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Task 6 - Final Project Evaluation
Task 6 - Final Project Evaluation
Final Evaluations are completed to look back on the completed product and reflect on your performance.
Please answer the following:
Explain your approach to the theme - how does your final product link to the theme?
What parts stayed the same, and what was different?
Reflect on your research and how it informed/changed the development of your final idea - how did it help you create the final product?
How well did you manage your time? What methods did you use to manage your project?
What software did you use? Why?
What problems did you face during this project? How did you solve them?
What have you learnt during this project? What would you do differently?
Reflect on peer and tutor feedback - what were you told to improve, what actions did you take to improve?
200-1000 Words Per Question.
Explain your approach to the theme - how does your final product link to the theme?
This project's theme was 'Mythology'. The Oxford definition of 'myth' is "a traditional story (...) explaining a natural social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events." and, alternatively: "a widely held but false belief or idea.". When I first began my project, I looked into many examples that fit ideas of supernatural beings and social phenomenons, including Greek Gods, superstitious beliefs, religion, monsters and more, and explored the different ways in which they presented these ideas.
The project concept I came up with was to design concepts and stories for cryptids. Cryptids are creatures that are popularly believed to exist, but have never had their existence scientifically proven, with famous examples including Bigfoot, The Loch Ness monster and the Wendigo. This idea very clearly fits with the second definition of myth that I provided, being a widely held but false belief or idea, as cryptids are widely known across the world and are present in many cultures and folklore, but have no sufficient evidence to prove their existence. Additionally, many cryptids are said to have otherworldly or demonic strength and abilities, including gargantuan size, flight, psychologically manipulative abilities and more, very easily fitting into the first definition I provided, being supernatural creatures who can cause supernatural events.
Expanding on the idea of cryptids, I began to research into how they vary across the world, exploring commonalities and differences between different cultures such as the Japanese yokai, American folklore and European legends. I also explored how these myths have been documented and spread, through stories and sightings. This gave me the idea to create detailed journal pages for my cryptid designs, annotating encounters with them and theories on their behaviour and actions. This once again links back to the initial theme of mythology, incorporating the essential ideas of traditional stories and tales present in myths.
What parts stayed the same, and what was different?
The main theme of my project has remained almost entirely the same throughout its development, not shifting from the idea of three journal pages depicting three different cryptids. Furthermore, many additional features I planned to include have remained throughout the course of my project, such as photos depicting 'sightings' of the creatures, including obscuring effects and artifacts such as blur and noise as a result of low quality cameras. However, there have also been a few ideas which I have scrapped for various reasons, such as time constraints, or altered in a way that would benefit me and the end result of my project.
One element of my project that changed from my initial ideas was that I had initially planned to commit much less to the journal style featured in my final products, initially planning to only use the style as inspiration for the background and layout of the presentation and include images on my boards that were clearly digitally illustrated, such as my ideas development and concept sketches. This idea differs quite a bit from my final product, in which the illustrations featured are less clearly digital and imitate a traditional pencil sketch, with limited colours and scratchy textures. Additionally, my ideas generation and research were not included in my final boards in order to improve the authenticity of my presentation, making the pages feel like they could have come out of a real author's journal or bestiary. Personally, I believe this change was definitely for the better, as I think committing to the journal style has made my project feel really unique and interesting, helping it to stand out and allowing me to experiment with more creative ideas on how to present different elements of the designs.
Another idea I initially had for my project, but ultimately changed in the final result was the idea to include turnarounds of the creatures, creating a front, back and side view of each design. This has somewhat been included in my final presentation boards, through the method of creating isolated closeups of some unique features of the designs, showcasing attributes such as skulls and wings in higher quality and from different angles, however I did not include complete turnarounds of the creatures' full bodies. The reason as to why the full-body turnarounds for each creature were scrapped is due to the larger workload that would be included in creating them, as well as the amount of the page they would take up, leaving less room for more diverse and unique information such as diets, locations and burrows.
