G. Assignment 5: Animation Evaluations

STEP ONE

My Review

After receiving feed back from the class, the only criticisms that I received were related to the background of the video and the opening is a little blurry in places but other than that not much was said, which is in itself a problem because that means that it was not memorable. I myself didn't like the first half because I didn't think that it looked smooth enough and like other people had said it looked a little blurry. The second half however I thought was a lot better because it was in focus and the monsters movement looked really good with it's tentacles all moving simultaneously before the ninja rolls into battle. The movement where the ninja cuts the head of the monster and the monster picks it up and drops it on the floor and it blends into an E4 logo I think are really good and run very smoothly.

The Project



The Questionnaire
I sent out a questionnaire to several different people of different ages and sexes to get a wider view on who the video appealed to; since the E4 website is designed to be for a more teenage audience, then that is who I will be focusing my decision of weather the video was a success or not.

So far from those who have filled out the questionnaire they have been positive responses and they all understand the idea and liked it. The only problem is that they thought they background hasn't been thought or very well put together and a lot more effort could have been put in and I have to agree.

PART TWO
This section and the next will be my review on the project overall; I will be reviewing it as a written piece. I exhibited my piece to my class via a projection but the highest viewing system I used was definitely the Internet, and the use of You Tube. Using this method my work was able to reach many different people and I was able to make links to You Tube and send those links via e-mail along with my questionnaire. Another way I could of done this was using DVDs, survey monkey and even using the screens that are dotted around college, but that might make getting responses to my questionnaire difficult. Through the responses of the questionnaires and the comment bar on You Tube I have created a pie chart to show the effectiveness of the Esting. The pie chart shows that overall the video in the eyes of the audience was a success even though most though that it could have been improved upon and most of those improvements were related to the background.

PART 3
During the making of the video, I didn't really have any difficulties filming the project as far as technicality goes but legally I had some restraints; because I printed the background off the Internet, there was a strong chance that the image that I used would have been plagiarism and as it turns out, the image I used was actually the jungle filmed in the opening scene to "Apocalypse Now" (1979).

Time wise, it only took me one day to film the initial piece but I had to film another opening to make it longer and this I didn't like because the lighting was different and was noticed while the shot wasn't always in focus; but that aside, I didn't start and finished before the required time limit and I stuck to the requirements for the brief and to the requirements for the E4 Esting. I obtained feedback through my questionnaires and responses on the Internet but I think that I could have tried to get more feed backs through the other methods like I discussed earlier. The general tone of the feedback was good, everyone more or less enjoyed it, they understood it and they thought it worked. The only problem was with the background that everyone picked up on and thought that it could have been improved upon and I have to agree as I did not put as much effort in to the background as I did the rest of the video. Besides the actual process of animation itself, I haven't learnt that much in the way of working to the briefs; you're given your requirements to get a grade and it's up to you to meet those requirements in the allocated time. The requirements for the Esting actually were the main restraint for me, not creatively but to what I normally do. I usually make more adult styled projects using violence and language to explore a character but in this case, that was not allowed but it gave me a chance to explore my work in a lighter sense. I think that sticking to the brief wise I would be a good candidate for the media industry as I stick to deadlines and come up with the requirements for the project, while working to what I think is usually a high standard. With that in mind I probably wouldn't explore a career in the world of animation, because it just doesn't interest me, but the process was a new experience anyway and gave me some extra life experience.