Progression

University Pros and Cons

We had a discussion about University, which it had came with pros and cons about going to University; for me, it was a bit of a mix bag for getting into University, which it will a new experience to me to found out new people and new connections in the entire 3 years of time, with some networking for any new potential. And it can also provide a degree for some jobs I had looked up for the basic requirement. Additionally, it gave me some personal time and space for the new management on new position of somewhere else in my life.

At the other side of the coin, I am worried about the cost of the 3 years in University, it will be change over the years. I am also worried about pressuring myself too much on balance between my life, education, physical health and personal interests, which take myself a lot on mentally. I even question if I needed a degree for some position that I seeing myself in 5 years.

Evaluation

At the start of the year, I had the thought of wanted to go University at the same time have a part-time work for supporting the finances I had, the reason was having somewhere to start of besides educations that I currently had and facing the real problems that can effected me in the future if I'm not started early. Then I had doubted on going to University since I had to applied citizenship in the UK which could took a long time for finished also focused on took a break and had developing my personal skills for a year, so I applied the University course and set the starting year at 2027, still wonders how the applications were gone for the University's administrations and what to discussed for the tutors in the.

The current plan was to take a gap year from college course to university course, getting settled with the outside world for going for a social life with volunteering in some places and have a part-time job I had with VaryLittle Cake since December 2025. I also thought of develop some personal skills for socialising more on people to easier talk with the clients if I opened art and poster design commissions to people, at the same time develop the digital design skill and digital art on Procreate.

For this unit, it helped me for had a longer evaluating after the result, and had the right discussions for the client with the simple briefs, progressions and results for the designing choice for them.

Who am I?

Briefly explain your life so far, how have you ended up at this point in your life?

How did you find school? Why?

Do you have any huge regrets in life so far?

At my life so far, I ended up this point because I let myself being a bit of an wild card during all the primary school years and secondary school year, which even though the pressure on getting a pass on every subjects that I had failed previously, I still getting my hopes and dreams of being a digital artist/designer and Illustrator remained when I grew up till this day. And when I find that drawings can be easier to process my emotion out, which made me a target on not being well organized person on manage tasks; I had never had any huge regrets in my life which is being a surprise myself for having the life in my dreams.

What are your 3 best traits?
What are your 3 worst traits?

My best traits are getting task done on time most of the time by myself, being a doer dreamer which I can determined when complicating challenges in projects in front of me. My worst traits are often times I find myself doing complicating steps when dealing a simple task, another worst traits of me was only focused on certain things that are interesting, also not being able to communicate well in between people interactions lead to some miscommunications; I hope I can change my worst traits in the near future.

What will you be doing and where will you be 2 years from now? What do you need to do to make sure that that happens?

For the 2 year from now, I can see myself either getting a part-time job in a cafe/small stores or getting into University for new experiences for myself, and if I making sure it happen, I can deal with my resume and my portfolio to boost myself to the real world with the projects that I had personally done; with the balancing on life and passion at the same time.

What will you be doing and where will you be 5 years from now? What do you need to do to make sure that that happens?

In the 5 year marking from now, I can see myself on a freelancing job on digital design and animation at the same time doing the part-time job, yet have some balanced between anything else in my life.

What in life are you passionate about?

And the main passionate I had in life is about being creative on digital art, animation and illustration, it make me being determined for achieve on anything impossible to others, additionally, I can given out some stories that I can done with either illustrations and animation which hopefully to stayed this way at best.

Do you want to go to university? What are the reasons for your answer?

I had some confident on how I end up on a good University with the current situation that I have right now, the reason is I wanting something new to experiences with meeting someone new, additionally, I can focused on something that I passionate and determined to be do with my childhood dream.

University & Job Research

List of possible job career

Animator
Screenwriter
Illustrator

Animator

Typical hours: 35 to 40 hours a week (occasional in evenings and weekends)

You can get into this job through:

a university course
a college course
an apprenticeship
working towards this role
specialist training courses

University

You could do a foundation degree, higher national diploma or a degree in:

animation
art and design
computer games development
animation production

visual effects
Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

1 or 2 A levels, or equivalent, for a foundation degree or higher national diploma
2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree

College

You could do a college course to get some of the skills you'll need to become a trainee animator.