Another element of my project that largely differed to my original plans was my sighting artwork. While the concept for these photographs has remained mostly the same since the beginning of the project, my plans on how they would appear and be created have changed. Originally, I had planned to create 3D blockouts for environments and characters and then sketch over them or even produce the photographs entirely in 3D software. In my ideas generation, I created prototype photos using the technique of photobashing, taking images I found online and applying filters and effects to create realistic scenes as this was much more efficient for my prototype pieces that I didn't want to dedicate too much time to. However, in my final product, the photos I produced were entirely digitally hand-drawn on a 2D canvas, making simple shapes with brushes then using effects to add more realistic lighting and textures to make them seem more believable. I think the final result I have ended up with is very effective, as not only was it a lot less time consuming, giving me more freedom to put time into more prominent areas of my project, but I also think the pseudo 3D art gives it a surreal and fun effect, making my images feel more stylised and personal whilst still retaining some ideas of realism.
Reflect on your research and how it informed/changed the development of your final idea - how did it help you create the final product?
The research I conducted throughout this project absolutely made a positive influence on the development of my final idea and helped to shape my products for the better, giving me large quantities of reference and inspiration I could use to generate new and different ideas to help me come up with a final product that stands out and takes as much into account as possible to produce the best work I am capable of.
An example of how research has helped me to create my final product is my exploration into different styles of creature sightings and documentation, including journal pages, sketches, camera footage and more. This research gave me further understanding in different ways and methods of how monsters and legends have been recorded from different time periods, different cultures and different locations. An example of how this has influenced my final product is the range of types of documentation I have included in my boards, such as photographs, newspaper extracts and the author's personal experiences and stories. The research I conducted into this topic not only gave me knowledge of a range of methods I could use to convey information, but also showed me real and professional examples of how they have been achieved, teaching me techniques and skills I could use in my own work to really make my products feel authentic and realistic.
Another way my research influenced my final product is seen in the designs of the creatures and the different animal features that compose their bodies. In my research, I found many examples of mythological beasts and cryptids composed of various animal features stitched together. Following this idea, I researched these creatures and how different animals had been used in their designs, as well as researching regular, real animals, looking for unique features that stood out that I could implement into my final designs. The result of this is very evident in my final cryptids, with their bodies being comprised entirely of features from different animals, such as goats, dinosaurs, salamanders, crows, moles, bugs and more. I think this has resulted in making my creatures appear unnatural and otherworldly, helping to emphasise the mythological and legendary themes I am trying to express in their designs.
How well did you manage your time? What methods did you use to manage your project?
I think I have managed my time really well on this project, as I have been able to keep up with my work, rarely having any outstanding tasks that I need to rush to finish in time, and have completed everything I wanted to complete safely within the frame of the final deadline.
One method I used to manage my project was to keep my weekly development log updated. At the end of each week, I was sure to note down what I had done that week, how I felt about my work, any problems that arose, how I solved or worked around these problems, what my plan for next week was, and whether or not I had stuck to my plan from the previous week. This was incredibly helpful and gave me a really convenient method to produce a consistent quantity and quality of work each week and to track my work, allowing me to keep up to date with what I had completed and what still needed doing.
Another method I used to manage my time throughout this project was creating a week-by-week plan to follow at the very start of the project. In my proposal, I created a list that included every week contained within the timeframe of my project, a list of objectives I wanted to complete by the end of that week, and the resources I would need to achieve this. This gave me a scope of the amount of time I had available to work on my project and let me realistically plan out how much I would be able to achieve for my final products. This meant that I didn't overestimate or underestimate the quantity of work I would complete, avoiding having a lacklustre project with too much free time near the end, or an overly complex project that I wouldn't be able to finish in time.
This plan was also helpful as it allowed me to consider and plan out every aspect of my project before I actually produced them. This let me think about what ideas and techniques I would use in my project, such as ideas generation techniques including silhouettes and colour concepts. Planning everything out before I began working on it ensured I knew what work I would have to complete throughout the project and meant I could easily transition from one phase of my project into the next, using my previous steps to inform and inspire the following stages.
What software did you use? Why?
The majority of my project was done using the program Firealpaca SE, a 2D art software which gives you many tools to illustrate digitally, such as various brushes, erasers, fill tools, etc. However, various other software was used to assist me in reaching my final product, including Adobe Photoshop, another 2D art software with similar features to Firealpaca and Calligraphr, an online website that assists users in creating their own fonts.
