Stop Motion Animation - Peer Feedback Review
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:
- 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.
- 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.
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