Animation Evaluation

              

STEP 1

Here is the questionnaire I created and shared with my classmates and on websites such as Reddit.com under Polls & Surveys to collect responses from people I do not know and specialize in different subjects about my 10 second animation.

STEP 2

I will review my animation project by producing a written report on this blog.

I exhibited by animation by sharing it on the website YouTube so anyone can watch the animation at anytime and able to leave a comment on the video saying what they liked or didn't like, if they wish to. I also attached my animation to my online questionnaire and shared it on many forums and websites such as Reddit under Polls and Survey so more people will watch and leave feedback on the video. I could have exhibited by animation to a broader audience by sharing it on more websites to get more responses from different people. Reddit however was a great website to share my questionnaire as it's an extremely popular website which many people from different ages use. My respondents were from the age of 17 all the way to 41 years old.

What happens in this animation?

                                 (Here are a few responses I received)  

I asked respondents "What happens in this animation?" as it's very important for viewers to understand the narrative if they're going to enjoy the Esting. This is even more so important with this project as you're only given 10 seconds to show and tell and story so the audience need to be engaged and interested with it quickly. As you can see from the image above all my respondents understood what the narrative and what was going on perfectly so I'm very pleased it came across how I wanted it. 

What style of animation is this?
  

For the question "What style of animation is this?" I wanted to find out if people knew what kind of animation I created and how much they know about animation already. The majority (62.50%) said it was Legomation which is correct. However 37.50% said it was a Live Action Stop Motion but there was no real people or animals involved in my Esting so it wasn't a Live Action Stop Motion. As I handed this questionnaire out to more people than just my class mates who study film and TV, I can understand if some people aren't sure. In my questionnaire I had people who were office managers and registered nurses.

What do you think of the characters in this animation? (Development , Quality, Costume)?

                                (Here are a few responses I received)  

For the question "What do you think of the characters in this animation?" I wanted to find out what the respondents liked/disliked about the characters such as the quality, costumes and development in the story. It was difficult for me to change the characters in the animation as I was using Lego which someone pointed out.

 The Lego characters were already made for me unlike clay which I could manipulate and have had more freedom in creating my characters. The responses were mostly good, for example someone liked the idea that the evil and defeated side looked like monsters and someone else said it "Looked good, artistic". The only real criticism I got was "Some hats would improve the costumes slightly." I agree with this as my animation was set in the medieval times I think helmets for some of the characters would have been appropriate and made the costume and characters more engaging.

What did you think of the movement in the animation? (Was it Smooth or Jumpy)

                                   (Here are a few responses I received) 

For the question "What did you think of the movement in the animation?" I wanted to find out what people thought of the quality of the Esting. As I created a stop motion it was crucial that it was smooth and not to jumpy when putting all the pictures together that the viewers can understand and see what is going on. I got mixed responses for this question, Most say it was fairly smooth but had a few jumps in places. For example someone said "Lego men are smooth. Something seems jumpy about the background behind the logo when it's flying through the air."

When I watched the animation back I could see what they were talking about and agree with that they're saying when the E4 logo is flying by the trees the background moves about slightly. To improve and minimize the jumps I could have stuck the background to the table better so it wouldn't move about when I was moving the E4 logo.

What did you like/didn't like about the look of the animation?

                                 (Here are a few responses I received) 

For this question I wanted to find out what people like and don't like about the animation so I can get an idea what people like and what I should improve and do again next time an animation like this. Overall the comments were positive "it's well lit", "I like the faces of the Lego guys, I like the background and overall concept.", "Cool animation, funny, short and creative. I like the combination of the real forest in contrast with the Lego characters".

Some respondents didn't like how short the animation was, they would liked to have seen the evil side getting up and fighting back.

As much as I would have liked to make the animation look and create an intense battle between the two sides I couldn't as I was set a brief to create an Esting which must be no more then 10 seconds. This limited me to how much I could create and show in the animation. The main criticism I retrieved was that it wasn't long enough and also "Not much back info. I have no idea why they're fighting in the first place.". Which again comes under timing. If I had more freedom with the time I would have made the narrative more detailed and longer. Someone did actually point out the that the E4 logo was backwards when it came down to take out the evil side. "Logo is actually backwards when it lands which just looks really odd." I completely agree that it does look odd and should be the other way around. If I was creating this animation again I would most definitely change it around.

