Category: Feedback

During this weeks tutorial I discussed with my tutor what I have done since we last spoke, which included finishing my second animations, editing the audio of the narrations and syncing this audio with my character in Character Animator ready to import into my animations. My tutor then gave me some advice on what I should continue to work on and think about. This consisted of;

• Having a post on Accessibility. Because my project has a real world function of informing children on the topic of mental health and I am trying to engage with a specific audience, then I need to make sure that my animations are as accessible as possible. This includes making sure that there are subtitles available for audiences that have hearing impairments, and that all the colours have high contrasts so that they are clearly visible for audiences that may have visual impairments.
• Make a plan for this week. In order to make sure that I manage to get everything submitted in time that it is recommended that I make a plan for this week so I can plan out how I am going to spend these last few days before the deadline
• Add persona of my target audience. It might be a good idea to add a persona for the different types of audience that could use my project. Maybe have someone who is struggling with their mental health and needs support and someone who just wants to learn more about it.

During this weeks tutorial I discussed with my tutor what I have done since we last spoke, which included making the relevant changes to my first animation, planning what I want to submit as part of my EPK, beginning the development of my second animation and recording the narration for all three animations. My tutor then gave me some advice on what I should continue to work on and think about. This consisted of;

• EPK trailer – For the EPK I need to submit a 1-2 minute video related to my project. For this I am planning to create a trailer for my mental health animation. My tutor gave me some advice to make sure that I address the problem first (mental health not being covered in the curriculum) and then how my animations are going to be helpful. Because my project is trying to help a real life issue, it is best for my trailer to address the problem, and how my animations aim to help reduce this problem. (Make sure the trailer isn’t too similar to my actual project)
• Make the audio consistent – When editing the narration and audio for my animation I should be aware of how the audio levels are, and that they are consistent amongst all my animations.
• EPK – don’t forget to add semester A project to the art station page that is required for the submission.
• Third animation – While I did plan out three different mental health animations, due to time issues I am only planning on handing in two completed animations and having the third one be a detailed storyboard with the narration over the top. My main priority will be to get the two animations completed to the best of my ability, so I am able to demonstrate my skills and the theme of these animations.

After this we then discussed what my next steps should be in the development of the project, that being to;

• Finish creating the second animation this week
• Continue editing the narration
• Add the audio to the character in Character Animator and create the lip sync and animated character, ready to then import into my animations in place of the place holder.

During this weeks tutorial I discussed with my tutor what I have done since we last spoke, which included creating the whole of the first animation within After Effects, minus the narration and animated character.

He then gave me feedback on my test animation four that consisted of;

• Change the background on the title sequence. The colour of the background means that parts of the logo are lost within it, such as the flowers and stems so I should consider changing it so my logo stands out more.
• Add a question mark at the end of the title
• Work on the quote. The text just doesn’t look right with the outline around it so it would be advisable to use a contrasting colour to the background for the whole text so that it stands out better. Don’t use black however as that will come across quite harsh to viewers.
• Text needs to have a margin. On the mental health spectrum scene the text that says ‘Poor’ and ‘Good’ need to be brought in more to the centre so that there is more of a margin. This is so viewers are not looking left and right across the screen all the time.
• Consider the use of outlines. Some of my assets and text feature outlines while others don’t, this is an inconsistency in the design and comes across clumsy so I should decided whether I am going to add outlines to all my assets of non of them.
• More consistency within design. Some of my assets have a slightly different design style than other, such as the icons. While the DNA icon is very clean and professional looking, the tree and the bed icon have a more hand drawn style, so I need to change them so they all look the same.
• Change the typeface on the coins

After this we then discussed what my next steps should be in the development of the project, that being to;

• Plan EPK for next week. By the next workshop I need to have a plan of what I want to be incorporated into my EPK so that I can discuss it with my tutor in more detail then.
• Make the changes to the first animation that my tutor suggested before my next workshop on Monday.
• Record the narration for my animations ready to import into Character Animator so that I can then import the animated character into my first animation.
• Begin creating the second animation and the assets that I will require for it.

During this weeks tutorial I discussed with my tutor what I have done since we last spoke, which included creating the title sequence and the subsequent four scenes that follow that sequence within After Effects. After this we then discussed what my next steps should be in the development of the project, that being to;

• Change the quote on the animation
  • Having the quote in all capitals can be quite intimidating and someone who is already struggling with their mental health could find the text quite threatening so I should change it to lowercase and out it in a more friendly typeface
• Have a plan B for if I can’t finish all three animations
  • Because I am unsure if I will be able to complete all three animation before the deadline I need to start coming up with a plan B. I need to make sure that I create at least two animations of good quality so I need to start thinking which animation I am going to prioritise after I have completed this first one. When deciding which to chose, I need to pick one that will contrast and is different content wise to the one I am already creating so that I am able to show my skills and how I deal with designing something that is so different.
  • Then for the third animation maybe create the stills of the scene within Photoshop with the narration over the top – or show the storyboards with the narrations over the top or just the storyboard – depending on how much time I have. (Just make sure that I am able to demonstrate my visual style and design across all three animation.
• What I will try to achieve for next week
  • Complete the first animation (sans the music and narration)
  • Maybe try adding the animated character in to the first animation so that I can see how that works & possible some light music for the background so I can see how the whole thing will look.
  • Begin creating the assets for the second animation
  • Attempt to animate the second animation

During this weeks tutorial I discussed with my tutor what I have done since we last spoke, which included finishing the character within Character Animator, hearing from the ethics committee and beginning the creation and animation of a mental health logo.  After this we then discussed what my next steps should be in the development of the project, that being to;