Courses include:

creative and digital media
games, animation and VFX skills
creative art and design

Apprenticeship

You could apply to do a higher or degree level apprenticeship with a production studio, such as:

Junior Animator Level 4
Junior VFX Artist or Assistant Technical Director Level 4
VFX Artist or Technical Director Level 6
Storyboard Artist Level 7

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and A levels, or equivalent, for a higher or degree apprenticeship

Volunteering

Employers value work experience so it's important to get as much as you can. To find work experience or volunteering opportunities, you could contact:

broadcasting companies
advertising agencies
animation studios
computer games companies

Skills and knowledge

You'll need:

knowledge of media production and communication
good art and design skills
to be thorough and pay attention to detail
thinking and reasoning skills
the ability to use your initiative
the ability to work well with others
to be flexible and open to change
the ability to organise your time and workload
to be able to use a computer and the main software packages confidently

Screenwriter

Typical hours: 37 to 39 hours a week (can freelance or self employed for time managements)

You can get into this job through:

a university course
a college course
applying directly
specialist courses run by private training providers

University

You could do a degree or postgraduate qualification to improve your job prospects, though this is not essential. Useful subjects include:

creative writing
English
media and communications
film studies
journalism
psychology

You should aim to get as much experience of reading other people's and writing your own scripts, alongside your studies.

Your university careers service can give advice on societies, work experience, internship and year placement opportunities that will help you build your creative network and develop your skills.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree
a degree in any subject for a postgraduate course

College

When you're starting out you may find it useful to take a college course to help develop your skills and understand dramatic structure and production.

Courses are available in:

creative writing
scriptwriting
creative and digital media

Adult education centres, colleges and universities sometimes run short courses in writing for screen.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for these courses vary.

Direct Application

If you want to get directly into this job, you may have an advantage if you have writing and storytelling experience from another field like journalism, advertising copywriting or acting.

You'll normally start by coming up with your own screenplays and ideas, and trying to sell them to agents and producers. Once you've had some work accepted and started to build a professional reputation, producers might then commission you to produce scripts for them.

Skills and knowledge

You'll need:

knowledge of English language
excellent written communication skills
persistence and determination
excellent verbal communication skills
the ability to use your initiative
the ability to come up with new ways of doing things
ambition and a desire to succeed
knowledge of media production and communication
to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

Illustrator

Variable hours: 39 to 41 hours (can be freelance or self employed for manage my own hours)

You can get into this job through:

a university course
a college course
an apprenticeship
applying directly

University

You could do a higher national diploma or degree in illustration or a related subject like fine art or graphic design.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

between 1 and 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a higher national diploma or degree

More Information

equivalent entry requirements
student finance for fees and living costs
university courses and entry requirements

College

You could do a course in art and design to help you become an illustrator.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for these courses vary.

More Information

Apprenticeship

You could take an apprenticeship to learn some of the skills you need to get started as an illustrator, like:

Junior VFX Artist or Assistant Technical Director Level 4 Higher Apprenticeship
Junior Animator Level 4 Higher Apprenticeship

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and A levels, or equivalent, for a higher or degree apprenticeship

Direct Application

If you do not have art or design qualifications, you can contact companies directly to share examples of your work.

You can find information on the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook on how to:

get started as a freelance illustrator
prepare a portfolio
find a publisher

More Information

Career tips

As a freelance illustrator you'll need a portfolio to showcase your work. You'll need this to get onto a course or to show clients.

You might want to create your portfolio on:

your own website
a blog
social media platforms like Instagram

If you're working freelance, you can sell your work directly or through an agent.

Agents have access to a large network of buyers and will take a percentage of your sales as commission. The Society of Artists Agents has details of agents as well as examples of artists' work.

Skills and knowledge

You'll need:

knowledge of the fine arts
to be thorough and pay attention to detail
design skills and knowledge
the ability to use your initiative
to be flexible and open to change
knowledge of computer operating systems, hardware and software
the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
thinking and reasoning skills
to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

Source: Search results for games (no date) games | Search | National Careers Service. Available at: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/explore-careers/search-results?searchTerm=games&page=2 (Accessed: 18 September 2025).

List of possible University Course

Animation BA (Hons)
Illustration BA (Hons)
Games Art FdA

Animation BA (Hons)

Location: City Campus, Nottingham Trent University

Duration: 3 - 4 years

Expecting Attendances:

Transport: 16 - 30 mins by car, 30 - 40 mins by Public Transport

Fees: for the 2026/27 academic year are yet to be agreed but, as a guide, the fees for 2025/26:

£9,535 per year
reduced £1,850. per year if it is a placement year

Careers and employability

How you're taught

Teaching and learning experiences will include:

lectures and briefings
studio workshops
seminars
tutorials
peer and self-evaluations
verbal and visual presentations
teamwork
live projects
study trips
personal development planning.

You'll have access to industry-standard equipment and software such as Maya, TVPaint, CelAction2D, ZBrush, and Adobe CC.

NTU is in the UK’s Top 15 for Art & Design in the Complete University Guide 2023 (Ranked 15th).

Collaboration across courses

This course offers our new innovative collaboration module. This gives you the opportunity to work collaboratively with your contemporaries from a range of different art and design subjects and beyond. You’ll be working alongside artists, designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, and filmmakers on daring and creative projects that prepare you for a rewarding career in your chosen industry. Your project will allow you to explore how creativity can make an impact in society, as you choose a theme of sustainability, social justice, enterprise and innovation or community.

