Evaluation

Context & Research:

My idea changed significantly from my initial ideas, since I originally wanted to do something graphics based. This fell through because my tutor informed me that my final idea would not cover enough criteria to get a passing grade. Instead of doing a DVD cover and insert, I made an animatic for the show I would've wanted the DVD to be of.

Keeping a schedule was easy at first, but when my project was disrupted by events outside of my control, I fell significantly behind the deadlines I had set for myself. The animatic itself was a lot more time consuming than I expected it to be, which would've been less of an issue if I hadn't been derailed by extraneous circumstances. I didn't refer to my schedule as much as I think I should've, which I think is partially why I fell so behind.

I completed a range of research, the most beneficial of which was my analysis of similar projects. all three varied in style, length, method and purpose, which helped me assess what elements I wanted to involve in my own. Genre and audience research also helped since it made me aware of what content was appropriate and relevant in my FMP. For example, in researching animation principals and character design, I was better equipped to create appealing and distinct characters that aligned with my target demographic, as well as understanding what I needed include in an animatic in order to effectively communicate with the animators.

I found the 12 principals of animation interesting, and they did help in my production, though I don't think I needed them as much as I initially expected, since I was not animating - I was storyboarding.

Pre-Production & Problem Solving:

I found scripting my animatic difficult since I wanted it to feel natural and improvised, taking inspiration from shows like Smiling Friends and Home Movies. I did write a script, and made a storyboard that included dialogue, but neither dictated what was said in my final production, since I couldn't predict what my voice actors would come up with on the day.

I really enjoyed my character exploration and designing process, though I feel I could've done more with this. I missed references for characters' full bodies, I only made turnaround sheets for their heads, which I feel limited me in my animatic. characters frequently change size and go off-model in the final product, which I could put down to my own lack of skill, but I feel like part of it was I didn't spend enough time mapping 0out the characters.

I stuck to my plans pretty well overall, especially the storyboard which was my main reference for the animatic besides the character sheets. Some major changes was my VA's and the roles they played, as well as the names of the characters, which changed from Al and Frank to Ben and Sid. I'm happy with these changes, but I feel they should've been made sooner. I should've spent more time planning, I feel like one reason I struggled so much for production was my lack of pre-production.

I encountered a few of the issues that I had noted in my contingency plans, like being absent due to unforeseen events and my voice actors becoming unavailable. at one point, nearing the end of my project, I somehow deleted all my editing. I managed to recover it via previous premiere pro autosaves. I had some issues with the dialogue being too quiet/poorly mixed, which I did attempt to fix, but in raising certain vocals i noticed that it raised the background fuzz too. I decided to leave it after failed attempts - its audible at least.

I originally had different voice actors, but after complicated personal affairs, I was unable to use those recordings, since I wanted to avoid listening to my VAs. I re-recorded the dialogue, which is the version I illustrated over. Unfortunately, due to even more complicated personal affairs, I am no longer in contact with my new VA's. I would've ideally got them to re-record lines or add ones in, but since I am not on speaking terms with these people anymore, recording any more dialogue would be unlikely.

Production, Post-Production & Audience:

Initially, I was animating on Krita via the animation timeline docker. this proved difficult and confusing, so I decided to switch to importing individual frames, drawn on FireAlpaca, into Premiere pro. I developed my video editing skills since I had to re-scale my images once in prem pro, as well as change the volume of parts of the dialogue. I also developed skills in sound production, since I used FLStudio with the help of my partner, Kye. He helped me create sound effects for things like the mopping, the spaceship, the aliens etc. We synthesized sounds using a combination of archival audio and plugins ( 3x osc, tugmove effect, tape emulator, supertap 6, etc ) then exported them as Wav files. With this, and my illustrations, I created my desired aesthetic. However, since an animatic is a rough pass, I wasn’t able to fully express the tone and mood via colours, shading, camera movement etc.

I experimented with the sound, particularly the ray gun sound effect we made, since we used certain effects, randomized them, then recorded a few different versions of the sound. I picked my favourite version of the noise to use in my animatic.

I feel I represented my target audience well with the characters and relatable setting. I conducted a post-production audience survey to ask people what they thought I could’ve improved on and whether they feel it appeals to my target audience. The responses were overwhelmingly positive, the main criticisms were that it could’ve done with more colour and detail, which is kind of the point of an animatic in the first place! Overall people thought it did in fact appeal to the target demographic. One response said it could’ve been funnier, which I agree with. Originally, my audio was much longer and had a lot more humour, personality and context. However, since I was running out of time, I had to cut out unnecessary parts of the dialogue to make it quicker to illustrate.

Personally, I feel I targeted my demographic via representation through the characters, as well as the humour, setting and dialogue. For example, there’s inclusion of stronger language/swearing, which is very common in media popular with young adults. The humour is also dry and sarcastic, another thing popular with young adults, especially men. Popular shows like smiling friends and regular show are similar in this aspect and also target an audience of young men. I do feel like the art style isn’t the most appealing to young men, especially since its inconsistent thought the animatic. This is something I would’ve worked on and refined, had I had more time to develop it.

Final Outcomes & Evaluation

Overall I'm pretty content with my final product, I feel it affectively achieves what I set out to do. I do wish I had kept the characters more on model, and hadn't had to rush the illustrations, since I know I can do better. certain scenes and poses really irk me and I wish I had more time to perfect it. im particularly proud of the sound effects, since this was my first time really using FL Studio, its a software I'm not super familiar with. despite this, I'm really happy with my sounds, I think they fit my animatic well and give it that extra layer of dimension.

i used symbolic codes, such as the worker smoking cigarettes, to convey that this was a work for more mature audiences. this is especially important since its an animation, a medium mostly considered to be for children. adding more mature elements like this immediately signifies to the audience that this is for young adults, not children or teens.

the dialogue is conventional for the genre of dry comedy and dark humour, since the more blasé worker is very flippant and unmoved about his bosh being disintegrated, and there's not a lot of set-up to punchline type jokes, most of the humour is derived from how ridiculous the conversation and circumstances are.

The only things I wish I had done better are the recording of my dialogue and the actual quality of the illustrations. my drawing look rushed in parts and the characters frequently change size and lose limbs. The dialogue was poorly mixed and recorded, some of the lines were too quiet and some were too loud, it was very difficult trying to even this out since raising one lines volume also raised the room tone in the background, causing a noticeable contrast. still, i aimed to fix the audio best I could and make it audible.

if I was to continue working on my project I would use the animatic as indented and use it as the base-line for a more developed animation, with backgrounds, colour and real animation. I might even add music since I really enjoyed working with sound on FL and would like to do so again.

if I was to do my project from scratch again I would spend more time developing this idea instead of my original three, as well as more time on planning and pre-production.