For my industry events, I decided to attend several online art shows on places like Eventbrite or just seeing links from people I followed on Twitter, in the beginning of the semester in order to find inspiration for a style for my animation. Seeing other people’s work in these galleries and hearing them talk about why they created it influenced they way I found myself creating my own work. It helped me choose a style for my project and after many different sketches I ultimately decided on a certain look for my animation.
After deciding on a style, I had to make the animations themselves. With the little experience I had I wasn’t sure where to start. I turned to places such as YouTube and Reddit in order to find tutorials and help from professionals in the field. While technically not an event, I was able to connect with those that worked in the industry daily. I continue to frequent places such as /r/animation and /r/aftereffects in order to learn new skills to apply to my project. I found it useful because I was able to receive help from people that are heavily involved in the subjects and work with them professionally. While I’ve obtained lots of skills at school, my professors can’t answer all of my questions nor do they all consistently work in the field that relates to my project. I’ve gained a lot of new knowledge from using these outlets and I anticipate on learning much more as I progress through the next stages of my thesis.