Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Myers–Briggs Type Indicator is a questionnaire based assessment that was designed to measure how people perceive and make decisions. Before being introduced to the MBTI test I had previously heard of it but had never taken it myself, so I was interested to find out how I would be categorised. The way the assessment works is you are asked to choose between two dichotomies, consecutively. Each time you choose one of the two paths you move on to the next question and receive a letter based on the answer you chose to the question. In total there are four questions each suggesting a significant characteristic of your personality.



The four dichotomies are;

• Attitudes: extraversion/introversion (E/I)
• Functions: sensing/intuition (S/N)
• Functions: thinking/feeling (T/F)
• Lifestyle: judging/perception (J/P)

The results of my test were "I N F P" which means I am described by the test as an 'idealist/dreamer'.

INFP personalities are true idealists, always looking for the hint of good in even the worst of people and events, searching for ways to make things better. While they may be perceived as calm, reserved, or even shy, INFPs have an inner flame and passion that can truly shine. Comprising just 4% of the population, the risk of feeling misunderstood is unfortunately high for the INFP personality type - but when they find like-minded people to spend their time with, the harmony they feel will be a fountain of joy and inspiration."

Introduction to Photoshop

Having spent a lot of time on Photoshop previously, I was looking forward to being reminded of some of the features I had forgotten about and possibly learn something new about the software. The morning session was quite straight forward and we were shown the basic tools of Photoshop and how to navigate around. After being introduced to mask layers and how to use them we were given a selection of images to use and compile in order to utilise the 'mask layer' feature. The image on the left was created by taking an image of a helmet and an image of a man's face and overlaying them in order to create the idea that he's wearing it. Quite straight forward up to this point, but fun nonetheless. One of the biggest things I got out of the morning session was the idea that I should use keyboard short cuts in order to make my work flow quicker and the general navigation around Photoshop more efficient, so this is definitely something I will be trying to practice and use in the future.



The second half of the Photoshop introduction included showing us some of the more intermediate features of Photoshop. We were also given the opportunity to use the Wacom tablets which was something I hadn't done before, but got used to quite easily. After around half an hour of using the tablet you begin to use it more instinctively than before and it becomes less of a new feeling. The tablet gave me more control when using the eraser and brush tools for example than controlling them with a mouse, so I felt I had more freedom to experiment and create the image I wanted. The image of the right was a masking/blending experiment where we had to collect four or five images from the album and over lay them to create an interesting composition. I tried to mix up the type of image I used and gather images with textures that I could overlay and create and overall interesting image. Once they had been overlayed I added sections of colour and altered the saturation and hue on certain layers to change the feel of the image.



Here is an example of something I attempted in order to get used to using the sensitivity and line weight settings on the tablet.



Nearing the end of the session, we were given the task to create a 'final piece' based on what we'd learnt throughout the day. I had the idea to create a scene featuring different altitudes, starting with the ground, then mountains, followed by clouds; and finally, an image of space. I laid the images out on the canvas, slightly over lapping them before I created the mask layers for each one. After this I altered the levels and saturation/hue so that they were slightly of a slightly more similar tone before starting to merge the images together. I also tried to remove some of the colouring and vibrance of some of the images using the mask layer technique so that they were of a much closer level.



Overall I'm quite happy with the finished image, I think if I could improve it I could have altered the levels and hue/saturation to give a more interesting or compelling feel. However it turned out quite close to how I had envisioned it and I learnt a lot from the creation of the image.

Who am I? Why am I here? What do I want to learn?

Why I chose to study on this programme?

Based on what I hope be able to achieve and pursue as a career post University, I realised that the Leeds college of Art Animation degree encompassed the necessary content and philosophy behind the programme that suited me the most. Another factor that drew me to this particular programme was the connection and belief in industry as a whole, whether this be through the use and availability of software or the teaching o both tradition, contemporary 2D and 3D Animation. Along with this, the commitment to being in touch with industry and having the necessary resources to allow the students to visit film festivals and not only view up and coming work but have the ability to network and speak to people who are currently involved in the field that me and my peers are interested in working in. My ultimate career goal is to become a regarded concept artist working in the entertainment industry on projects such as films and video games. Also to be part of the pre-production process involved in the making process. When looking for a suitable course that I thought I would not only get the most out of but would enjoy doing I found that I wanted a programme that would improve my employability prospects and enterprise skills so that I have the best chance of successful career post graduation. Something about the programme that I was personally interested in was the ability to collaborate and work with other students. The Animation programme at Leeds College of Art surpassed my expectation by also allowing students to collaborate from course to course. For example, the way that Illustration and Animation students can collaborate on projects together each party bringing their unique skill sets I thought was a really good idea and I didn't come across any other programmes that enforced this or thought of its importance as much as this one. The main reason I liked this was because it closely mimicked the way industry works from a production pipeline perspective and being able to collaborate, communicate and work with other people in a team work format. The tutors on the course also felt very committed to their work and it was evident they loved what they did to the point where it wasn't just a job, it was an interest too. I also felt like from day one there was crossovers in the interests of the tutors and my own, which made me feel like they were easy to approach due to this. When I was younger, like a lot of people I found solace in escaping the routine and reality of every day life and immersing myself in story, whether it be story read from a book, or watched through the eyes of the film maker that produced the film or animation, I was watching at the time. The stories that I read and watched on screen even now give me the same feeling of comfort and satisfaction that they did then, and it's something I would like to have the refined ability to do myself at some point in the hopefully near future. Creating new worlds using imagination is something I enjoy doing no matter what the medium be. In practice I do this mostly by drawing ideas that come to mind and more recently have had the opportunity to produce work digitally, which is something I hope to carry on and work with in the future, not only for myself; but to meet the industry requirements. I also hope to produce work or be part of projects that are of a high standard and deliver the same type of enjoyment that I experience when viewing the work of others.

