2D Animation - Peer Feedback Review

2D Animation - Peer Feedback Review

In this assignment I am going to get feedback of my peers in order to review my animation. Once I have gathered all my feedback from Padlet I am going to analyse the results. So I can critically assess my work. Click here for a link to my Padlet.

I will now breakdown the comments of the audience and evaluate them, whilst also judging it against other animations already out there. To do so, I will answer the following questions:

What is your own personal response to the animation you have been produced?

Overall, I am really happy with the final product produced for the assignment. As I started this unit with basic knowledge and had previously only produced short 1-3 second animations. Not the 15 seconds required. As I started to go through the tasks for the assignments my confidence in the use of Flash increased. Although, I still didn't favour my skills in drawing. Which is why I thought of the idea to animate premade images. I then used the moodboard to kick of the process and to get my ideas for the animation flowing.

After some thinking, I then came up with the idea of creating an animation to Game of Thrones. Which I have a great understanding off, so the content wasn't a problem. In order to harness my technical skills I then carried out a series of test animations. For the test animations I was really happy with the ideas behind it, although my skills didn't come across as professional. As for the test I was messing on with the keyframes and motion tweens. I had made the key frames too short and close together which resulted in an animation that was too quick. Which was one of the reasons why I did the tests so I could understand the timing and techniques I would be using in my final animation.

For my final animation, I used cut out images (Which I removed backgrounds with in Photoshop, this no time and was very effective) and used a series of sound effects to create my animation. To get them to animate I used the keyframes and motion tweens, turning a simple process into a final piece. I found this easy to do after doing the task for animation 1 alongside the tests. Although, in the future I would like to try the method of drawing the animation frame by frame. As then more time and effort is going into a production. Rather than moving every 10-50 frames and then clicking a button. As this was very time efficient

Yet I am still pleased with the final product. As it links very closely to the Game of Thrones universe. As the Stannis and Davos talking was actually on a camp near the sea, whereas in my animation it took part on a boat. Yet, I used the boat as I could have the establishing shot first, then the main animation and then the boat leaving going into the next sequence. Then the final scene was took straight from the show. As the same thing happens in the show as it does in the animation. I was also surprised how the duration of the falling and music matches. As this was not planned and came along in the edit.

Speaking of the edit, I didn't have to do a great deal of it. For some instances I had to cut sequences made in Flash in order to fit the time scale. This was no problem, as I had used these skills previously in other products. Making the final stages much easier than expected. I then added simple credits at the end of the animation and added the audio by dragging it down into the timeline on Premiere Pro. I then played around with the settings which left me with the final product. One which I was happy with in the editing as you cannot notice the changes I made from the original. Then the music also fits the theme as not only is it from the show, it is put in a way that flows in smoothly. Which is why I am happy with my overall product.

But one of the best ways to reflect on my animation is to compare it to those that already exist.

For instance if I look at Terry Gillams animation they use the 2D animation of cut outs. Which I replicated using Adobe Flash. Although Gilliam uses more cut out and goes further into the details. You can easily see the comparisons between the two. To further improve my animation I can take inspiration from this animation. As not only are the characters animated but also the backgrounds. They also use lots and lots of cut outs to build up one animation, where as there is only 1 or 2 on a background in my animation. This is also an original idea and goes on longer than my animation. I could also take this into account for the future, as I could still make an animation around game of thrones but then make a narrative of my accord. 

 What is your response to the feedback you have received? 

In order to fully breakdown my feedback. I will list all the feedback and then leave a response for each piece. I will include a screenshot to the points of references and then make links between a professional piece of work.

• Absolutely sick fam

 This isn't the most helpful comment of my peers. Although it can be said they enjoyed the animation. I would of liked a deeper break down. This way I could of fully reviewed my animation in terms of content, narrative, music choice and the affect it had on the audience.

• Good use of pictures and the way they blended together, as well the use of audio it seems to fit in very well with the animation however to improve I would make the pictures fade in and out and some images cut down.

First of all this comment helps me improve in the future. As it has highlighted the good points of the animation first. For instance the use of the peer telling my the audio fits, helps me connect my theme to my purpose. As I wanted to create a 2D animation based in the realm of Game of Thrones. Because the music and sound clips are so unique it helps connote the theme very easily. This also helps me with my narrative, because the connotation exists the audience already knows what they are watching.The only downside they pointed out was with the smoothness of images. This is something I will take into account. As I would like all levels of the animation to be at a high standard, and if one area is lacking it could effect the product as a whole.

• I liked the use of the boat and the bird and I like the theme song playing throughout as well as the sound effect playing when she falls. Its strange how it just suddenly cuts to her falling.it makes the piece feel like two separate parts instead of one full animation.

