Studio Brief 2- A Tale in the Sting- Evaluation

Evaluation

This has been one of the hardest modules i have done. This is because i found i didn't enjoy doing it therefore, it didn't inspire me to do it and push it to be amazing. Even if i am not 100% happy with my final piece, i am still happy with certain elements. The backgrounds were a lot better than in my first project as i feel i have grown and come to learn more about environments from Visual Language. This meant they could be cleaner and more polished and professional than i have made them to look in the past.

I also really liked how the film clips turned out after i altered them and cut them out. The oil paint effect really helped them to fit into the scene, but also look like mixed media and stand out. This was a real experiment for this animation, which i really liked doing. It produced an effect i had not tried yet and really wanted to see what would happen. This meant i made many mistakes along the way, but it let me learn how to fix them and make them better by the end or in the future. 

The way i started the project started out good, but then i got stressed when the idea got lost along the way, this made me slow down and not work on this project as much as i wanted to. This was along with working on so many projects as there were 3 running with deadlines for the same time, this made it hard to work on them all and have them all get done to a good standard as i haven't fully leant how to project manage and work on them all equally.

Overall i am happy with the module but i wish i had more passion as i was working through it, But this gave me a lot to improve on in the future and learn to better myself and how i work, as this course is very difficult so it is important to learn to cope with the work load and how being handled.

In the future i will make sure to set out diaries of my work schedule so i had a time frame to work with for the week or days, just so i can keep on top of everything i am trying to accomplish. 

I was also told for my last animation, that is was too linear. I have tired to show improvements on this by showing different camera angles, as well as having the camera panning and moving around. This was to try and keep the interests of the viewers as well, this is so my animation can keep people interested enough to receive the help they need. I did remember all of the comments on the first animation i produced, on what to improve. I have tried to fix all of these issues in this modules which i hopefully have achieved as i worked to develop my skills further and show i have learnt from this year, which i have. At the beginning i couldn't use any software or understand how to animate at all other than stop motion so it was all new to me. This meant i had a lot to develop and understand, this i feel i have achieved.

Studio Brief 2- A Tale in the Sting- Final Animation

Final Animation

This is my final animation with sound and all of the elements added. As sound is such an important aspect of a good campaign advert, i think the song i chose works really well with what is happening, but also sounding hauntingly beautiful and pure which helps to show how the character feels isolated and alone within the world with this illness. This is why i am proud of the animation as it could help someone who was suffering, the only thing i wish worked better, is the creature as it stands out so much and i know i could do it to a higher standard. This is why i am going to spend so much more time in the future, not just to start the animation, but also with the concept design and development. This is becuase if i had a clearer image of the creature in my head, i know i would have been able to develop it further into something better, with a more lasting impression. This would also let me include more animation movement as i would have been able to have the creature moving about more. 

As a first attempt at an animal, i feel it does work even if it is rough. You can clearly see what it is supposed to be and what i am aiming for it to be doing. This just helps me get the message across easier, as well as the campaign being more clear for viewers to understand and glance at and see what was happening to the character.

Studio Brief 2- A Tale in the Sting- Improvements & Small Evaluation so far

Improvements & Evaluation of work so far

One of the main problems i had within this animating process, was time management. As i am a first year, this is all about the mistakes i make with the projects, not just in content, but in how i approach them and work on them. I was relatively good at time management until the end of the year as all of the modules stacked up and the deadlines grew closer. This meant i was stressed for a large amount of this module so couldn't enjoy working on the animaiton. I can see this in the final piece, as there are many things i would change in the overall look and how i worked on it. 

I kept flipping from many different ideas for this task which meant, for the majority i didn't work as much as i could. This would be something i am changing straight away, as i have found i need to keep on top of everything which is why i am setting myself daily tasks and instructions on things to complete which has helped me greatly.

One of the other things i really wanted to change, would be the creature. If i were to redo this module, i either would have done it more as an entity so it seemed more threatening overall, or i would have made the dog much more detailed so it fitted with the character more. I am very disappointed in how it turned out, but i am a very harsh critique of myself so this makes me always want to change different elements of my work to make them better.

I am glad i got to experiment with elements i had not tried before. One would be the cut out film which i do like the overall look of as it looks rough and jittery which is the look i really wanted to achieve. This is alongside the backgrounds i designed. I liked making them look cleaner than i normally would so this is a style i will keep in the future and bring across to my next projects so i can add this element to them too. It looked like are real mix of media in the final piece but i think i liked that as it looks different and eye catching to the viewers we are trying to attract for Samaritans.

Studio Brief 2- A Tale in the Sting- Building the Animation

Building the Animation

When i was adding all of the scenes up, I was originally doing them all together. I quickly came to realise this would not work as the software couldn't handle all of the different elements i was trying to bring in. This is why i ended up building all of the scenes separately so i could bring them all through at the end and have it all end up in one place complete. Then all i needed to do was add sound and final touches. 

This is just a learning experience for the future as i wasted a bit of time working through it all in one area and it kept either crashing or freezing. This would be my way around this in the future, especially when the animation start to get longer and larger.

Studio Brief 2- A Tale in the Sting- Effects on the Clips

Effects on the Clips

As i was using film clips for my animation, i needed them to look cut out and rough. You can see this in these final screenshots of my animation with the person included, This meant it looked like another element i had experimented with and was able to add to the outcome. I added an oil paint effect to each one as well as i wanted it to look like the person was painted by hand for each frame. This produced a really nice overall look that swirled and moved around inside the character bringing him to life. This made me happier with how they looked as they weren't straight forward realistic film clips, they were art pieces within the animaiton. You can see a really nice effect on the scene where the character is outside and walking forward as the design on his shirt swirls into his body and around his clothes.

Because of how dark the room was when i was filming the bedroom scene, it doesn't look as fluid and soft, this meant the effect wasn't as good in the final piece. Next time i will work more with setting up good lighting in each area, so each scene can be clean and filmed properly.

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Studio Brief 2- A Tale in the Sting- Difficulties with Creature

Difficulties

One of my biggest difficulties, would be working with the dog creature. This was for many different reasons. One would be the feedback i received about my idea. This really through me off and put me really behind on my animating as i lost faith in my entire idea, this has made me really unhappy during this module as i wasn't confident that the work i was producing was any good or even a good story.

In my next year, i'm defiantly going to have to stick to the idea i decided upon and which is best for me as this would have let me produce something i am more confident showing and saying i'm happy with. This was because i was told the creature shouldn't just be a dog, it should morph between shapes so it isn't just one thing. This made it so i got very unconfident with my concept designs as they were all shown to be dogs. This is however the animal i have stuck with, becuase that is the animal the history shows depression to be associated with.

This made me add the creepy purple hue around the creature though, as this was to show how the creature is infecting the world around it and spreading its pain onto the character. If i were to do the creature again, i wouldn't colour it totally in black though as this meant i couldn't show as much detail, this is why i would do it a dark grey to show the black outlines to be detail, or i would use white highlights within the black dog to show isn't features and depth.