FMP

The FMP this year has changed me a lot as a designer compared to how I was last year. The freedom that I was given on this FMP made this project extremely enjoyable for me because I was free to pick my own narrative as opposed to being given one. Even though the FMP was exciting, I experienced a few problems at the beginning, which made me really stressed, but I was able to overcome those problems and find solutions to them.

At the beginning I struggled to find a good narrative that I could use since I realised my first idea did not really work as well as I thought it would.

My initial idea was about growing up in London and the experiences I had in the area I grew up in; including the sounds that could hear and how they affected me. After this, I discovered this wasn't going to work as a strong narrative so I abandoned that idea and thought about what I could do. I thought about one key word that stayed in my mind which was ''Sound' and I thought about what it would be like if I widen my idea and look into sound in general; looking into what it does, how it is used and how it affects us. My main focus was how it affects us, so I went on the internet to see if there are any article concerning the subject and I saw a video called "4 Ways Sound Affects Us". That is how I found my narrative.

I carried out as much relevant research as I can. I looked into how sound affects the brain, such as people with Alzheimer’s disease and how they regain their memory from listening to music. I thought it would be necessary to look into the science of the brain and how it is affected by sound.

Strengths:

One of my strengths during this project was my planning when it came to developing my animation. I spent the beginning of the project modelling my animation so I can finally put them together into one final animation and it worked out really well, In fact, doing this saved a lot more time because I started off with modelling the complicated things such as the mouse and the speaker since they took around 52 hours to render non-stop.

Another one of my biggest strengths in this project was my independence. I was quietly confident in developing my work and all the work that I did was independent, from my research to my development work.

Another one of my strengths was my problem solving. When it came to making the display with the LED strip lights I have problems with cutting and soldering the strips together since some of the LEDs wouldn’t light up so I find a way which didn't require soldering and it still worked effectively.

Also my ability to challenge my self during with project has definitely been my strengths. The thing I had chosen to do and create was really a test of the skills as a designer; which included my patience, planning, problem solving and using creative and out-of-the-box thinking. This was because I wanted to do something that not a lot of people were doing so that it set me apart from everyone.

If I had more time:

If I had more time I definitely would have spent more time looking into tutorials and finding ways building the LED display to play animations and video. I eventually did but the equipment required can only be shipped from the USA and it was far too late to order it since the end of the project was already near.

What new skills have I learned?

During this project I have gain a lot more skills that I had in the year. Through this project I have found my own personal design style and a newfound interest in electronics and combining electronics with animation and graphic design.