- Employability is a key focus of this course, with modules including initiatives such as live projects and trips, and the opportunity to exhibit your work, which will help to raise your profile and enhance your future career.

This course will prepare you to work in the digital media field, in areas such as feature film animation, Visual Effects, children’s television, heritage interpretation, advertising, and games production.

Recent graduate destinations and roles include:

Character Animator, Splash Damage
Production Coordinator at Acamar Films
2D Effects Animator at Play n' GO
Animator/Producer, Thongkham film, Bangkok
3D Motion Graphics Designer, BritAsia TV
Animator, Cloth Cat Animation
Layout Artist, Blink Industries, London
2D Animator, Dog Ea
3D Animator, Random42 Scientific Communication
Character Animator at Blue Zoo
Background Painter at Lupus Films
2D Animator, Fourth Wall
Motion Graphics Designer at Cubaka Studio.

You’ll also develop transferable skills for alternative careers in media, freelance design, illustration, motion graphics, teaching and academia.

Connecting with industry and work placement opportunities

Industry professionals will visit the course to guest lecture and share their experiences. Live projects and competitions will help you to gain real experience of the industry, make contacts, and build your portfolio and CV.

You’ll be encouraged to undertake short periods of work experience alongside your studies. You will normally complete these placements during holiday periods, but you will have the option of taking up to two weeks out of term time, which you can negotiate with your tutor.

In addition, you’ll also have the opportunity to complete a longer work experience or placement, with the chance to gain an additional Diploma or Certificate in Professional Practice, dependent on duration. Course tutors and our Employability team are on hand to support you in applying for placement and professional practice opportunities.

Illustration BA (Hons)

Locations: City Campus, Nottingham Trent University

Distances: 16 - 30 minutes by car, 30 - 40 minutes by public transport

Fee: the 2026/27 academic year are yet to be agreed but, as a guide, the fees for 2025/26 are below:

£9,535 per year
reduced £1,850. per year if it is a placement year

How you're taught

Studio practice is a key element of this course, and you’ll spend a lot time in a creative studio environment. Teaching and learning experiences will include:

studio activities
peer groups
lectures
workshops
seminars
group tutorials.

You will also benefit from one-to-one surgeries, portfolio reviews, and self-initiated work experience.

Careers and employability

From the very start of the course, you will be encouraged to identify with the world of work and your future beyond graduation. The course has a dedicated employability tutor and the School Employability team support Illustration students with drop-in session and advice.

This course will equip you with skills and experience needed to work as a professional illustrator, as well as a range of transferable skills that can be applied to a number of roles within the creative industries.

Connecting with industry

Our BA (Hons) Illustration course was created in consultation with leading industry bodies such as the Association of Illustrators (AOI), whose knowledge and expertise informs our approach and ensures that the course is aligned with the most current industry needs and expectations.

Some of our other industry connections, clients or partners include:

Hachette
Harper Collins
Penguin Random House
Usbourne
Scholastic
Folio Society
Carmelite
Nobrow Press

Throughout the course you will work with industry on live briefs and hear from visiting speakers. You will also be supported and encouraged to enter national and international illustration competitions such as The World Illustration Awards (AOI), The Batsford Prize, The Macmillan Prize, V&A Illustration Awards, and the YCN, Creative Conscience.

Games Art FdA

Locations: City Campus, Nottingham Trent University

Distances: 16 - 30 minutes by car, 30 - 40 minutes by public transport

Fees

This Games Art foundation degree is designed for those who want a career in the growing games art industry. The game artist creates the visual elements of an interactive computer game, crafting assets like 2D graphics, 3D characters and environment models, surface textures and user interface components.

A game artist may also be involved in conceptualising ideas to help communicate the proposed visual elements during the pre-production phase. This game art degree will give you the opportunity to experience a range of techniques and software used in the games industry, whilst developing specialist skills to support career goals within your chosen art role.

How you're taught

Teaching and learning experiences will include:

lectures
seminars
workshops
group tutorials
personal tutorials
presentations and pitches
teamworking
independent learning
visiting industry professionals.

Showcase

You will be given the opportunity to exhibit your work during your time at NTU to members of the creative industries.

How you're assessed

Forms of assessment include:

practical assessments
portfolio building
case studies
lab report
reflective journals
formal essay
presentations.

Careers and employability

After completing your foundation degree, you’ll have the chance to top up to BA (Hons) Games Art or go straight into industry.

