Mark evaluation - Dantes inferno digital story

What were you asked to do?

For my project brief, I was asked to create a 2 minute long digital story with audio and visual. I was asked to contain small amounts of animation to tell my story.

What did you make/present?

I presented a 2 minute long animation based around the poem, Dante’s inferno, mainly focusing around the introductive canto and the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th canto depicting Dante’s journey through hell to find inner peace. I also produced an audio file that I had recorded myself and edited in final cut pro.

What did you want to communicate?

I wanted to communicate the horrific feel of the poem, and how it could put the fear of god into anyone, and also how twisted and surreal the poem was, for instance, how it communicated even through old English the gory details of the demons and the torture souls had to endure.

Who was your intended audience?

My intended audience where people who where not originally interested in old literature such as Dante’s inferno, so that I could convey to them that it is actually a very interesting subject and holds many different morals and sub stories.

What materials and processes did you experiment with?

I experimented with the use of different textures that I would usually try to avoid for instance, photographs of bones instead of flat textures. I also experimented with the settings on the scanner as I scanned my images, making them appear different before I even edited them in Photoshop.

What materials and processes did you reject?

I rejected the use of pencil sketches and marker pens, as I dint like the restriction in colour and effect, I also didn’t like how easy it was for the materials to bleed into each other and cause problems when drawing with them.

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

In my final designs I used large amounts of computer designed images without the use of traditional art, though I did use initial designs that I scanned in and drew over to create my character concepts and backgrounds.

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

They helped me connote the feeling of destruction in the audience, as well as the feeling of horror and uncertainty due to the ripped and crumpled pages the drawings appear to be written on. They also made it easier to animate and create a natural appearance.

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 images worked 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 project.

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 more detail into my final, as well as a larger variation of images and characters.

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 with the program in my spare time so I can understand how it works better, and thus improve my finals in the future.