I really like how this peer has broken down the animation into different segments for me to review. For instance the points about the narrative "Use of boat and the bird" as it helps me understand what parts of the story where really effective. Because this was chosen I can tell I had a good opening and that is was memorable to the audience. They also note the use of the theme song throughout and its effectiveness. This suggests I made a good creative decision in terms of matching the music to the TV show. They also make notes on the sound effects which further strengthens my choice in sound effects and music. They also noted something I pointed out earlier on. The two different segments. I will take this into account when I review improvements later on in the review.

• Good use of speech bubbles and music.very atmospheric.perhaps the falling scene could have been better executed.

 This peer has pointed out the strengths in my audio and speech bubbles.Which again, helps me understand that I have managed to create a believable animation based on Game of Thrones as they state "very atmospheric". It also helps me understand that the creative decision of the text boxes to go alongside the audio payed off. This leaves the last area of visual style as the weakness.As they have mentioned the look of the end women. This could also be saw as a technical issue as well as I couldn't find a full picture of the women. I could of been more careful and changed the character who was falling at the end in order to maintain the look and feel of the animation. I could of also tried to add in the legs digitally. I will look into this as I want to maintain the standards set up in the first segment of the animation.

• I liked the idea and the audio fit in well. You could have animated the women at the end to make it look more realistic.

This peer has pointed out the strengths in my audio .Which again, helps me understand that I have managed to create a strong soundtrack to go alongside the main animation which : "Fits well". This also then means the target audience aren't drawn away from the animation because of out of place audio. Again I have received another comment about the women at the end of the shot. I will take this into more consideration as it is a recurring comment. 

• Very good but i think "game of thrones" is already a thing u might wanna change the name.

This isn't the most helpful comment of my peers. Although it does confirm the connotation between my product and the acutal show. It also shows me that the narrative has pulled off through my techniques and visual style. If they can also spot its based on the franchise then the target audience will also easily pick up on it. Which means I can tick off another area my animation covers. I would of liked to see what they didn't like in order for me to improve.

• I like the use of the characters and story line. The backgrounds and text boxes make it more effective. However it would be better if you used a whole picture of the woman who falls down a hole instead of just half of her. 

This peer has pointed out the strengths in my characters, narrative and technical skill.Which again, helps me understand that I have managed to create a believable animation based on Game of Thrones. It also helps me understand that the creative decisions, such as the background and the text boxes to go alongside the audio payed off. This leaves the last area of visual style as the weakness. As like previous comments they have mentioned the look of the end women. This could also be saw as a technical issue as well as I couldn't find a full picture of the women. I could of been more careful and changed the character who was falling at the end in order to maintain the look and feel of the animation. I could of also tried to add in the legs digitally. This is something I will take into account when I look into improvements.

Like one of my comments mentioned, It feels like two different segments, I took inspiration from cartoons such as Tom and Jerry above. As they were often compressed together for satellite TV, with two or three different stories being covered in one TV episode. As these animations use to be aired in cinemas before films. This is why I had two separate narratives going on in my animation. Although, in hindsight it was probably not the best idea to try and cover in a 15 second piece. I will make a note of this in the future. 

 Based on this level of response, how could you have improved your production?

After going through all my comments. I will now breakdown the responses and list all the areas that could be improved. I will then explore the effects of the changes and will confirm whether I make the changes in the next section. I found the following areas where I could improve:

1.The end scene of my animation received alot of attention in the improvement section. I had 3-4 mentions about making the woman look more realstic and having her not being cut off at the waist. I will deeply consider this improvement for the next section.

2. I had one mention of images needing to be cut down and faded. Although I don't quite understand what they mean as no one else mentioned this, I will look into it for the next section.

3.Last of all there was one comment about the narrative of the piece. The comment revolved around the basis that the segments felt separate and disconnected. Although I have justified this decision in my previous questions, I will consider this improvement as part of the reflective process.

Before I moved on to answering whether I would improve my video, I looked at over videos out there. When I came across this video of South Park;

South park is a great example of how cut outs can be used to create a 2D animation. As not only is it highly creative, when they first started making the animation by hand and not computers, it also holds a great technical skill. This can offer me inspiration in the future as not only do they have full body cut outs, but the level of detail present is truly amazing. As each limb can move on its own,there is a series of heads created for various expressions. Even the backgrounds are made up of a series of images. This is something I can take into account for future creations.

Will you make these improvements to your production based on your feedback?