Do you think the idea is creative?

                                 (Here are a few responses I received) 

For the question "Do you think the idea is creative?" I wanted to find out if people viewing this animation will appreciate and enjoy the animation if it was aired on TV. Overall the respondents liked the animation and thought the idea was creative so I'm very happy with the responses and outcome of the animation.

That being said two respondents said the concept is fine and liked the idea, however humans vs orcs isn't all that new or original.

STEP 3

When creating my E Sting I had to make sure I was meeting the requirements of the ESting brief and be aware of any constraints there may be. An issue I had with my ESting was that I used Lego as my models which brought up copyright problems as I used LEGO products in my ESting without permission from the LEGO company. As well as these restrictions I had to be aware of The Ofcom Broadcasting Code.

Here are some of the sections I had to be aware of and follow when creating my E4 ESting if I wanted it to be eligible for TV.

As my animation contains violence with LEGO characters characters fighting I had to read and be aware of violence under the section Harm and Offense on the Ofcom Broadcasting Code and safe for children under 18 to watch as I'm using Lego they will be an audience interested in this animation. 

The time frame of this project was eight lessons doing the pre-production paperwork, eight lessons filming and eight lessons editing the final product. When managing my time during the project I spend a lot of time in pre-production, planning out the content I wanted in my Esting and how I would go about creating it. I then had to make sure I could get hold of the Lego I needed for my Esting, such as the props and characters in the animation and make the catapult out of Lego before I could film. As well as this during production took quite a lot of time as their was a lot of trial and error. The camera would jump too much at times or the lighting wasn't great so I had to shoot the same scene until I was happy with the outcome. It was also difficult how I was going to make the string I attached to the catapult look like it was getting cut by the Lego sword but after a lot of practice I finally got what I wanted. I think what also ate up a lot of the time was the editing as I was masking each individual photo on the E4 logo crashing down onto the enemy forces.

My Esting animation met the requirements of the brief set up on the E4 Esting competition website. The music I used in my Esting animation was one of the downloadable soundbeds they give you to use as they stated in the FAQ you MUST use of the sound beds supplied to you by E4. My Esting is also exactly 10 seconds long as that is how long the ident must be to be considered in the competition.

I obtained feedback on my animation from my peers in class and family, as well as questionnaire respondents by creating a questionnaire on www.smartsurvey.co.uk and distributing it on the internet. The general tone from my respondents were mostly good, saying the idea was creative and well made and overall my peers liked the idea. However there were some errors in my animation and parts which didn't work as well, for example I had mixed responses on the movement. Some people said it was smooth overall while other said it was fairly smooth with a few jumps of the camera when the E4 logo is flying in the air above the trees.

I feel like I learnt that I can work to specified brief along with all the restrictions it comes with of what I can and can't do. I found it quite easy working to a brief as you know exactly what you've got to work with and already sends you in one direction of what to create before you have even started. However I feel this restricts the freedom you get and makes it less creative as you can't just create whatever you desire as you have to worry about following a specific brief telling you what you can and can't do. Personally I don't mind following a brief as it tests you to be more creative in a way as you really need to think about the restrictions or obstacles if you like challenging you and how you will overcome them with a different creative mind set than if you had all freedom to create what you want and how you want it. I also enjoy having the creative freedom to create what I want and how I want without worrying how long the film is or what content I need in it. When I was creating my Esting animation there was a number of times where I added to much where it was almost like a short film however I needed to cut this down with less content so it meets the E4 competition brief of 10 seconds.

I think I could be a suitable candidate for work within the media industry where working for a brief is commonplace as I enjoyed working to brief when creating my E4 Esting animation as it was fun and challenging to try and keep with the brief given and the brief basically already gives you an outline and idea of what to create and how to go about it before you've even started which helps you out in the long run.

I feel like animation could be a viable career option for me as I really enjoy creating animation even if it is challenging, stressful at times, very time consuming and you need precision when creating an animation. I am patient so I enjoy creating animation as it's more challenging as your moving inanimate objects and coming with creative ways to make them jump or fly. Once you've completed filming and editing all the clips together the end result is to rewarding as your seeing your finished product and seeing something you bought to life on screen without it actually being alive.