Animation Evaluation

STEP ONE
In order to complete the first task, you will need to exhibit your work and collect responses. To do this effectively, you should distribute your work via the internet, across as many different websites as you can. You should also send out questionnaires and request responses to specific technical and aesthetic elements, which are outlined below. Be sure to (briefly) explain what your project was.

Criteria for feedback:

• Genre & audience - Comedy/Sci Fi.
• Content & narrative - a cheestring or E-string eats himself and forms a blackhole swallowing everything and is then blocked up by an E4 logo.
• Style (of animation; claymation, puppets, models, etc.) - Claymation
• Characters (development, quality of production, costume, etc.) - E4's E-String
• Techniques & technical qualities (frame rate, movement, skill in animating multiple actions) - Morphing clay models each frame to produce a smooth video.
• Aesthetic qualities (the way it looks; mise-en-scene etc.) - It is set inside of an E4 shop where they only sell cheestrings, and discounted copies of 'Made In Chelsea'
• Creative qualities (imagination and flair) . - It uses a mix of chroma key and paper sets to give the idea of floating in space once the E-String turns into a blackhole and swallows everything.

 

STEP TWO
In order to meet grading criteria for Unit 33: GC4, you must show that you are able to evaluate audience responses to own stop motion animation work.

Consider and address the following:
1. Decide how you want to review your animation project? Will you produce an oral presentation, audio commentary or written report? Why?

I will be producing a blog post detailing my exact thoughts on how this project went, I will be listing the positives and negatives of the overall video.

2. Discuss how you exhibited your projects and how you could have shown it to a broader audience/other methods of exhibition.

I would share it through social media websites and will get the word of mouth going through my friends and colleagues hopefully causing more buzz.

3. Discuss how you obtained feedback from audiences and state who you asked. Also, list the questions/criteria for feedback and present your results. What was the general reaction to your work? Graphs and print screens are vital here.

I did a survey through survey monkey getting opinions from people around the world, some of the answers on it were a little crude and I knew that they were prank answers so I deleted them immediately.

STEP THREE

Consider and respond to the following:
1. Did you experience any constraints when making your ESting? For example, legal & regulatory issues, financial difficulties etc. Quote relevant text where appropriate.

I did not face any legal or regulatory issues when making my E-sting, although there was a worry that my 'E-String' closely resembled a Cheesestring and that I would be using their likeness, but I've been informed that because my character does not have the words Cheesestring on it, there would be no copyright problem.

2. How well did you manage your time? What was the time frame for the project and how well did you stick to it? How well did you manage yourself during the project?

I believe that I managed my time well, working hard I got the pre-production work done in a day, and then the production took about 2 hours to do, and then post production took a further two days. The final project was finished well within a week, but due to time constraints, the whole process spanned about two weeks.

3. Did you meet the requirements of the brief’s content? For example, did you conform to the guidance set-up on the E4 ESting competition’s website?

The criteria on E4's website stated that they "can’t show anything explicit or violent in the daytime, but we might be able to after the watershed as long as it’s broadcastable" I have confirmed that this E-sting does not have anything like that in it, although a few comments on the survey stated that it looked like the character was performing 'Self Philatio' but I concluded that this person was merely being immature. The Criteria also states that the E-Sting has to be ten seconds long, with careful cutting and keyframing, I had made my E-Sting exactly ten seconds long, no more, no less. It also states that you have to use one of the ten seconds pieces included in the .zip file on their website, I have followed these rules and have used the soundtrack labeled 'estings-africa', along with some sound I made at home using a professional microphone, and a royalty free belching sound I had in my sound library on my laptop. Finally, it says that it has to have the E4 logo in it, I used a plasticine logo I made, there were concerns that the logo wouldn't be recognised as the E4 logo, but after talking to my teacher, I confirmed that it did look like the E4 logo and the judges would understand what it is.

4. Where did you obtain feedback from and what was the general tone of it? (Mentions peers, tutors, friends, family and questionnaire respondents). I obtained feedback in class from my peers, but I also got feedback through social networks by linking it to my survey, I have received mainly positive views, some with criticism and immature answers with vulgar language, I deleted those comments immediately.