Students who complete the programme can progress to relevant employment, self-employment or to further study. Graduates of this course can apply their expertise in vocational areas such as:

games artist
concept artist
lead artist
3D modeller
character artist
2D artist
technical artist
texture artist
UI artist
environment artist
storyboard artist
games designer
graphic designer for games.

Connecting with industry

Industry professionals visit the course to guest lecture and share their experiences. You will also attend workshops from industry professionals working in art roles for both AAA and independent markets, giving you the opportunity to make contacts and build your portfolio and CV.

Work placement and internship opportunities

One of the features of this course is the strong opportunity for work-based learning that is embedded into the curriculum.

You will be provided with the opportunity to work in partnership with local, national and sometimes international games developers and related creative media industries. Current and on-going industry links and module leaders will provide ample opportunities for a regular guest speaker programme from a variety of organisation within the games industry.

YouFirst – working with our Employability Team

Studying a degree at a popular university has many benefits, none more so than having access to a large employability team.

Our friendly, experienced careers consultants will work closely with you at every stage of your career planning, providing personal support and advice you won't find in a book or on the internet. You can benefit from this at any time during your studies and up to three years after completing your course.

Evaluation

Searching of University and opportunities were a bit on a high expectations comparison, it was focused on digital design, animation, character art, illustration, digital art, and 3D model making, it can take a while to achieve in some of other course in the media courses from college or 6th form. Another requirement was the UCAS points, it can be important for university courses when choosing which course I wanted to choose after college

The requirements were quite high from people who were not gone to college. These results influenced me to choose the right pathway on focused on making illustration book, animation, or 3D model practice for having a better portfolio to be made on applied in the future. Probably result as the skill important for wanting to become an illustrator or storyboard artist for some day.

For my research, the nearest University was the Nottingham Trent University, which was a few tram stops away from the train station, the courses there was limited for a couple for designing related, but the course caught me was Animation, Illustrations, and Games Art. These were mainly can assessable through the skill that I can done at college and outside of college, which was useful for applied on the website with the right source of portfolio.

Interviewing (Careers & University)

It is about interviewing for careers and university; the whole class had discussed the possible things and tips that are needed to be appropriate for the interview environment.

What tips are there for performing well in interviews? Especially for those of us who suffer with anxiety and nervousness.
What are the key purposes of an interview?
How can interviews be tailored for different audiences and purposes?
What is the importance of preparation before an interview?
Techniques and Best Practices
What are the essential steps to prepare for an interview?
How should body language be used during an interview?
What kind of language and tone should be used in interviews?
How do active listening skills impact an interview?
What are effective strategies for answering difficult questions?
What are some common mistakes to avoid during an interview?
What behaviours or practices make a positive impression on an interviewer?
Why is it important to avoid lying or exaggerating in an interview?
What should you never do during an interview (e.g., certain body language or comments)?
Why is confidence important in an interview, and how can you build it?
How can you use feedback to improve your interview skills?

The tips for people who suffer with anxiety and nervousness before the interview were to drink water for calm down the nerves, also looking at the notes that placed in the pocket for the memorised the best could had done for the interview. Also taking some of the important elements that from the surroundings that was outside the interview room, taking in as much as you can for the interview. As the key purpose of the interview was about letting the company and the interview if the person is right for the position of that job, it also included for how the people were selected for the best for the team itself.

For the interviews were expecting for different level skill of people and focused on certain progress for the team that had expected that kind of person’s skill level, it happened for how many people that they interviewed for.

The importances for the interview is about how you were capable to approach a company or an indie team that was supposed fitting into the right skill sets that you currently had and wanting to commit to learn more beside your skill sets, also getting into the mentally preparations on facing new people around the entire company. Tips and strategy for the interview was taking practise with stuff toys or dolls that was the closest thing to people as interviewer, trying to record the process and rewatch it to review what to improvise from each recording from self-interview yourself.

Practise interview

As the candidate

How did you find all the process?
Were the questions easy to answer? Why?
Did you struggle in anyway? How?
Were you confident?
How did you feel when you got the 4th mystery question?

For the entire moment between the practicing interview, I find somewhat having some struggles with showing evidence on how I had done things from the start, and have some expected answers that I had thought of for the entire interview because I was focused on that kind of stuff more commonly at the casual days; yet my struggles were the answering all the questions were short sentenced and have struggle to bring up the things that I had achieved, for the reason was how I struggle to open up something important for myself for the great achievements that I had done.

And yes, I was mostly confident for having the interview with someone; then the fourth question was quite surprising for how I improving myself from the interviewing in the future.

As interviewer

How did the candidate do overall?
What did they answer well?
What did they struggle with?

There were ways for the candidate was doing well for the whole interview since I speak loud enough and simplified the question a bit to easier understanding from the start to the end of the practice interview. And yes they were answering well for each question yet had some struggles on the volume for answering the questions.

