Month: November 2022

The first five to six weeks of classes have been a lot (mostly in a good way). I was in Erik’s After Effects class during the first half of this quarter and ended up learning more than I expected, having worked with the program for years for work and my own personal amusement.

In the first two weeks of class we covered motion graphics, which is primarily what I’ve used After Effects for in the past. I’ll be honest, in the first two weeks I had prior knowledge of pretty much everything that we covered. I love making my logos and graphics move, fine tuning and making everything fluid and perfect. I used this time to finish animating a logo I had started for personal use earlier in the year and had lost steam on. I was super happy with the end result.

It was once we started working with masks, green screen, and compositing that I really started learning some of the tricks and tools I was less familiar with in After Effects. For the most part they were features I was aware of, but had very little practical experience with.

When it came to masking I knew you could create a mask and make it move, but I never really understood how or why it would be useful. It wasn’t a technique I ever used or could get to work the ways I wanted it to when creating logos and other animations. The concept makes a lot of sense to me now and I know I’ll feel a lot more comfortable if I ever find myself in a situation where I am working with and having my animations interact with video.

Green screen was also something I had very little experience with. I had used the method once while working on a project for a job, but had not had a reason to revisit it. Again, I feel much more comfortable with it now and feel like I could use it in a professional setting if the need arose. While learning green screen, I gave myself the extra challenge of learning how to use After Effects’ built in tracking features, something I knew was possible, but hadn’t really used before. Erik saw me exploring the tool after class one day and walked me through the tool and some of the best ways and situations where I could use it.

The last thing we covered was compositing, which I only knew about though photoshop and blend modes. I definitely struggled with this more than the previous weeks’ assignments. I initially was trying to use compositing as a substitute for green screen, which I now know is the wrong perspective, at least at the level we were using it. It wasn’t until I realized that that I began to understand which situations and video elements allow the technique to meet its full potential. Compositing is something I would very much like to dive deeper into and learn how and where I can use it to add new dimensions to my work.

Customer Obsession – In my professional life, I have always been focused on what the people I’m working for need and want. I worked as a massage therapist for around two years in the District of Columbia, a field where the most important things are your clients’ comfort and wellbeing. I was one of the few therapist in my area that addressed issues surrounding TMJ, therapy that requires you to work inside the mouth of your client. Whenever my work called for this, I was always extremely careful to talk my clients through what the session would entail and go out of my way to make sure that they felt comfortable and safe while they were on my table.

Deliver Results – When I worked on as a social media intern for Civic Influencers (formerly Campus Election Engagement Project), I was tasked with coming up with infographics that taught the amendments of the United States Constitution. After coming up with a few ideas I was unhappy with, it occurred to me that motion graphics would work a lot better for what I was trying to convey. I created a concept animation to show my supervisors. They ended up loving the idea and the series became much more informative and engaging as a result.

Learn and Be Curious – I have always enjoyed learning new skills and tricks as an adult. It’s a strength I’ve developed over time and there are definitely a number of caveats when it comes to which subjects I find engaging. Luckily I made the decision to go into graphic design, because the work I get to do, the tools I get to work with, and the seemingly endless amount there is to learn are astounding. For example, I’ve been surprised about how much I enjoy learning how to code in HTML and CSS because when I enrolled in SCC’s design program those were the skills I was (and still am) most trepidatious about learning.

Are Right, A Lot – I feel like I am extremely bad at being right. I will usually defer to someone else’s opinion or judgment. I know that I have a lot to learn still when it comes to design and my professional development, and that as a rule I will probably be wrong about many things for a while to come. In a way I enjoy being wrong because it means that I’m still learning and keeping the feelings and wants of the people I’m working for in the front of my mind.

The first official graphic design position I was hired for ended up being something of a disaster. About a year before I had decided I wanted to pursue graphic design as a profession, after having wandered down quite a few other roads I was unsatisfied with.

I had quit my job as a massage therapist in order to drive for Uber (which ended up being a huge mistake, but that is an entirely different story), and was beginning to question what I really wanted from a career. I landed on graphic design because I wanted to do something creative, that required problem solving, would pay me a living wage, and would allow me to continue to learn as I evolved. To prepare myself for this new endeavor, I enrolled in two continuing education classes over the summer of 2016, Intro to Photoshop and Digital Tools for Visual Arts, hoping to learn the basics, find an entry level job, and learn everything else I would need as I worked.

Immediately after completing these classes, I managed to land an unpaid internship with Street Sense Media, the District’s local homeless newspaper (similar to Real Change in Seattle). It was liberating and allowed me to have fun and work with the tools I had learned over the summer, but I was no closer to finding paid, permanent work.

After interning at Street Sense, I was offered a low paying job as part of the marketing team for a mortgage lender in Maryland. I was initially very excited about the position because part of the company’s marketing campaign involved working with video, a skill I was passionate about and was hoping to develop further.

There were a number of factors that ended up making the resulting experience unpleasant for me. My supervisor was often exacting in their vision or completely absent, the commute was long and a nightmare, and I, although eager, was not an experienced videographer or graphic designer. I didn’t have a firm grasp of the design process and no one at the company was going to teach it to me. It wasn’t until years and many, many tutorials later that I finally began to learn some of the skills that make for a great designer.

Though this first job was a failure, it did lead to some positive experiences. For example, I end up teaching myself to use After Effects, which is a tool I still use and love to this day.

Currently, I see myself progressing in one of two ways (potentially more). First, I would like to become a specialist in my field(s). I love to animate in After Effects and have been doing so for a number of years, but have very limited experience with it in a professional setting. I also love to work in Figma developing responsive layouts, interactive prototypes, and really anything to do with user interface and experience design. I have even less professional experience when it comes to working with Figma and similar design tools, but it’s something I hope to remedy in the near future. Whatever I end up specializing in, I hope to become one of the best and be sought after for my work and talents.

The second way I see myself progressing is by becoming something of a Jack-of-all-trades. While there are programs and formats I love to work with, there is always more to learn. In the past I’ve worked on projects for a wide range of needs. I’ve worked with illustrations, animations, photo collage, social media, marketing, and even embroidery, and more, and with each project I get the chance to learn a new tool or method of doing things that changes the way I think about design and how to best achieve the results I’m looking for. While I may not end up specializing in one task, I would be able to achieve more and work in a wider array of fields.

Either way my life and career progress I can see myself landing in almost any spot on the quadrant Joe Hallock spoke about. Much of it depends on where I land after graduation. Both of the options I mentioned have to potential to appeal to a broad or narrow audience or require high or low density of information. I suppose if I had to choose right now, I would lean more towards larger audiences that require a lower density of information because I like the idea and challenge it takes to convey difficult concepts succinctly and successfully.