Cerys presented on how her creative outputs have been impacted by her learning at UCM. She discussed developing skills in animation including character design using shape theory and creating walk cycles. Her photography skills improved as she learned to focus on form and color, taking close-up shots. She was influenced by Gillian Wearing's portraits holding signs and took her own photo inspired by this, with a subject holding a road sign.

1. Cerys’s Presentation
“Evaluate the contexts that have been impacted on your own creative outputs”

2. Since coming to UCM I have developed a lot of new skills and
techniques as well as developing my understanding of the media
around me. As a whole this has impacted my creative outputs.

3. Animation
One of the first things I’ve learnt about in animation and then touched upon in contextual
was character shape theory
In brief:
CIRCLES: are harmless and considered the friendliest as they have no sharp or
dangerous corners. They tend to be associated with young characters and
evoke likeable characters.
SQUARES: the straight and horizontal lines represent strength by
communicating stability and confidence. They are often depicted steadfast
characters who are dependable and are commonly used for super heroes.
TRIANGLES: diagonal and strong, angular lines are the most dynamic out of all
the shapes. Villains tend to be based upon dominant triangular concepts, they
appear malicious and sinister whilst communicating the most aggression.
I tried to incorporate this into different characters.

4. CHARACTERS
Animation
I already did a tiny bit of
drawing before coming to
UCM but this theory
helped to develop the
drawing style
EARLY DRAWINGS
EARLY DRAWINGS
Looking back through books the change starts to get
noticeable. The first image I tried to make someone
who’s young by using circular shapes. I slightly used
triangles in the second drawing to make the character
seem like more of a villain
From normal drawings to stylised drawings
STARTING TO INCORPORATE THE THEORY
EARLY DRAWINGS
There’s not much shape theory that goes
on in early drawings. I tried to just draw a
face shape as accurately as I could
EXPERIMENTAL DRAWINGS
ACKNOWLEDGING THE THE THEORY
I experimented with different styles of drawing
to try create more engaging characters. Design
aspect are increasingly noticeable. The girl is
rounded to have a younger look. The right
hand sided characters have sharp looking hair.
The very right has a sharp ear to add to this
look. The second to the right I tried to give a
pointy chin to try and make it sharper.
The very left image was after the previously
described and I tried. To make the face sharp
look even sharper.
STYLISED DRAWINGS
NOTHING IS EVER FULLY DEVELOPED
I tried to make a dependable looking character (left-hand side). I
used square shapes in most aspects. Even small details like the
boots are made to be chunky and sturdy to show dependability.
When it comes to the other character It got very stylised, I tried to
make a villainous character. I made the face shape very sharp and
unnatural to get this idea across. I definitely could stylise body
shapes more to communicate my ideas more.

5. AnimationTechnical skills
Before animation I had no idea how to use adobe animate or photoshop to make my own animations.
In my animation lessons I learn more and more as I progressed and I can definitely see the improvements.
The first few animations
These were done without
looking at existing animations.

6. Animation
When it came to the next projects in animation we researched into existing animations, I think this was very helpful when
making these animations as it allowed for a sort of example – I had an idea what the outcomes would look like and how the
movement would look.
Research of existing pixel art We were also shown videos of walk cycles, idle animations and
character turn arounds, these showed us examples of these
animations and some of the videos gave us information about how
to go about creating them.
This definitely helped to develop my animation skills,.

7. Animation
This was is my idle animation, the most recent one.
Technical skills
An idle animation tends to be used in video games. It’s the animation a character will do whilst waiting for the next
instructions. I think the animation works quite successfully in a literal sense and in the sense that the animation works and in
the sense that the character is simply taking a break and my character looks like it’s ready for the next move. To improve I
definitely think I could incorporate even more theory into the piece to communicate the character more. Primarily I think I
could make use of more colour to suggest a specific emotion or use more character shape theory.
The right foot was pointed out as effective, I was told it
looked like the weight was shifting by the subtraction of
one pixel in a frame. It was a mistake originally but it
worked in my favor and heightened my awareness of how
one small thing (a pixel) can make such a difference.

