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.