Evaluation

For the interview task, I had confidence in the part where I had to cover some of my interests. What I clearly need to do is focus on answering the question as simply as possible, while getting a bit more clarification on what I have done with the projects I've done, which can be improved for future interviews after practice, for easy communication. I also had to modify some language to make a more favourable impression on the interviewers.

The feedback I got was a bit of a need to stretch on the vocabulary choice, and the need to make some new choices in replying to the people I had been interviewed with. As a result, I need to rethink how to describe my interest and my progress to people in a sentence and keep it in a tone.

Mini Jam Week

It is a small Jam Week for progression on listening to people that were capable to listening to other professional guests via Microsoft teams and having to written down how much I can heard and experiances from the entire meeting with the professional guests and hundred of students.

Matt Hall (Journalist and Digital Media expert)

This is the first professional expert that were interviewed in teams, and he is a Journalist by years before the internet or social media, he had worked with the BBC and managed a lot of the things that were in the broadcast radio, adding with how much things that needed to be covered in radio station. Finding out how many things that he had done for each board cast in different radio stations, writing down most of the things that have impacted the entire industries.

Example was in a Facebook group or about a subject that Matt really like and then realise that there's actually thousands of other people out there that are all in this Facebook group for listening the broadcast, whereas you've actually and they're podcasting, that's the same. It was the kind of things that felt like to talking towards.

Nick Cohen (Video Editor)

Nick is a freelance video editor for various companies. His journey to becoming a video editor was marked by many mixed experiences, involving people he met on social media or mostly in real life. He tends to go with some video editing with a group of people, then have the higher-ups judge which needs to be edited in or out.

It was luck for him to manage different tones of videos that needed to be edited out for the final result of the video. Their video editing takes him at least 12 to 14 weeks with the team to show the final result of the video.

All the time, I listen to most of what he said and describe his work on video editing careers, which has helped boost my confidence in some video editing skills that I have been practising slowly and surely.

Sophie Johnson-Hill (Animator)

This a small meeting with Sophie who is the freelance animator where she makes animations that idea was from commissions from peoples on social media and the animation was targeted amounts children for her choice of the character's appearances and how they move. One small fact that she use AI to assessing her for some backgrounds and some minor details people weren't notice, but tons of students in the meeting were conflicted for the usage of AI for any creative media, especially animations, illustrations, designs and writing.

As I won't complain about this since I use AI for ideas or text layouts, yet I had to researches different documents or other part for checking if there were some collisions between the stories or just if it is an actual fact to people. But I can aimed became animator in one part of my career choice.

Ava Omer (Producer, Sky)

Ava is one of the company, Sky's producer, she manages a lot of shows in the company and had to confirm that if the image or the video was fitting into the intended rating and target audiences. There were good to know about how the entire video editing was done for commissions.

Aca Peluso (Illustrator/Women in Games)

Ava is one of the producers at Sky, managing a number of shows within the company. She has to confirm that the image or video fits the intended rating and target audience. Her history of media production and animation stemmed from her interest in video games and a desire to become a designer for companies. However, she later transitioned into a freelance 2D illustrator and designer, a role she has maintained for around 10 years. Also she was supposed to be in a business school before dropping out to became an artist.

She had met a lot of people through social media, events and other times, it is for better connections to professionals or other artists to be inspired by more artworks and illustrations.

The whole meeting was chill, and I listened to the whole thing where she described her experiences as the illustrator and had experiences with getting to know others to connect on social media itself. She leapt across the time and spaces around social media for designing improvement, adding to finding people who needed to be connected for extra help.

Yossy Akinsanya (Photographer/Digital Marketer)

Yossy is a photographer and also manages a lot of social media during her free time from her casual 9-to-5 job. She then later explains her ways to become what she is right now, as she went through a marketing team to journal some marketing to something else.

The whole meeting felt refreshing to hear her describing how she manages the way to her place on social media, at the same time, she is also going through her usual work around being a journalist, despite her dream of being a full-time photographer, but she focused on the 9-to-5 job to later achieve the dream.

It was fun to hear her story, for she had the complicated road of photography, social media management and management for a journalist team.

CV design about myself

This is a design tasks for my CV which besides from the normal CV that I had to used for normal job that I need to applied for, I had to designed myself the exact CV with some extra design when applied on something about digital design and animation job that I picked interested in.

Original CV for casual

This is the casual CV for the basic introduction of myself for easier readability to the interviewers when going to a work place for an interview with the fonts of text and the layout of the CV. I also adding the table as the easy layout for where the skills and experiences I had till December 2024.

Designed CV

The designed version of the CV was also kept as simple as possible to read and appeal to people who run the creative industry or those who have picked up an interest in the design aspect of the entire CV, as the colours were simple and easy to read. The colour choice was component to each other to highlight the important part of the CV to easier to track while looking at the CV.

