Journal 1: UNIIIVERSITYYY

Hello!

So, um. This is my first post. Quite excited to tell you how I've been. Sucks. Yeah, big time. However, my life started to change as soon as I enter the university. To be exact, I am continuing my study in Diploma in Animation at Universiti Teknologi MARA Puncak Perdana or known as UiTM Pundana! Therefore, this is a recap of 4 weeks during my education week (or learning week idk).

About Me

Everything starts with introduction. Not me btw. I started with a hello. Anyway, my name's Danish Aqasha bin Abdul Azis. People call me Danish but since there are lots of people with the same name as mine, I've decided to call myself as Aqasha. At this date of the post, I'm 19 years old. I love art. It's obvious as I'm taking an Animation course. I love every form of art, such as music, films, poetries and language. This might look like I'm joking and trying to be quirky and r/notlikeothergirls vibe, but I'm not. I have a great impulsive thinking when it comes to art. If I can, I want to try to excel myself in different forms of art. Animation is one of them.

Hmmmmm, Animation?!

To be honest, I didn't expect myself to take animation course. However, it all started when I realise I really like to create stories. I adore the way animation films looks. The creativity, the colours, the flavours, mama. It's fierce. You can express your story in way regular film can't. There is no limitation in animation so might as well do something wacky with it. 

    

    Back to the topic, for my diploma, I'm taking 9 courses altogether. Fun fact, not all of them are related to animation (shocker!).

• Integrated Language Skills I (ELC121)
• Fundamentals of Islam (CTU101)
• Figure Drawing (FFA111)
• Illustration for Animation (FFA112)
• Fundamentals of Design (FFA113)
• Animation History and Technology (FFA114)
• Art History (FTA111)
• Study Skills (UED102)
• National Kesatria I (HBU111)

    Sooo, here's the list of my courses! Before this, I expected that I'll be learning 10 -12 courses like at school. Apparently, It's not! No wonder I got stressed out when I was at school. My lectures are from Monday to Thursday.

Week 1

First week! In a nutshell, I spent my whole week with introductions and briefing about courses and also a few assignments. Here's a breakdown of each day:

Monday (20/3)

According to the given schedule, I'll be having three classes, which are FFA111, UED102 and ELC121. However, there was a talk on course introductions, so all lectures were skipped to make room for the talk.

Tuesday (21/3)

We had 3 classes: ELC121, FFA113 and HBU111. We managed to attend ELC121 online only as we have ANOTHER talk about university affairs and facilities. Tbh, we have heard the same thing during our orientation week. Guess they forgot, haha. During ELC121, our lecturer, Madam Shairah gave us briefings about the course. Madam also had asked us to record a video introducing ourselves for a minute. I recorded my video on my bunk bed in the room. Kamarul secretly took a picture of me and posted it on our classmates' group. Kamarul, you block of cheesehead😡! Fortunately, I was the first one who sent the assignment. I wanted to upload the video here, but it exceeded the maximum upload amount. Ugh, not this blog is homophobic. 

Wednesday (22/3)

There was one class that day, which is CTU101. Supposedly we'll be having the class at room 5-5-6 at Film, Theatre and Animation (FiTA) building at 2 p.m. We went there and waited for 30 minutes or so. Sadly, the lecturer didn't come so our class rep, Wazien went down to the Academic Affairs (HEA) counter to ask about this. A few moments later, he came and told us that the lecturer's not available. With a mix feeling of anger and tired, we went home. 

Thursday (23/3)

SO, this was the only day that have all classes. Lol no, only two to be exact. The classes are FTA111, FFA112 and FFA114. Only FFA112 and FFA114 were held. All two classes started with briefings about each course. However, there's a twist, mama. During FFA112, our lecturer, Sir Azhar appointed us with our first assignment of the week.  He assigned us to create a short storyline and three characters with each character has a minimum of 10 designs with different idea, style, form, shape and look respectively. He told us we must draw them on an A3 sketchbook with binders. It was a huge twist. The drama. Therefore, we scurried ourselves to start the assignment by buying the sketchbook somewhere we can find. 
   