To finish this section I will list the areas of concern and then write up what I will do about each section:

1.The end scene of my animation received a lot of attention in the improvement section. I had 3-4 mentions about making the woman look more realistic and having her not being cut off at the waist. I have decided to leave the animation. As I could not find the image in the first place and I like how its managed to draw attention through the error. Although its not the most professional of pieces I like the final result. It also helps cause a mishap within the animation as its suddenly out of place and unexpected. In future I will stride to keep up professional standards and take this incident as a lesson.

2. I had one mention of images needing to be cut down and faded. Although I don't quite understand what they mean as no one else mentioned this. I went back and checked my animation against the comment. I still couldn't understand what the peer was saying so I left this comment here. Before making this decision I got others to look for this mistake. They also couldn't understand the flaw pulled out so I decided to move on.

3.Last of all there was one comment about the narrative of the piece. The comment revolved around the basis that the segments felt separate and disconnected. Although I have justified this decision in my previous questions. So I am not going to improve this as it was part of my creative decisions and process.

For instance, like I did in my test animation. I can always improve in my next animation work.

When I first knew I wanted to do an animation in Game of Thrones I began to experiment with ideas. Characters such as Stannis made it across into the final animation as it was one I wanted to create a narrative with. Although in this animation its more about animation around the room instead of a narrative. Instead in the final animation I took the same character and built up a narrative around it. As you can see in the final animation there is now audio and text to alongside the conversation and there is more detail in the settings and locations.  I can now take inspiration from my move from my test to the final piece across to animations in the future. With key improvements being more animate limbs instead of staying still, having full character profiles and creating deeper narratives.

Giving Others Feedback

Not only did I get feedback, I also gave it to others. Here are 3 examples of where I gave feedback:

This animation was mainly text based and was created by one of my peers. The only real animation occurs at the end and is a motion tween. Compared to my animation theres is more about creating one whole narrative through text. Where as I use audio, text and animation in order to tell my story. I could take the use of text into account for other work I do in the future. As you can see in my feedback I credit the use of narrative and music but then suggest improvements in the area of just using text.

The next animation is a hand drawn animation that follows the journey of a ball transforming into a series of objects. They use the frame by frame technique of drawing into flash instead of creating large tweens over frames.This takes more effort and time to produce instead of the technique I used and shows of in the final product. Although they do lack in the sound area as sound effects are only applied at the start of the animation. They are also missing titles and credits, but apart from this. It is a well developed animation.

The last animation also uses the frame by frame technique to create a replication of Pacman in Flash. This idea is very similar to the one I did for my stop motion animation, but instead I recreated Tetris instead. They put a great deal into the animation and there music and sound effects matched the theme with precision and efficiency. However, in terms of the narrative it was cut quite short and could of been improved by extending the duration of the animation. 

Stop Motion Animation - Peer Feedback Review

Stop Motion Animation - Peer Feedback Review

In this assignment I am going to get feedback of my peers in order to review my animation. Once I have gathered all my feedback from Padlet I am going to analyse the results. So I can critically assess my work. Here is a link to my Padlet:

I will now breakdown the comments of the audience and evaluate them, whilst also judging it against other animations already out there. To do so, I will answer the following questions:

What is your own personal response to the animation you have been produced?

Overall, I am really pleased with the final outcome of the animation. I had created animations before the unit and had knowledge on the subject. As I had created simple lego animations when I was younger. So this was not as scary as it first seemed. I also had the confidence to use the IstopMotion software as I had practised using it for the tasks of assignment 1 and a taster day last year. I chose the idea of model based animation, as this was the one I was most comfortable with. I then begun to think of ideas by creating a moodboard. Since one of the recurring themes was 2D old retro games. Tetris was a recurring idea as I had stickers I could use for an animation. 

I then begun some test footage and was really happy with the technical skill. However, in my first test I spelt Tetris wrong and required me to start over. Then during the second test it worked to my liking and became the titles for my animation. Then for my final animation I created the main game which took over an hour to create. As I move each piece row by row in order to make up the frame size. 

The music was also easy to add in using Premiere Pro. As this was the software I used to edit the pieces together as the two different segments where made separately. I am also happy how the edit joined the two pieces together and helped the animation flow. The main music was simply a drag and shorten. Whereas the sound effects added took longer to add as more time and effort was required to get it right. I will now compare my work to those all ready out there and I will also look at the comments from my peers to see how I could improve.

For instance in "Game over" by Pes. They use more creativity and fully explore the idea of retro games. As they recreate scenes using household objects. Whilst I focused on sticking to the basics and recreating Tetris using the actual pieces. This animation uses items such as pizza and eggs to recreate the retro game of pacman. If I were to do it again, I could pick another retro game and use every day items to recreate the scene. For instance Space Invaders with Oxo cubes. Or even Super Mario with real mushrooms. 