Good CV or Bad CV

It is a research task about finding out examples of good CVs and bad CVs online, bullet pointed and evaluated what had the point of three different CVs on each good or bad part of the CV.

Good CV

Well organized information and lining with comfortable gaps between them
Readable fonts, size, and highlights on the CV
Lines separates skills, educations, and experiences for easy readability

These CVs were designed to be comfortable at first sight, with the layout between them to make it easy to identify which parts of the information were included within the CV itself. As the designs were simple from the start, they have clean wording without making it confusing to the interviewers and the employers in the company or industry.

The structure of these CVs was immersive at the start, with different parts from education to achievements that the person had made. As the layout was started with the important ones like names, emails, education, experiences, and skills, to have a great impression on the people who interview the person and further notice if the company actually selects such a great CV. The fonts were clean from top to bottom without any fancy fonts to overdo the CV itself.

As these good CVs are typically mostly one page from undergraduate students, there would be two pages if they had any other extra activities or experiences outside of college. The more experienced, there should have been two pages at best.

Bad CV example

Have some underwhelming lineup on information
Fonts that were hard to make out what that part of the line says
Having bad design overall which can confuse the people

These CVs were bad for presenting the personal information to the interviewers and employers of every company; the designs were too simplistic for anyone to know what that person meant, or too much design on the CV to make everything distracting and hard to read. The layout of these CVs was a mess, and the information was all over the place, making it hard to read.

And the fonts were terrific for the choice of those bad CV examples, where some parts were different fonts on one page, leading to a hard time figuring out what was written in different sections of the CV itself, and some fonts can be hard to read because some ends were too big to be readable as a CV. Which also included within the complicated design in the CV to be readable and got instantly rejected when these examples were submitted.

Then, these CVs' writing style was either too short to understand the whole meaning of what specific thing was said to the interviewer, which looks like a kid's writing overall.

Cover Letter

Cover Letter is an important thing that required to getting into a job when interviewing and giving a letter with the CV along, it required to write about how great the company's conditions of working, break time, work hours and the context of the work, there was also a need of write how I am interested in the job and what is my personal experiences and skills that fit in the job. It all written within 2 to 3 paragraphs in one page.

My Cover Letter

Hi, my name is Grace, and I had seen the position from the official website and had taken interest in how the entire company works for the smaller businesses and other commissions from a person. It was interesting to see how the people were responding to the job a lot.

As the personal experience of designing was amazing, and had done digital art and design since 2021, also which shows the progresses to the people online to shows for what I had done for years, it included designing on Photoshop for better quality on shading of the background and proper editing the characters positions, I also used Photoshop for text editing on the poster I had drew poster on Procreate. I also had experience with VeryLittleCake on Instagram for some photo editing and designs when needed to be printed for stands and the designs on the cakes.

I was also had the inspirations from other media from researches in the simple prompt from the customers and had the great responsible with the getting through the design on Procreate and Photoshop for the

Your sincerely,

Yan Lok (Grace) Cheung

Animated film watching

The animated film was called The Most Precious of Cargoes (French: La Plus Précieuse des marchandises), it is a French animated film in 2024.

The story was focused on a poor woodcutter and his wife lived in a great forest. Cold, hunger, poverty and a war raging all around them meant their lives were very hard. One day, the woodcutter's wife rescues a baby. A baby girl thrown from one of the many trains that constantly pass through the forest. This baby, this "most precious of cargoes", will transform the lives of the poor woodcutter's wife and her husband, as well as those whose paths the child will cross - including the man who threw her from the train. And some will try to protect her, whatever the cost. Their story will reveal the worst and the best in the hearts of men.

It was the about the affects of the World War II, and it was a lot darker with the tone of the 2d animations and the style of 19th-century French painting and Japanese prints.

It had eventually horrified me a bit with the vivid imagery of some part of the animation itself.

The most precious of cargoes (2024) ⭐ 7.1 | animation, drama (no date) The most precious of cargoes (2024). Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10462154/?ref_=plg_rt_1 (Accessed: 13 November 2025).

Personal Statement

Personal statement is a writing part when applying for University around the UK, it had different subjects that I had to applied if I wanted to go to Uni in the next 1 to 3 years, or had the change in mind for going to different states like going to a gap year or a real part-time/full-time job. It required 4000 letters, including gaps in between words. So I layout the statement for how I get here and why am I interested in the subject.

My personal statement

In most of my life, The reason being creative is I was alone since grade 2 of primary school back in Hong Kong, I had no idea why people hated me at the same grade, but it hurts; I don’t socialise much as the kid and draw things and imagine a lot of scenarios to help me just made up stories. Then in grade 3, I told the teacher about my dream to want to become a book illustrator.

