Animation Production Evaluation

To review my animation project I would rather have a written report, although I would like to do an oral presentation and I feel this is one of my strong assets that I am able to give a presentation with confidence I feel as if I could show more and give more information within a written document and this is the reason I have chosen to do one. I exhibited my E Sting on YouTube as this is the best platform to show videos on as millions of people watch millions of videos on YouTube everyday and this would be the best way to get my video noticed and to get feedback on what I have done.

Although I used the biggest video viewing website in the world there are many other ways that I could have exhibited my work. To get a broader audience looking at my ESting I could have posted it on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter where people could have Liked or Retweeted my video meaning more publicity for my video. Doing this could have got me more feedback on my ESting and thus, meaning I could know more peoples opinions on my work and giving me a better idea on what to change or do differently in my next project. I obtained my feedback through a website called SurveyMonkey. This website allows people to create free surveys and send them to people to complete. Although there are many ways to collect survey results I chose to do this one and then email close friends to allow them to complete my survey. To get more results I could have again posted on social networking sites to get more results and allow myself to get better results. The general reaction to my ESting was positive with some constructive criticism allowing me to think of what I can do better. All together I got around 10 responses which isn't as many as I hoped, however some is better than none. I asked close friends and family members by creating a SurveyMonkey and then sending the link to my survey to my friends via email. Overall I had 7 questions all having an essay box to allow people to express their opinions about my project however making it hard for me to collect results and create graphs so show my findings. The questions applicants were asked were:
1) What of genre do you think the ESting is and what audience do you think its aimed at?
2) What in particular do you like about the stop frame animation I have used?
3) What is your opinion of the character(s) in the ESting?
4) What do you like about the way the ESting looks in general?
5) What techniques/ technical qualities do you think work well within the ESting (eg smoothness, movement etc.)?
6) What do you think about the idea of the ESting (originality, imagination and flair etc)?
7) What is your opinion or the narrative (story) and the content that is within the ESting?

The feedback given was generally positive and as you can see from the chart, I looked through my results and saw that for this question every applicant thought that my ESting idea was original which is a huge bonus as it was also said that they had never seen an ESting like it before and originality is key when working on a project as you want it to be new and fresh and be different to everyone else's as people will remember something that is new and not something that is similar to something else.

Another question I asked was what people like about the stop frame animation I used did they like? From my results everyone liked the karate chop that happened in my ESting and the part where once I've chopped the logo it halves and falls down. Smoothness was also a high answer and this is the answer I am most pleased about, I wanted to make the ESting fun however also look smooth and professional and from the results I have gathered I think that I have achieved this. People also just liked the idea of my ESting however this doesn't really fit with the question that I asked however it was still quite a high answer.

Although only 3 answers were given for this question (What genre do you think the ESting is and what audience do you think its aimed at?) this research was vital so I  could establish a target audience. Although I already knew who my project was aimed at I needed to know who people thought it was aimed and and if that I succeeded in creating an ESting that targeted my primary target audience. I am glad to say that I was able to attract my primary target audience of young adults/teenagers. People were also able to establish what genre the ESting was and again I needed to know this to know if what I planned out to do at the start worked. Once again it did work and people were able to see that my projects genre was mainly a comedy however also was action.

Although only 2 answers were given for this question it is still needed for my research. Everyone that answered my survey said that they liked the smoothness and the movement/flow of my ESting and that it was very fluent and didn't jump. This also links in with the question What do you think about the characters in the ESting? People said that even though the character could smile some more and look happier they did like the seriousness as the facial expression didn't change which means again it didn't look jumpy and flowed well. This is what I was going for, as said above I wanted my Esting to not only target my primary audience and be seen as the correct genre but to also look smooth and professional and once again I feel as if I have achieved this.

Overall from the little feedback that I received it was overall very positive with no negative comments only constructive criticism like the character could smile more. I feel that looking at my research and the results I gathered from my research I can see that my ESting was a success on many different levels such as succeeding to target the correct audience and being an original idea however I now also know what I could do better next time and what to keep the same to create a better ESting.

