'World's Worst...'

 To kick start this collaborative animation project, our group was given the title prompt 'World's Worst'. Our animation title must include this prompt in order to complete the project successfully. Prompts can be creatively restrictive but can also construct ideas that wouldn't have been realised otherwise. 

To begin the mammoth task of picking a direction for this collaborative project, we each produced independent mind maps. This made for better group discussions as we all had pre-planned suggestions to decipher. Independent work also helped each of us identify our own personal goals for this project. Unfortunately, our zoom meetings were showing no results with our independent mind maps and our project's progress dwindled. Our group couldn't settle on an idea as we each had initiative and high hopes, resulting in a vast range of ideas being suggested, from 'Worlds Worst Inventions' to 'Worlds Worst Monsters'. Our group struggled to find a repeating subject that we could all agree on. 

Mind Map by Jasmine Masters

Mind Map by Kimberley Davis

Mind Map by Jessica Crosby

Mind Map by Saskya Olsen

In an attempt to weld the group together, we decided to create some collaborative mind maps. We could then see everyone's ideas on the same visual diagram as opposed to independent diagrams, making everyone's ideas easier to digest. This style of documentation also meant nothing was forgotten or discarded and every idea was considered a potential animation title. This new mind mapping method ensured everyone was accounted for. 

'Worlds Worst...' Collaborative Mind Map 1 by Jasmine, Kimberley, Jessica and Saskya.

'Worlds Worst...' Collaborative Mind Map 2 by Jasmine, Kimberley, Jessica and Saskya.

Our group chose a handful of ideas from the collaborative mind maps and presented them to Alan during group tutorials. These sessions helped us chisel and reform a single idea. This identified a recurrence on the concept of jobs and employment. Support from Alan grew our confidence on this idea and we were able to identify this topic pattern throughout the mind map and scenario drafts we had already created. Organising and Presenting our ideas to Alan was an opportunity to understand subliminal decisions we had already made as a group e.g. the majority of our ideas could easily be converted into job roles and we had an 80's theme to our brand that would tie-in with our animation.

At this stage, our individual roles within the team had become clear:

Kimberley Davis as Researcher - Kim was appointed the task of  broadening the groups understanding of topics within our animation. Now that we had a focus on  80's Jobs, Kim was able to carry out some research into instructional safety videos, job listings and relevant location conventions. 

Jessica Crosby as Producer - Jess oversees the groups organisation and assists with the projects smooth running. At this stage of the project, Jess helped to document our group meetings, ensuring that ideas weren't forgotten and had been recorded for future reference. 

Jasmine Masters as Director - Jasmine ensures that the overall vision of the collaborative animation stays on track, helping to drive the project forward with decision making. 

Saskya Olsen as Marketing & Media Designer - Saskya's job involves realising the design, style and aesthetics of the studio brand and collaborative animation. This involves generating mood boards, colour schemes and costume ideas relevant to the key animation concepts. 

Defining our individual roles enabled us to understand our personal work trajectories. 

Moving forward, design will become a priority as we translate verbal ideas to visual. This will see the production of character designs, storyboards and conceptual art. Planning has been fundamental for these first few weeks, but design and creation is crucial for the development of this project.