8. Photography

9. Photography
Photography puts perspective on our world and allows us to look at other peoples perspective from their work.
Before coming on the course I hadn’t experimented with photography much. The photos below are the only recent photos I
could find. Most were from a holiday – I never really went out my way to take a photograph.
Photography has given me more perspective on my surroundings through the study of various aspects and styles of
photography. Since being on the course, I have gone out a few times with my camera to specifically take photos and I
definitely have seen an improvement.
In our first few lessons we focused on shape/form and colour.

10. Photography
Form and Colour
These were some of my photos from these lessons. Looking out for
these little parts of objects/buildings was interesting as they’re little
details that people tend to overlook. I have learnt about white
balance, the use of defocusing in artistic way, lighting methods
(additive/subtractive colours)
I found that I like to focus in on small details when taking
photographs.

11. Photography
Incorporating colour, form and lighting
Here are some photos that I ended up taking outside college.
I think these have a huge contrast to
the pictures I showed before the
course
They definitely look more artistic to me.
In the photos from before the course
there was a lot more going on in
comparison to these photos - these seem
quite peaceful. I think this is definitely a
nice change. I was also able to make use of
more light and the focus which I picked up
in lesson. This was great as I felt I was
really aware of my environment and how
to utilise in my photographs. Although I
found what I prefer (close-ups), it would
be nice to experiment with a chaotic/busy
photograph – like some of the
photographers we looked at in contextual
(e.g. Joel Meyerowitz) and it would also be
interesting to add more meaning behind
the photos.

12. Photography
Developing Film
Developing film is another skill I have learnt in photography, I tried to take a variety of shots (portrait, landscape and
shots of subjects)
These two photos I wanted to get some depth in the piece like the work of Beate Gütschow. I tried to get face-on images as
I wanted to see if I could get a similar effect. I think it worked well as a first attempt but could be improved. If the areas
where the photos were taken were more desolate and the camera was further away I think it would relate more to her
photographic style. The contrast is also too dark but I could easily change this by altering the filter on the enlarger.
Extra Photos
With these photos I didn’t try to go for a look. I experimented with different angles and framing which made for an interesting collection of photos

13. Contextual Studies and Photography
Since coming to UCM I’ve been able to look at the world around me from a new perspective thanks to
Contextual and Photography.
Incorporating contextual and photography
In one of our contextual lessons we studied the work of Gillian Wearing.
Wearing would ask members of the public to write what they
wanted people to know/what they were thinking on a piece of
paper. They then held up the paper and she took a picture.
I thought that this technique was very interesting as it’s quite a simple concept yet
very effective
For Example,
A police man with a sign saying “help” is quite a juxtaposed concept. You’d expect
the police officer to be the one to help those who need saving (you wouldn’t expect
they need saving themselves because of their job)

14. Contextual Studies and Photography
Incorporating contextual and photography
We found some signs whilst taking our pictures for photography. As soon as
I saw them I had envisioned a photo that would look similar to the concept
that Wearing uses. I thought that the recognisable signage could make for a
nice photo as you never really see them in different scenes (like you
wouldn’t find a stop sign anywhere else on a road, if you did find it
somewhere else it’d be interesting)
We walked along with the signs and I decided to take the picture along a
long, straight path. To draw attention to Alex I had him centered on the
path. Then, I used this path as a leading line to Alex as well as the formation
of the trees. I think it was quite an effective use as no matter where you
look on the photo your eyes are drawn to the subject.
The main difference in the piece is the framing and use of colour. I couldn’t
do much about colour as I was using a film camera.
When it came to framing I did position the camera so it would be face-on. I
didn’t directly attempt to recreate her style so I didn’t think about how I
positioned the camera on the person. Normally, she only shows the top
half.
I do like how this came out, I think it worked well despite differentiating
from her specific style.

15. Thank you for listening!