I moved into UK in May 2021 from Hong Kong to have a calmer environment, and better in education to getting to my dreams of being a book illustrator. At the same time, I had thought of transitions from traditional art to digital art, so I deal with artworks on the free apps before getting Procreate around 2023.

At the time back in Hong Kong, I had been gone around creative things and thinking of how they even made animations, sculpture, character design, storytelling, and illustrations. I started to practice art and design by my own since the primary school and secondary school years with only the pencils and the paper in Hong Kong, inspired from the animations in east and west culture.

I also taking on the concept of character designs mainly from video games like Pokémon, Identity V, Stardew Valley, Harvest Town, Dungeons & Dragons, Undertale, and most recently Date Everything. These encourage me to design my own characters and created stories to fitting into the game beside the game designs and story get me attached with the game, the characters, and the fandom. Then there was illustrations books and comics like Old Master Q and My 150cm Life, their short stories and consistent character personalities made them feel alive to me, and they played a large role in shaped my own creative ideas on making some new stories and creations to target audience.

At college, I started with the Digital Media Production level 2 course, I made towards on everything from video editing in Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects.

There was the Digital Design and Animation level 3 course I had since September 2024, I focused more on animations and illustrations from learning and improving on Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects, including Procreate for assets on some drawing production. Which I liked the most on had something to deal in the course. The best project I was done was the Planet Earth project was I made an Illustration book for kids about cleaning the earth and have the art style inspired from “The Gruffalo”. The second-best project was the animatic that done for the final major project, it was a rush on the project with unfinished colours and a rush ending, but I had innovated with characters with personality, appearances, and writing for the audience.

At outside of education, In July 2021, I started a YouTube channel ArtvitoGrace, it was supposed to only share videos of creative work processes and animations, I took these as my interests which portrayed the characters’ personality or illustration progress that I created over the years. Then in October 2024, I created the second YouTube channel ArtvitoGraceChomp for other videos like vlogs, video game videos, and earlier part of the college projects. Both channels name was referred to the art and video editing, also getting a bit creative of naming the channel.

This helps me achieved video editing, basic social media management, professionalism, time management, and creative mindsets. It fascinated by me to be creative on editing the videos within, mind storming some ideas to the audience, and find something that was a trending in social medias to made into a video idea.

I also helped to design a cake menu for my mom’s cake business with the use of her result of customising cake and the light colour for the background to easier to notice the text and the images to the customers ordered online. It helped me to use the basic tools on Photoshop to align all the images and choosing the font and size for the text, then put the pages in Adobe Acrobat for the customers to easier to read.

Evaluation

The UCAS task was focused about the either choosing to go to University course and submitting the applications through the information and personal statements, for the personal statement, I written down what I had done on animations and artwork, what had inspired me, what other things I had done outside of college, it was quite a lot to talked I had through text. Then, I had clarified on specific projects I had proudly done during college times, what specific media I consumed before to make me now.

It also gotten an explanatory for my channel dedicated for my productions of artwork and animations, also my personal time for video editing with testing out the video effects and cutting out the sounds for the best part for video work.

All linked for my skills of illustrations, digital art and design, animations, and video editing, and had the requirement for the university course I had applied on UCAS which is Game Arts, Animation, and Illustrations. It had the commitment for approach newer level for educations which had more new challenges that I can tackled through with the things I can made, and I felt confident to submitted the personal statement for the courses.

I was planned to had a gap year first before gone to University, so I applied for 2027 of the courses, which the gap year let me chill from the educations, get to meet someone new, and get some opportunity from somewhere else.

Find A Client

This is the given ideas for the people in the Digital Design and Animation Level 3 Year 2 to think of how to get connected with the clients and had to search on the internet and social media accounts for the information of the clients, it was for a bit better to leran the clients' needs and requirements to the request and the

I had to pinned point the importance for where to find the client online for easier to connected with social media or official website that had the basic information for contacts and adding social media if the client was constantly posting online. I had taken a bit experiences with some of the small business I worked with so I added at the spreadsheet.

B1 evaluations

Who am I? task

University and Opportunity research task

Interview task

For further preparation for an interview at the university or a job opportunity, I felt there were some preparations for further research and to conduct interview practices with people to boost confidence. I would had thought of a bundle of flashcards that written about my things to say before doing interviews either practices or actual.

CVs and Cover letter task

The CVs were first thing that was already done since I got a couple of volunteered work from small events in Beeston, adding that I tailored the CV down to just one page with fonts and size which make the CV readable and professional, then I had made the CVs on Photoshop and make it more simple as possible with solid colour.

The cover letter had written later to talked about how I am interested for the job and simply talked about what I had achieve on art and design till December.

And the improvements were subtle, and I had added the number listing in CVs for better readability, then the cover letter was a bit changing from the start of writing, which had a lot of cuts from my story and focused more on the skills I got from personal time and work I got right now.