When making an animation/project there is always going to be constraints and I feel that I was able to work out and work around any I came across quick and effectively.  One constraint that I came across straight away was that my original idea wasn't going to work very effectively, I had to change my idea slightly and start working on the new animation. Fortunately as my idea was simple and didn't need a large budget I didn't come across any financial difficulties however when in the editing stage of my ESting I came across a few legal & regulatory issues. I wanted music and you can only use music that E4 has provided you with, however I felt none fit into my animation well and you could not remix the music in garage band it had to be the standard music they had provided you with.

Once listening to the sound-beds I was able to find one that I liked and actually fitted with my animation, however this was one of my largest constraints in my project. Another constraint I had to overcome was a difficult one. As I shot my ESting on different days the lighting in the clips were different and you could clearly see this. To overcome this I had to put certain effects on my project like changing the contrast and the brightness of my ESting. At first the Esting was also too long and it must be exactly 10 seconds if not the ESting will not be accepted into the competition. Although these constraints came up whilst creating my ESting I feel that I was able to overcome them quickly and effectively and I was still able to create a good and professional looking ESting.

Being able to manage your time effectively is crucial in the media industry as if deadlines are missed millions of pounds and hundreds of hours of work can be lost or wasted. Before I started my project I made a production schedule which showed when and where I was going to shoot my Esting. Only having a week to shoot my ESting and a week to edit I got to work straight away I also knew that I would be sharing a computer and I wouldn't have as much time as everyone else. I worked hard and managed to finish filming 2 days before the deadline, however instead of waiting for the deadline to come I uploaded my shots and started editing early to give me more time if anything didn't look right or anything needed to be re-shot. As I was finished before the deadline I feel that I managed my time very well and gave myself time to correct anything that was wrong. 

Sticking to the brief was also crucial as if anything was wrong with the ESting it wouldn't be judged and so would not be entered in the competition. I made sure that I kept to the brief and nothing would not allow me to enter my ESting. The one main problem I had was that my footage was over 10 seconds long once I put it together and in the brief it clearly states that the EStings must be exactly 10 seconds long if not they wont be judged. To overcome this problem I had to make some clips faster than the others by changing the frame rate however I didn't want this to effect the way the video looked. Fortunately it looked fine and I was able to get the video to 10 seconds. I also had to incorporate the E4 logo within my ESting although from the start I planned to have the logo in my ESting so this was not a problem, I feel that I kept to the requirements of the brief well and I would be able to enter my project into the competition.

I tried to obtain feedback from as many different media platforms as possible to give me a range of audiences. I created a survey on SurveyMonkey and distributed it between class mates and close friends and family. I also posted on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in the hope that people would answer my survey. Unfortunately I got around 10 applicants answer my survey although I was hoping for more as the more results you get the more reliable your results become. From the few amount of responses I got the general tone was good and people liked the animation that I had made. The little criticism that was given was actually constructive criticism and gave me ideas on how I would make my ESting better if I was to do this project again.  




I feel I have learnt many new skills and techniques from this project and even adapting on skills that I already have like working to a brief. However working to a brief can mean you have to be less creative as it must fit the brief exactly for your work to be valid. I have also learned that working by yourself in an animation can have its positives and negatives, for example I had to get someone to work the camera as I needed to be in an exact position for every photo also someone needed to just take the photo. Working alone, in my opinion also has its positives as I was able to create an idea that was completely my idea and I was able to make and edit my project exactly how I wanted. Of course I valued peoples opinions of my ESting however I was able to let my creative side out and make a product that was actually just mine. I also learned that stop motion animation is a pain staking process, even making a short 10 second video took over 6-7 lessons. I have a real respect for the people that create and animate Wallace and Gromit as I now know just how long it takes to make the animation. I feel I've learnt new skills in filming editing and in actual stop motion animation and I have again also adapted on the skills that I have already gained from doing this course.

Thinking about animation as a career choice I could defiantly see myself doing it within the future, however it wouldn't be my preferred sector of the media. The media industry is vast and at some point within my media career I will probably end up doing some sort of animation and I can see myself doing it in the future although its not the exact job I would like within the media industry.