    Another funny story, before FFA114 started at 2 p.m., Danish Syaza (my classmate and friend), Kamarul (my roommate and classmate AND friend) and I decided to go early to find the location of the class. We arrived at the lecture room 8. We waited there for a solid 30 minutes but no one came. Frustrated, we thought the class was canceled so we went home. Suddenly, on 2.30 Wazien messaged us to come to the class. Apparently, we went to the wrong room. There is another room with the SAME NAME BUT WITH FiTA NAME ON IT on the upper floor, which is level 3. I ran as fast as I could, leaving Kamarul behind. Luckily, our lecturer, Sir Amin was cool about it. Love ya, sir!

Week 2

Week 2, honey! This week was a very busy week. 

Monday (27/3)

This time, all classes are available. I'm joking again, only FFA111 and UED102. FFA111: Our lecturer is Sir Aidi, a quite serious guy and no BS type of guy. He gave us a briefing of the course and told us to buy an A4 sketchbook for our drawings. Next, we had UED102 online. The lecturer is Sir Aiman. However, I'll be taking English Placement Test (EPT) at the same time as UED102. It was overseen by my lecturer, Madam Shairah. Therefore, we didn't have ELC121 class. The test took me a few minutes, therefore I managed to join the class on time. We started off with course briefing and continued with slides about career options. It was a very chill lecture and we chatted with sir for a while. 

Tuesday (28/3)

So, ELC121 was held face to face for the first time. The funny thing was madam had to do hybrid learning by having a Google Meet outside while we're inside the room. All of this happened because madam didn't ask Wazien to bring a projector as the room didn't have any projector. 
    

    Next, we met Madam Nora, our lecturer for FFA113. She did a briefing and asked us to draw ourselves in a different way, like stylistically and artistically. I forgot to bring my laptop, so I just drew it on my notebook and captured it with my phone to be sent to the class's Microsoft Team. 

My drawing made for FFA113

    At the end, we went for HBU111. At first, the location is at the parking lot near the rector office. However, since it's going to rain, we were moved to the cafe. My trainer for HBU111 is Cikgu Rapinggi. He was a very serious man but very caring. He made a briefing about Kesatria and made us sign an "Aku Janji" agreement form. He also teach a few commands that I can't translate in English haha.

Wednesday (29/3)

For CTU101, we had the class online. Our lecturer is Ustazah Anis. During the class, she gave us a briefing about the course. She also teached us a few about Maqasid Syariah. Moreover, she assigned us to create a few groups of 8 people each. 

Thursday (30/3)

Today is FTA111's first class. Our lecturer for this class is Sir Milol (as written on the WhatsApp), or Mirol idk. He gave us briefing about the course given. He continued with a short slide about Prehistoric and Egyptian art. I made a few notes about it. It was really messy, but I planned to rewrite it in another notebook.

    After that, we went to class FFA112. I had done the assignment given. Sir Azhar called us one by one using the name list. When I was called, I showed him my characters. Here's my characters.

    He chose 7 characters for me to add 3 or 4 more designs each. I have to draw 28 more designs huhu 😭. Furthermore, he ordered us to draw realistic figure turnaround male and female respectively. 
    

    During FFA114, Sir Amin gave us a presentation about pioneers of animation. Apparently, the first animation recorded was a video of stop-motion animation by drawing on the blackboard with chalk! Furthermore, Max Fleischer is the one who created and also patented a technique named "Rotoscoping", which means tracing the movements of real-life objects to emulate a more fluid and realistic animation.

Week 3

I'm out of words tbh. 

Monday (3/4)

For FFA111, Sir Aidi asked us to draw a figure division and a skeleton. Here's my attempt of drawing them. 

    Next, we have our UED102. As usual, it was held online. Sir Aiman talked about animations and such. It was quite an eye-opening experience, metaphorically. I didn't attend ELC121 as I passed EPT! Yay, less class for me~

Tuesday (4/4)

Since I don't have to attend ELC121, I only attended FFA113 and HBU111. In FFA113, Madam Nora taught us about the elements and principles of design. She then asked us to find a local artist and choose one of their artwork and write what we like about it. I chose an artist that I followed for 2 years now, which is Arift. Here's my review of the artwork I chose.

