to remind my future self of something, it would be this: If something sparks your interest, even just a little, make a conscious effort to learn more. Don’t let those fleeting thoughts just drift away. Take that initial curiosity and turn it into action – try it out, research it, make something related to it. You might just surprise yourself with how much you enjoyed the process of creating something new or by what you accomplished.
Personal Reflection
During my time at Freestyle, I have grown so much as a digital artist. I went from being terrified of new technologies to actively seeking them out. I learned the importance of embracing change, and how advantageous that can be. For example, with the development of AI, it is unsure how fields like the animation industry and many others will change. However, after developing my ability to utilize new technologies at Freestyle, I hope that I can learn to use changes like AI to improve the quality of what I create.
Additionally, Freestyle helped me begin the journey of developing a very different but equally important skill; Collaboration in a Creative space. By sharing ideas with peers that shared my creative interest, I improved my Freestyle creations tremendously. I learned how to effectively communicate during group projects to create final products that were much greater than the sum of what each group member could have created on our own. This taught me how incredibly valuable working in a group can be if done effectively, and helped me get better at working with groups in a way that allowed each person to maximize their contributions.
All in all, I have learned so much from Freestyle and I hope to use that knowledge to continue learning and creating new things while tackling future challenges without fear.