What is your response to the feedback you have received?

In order to fully breakdown my feedback. I will list all the feedback and then leave a response for each piece. I will include a screenshot to the points of references and then make links between a professional piece of work. 

Feedback:

• The music fits in really well with the animation and was a good idea. To improve you could maybe increase the quality of the video slightly.

First of all this comment helps me improve in the future. As it has highlighted the good points of the animation first. For instance the use of the peer telling my the music fits, helps me connect my theme to my purpose. As I wanted to create a stop motion animation of Tetris. Because the music is so unique it helps connote the theme very easily. This also helps me with my narrative, because the connotation exists the audience already knows what they are watching. I also like how the peer said the animation was a good idea as that means my visual style and techniques have worked. The only downside they pointed out was the video quality. Which is down to the camera and the export settings. This is something I will pull up in my next section. 

• The animation and music work really well together. However the music was extremely loud when I first clicked the video. 

Again this peer has pointed out the same use of music and animation that works together. Which helps strengthen the connotation I wanted to create for the audience. Although, I didn't notice the loud music at the start of the animation. This may be because I set my headphones to the right level. This isn't a major problem as the audio can be turned down on a computer. Yet I don't want to turn off the audience by giving them hearing problems. This can all be fixed in the mix in Premier Pro. This is one consideration I can take forward. 

• Reminds me of tetris a bit.

This isn't the most helpful comment of my peers. Although it does confirm the connotation. It also shows me that the narrative has pulled off through my techniques and visual style. I would of liked to see what they didn't like in order for me to improve. 

• A good homage, the sound effects do get a tad annoying tho. 

Again, this isn't the best comment. It does confirm that my techniques, characters and narrative has worked. Yet it doesn't bring out the flaws to which I would of liked to improve. The use of the sound effects getting annoying also helps me match the target audience. As they are present in the game which helps make the links to the homage. As fans of the genre and the target audience also get annoyed by the sound effects.

• Lovely animation, does feel like tetris and doesn't look too laggy or jumpy the music/sound goes perfectly and feels just like a game of tetris however you could add more to it instead of instantly getting game over.

This comment helps me massively in terms of narrative. As they like the use of techniques and visual style. As they notice the feel and look of the game. They also consider how the music fits in well and creates the connotation I was aiming for. As they even state it feels like a game of tetris. In terms of narrative they notice how it goes straight for a game over. This was a decision made by me as I thought it would be a good idea. Although, I now see that I could of been much more creative with the topic. I am also now regretting using a pen for the Game Over. As it takes away from the professional vibe of the animation. This will help me reflect more on my creative process when looking at what needs improving. 

• The music is well suited to the animation. I like the use of title sequence with the Tetris pieces to spell out Tetris. The quality could of been better but the animation itself flows really well. I like it.

Another really helpful comment from my peers. It helps me confirm that the music was the right type to use. As so far there has been no negatives about my choice of music. They also like the creative process of the titles which helps give me checkpoints of where to improve. So far I know that I need to improve after the titles and stop just before the credits. They also like the technical skill that has gone into the animation. Although, the video quality has been noted again. Like we can see in the image it gets very blocky and pixelated. Which takes away from the smoothness and quality. This is something I need flag up to improve. As the quality could drive away the target audience. The visual style has also been noted as a good thing as nothing bad has been said about it. 

• Well, where do I start? The music and sound effects fit perfectly and are relevant to the piece. The animation flows very well its technically brilliant, just abit boring. 

This penultimate piece of feedback helps me look into the area of keeping the audiences attention. Although they recognised that the music and sound effects helped fit with the piece which helps with my techniques. They also notice that they got bored quickly. This may be because they don't fit in the target audience or because it was boring. Which is helpful when looking at the target audience. If they get bored in a 15 second animation then I know that I need to change my narrative. As the short piece should be able to maintain a target audience for the small duration. They also notice that the technical skills make the animation flow well. Which means I managed to get one of the key elements of an animation correct. The key thing to take away from this feedback is to improve the narrative. 

• The choice of theme was great, I liked the music, it fit well. To improve, keep playing tetris it will get easier, use a better camera to improve quality. 

My last piece of feedback reflects some of the comments previously mentioned by others. Again they confirm the overall theme and music help create the connotation to the theme of tetris. But they also help confirm that the camera quality is bringing down the standards of my animation. I will now review all of the feedback and see what needs to be improved in order to make a greater piece of work.

