Conclusion and Critical Evaluation

Were my practices appropriate and relevant to the Industry?

As Mentioned previously, all the tools and methods employed, are all used in the current industry. While I didn't necessarily use all the most mainstream tools, and the tools were cross-compatible, so my skill-sets would be to.

How could I work differently in the future?

I believe that in order to become more efficient in my work in the future, will come in the form of my own knowledge and confidence in the subject matters at hand. I want to take the knowledge that I have taken from this course, and further them in the coming weeks and months so that I am as prepared to enter the industry as possible.  One aspect that I could improve on is my critical analysis and research of my production, specifically when it comes to animation and editing techniques. While my knowledge in form, and anatomy and the principles of animation are apparent, it was the editing, and knowledge of programs capabilities that truly held me back during this project. These aspects logically improved throughout the duration of the animation, but they could be improved yet further.
A way I could go about learning the things I am currently lacking is by making more connections in the animation industry, and potentially apply for jobs or even just work experience at this point in time. Not only would these expand my knowledge of the industry, but it would also help me build a better skill set and portfolio, ready for future employment.

Where will I go from here?

I would like to continue working on projects in this vein post-university. One of my passions is storytelling, in addition to my art. Not only would it be entertaining it would help further my technical skills that would come in handy in the industry. It would also give me time to experiment with different software, compositions, genres and other various techniques, which would all be potentially transferable and sort after when it comes to meeting with potential employers.

Did I meet my set criteria?

During this project, I met most of my initial criteria set out in my proposal form. My main goals were to produce work that would be presentable in a showreel and a portfolio and collaborate with like-minded individuals. These fundamental aims of my criteria I feel were adequately met, and then some. The score was not only completed, but it was also completed ahead of schedule and timed to the beat of the animation. The animation produced in this semester was some of the highest quality that I have yet to produce, and has since its completion, gone on to feature in my personal showreel, as well as the Degree showreel. My understanding of post-production has improved to a degree, but I would like in future to take my understanding of this better.
 There were some modifications to my specific aims and goals for the project. For example, the original goal of 90 seconds of animation was cut down to around 80 seconds to save on time and allowed me to take the additional time to work on producing more quality animation, instead of rushing so I met the criteria. As well as this, the sound design was not as self-designed as I would like, but I feel that my own work in this area may have hindered the overall project, as my lack of knowledge may have made the SFX's sound somewhat amateurish. 

Was the Animation appropriate to my Target Demographic?

Feedback from peers and test audiences proved positive. However these tests were all from close friends and family, so there is likely to be biased in their reactions. Regardless, these have indeed given me the confidence to believe that the work I produced was suitable for my target audience. I believe that the work is akin to the industry work that targets the same demographics as the ones that were targeted, and therefore would be suitable. I also found that some of the elder audiences members I showed the work to were very complimentary of the character animation, which was pleasant to see that people outside of my target demo could enjoy, albeit maybe not for the reasons I had initially anticipated.


Final Reflection

This project and this course have been a huge learning curve for me and my fellow classmates. The goal of this course and module was to learn how to create animation up to a professional standard. I wanted to improve as an animator, and artist, in both my artistic prowess as well as my time management. I feel that both of these have improved tenfold. Not only was the animation in this project finished by the end of the module, but it was also finished with ample time to adequately analyse, something that even a year ago, would have still been a far fetched dream of mine. 


My animation uses colour intelligently to tell the story and drive a visual narrative, while still being a flashy action scene at that. The character maintains a consistent palette and style throughout the animation, allowing for the animation to be read easily, and keeping a good sense of continuity.
Given more time, I would go back and readjust camera angles, and redraw certain frames, to push the quality of the animation yet further. And there are some definite issues with the backgrounds that in future I would like to learn how to improve.
This animation has allowed me to step outside my comfort zones and try new and bold ideas, that if I hadn't of done this project, I wouldn't have had the pleasure to learn. I am overall very satisfied with the outcomes of this module and course and look forward to taking the knowledge that I have learnt, into my working career.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 8

Image
This week I had more time to animate, so I wanted to animate the final scene of the animation. For this part, I made sure to include animation smearing, to help smooth out the spins and flips in her tumble as best as possible. While there are some ridiculous looking frames in this part of the animation, in movement it works really well. The Onionskin tool came in very handing when producing these scenes. Below are examples of animation smear, followed by my own use of smearing. Industry examples of 2D Animation smear Animation smear was even used in the new 3D animated feature, Spiderman: Into the spiderverse. Another camera technique that is included in this scene is a Pan up, to help me visualise this when animated I added a horizon line and smoothed it out when adding the in-betweens. I was rather unsatisfied with how the character falls in their final landing, as it didn't feel natural as the second they hit the floor their spinning momentum just s...
Read more

Week 7

Image
Following on from the work I did last week, I wanted to animate the Antagonists counter to her attack. In the initial Animatic, there was again just as a basic reaction shot, followed by the sword being drawn. I felt that the animation was relying on these reaction shots too much, and wanted to experiment with camera angles and movement. I came up with the idea to have the camera follow the perspective of the ray that leads into the reaction shot.  The camera angle of where they use their sword is a low angle to show the size and power of this character, it makes the character seem more large and imposing than he otherwise is, and helps convey the strength of this character, as he swats away the blast as if it were nothing.  My initial test proved that the concept worked. Again I added the green streaks as the antagonist character moved, to helped give more visual interest to some otherwise basic shots.  As stated in previous weeks, most of the scenes wi...
Read more

Week 9

Image
This weeks animation involved more zoom outs, however, this is a much slower zoom than the previous one, so unlike it, the character can remain in detail, the main purpose of this shot is to show the scale of the charged attack. I also feel that it works as a bridge so the next shot can pan to Robyn.  I feel that over this project I have gained confidence in my camera angles, and I found animating this one easier than the previous ones (albeit still not a walk in the park). As always, I took the initial animatic lines, neatened them up and some were redrawn in their entirety. Some of the times were changed so the camera speeds up and slows down at the beginning and end of the zoom, giving it a more realistic feel. I felt that the black lines within the "gravity ball" as I have dubbed it, does not really add anything to the piece, and therefore I changed them to green, to blend in with the rest of the ball More in-betweens Once the in-betweens were add...
Read more