UCAs and personal statement

Portfolio work task

The portfolio work helped me develop a technical style for creating slideshows that are easier to present to people, which with the artwork I can present, I made at least 26 pages of slideshow with the same artwork in different results I had done for personal and college work, I was proud of what I had developed myself till now for multiple art fails and changes through time in people's opinions.

As the animation portfolio, I had to stitch the best animations that I had done over the years into one combined video for easier showing in video form; I also got the animations on the slideshow with the video link, which made it easy to describe when I bring out the slide to introduce my animation works to interviewers.

Previously, I put the artworks and animations into a showreel animation and added to introduce a small fun fact about myself at the end, which gave me the time to draw the character on Procreate and put all of them in After Effects to animate. I also animated the intro on Procreate first, only for the legs, then finalised it on Photoshop. It took me 5 weeks to finish the showreel animation to show my best work till 2025. The overall showreel is the brief introduction for my main work on the website. It was a relief to finish in a short amount of time.

For most of them, I can show my skill to everyone with different parts of ways for learning, like either from a professional or someone's advice on how the character's overall to be memorable in every way possible. Also had to show the progression of changes on different styles on a digital format after I had looked up someone's style.

Client Brief

At the start of the project of Live Client, I had the need for finding some business in social medias and map, which I had to contacted with the chat option on social media or sent with outlook account to let those business know that I am free for the logo motion graphics or logo redesign if they wanted to. I looked around and find for 11 business on social media and the map, then I sent the exact message to them with the message I typed on the Find a Cilent notes.

There were message of reject or ghosted by them after I sent the proposal to them, but of course, my mom's business let me do it as the last resort for making a motion graphics for her and had some tested out for some redesign for fun because there were some much potential for other designs that she likes it or not.

At the planning, I drew and wrote at one sheet of paper for a decent plan for the animation and the redesign for the logo, I mainly focused on appearances and the effects for the target audiances, I felt confident that the logo may worked after the redesign despite it won't be changing a lot for the original logo. The Motion Graphics animation was mainly on After Effects since there were a couple of animation that can be done easily with After Effects tools.

Firstly, I done the production on Photoshop and Illustrator to tested out the designing and the animate for the logo of VaryLittle Cake, which had a couple of variants for the logo design, and the Photoshop animation was made from Procreate file by saparated the logo into each layers for animating on Photoshop. This was relatively easy for do it myself, yet have to discussion with the client was the important part of making the logo redesign since it only relied on the client's options and opinions besides the personal design on Illustrator.

Secondly, logo motion graphics, it was a bit of work on After Effects and Photoshop, it took around two weeks to thinking and finishing off on time for the animation and evaluating what I had done within After Effects. The first one was made on Photoshop, with the simple introduction of the original logo with the cupcake holder that were from the bottom of the logo in addition. As result, it was a simple animation for finishing on Photoshop. Then I shift to the animations on After Effects, this was for the more effecting animations with the 3D camera and the separated layers from Photoshop and Illustrator, the durations of producing the animation was a week in the two week gap, it was a 20 second in total if it was made into one animation, then I thought of separated the animation into two animations for easier to memorable and had shorten the time spend to make animation.

The Third was for other clients, I planned to make a motion graphics but soon got rejected the idea I pitched to them. Another client I had pitch was rejected after I finished the logo redesign on Illustrator. Which most of the people will rejected the idea for a free service from a college student, it was a few odd chance for someone to accept the pitch and the idea for the logo design or motion graphics.

Overall, it was mainly focused on the motion graphics on After Effects and some designing on Illustrator, it was pretty impressive for make such achieving goals for designing and thinking new ways to figure what the design that can target on the audiances. The need of improvement was the communications with people, and sometimes just a need to text a bit more for letting them know about to make progress on the design and talked about that. It also let me to testing the surface level of communications through online, despite there are needs to a face to face communications that were needed to be improve in future.

Conclusion of the evaluation

As the conclusion of the progress reviews I had for myself, I choose to remain the similar thing I had started from the first day back in the year 2 of Level 3 Digital Design and Animation, which was to take a break from education in a year to developing some new skills on socialising with people outside the screen, and given some voice of myself for being regonised from being in the creative field, get preperations on University course if I get their invite.

As the short-term goal was to create a bit of new content about my artwork and animations, and pass the exams I had to face this year, I added the hope of getting into a university course if I get a passing grade for the exams, which can be improve in a certain skills and learn more besides my knowledge art, design and animation today.

In the long term, I wished to get recognised as an artist online, and also earn from that through my artwork commissions from people and illustrated books I had made previously during college times. I also just wish I had some further improvements in my skills on animations, as well as the illustrations and artwork I had done.