Evaluation

This project has certainly been a challenge. I decided to work on my own as I wanted to try a hybrid of animation and a lot of people were doing stop motion and i didn't want to. This gave me a lot of work to do all by myself. The good thing about this was I didn't have to arrange with everyone when and how to do things. The bad thing was that I didn't have anyone to bounce ideas off of and delegate tasks to if someone was better at it. I could work when i like on what I like and not feel bad. I do think having a partner or group would've improved my animation in hindsight. 

This project was also difficult in that I was learning new techniques and it was all a bit confusing for a while. I learnt how to make 2D images move through 3D space using maya. I had not thought of this technique before, I thought maya was just for 3D things. It was tough to get my head around what needed doing as i didn't do things in chronological order. I think i should have done that to make it easier but i couldn't because there were things i didn't know how to do.

I think the part i enjoyed the most on this project was actually creating the assets. I really enjoy animating the pig too. 

The way i tackled the audience was by making things very clear both visually and verbally so it is easy to understand for both children and adults. This way it can be used as a teaching method or just something to explain for personal use at any age. I believe the tone of voice is clear yet not patronising. 

I think if i were to do this module again I actually would've chosen something a bit more fun to work on like Cara, Rebecca and Annas one as i think it would have kept my attention more and made me want to work on it whereas i got quite bored with this one. I am happy with how it turned out in the end but i feel it is not my best work and I think its the idea that is holding it back. 

I also would've worked in a team so i could concentrate on a specific skill and we could have made everything to a better standard.

Summative evaluation

There were 3 tasks in this module, individual practice, collaborative practice and creating a project report. I found the first two study tasks very useful. The individual practice brief got me to enter competitions that I might not have if I didn’t have this brief, get myself out into the world more and take on live briefs, expand my skills and try new things. Although at the beginning of this module I was really reluctant to start finding briefs to do, as I didn’t feel very confident in my abilities, now I have finished I feel like I am capable of much more and want to carry on doing live briefs and competitions over the summer.

Things I found difficult about this project was the amount of briefs we had to do which for a 20 credit module I thought was a bit too much. We also had lots of other briefs going on at the same time and it was very hard to manage my time. I started making daily schedules to make sure I kept on track with everything. This helped a lot but I still felt like I had way too much to do. Now it is over I am glad I did it.

I also thought that the collaborative practice brief was very useful and I am glad we did that too, as I might not have had the chance to collaborate otherwise. It really opened my eyes to how much better you can make a project with a little help. I chose to work with an illustrator because I felt that would improve the quality of my animation and I was right, I am really impressed with it. Aggie and I worked really well as a team, both being punctual and doing things when we say we will. We managed to complete our project one week early so we had time to make some minor changes at the end. I would definitely consider collaborating again in the future.

Things I found difficult in this module were also my confidence levels, which did improve after seeing our final animations. I thought I was going to let aggie down as I was still learning the software and she wouldn’t want to work with me again but it actually turned out to be the opposite and she was really impressed with our collaboration and wouldn’t mind doing it again. I also found it difficult that I did not have the software I needed to work on it whenever I wanted, I had to come into uni a lot more than I usually do. This also made me realize that if you’re in uni there is more help about.

The project report task I found a bit tedious and didn’t really see the point and I was struggling to understand how it worked and get my head around how to lay the pages out so it would look right as a book. I managed it in the end with a lot of stress. Now it is finished I absolutely love the look of it and think I might be able to use it as a version of a portfolio or at least this method.

Aside from the study tasks, I found the classes about pitching and understanding briefs very useful. I think we could possibly have covered a lot of ground in a shorter time though. I think it was good that we learnt to do pitch boards and got to see other people versions of the same brief because that is like the real world and I like giving and receiving criticism about the work because it really makes you think about what your doing and why.

Overall, this is by far the most stressful module yet and it has really pushed me to and over my limits. I think there was a little too much expected of us for a 20 credit module. However I do think that this module has benefited us all greatly and we have got a lot out of it.

I think if I were to restart this module, I would start doing or at least plan out my individual briefs in the first few weeks of having the brief. Or at the least start looking for things I could do. This way I would be much more prepared and wouldn’t have to spend so long further through the brief trawling the Internet for something to do.

Responsive

Today we had to show our pitch boards to the class. First of all we had to create some questions that we wanted to ask people. Ours were:
1. Which colours do you think would be best suited for the project?
2. Does it fit the target audience?
3.Do you think the idea is engaging?
4.Are the Pitch boards too plain?
5.Any suggestions?
6.Does it need anything else to show our idea?

The responses we got were actually quite useful:
-Like the infographic idea
-2 minutes might be a bit ambitious but will work nicely
-Like the colour schemes
-Could relate to the audience by using technology in the animation
-Initial idea has potential but fluidity might require a bit too much time for a 2 min piece
-Cool idea
-Single line to signify interconnectivity is an effective solution
-Is it too simple for 2 minutes?
-Could have more coloured/textured areas but always return to the line
-Love the layout of the boards-very professional
-2 minutes might be too long and create too much work.
-Love the idea
-Like the idea of the world unraveling into a human figure
-Explain last bullet point on initial ideas, why column, not sure what it means
-Colour scheme, blues greens browns, shades, earthy brown colours in background
-Any concept work/ideas?
-Isn't too clear what it will actually look like
-I like the 3rd column of colours and 2nd background option
-Not much of a specific idea
-Boards are good
-Bright colours and graphicy pictures would not work for the audience
-What information is going to be presented in your animation?
-Colours- I think you should use greens and browns and maybe a blue if your going to be doing a globe
-2 mins might be too long, motion graphics is quite hard to keep someone interested for 2 mins with pure factual information
-Might be better looking at the minute mark
-3rd colour chart and 2nd background
Boards are nice and professionally laid out. But there isn't much to show about your actual idea, storyboards etc
-I like the simplicity-works well
-It definitely reaches the target audience
-The text could be reduced to make room for more concepts/images


What we have taken from this:
-The animation needs to be about 1 minute (we only but max of two minutes on the presentation cause thats what it said on the brief and we hadn't decided yet)
-Need some concept art/storyboards. I think when we have these, there will be less need for the amount of text because the text was explaining our ideas that we hadn't yet visualised
-Theres a typo on the why column- need to check better next time
-Chosen colours should be greens browns and maybe a blue, from the 3rd set of colours.
-The second background should be used.

It has shown us what people like and don't like and how our pitch boards went down which is good practice to help us figure out what needs to be on them and what doesn't. People like more visual things but a bit of explanation.