    After that, we went for HBU111. This time, we learn how to do a few commands, like "baris sedia", "senang diri", "rehat" and "masuk baris". Unfortunately, I was sick at the time, so I almost fell down out of dehydration. I was sent to the back and rested for a while. Cikgu told me to go to the health centre as he concerned of my health. I wrote a few notes about the lesson.

Wednesday (5/4)

Supposedly our lecturer for CTU101 had changed. I couldn't attend the class as I'm too tired due to my fever. Kamarul said our lecturer is an Ustaz. 

Thursday (6/4)

    We continued our FTA111 lesson with slides about Greek and Roman Arts and Byzantine Arts. These are the notes I wrote.

    After the class ended, we went to the Drawing Room for FFA112. Sir Azhar kept on checking on other students' character designs. I continued to do my character designs since I haven't finished it yet. 

    For FFA114, Sir Amin introduced us to animation companies that became the pioneers in animation industry, such as Disney, Warner Bros. and MGM (Metro Goldwyn-Mayer) Studios.

Week 4

Oh, no. This is the last recap 😢.

Monday (10/4)

     FFA111 was held online. Sir Aidi taught us about how to draw head at every angle and how to draw head realistically. For exercise, he assigned us to draw skeleton head in three angles. Here is my work.

    After the class had ended, we went home to prepare for UED102 since it'll be online. When the class had started, Sir Aiman gave us presentation about work ethics and learning techniques. He also said that we must create a blog telling about our experiences during four weeks of edu week as our final assignment (Deja vu??!).

Tuesday (11/4)

    My first class of the day was FFA113. Madam Nora taught us about colour harmony and compositions. Then, she assigned us to draw a drawing that implement our favourite colour harmony. Here is my work (I finished it in 40 minutes. Just saying. I'm proud of my newfound quickness!).

        As usual, we had our HBU111 lesson. We learnt how to do a few commands as seen on the notes below.

    Cikgu Rapinggi told us that he'll be doing next week's class early. He asked us when the day is we can do the class. Everyone agreed to do it on Saturday on 10 o'clock. Since next week majority of students will go home for Hari Raya, he gave us donuts for iftar! Thank Cikgu!

Wednesday (12/4)

    I attended CTU101 face to face for the first time. Our lecturer is Ustaz Zawawi. He came in late because of packed schedule. After taking a short rest, he continued to tell us about our group assignment. He ordered us to create a group of 3 people each and think of an idea for an essay that is 15 pages long. I grouped with Danish and Wazien. We thought of an idea about premarital and infidelity. Ustaz then refined our idea and then came up with the title.

Werk.

Thursday (13/4)

    We started our day with a class, FTA111 (yay....). Sir Milol taught us about Islamic Art. I managed to take a few notes. 

    Sir Mirol also asked to choose a topic for each group created. Our group chose Indian arts. Subsequently, he asked us to prepare a presentation about topic chosen. ANOTHER TWIST! We have to perform any art about topic chosen. OMGGGGGGG I have to dance in front of the class! Naurrrrrrr

    Sometime later, we had FFA113. Sir Azhar asked a volunteer to showcase their works to him. I decided to volunteer, but someone got ahead of me. Therefore, I went for the second. I showed him my work.

Male turnaround

Female turnaround

            He said for my figure turnaround, the heads were too small. However, he said I don't have to  redraw them. After that, for my character designs, he chose 1 design for each character that he liked. I was ordered to draw figure turnaround for each character. If I can, he also asked me to do facial expressions for the characters. Btw, I started my figure turnaround and so far, here's my progress.

    Finally, it's FFA114. Sir Amin taught us about animated characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, The Flintstones, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Marko. We also discussed about the impact of the character to the audiences and political issues that surfaced regarding some characters created.

(Special) Saturday (15/4)

    HBU111 was held online. We started out early so we can end the class early. During the class, we recapped the previous lessons and learnt new things. I wrote the lessons on a piece of paper.

Closure

    Overall, it's a great 4 weeks! I love being at the university. There are a lot of things I have learnt during these 4 weeks. The lecturers are great and fun. Although there is A LOT of assignments, I'm willing to do them all and I know what I'm getting into. So, to those who want to pursue in animation, get ready to WERK, mama!

KookieDanish signs out!