5. What do you feel you have learnt from this project? For example, was working to a specified brief difficult? Did it mean you were less able to be creative?

I learnt the difficulty in stop motion animation and that it is time constraining, the fact that it took me an hour to make about six seconds of footage also prevented me to unleash my creative talent, but once all the filming was done and I got to post production, it was so much more relaxing as it doesn't take that long to add the music and effects.

6. Do you think you would be a suitable candidate for work within the media industry where working to a brief is commonplace? Why?

I believe that I would be a suitable candidate because even though there were problems with time, I still managed to finish the project on time and hand it in before the due date.

7. How do you feel about taking animation further – do you think it would be a viable career option for you?

I do not think that animation is for me, i will not be taking it any further, to do a job like animation you would need to be incredibly patient. Doing this project was frustrating for me because everything went at a snails pace and to be honest it was incredibly aggrivating. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the course, learning about the history of animation and the pioneers like Ray Harryhausen and Don Bluth, but I still feel like this would not be the career path for me.

Consider and respond to the following:
1. Did you experience any constraints when making your ESting? For example, legal & regulatory issues, financial difficulties etc. Quote relevant text where appropriate. I did not face any legal or regulatory issues when making my E-sting, although there was a worry that my 'E-String' closely resembled a Cheesestring and that I would be using their likeness, but I've been informed that because my character does not have the words Cheesestring on it, there would be no copyright problem.

2. How well did you manage your time? What was the time frame for the project and how well did you stick to it? How well did you manage yourself during the project? I believe that I managed my time well, working hard I got the pre-production work done in a day, and then the production took about 2 hours to do, and then post production took a further two days. The final project was finished well within a week, but due to time constraints, the whole process spanned about two weeks.

3. Did you meet the requirements of the brief’s content? For example, did you conform to the guidance set-up on the E4 ESting competition’s website? The criteria on E4's website stated that they "can’t show anything explicit or violent in the daytime, but we might be able to after the watershed as long as it’s broadcastable" I have confirmed that this E-sting does not have anything like that in it, although a few comments on the survey stated that it looked like the character was performing 'Self Philatio' but I concluded that this person was merely being immature. The Criteria also states that the E-Sting has to be ten seconds long, with careful cutting and keyframing, I had made my E-Sting exactly ten seconds long, no more, no less. It also states that you have to use one of the ten seconds pieces included in the .zip file on their website, I have followed these rules and have used the soundtrack labeled 'estings-africa', along with some sound I made at home using a professional microphone, and a royalty free belching sound I had in my sound library on my laptop. Finally, it says that it has to have the E4 logo in it, I used a plasticine logo I made, there were concerns that the logo wouldn't be recognised as the E4 logo, but after talking to Ellie, I confirmed that it did look like the E4 logo and the judges would understand what it is.

4. Where did you obtain feedback from and what was the general tone of it? (Mentions peers, tutors, friends, family and questionnaire respondents). I obtained feedback in class from my peers, but I also got feedback through social networks by linking it to my survey, I have received mainly positive views, some with criticism and immature answers with vulgar language, I deleted those comments immediately.

5. What do you feel you have learnt from this project? For example, was working to a specified brief difficult? Did it mean you were less able to be creative? I learnt the difficulty in stop motion animation and that it is time constraining, the fact that it took me an hour to make about six seconds of footage also prevented me to unleash my creative talent, but once all the filming was done and I got to post production, it was so much more relaxing as it doesn't take that long to add the music and effects.

6. Do you think you would be a suitable candidate for work within the media industry where working to a brief is commonplace? Why? I believe that I would be a suitable candidate because even though there were problems with time, I still managed to finish the project on time and hand it in before the due date.

7. How do you feel about taking animation further – do you think it would be a viable career option for you? I do not think that animation is for me, i will not be taking it any further, to do a job like animation you would need to be incredibly patient. Doing this project was frustrating for me because everything went at a snails pace and to be honest it was incredibly aggrivating. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the course, learning about the history of animation and the pioneers like Ray Harryhausen and Don Bluth, but I still feel like this would not be the career path for me.