• Dispanden gaining feedback from target audience.
  • Due to the ethics committee needing to look further into my ethics application due to the participants I require for my research being children, I wont gain approval for my research before the 13 May, leaving me less than seven days to gain the feedback and hand in my finished project on time. Because of this I will instead continue to check with what other media tailored towards 7-11 year olds looks like so that I can assume that the design and style choices that I am making would be appropriate for my target audience.
  • I will also consider showing my work to the teacher who helped me previously within the ‘Interviewing a Primary School Teacher | Interview Transcript’ post. Due to her both having young children and also being a primary educator, she will be able to have a more informed idea of what my target audience would or would not find engaging to watch, and whether of not the content that I am covering, and how I am presenting it is too challenging or too simple for my target audience. While it would have been nicer to get feedback directly from my target audience, gaining feedback from this teacher is the next best thing and will be able to help me inform the development of my animations within the ethical implications that I am facing with gaining feedback from my actual target audience.
• In terms of the logo, don’t animate it too much
  • I need to make the logo animation shorter as logos typically only last three seconds and are pretty quick. I also should not animate the rest of the logo too much as it can quickly become too much and look quite clumsy if too much is happening in a scene at a time. Because of this, I plan on working on the logo a little more and experimenting with animating the logo a little so that it is less static but not too clumsy looking.
• Start putting together the first animation
  • I should really begin putting together the narrative of my first animation so that I can begin seeing how my animation will come together. Because of this I aim to try and complete creating all the assets that I will require for my first animation by the end of this week and have a completed title sequence into the first scene of the animation created. I hope to get the first half of this animation completed by Sunday but appreciate that this may be too ambitions  to achieve, and so fill focus on completing the title sequence and the first scene and then just see how much more I get done after that.

During this weeks tutorial I discussed with my tutor what I have done since we last spoke before Easter, which included finishing all my research into the development of my project as well as completing the ethics form and sending it off to gain approval so that I can gain feedback from my target audience on my animations. Within this meeting we discussed what my next steps should be in the development of the project, that being to;

• Continue working on the development of the character and the animations within Photoshop, Character Animator and After Effects. Making sure to make things that are easy to adapt, such as colour scheme so that when I gain the ethics approval for my target audience feedback, if my target audience do not like the colour scheme that I am using, I can easily change it.
  • • Having said this, I do not need to make any drastic changes that my target audience suggest. While I am trying to create animations that my target audience will like to watch and will help educate them, if their suggestions for what they would like to see conflict with the work I wish to present as part of my own digital portfolio, I am not required to make the changes.
• I also need to make sure to add a post that explains what software I will be using for this project and why I have chosen to use that specific software. This particular post will include;
  • • What the software is I will be using for this project?
    • Why I have chosen to use this software?
    • How I will use the software to help create my project?
    • Why I did not pick one of the other softwares instead to create my project.
• The final objective discussed was to make sure to put myself into my target audiences shoes when creating the animations so that I can picture whether they would like the style of what I am creating and if the contents is being explained enough in simpler terms that they are able to understand.

Having talked with my tutor, I now know what I should be working on next and that I should continue working on the development of my animations, working hard to try and create all three animations due to the importance of the message behind all of them. While this will be very time-consuming, planning my time during each week and setting goals should help me to achieve creating all three animations before the deadline.

Within todays workshop this is the feedback on what I have achieved last week and what my plans should be for the coming weeks and easter break.

What I should do next:

• Look more into style – because of the content I am covering within my animation I want to make sure that my animation does not mock mental health or create something that my be patronising or too sophisticated for my target audience to understand. Character are going to be a very important element of my animation so I need to make sure that my target audience are able to connect with them in order to best understand the message behind my mental health animations.
• Feedback from target audience – In oder to make sure that I am actually creating something the my target audience would be engaged in watching I need to get their feedback during the development of my project. Because of this I will try and get feedback from my target audience at least three times during the development and creation of my animations.
  • • First I will gain their feedback on my colour pallet and style. I will create a small animation that will demonstrate these two things and show it to my target audience and then collect their feedback on whether they liked the style a colour or not. This will then help me to make any necessary changed before I am too deep in the development of the project.
    • Second I will send a small clip of one of my actual animations that shows they style and the content of my animations. I will then collect feedback on what my target audience though of the animation and the content and whether they understood what was going on. This will help me to know whether I need to explain things more or if I need to go into more detail in explaining about mental health.
    • Thirdly I will send the completed animations to my target audience and see whether or not they liked the animations and understood the content being discussed within them. I will also gain feedback from the parents from this one as well to understand whether they would want a resource like this in schools so more children could learn about mental health.

From this feedback my plan for the rest of this week and the easter break is to:

• Finish experimenting with the different animation software
• Start developing storyboards
• Create a style guide
• Gain audience feedback on animation style
• Begin Developing my actual animations

After having spoken with my tutor in this weeks workshop, my goal for the rest of this week is to test out the three animation softwares, Character Animator, After Effects and Adobe Animate so that I can decided which will be the most beneficial to use for my project. These tests will take the form of short animations that will allow me enough time to experiment and learn the basics of each software, and should hopefully not take too much time away from other areas of research and development within this project.

I was also begin to form the narrative that my animations will take, and how I plan on talking about mental health to key stage 2 children. This will involve thinking about animation style, sound design and if I want the animations to be more narrative based or more like a self-help animation. I will also attempt by next week to have a rough storyboard which details the narrative of my animations. By achieving this, I will be able to focus on finalising my animation narrative and storyboard next week and then I will be able to begin developing the animations.