Brian evaluation

What were you asked to do? (Project brief tasks)



For my project brief, I was asked to create a 20 second long animation, showing how I feel about my identity, and how I would portray it to others. I was also recommended to put to gather an audio file for the project to accompany the video, to give it more depth.


What did you make/present?

I presented an animation based around a reoccurring dream / nightmare that I have, using the same scenery from my dreams within my piece. I used frauds theory of the id, ego and super ego to create my characters within my animation, thus creating Lucas, who represents the inner me, and clicker, who represents the id, or inner demon. Within the animation, Lucas is lost within the wood till he stumbles across a large lake. When he touches the water, from his reflection, clicker appears and scares him, before the scenery around him turns to a beautiful forest and clicker turns to leaves. The leaves the return to the trees and Lucas is left astonished by his encounter.


What did you want to communicate?

 I wanted to communicate my own inner battle with myself when it came down to my diabetes, and my emotions. Clicker was used to symbolize the pleasure principle, (A.K.A the ID) whereas Lucas was used to represent my inner self. (A.K.A the ego / persona / personification of hopes and dreams) when clicker turned to leaves and returned to the forest, I intended to symbolize my hope for the future of overcoming these issues within myself, and beating an inner battle. This also connotes how I believe I will not be able to live my life fully till I accept who and what I am and let it become a part of me.

Who was your intended audience?

My intended audience for my animation is 12 to 19 year olds, this can be seen through the style I used to draw my characters in, similar to a western cartoon style. It can also be seen within the actual intended message, as the video shows someone accepting who they are, something that most teens struggle with. 

What materials and processes did you experiment with?

I experimented with the use of digital art, by painting the scenery, drawing the characters and colouring directly onto Photoshop, and the use of traditional pencil drawings drawn onto plain white paper then photographed in I-stop motion to give the appearance of movement.

What materials and processes did you reject?


I rejected the use of pencil drawings, as I saw them as too restricting on my ideas, as I would be limited on the colour vibrancy and backgrounds. I also found it restricting when drawing backgrounds, as it would have taken too long to draw the same background over and over again.

What materials and processes did you use in your final designs?


I used a digital method for my final designs, choosing to draw it completely on Photoshop, as to achieve cleaner colouring and higher details in the background. It also made the background easier to create for each scene, instead of having to draw out the same images several times.

How do the materials you chose to use help you to communicate your message to your audience?


They helped me make the images clearer and brighter, and also helped me with my transitions with the colour of my background from a dark, dreary blue green, to a bright emerald shade. It also made animation checks easier as I could go back and remove very precise bits of information, instead of having to recreate the whole thing again.

What did you do to ensure you worked with tools and materials safely? 


To make sure I took regular breaks from working on the computer to rest my eyes, I also made sure to keep all liquids away from the equipment I was using, in case of a spill that could lead to a malfunction or and electrical surge.

How well did you manage your time? 


I used my planner to help me organize my time, though I found it hard to maintain both my work and my college work, as my job took up a lot of spare time. It was also difficult to work through as I struggled with other classes’ work as well as this project.

What were your strengths in completing this project? 


My strengths in completing this project would be in my research as I go into large amounts of connotations and denotations as to understand how other animations work well and how others do not. I also work well with my research as I gained a lot of different images to study and learn things from, meaning I could improve my own animation.


What would you like to have done differently?


I would have liked to start off in a different way, as I struggled with using blogger and my first little book, and I preferred to layout my work in an a3 pad, as I am more familiar with this. I also would have liked to work longer on putting colour into my animation as well as more detail on the last few seconds as to make them clearer.

What will you do to ensure you improve for the next project?

 


I will insure to improve my time management, especially when it comes down to my job and college education. I will also add further detail into my work, as well as go into deeper depth with my research. This will make the whole project a little bit easier to work with on my time scale. I will also spend longer working Photoshop animations so I can understand my limitations when it comes to this program.