For instance lots of the problems brought up by my peers can be seen fixed in this other animation created by someone else: 

Tetris Attack by Roy Aston shows the creative side of Tetris which I could of aspired to replicate in my own video. For a start they spell out Game Over using the tetris pieces. Which is very similar to how I did it for the title screen. I also didn't have the space on the sheet to spell it out again using the pieces. I could of done it on a different screen. They also have the pieces start off in a tetris game and then they battle and spin out. This is much more creative as it takes an original idea and then spins it out, into its own. This is an animation I would aspire to take ideas from if I ever did another animation relating to Tetris. Due to the technical and narrative skills they have to offer. They also a HD quality to the footage, which is one of the main areas that my animation lacks.  

Based on this level of response, how could you have improved your production?

After going through all my comments. I will now breakdown the responses and list all the areas that could be improved. I will then explore the effects of the changes and will confirm whether I make the changes in the next section. I found the following areas where I could improve:

1. The quality of the video. I have had 3 mentions that to improve I could up the quality of the video. During the edit I had to export the video using the standard of 12fps due to problems mentioned in my production diary. 

2. One mention that appeared what the loud music at the start. This is a minor issue that can be fixed during the viewing of the video. This is a minor problem.

3. Lastly, there was mentions of the narrative. A few said that the game over at the end could do with improving. This is because it stands out as unprofessional to me and others. Which could have an effect on the target audience as a whole. In rankings of issues' I would place the quality of the video first, then the narrative and then the loud music. 

Before I moved on to answering whether I would improve my video, I looked at over videos out there. When I came across this video; Lego Tetris by Ryan Murphy:

This video meets the technical and creative elements of an animation. Although the quality of the video isn't that great. Yet it still doesn't take away from the idea and is still effective in what it does. This is making me consider to not make the changes of the quality as the idea still comes through. As one of the recurring comments was that they understood what is going on. This just means the quality would add to the visual look of the video which would help attract the target audience. As is a good idea and is nice to look at. I will now fully consider whether to make the changes.

Will you make these improvements to your production based on your feedback?

To finish this section I will list the areas of concern and then write up what I will do about each section. 

1. The quality of the video. I have had 3 mentions that to improve I could up the quality of the video. During the edit I had to export the video using the standard of 12fps due to problems mentioned in my production diary. I have decided not to improve this, as one I cannot due to a technical problem. By looking at other pieces out there, if the idea is good it will come through. Which is what my animation manages to do through the visual style and music choices. If this was a major concern then I would of made the changes straight away. I will make sure to increase the fps in future work to avoid the lower quality in post production.

2. One mention that appeared what the load music at the start. This is a minor issue that can be fixed during the viewing of the video. This is a minor problem. I am not going to fix this as the sound mix was set to -12db which is a professional standard in the industry. This means that the user just needs to adjust the audio levels when they view the video. So their headphones matches the levels of the work.

3. Lastly, there was mentions of the narrative. A few said that the game over at the end could do with improving. This is because it stands out as unprofessional to me and others. Which could have an effect on the target audience as a whole. In rankings of issues' I would place the quality of the video first, then the narrative and then the load music. Finally, I will not be improving this section. As my main idea was to play a game of Tetris using the stop motion technique. I will save more creative ideas for future animations as they could be made into individual ideas rather than improving this way. I will also take away the fact that the pen wasn't a good choice. If I were to do this again then I would keep this out of any future production. I would then use the Tetris pieces to spell the ending instead.  

Lastly, in the future I may and move away from the simple use of items and move onto animation with humans. As the video below recreates a game of Tetris using real life people. This takes it up to the next level as not only is it highly creative. It shows off a higher level of skill. They also manage to make the basic game described as a bit boring during my feedback into a work of art.

Giving Others Feedback

Not only did I get feedback, I also gave it to others. Here are a few screenshots of me giving out feedback:

This is a animation using the technique of timelapse. He takes a photo every day for 400 days and then puts them all together into a timeline. This is a very different principal to my video as he is compressing photos of the same thing into one state using the key by key method. Whereas I am taking photos of a sticker instead of a person. The narrative is also explored through the duration in the gap of each images, whereas my narrative comes from me creating the animation in one sitting. 

The next animation is by Chris P. He uses models to create an animation, which is very similar to mine. Although my items look 2d because of the angle, whereas his camera angle focuses on a back drop and the 3D characters. His idea is also more original, compared to mine which is a take on something that already exists. Whilst there sound effects isn't the greatest, they still do a good job. 

Lastly, John has created a cut out animation. He doesn't use sound effects, but instead has a backing track that runs throughout. This doesn't help in the telling of the narrative as that is done separately by the animation. They also try a tell a wider story compared to mine as I just aim to recreate game footage that is more for entertainment instead of a narrative. His is also a couple of seconds longer, which is needed for him to cover his story arc.