Animation evaluation

Step Two:

1) I am choosing to produce a written report to review my animation project as I feel this is the best method to portray the feedback we have been given. It's a visual way to present our findings but also a way to get everything down that we need to. With the other two options of the audio commentary or oral presentation I feel that it would be a good for engagement but it would be tough to get all of the feedback down in a manner that can be understood. As well as that a written report can be presented in person which incorporates the visual and audio aspects.

2) We exhibited our project via online sharing platforms that are easily accessible by the masses. We uploaded the video onto YouTube and then this meant that we could share it from there. Pretty much everyone knows about YouTube meaning that it was the best platform to share the video on. It also meant that we could share the video with friends and they could watch it, word of mouth was a technique we found to be valuable when wanting to show the video. As well as word of mouth and having people come across the video by chance we also shared the YouTube link via Social Media platforms which drove traffic to the video. To reach a larger audience we could have uploaded our video to other video sharing platforms such as Vimeo or Facebook where we would have reached a different demographic. Twitter has a female audience of 44% whereas Facebook has a female audience of 53%. This is a fairly basic figure but it's evident that sharing video via different social m idea platforms can attract different people and different opinions.

3) We decided to obtain feedback via the online survey platform, Survey Monkey. We felt that this was the easiest to use and most accessible survey platform online and produces easily readable and aesthetically pleasing graphs where results can be pulled from. The general reaction of our work was a positive one and it seemed that all of the objectives we set out we achieved and the message that we tried to create was understood by the audience.

The first question that we asked regarded what audience people thought our E-Sting was aimed at and the response was one that we expected. In pre-production we researched what audience E4 attracted and found that it airs a lot of programmes that teenagers watched. Due to this we wanted to produce an E-Sting that appealed at teenagers and it seems that we succeeded at this. We tried to create elements that would appeal to a wide audience in our E-Sting but also made sure that we had a main target audience so it wasn't too generic. I feel with the mix of the narrative and way of animation we successfully reached our target audience and our respondents clearly agree.     

The next question would look at if our narrative was communicated effectively and was understood by our audience. The narrative we decided to go with was more complex than an average E-Sting so we were conscious to make it easy for the viewer to understand. After looking at our responses it was evident to us that the overall narrative was understood but some people were confused as to why Ellis sneezed in the E-Sting. If we were to carry this task out again we would try and animate the sneeze more obviously to make the narrative clearer. Except for that though it seems everyone was drawn to the E4 logos which were thrown all over the wall after the bomb explosion which is positive as we wanted to reinforce brand image and awareness. 

Most people in our class used clay to animate with or Lego figures, we wanted to create something different so decided to use live action animation and Ellis was the actor who we used to stop motion animate. We wanted to know that people knew the difference between our animation and the 'normal' animation that is more commonly used. We felt that the way we animated our E-Sting gave it a USP and would attract the interest of people as it is unique. It seems that people did appreciate the technique that we used as over 80% of the respondents answered correctly.  

In any media form it is important to create a connection with the character and that was something we needed to concentrate on in order to make our E-Sting a successful one. We felt that there was more possibility in creating a connection if we used a character that could be related to by the audience. We decided to make our character who tried to be a hero but instead ended up having his main trait come through to ruin the task, that trait being clumsiness. We knew that if we had the protagonist having traits that could be transferred to anybody it meant that the audience would hopefully have a sense of sympathy for our character and also be amused. Luckily for us this seemed to pay off as over 80 of our respondents replied saying that they felt a connection to the character. 

 One of the key elements of any successful stop motion animation is for it to run smoothly, on the whole the response was a positive one but this was the most equal response that we had. Around 40% of our respondents said that it ran smooth on the whole but there were some areas where it could have been smoother. We knew that this was the case as we had to cut a lot of images out to meet the brief as we had a small time limit. The most positive thing about this was that nobody thought that it wasn't smooth.

Despite wanting the narrative to be the main part of our animation we realised that it also needed to look good, that was why we created this question to be answered. The response was a huge relief as we were conscious that people would not like the style that we pursued, luckily, that was not the case.

We also wanted to allow the people who answered our questionnaire to give a bit more of a personal answer on what they thought of our animation. The main theme was that they liked the imaginative side of the animation and they hadn't seen anything like it before which we were pleased about as we wanted ours to stand out from the crowd. One of the comments discussed that we should have had better music but we were not allowed as we needed to meet the brief in order to stay in regulation with the E4 rules. 

How well did I manage my time throughout this project?

I feel I managed my time very well and the proof of this is that we finished our project comfortably on time, there were a few people who did not manage this but we planned our animation out and split it into chunks so we had manageable work loads to get done. By setting goals to get completed in certain time lengths that meant we always had something to work towards and get done. I don't this this part of our animation could have been handled any better. 

Where did you obtain feedback from and was the general tone of it? 

The majority of our responses were maintained from online sources such as the questionnaire we created and also via Social Media platforms. As explained in the above paragraphs the general tone was a positive one and something we are really proud of as this was the first animation project we have carried out. 

What did I learn from this project? 

This was the first proper brief we have had to respond to so it was very different to previous projects we have undertaken. The toughest part of this was having certain requirements that we had to meet and if we didn't it wouldn't be valid. Having to use music that other people had picked was tough as we didn't like it and didn't feel like it fitted with the animation we had made. Despite that we learnt that deadlines have to be met and planning was key in order to get them deadlines met. This topic has certainly taught me that sometimes it's the client that needs to be pleased instead of yourself and to try and make the best out of challenging situations. As the New York Times bestselling author, Gary Vaynerchuk says: 'If you get thrown a swerve ball, swing differently' 

Do I think I would be suitable to be a candidate in the media industry where working to a brief is a common workplace? 

Indeed I do. I think that throughout this task I showed the characteristics needed in order to succeed in the media industry. We created a funny yet effective animation within all of the guidelines that were set out. I was able to overcome challenging situations that the brief threw at me but still came up with something that worked. 

How do I feel about taking animation further? 

I don't feel that animation is something I will be pursuing further but I did enjoy trying my hand at it. I just didn't enjoy animation as much as other topics we have done and if you don't enjoy something it's very tough to dedicate the time in order to succeed in that area.

How (well) did you meet the requirements of the brief?

I feel that I met the requirements of the brief and I was able to do this through careful research and planning; I thoroughly looked into the current target audience for the channel (client) and made sure that the product planned would be suitable. We made sure we worked within copyright law and we used the music provided by E4 in order to achieve this. We also ensured that we did not infringe any regulatory code or guidance, such as Ofcom's Broadcasting Code by keeping the content / narrative suitable for a wide viewing audience.

We did negotiate our idea with our teacher who acted as the client but there was little that needed to be changed; we looked at more creative ways of moving within the animation during the planning stage and we also discussed the possibility of offending someone due to having an explosion in the short, however, the comic nature meant this was acceptable.