What do I want to learn during my time on the programme?

During my time on the Animation programme I hope to refine and build upon the things I already know the basics of and am working on improving with the help of my peers and people who are much more knowledgeable on certain areas than me. This includes things like drawing skills, and even more so how to produce drawings for certain things such as story boarding and frame by frame animation. On top of this I hope to expand my knowledge of industry standard software, the software that I want to be able to learn to the best of my ability includes programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects and 3D software. Furthermore I think through the large amount of work and tasks that will be undertaken my understanding of fundamentals and my ability to apply them in order to solidify and improve my work is quite important and will hopefully be an evident improvement by the end of the course. Next, I hope to improve my work flow and become efficient when it comes to working to a brief or a set task. Finally, I would like to improve my understanding of industry and how studios and people work in the 'real world'. A big part of this that I hope to improve in is my ability to communicate verbally and on paper my ideas to a group, making it so my ability to work in a group based environment where collaboration and synergy between team members is so important is as good as it can be.

What skills do I think are my strengths?

At this moment in time, I would consider my strengths to be my commitment and willingness to undertake any task that I'm given. In a sense I like to try new things, and being given opportunities to attempt and under take things that I haven't before is something that appeals to me. I also gives me motivation. I also thoroughly enjoy working with other people in groups, and I feel that it allows me to brainstorm and bring out my better ideas and thoughts when there are people to bounce them off and receive feedback in a collaborative sense. Finally, from a practical or hands on sense my strengths would be drawing, photography and using Photoshop. The reason I'm quite confident in these areas is because I have spent so much time using or practising them. That being said I still believe I have a long way to go and am prepared to work hard to improve those things.

What are the things that I want to improve?

Over the duration of the next three years there are a few things I would like to improve. The course itself offers so much in terms of skills both transferable and quite specialised; from learning to use industry standard software to more simple things like learning to navigate and efficiently use a Mac. Which is something I'd like to improve on since I've mostly used PC up to now. I also want to improve my overall drawing so I can create strong, detailed drawings in a short period of time. I think this will come into play when it comes to things like story boarding, where a lot of drawings need to be turned over in quite a short amount of time. I want to be able to improve both my traditional and digital practices, so being able to become confident with software such as Photoshop, even more so than I am now would be great. I also think that the repetitive use of the software will enable me to remember keyboard shortcuts, and how to undertake certain processes, making it so I can create images in my mind where previously I was limited by my ability to navigate the software. I'd like to improve my knowledge of the history of Animation and the industry in general, I like the contextual aspect of the course because it allows me to not only improve my understanding of the subjects I'm studying but the historical, social and psychological implications that come with it. Finally, I'd like to improve and gather a greater understanding of the technical sides of Animation, drawing, and film =making.

What ways you will evaluate my progress?

Aside from the use of sketchbooks and notebooks in order to record visually my ideas, thoughts and any information I need, the opportunity to create blog posts and write and record with images is in my opinion a great place to evaluate and look back at the work done so far. Blogs are a good place to evaluate and store work because you can store any type of work digitally, whether it be a photograph, digital piece, a scanned image, or actual written work. Another aspect of the blog that makes it so suitable for recording and evaluating work is its time-line like nature, the posts are ordered chronologically so you can see visually the progress you make throughout the year and as the blog is being updated. The same applies with the use of sketchbooks and journals. They allow you to go back and view your work and see the difference between now and when previous work was produced. This perhaps allows for inspiration, drawing ideas from all the previous work you've done. Storing work in this way is also a good format for other people to view, whether they be people looking at your blog online or peers, and this can generate constructive feedback regarding your work and allow you to improve it further due to the advantage of having a second opinion.