One feature of Firealpaca that was incredibly helpful for this project was its built-in brush library and store, where I could browse and find new brushes to help me produce different textures and strokes. I experimented with many different brush types, primarily crayons and pencils to try and find scratchy, charcoal-like strokes to illustrate my sketches with. This definitely improved the authenticity of the illustrations on my journal page and really helped me to mimic a pencil-sketch style in a digital medium, making my final boards feel more realistic and genuine.
Firealpaca also gave me access to many filters, effects and patterns, such as random noise, procedurally generated textures and materials, different blending modes, chromatic aberration, transparency, different types of blur, gradients and many more. These were invaluable in creating my 'sighting' photographs, using these effects to replicate artifacts of poor-quality cameras and realistic environments, assisting my photos in feeling like they had really been taken with an old camera rather than drawn.
I also used the program Adobe Photoshop in my project. One way I used Photoshop was to help me lay out and present my work, creating rough blockouts for how I would be arranging my designs and using Photoshop's automatic aligning tools to avoid skewed and inconsistent presentation. For this reason, I also used Photoshop to create my moodboards, using it to place screenshots and photos aligned perfectly with eachother, ensuring I made the most of the space given and made my research more pleasing to look at.
The final part of my project that utilised Photoshop was using Photoshop's pen tool to create paths that formed irregularly shaped text boxes which I could use to easily write annotation around illustrations and other features on the page without having to manually move text. This was incredibly useful and saved me a lot of time, as without this tool I would have to spend a lot more time manually moving and separating text to ensure none of it overlapped with sketches or photographs.
Another program I used in this project was the website Calligraphr. This website gave me several customisable and premade templates, in which I could conveniently and comfortably design my own characters to present in my own fonts. I could then upload these filled-in templates to the site, where it would convert them into valid .ttf fonts which I could download and use in my own work. This was really helpful in stylising and personalising the appearance of my annotations for my final boards and made my annotation feel like it had been handwritten, rather than printed by a machine.
What problems did you face during this project? How did you solve them?
Throughout this project, I encountered a variety of problems and setbacks which hindered my work and halted my progress, forcing me to find ways to solve these issues or work around them, allowing me to learn what went wrong, how I could overcome it and what I could do to avoid these issues in the future.
One specific problem I encountered during this project was that in the second week of the project, or the half-term, I spent the majority of the week travelling to attend a university interview, and spent a few days away from home. During this time, I had very limited access to most of the tools I needed to use to work on my project. To try and avoid losing progress and to stay on top of my work, I spent some time photographing interesting areas in the area that I could potentially use as inspiration for creature habitats, such as caves, forests, rivers, abandoned structures, bridges, hills, etc. When I returned home, I used these photos to create a moodboard and explore ideas related to these environments and how it could relate to the creatures living there. This meant that I was able to continue my developed research whilst away from home and gave me a good amount of primary research to add to my project.
Another problem that I encountered during this project was that I encountered a lot of issues with the text and annotation in my pages. The first issue I encountered was on my prototype pages, in which I used two premade fonts for titles and annotation. I noticed that these fonts had very limited punctuation and additional symbols, restricting what I was able to write. As a temporary solution, I did my best to emulate the style of the fonts and created some characters for the font myself, giving myself access to makeshift question marks, hyphens, etc.
The next text-related problem I encountered occurred when I began to annotate my final pieces, as I couldn't find a font that I was happy with to display on my final product. All of the examples I found where either too difficult to read at small sizes, or I felt that they didn't fit with the theme of my boards well enough. To solve this, I created my own custom fonts to display my annotation, giving myself the freedom to experiment with different letter styles and shapes until I was able to create something I was happy with.
The final issue I encountered with the annotation on my boards was that I had written some rough drafts of stories to display in the journal pages, as though they had been written by the author about their own personal encounters. However, once I pasted the text into the space I had provided, I realised I had severely overcompensated for the amount of text required and had written far too much. To solve this, I looked at the key points of each story that I felt were the most important to include, and cut out as much unnecessary information as I could, shortening the anecdotes until they fit comfortably onto the page.
What have you learnt during this project? What would you do differently?
I have learned a lot throughout this project, from various artistic skills and techniques to project management skills like time management and problem solving.
One skill I have learned in this project is imitating a realistic, pencil-sketch art style in a digital medium. This is visible in many of the illustrations featured on my final presentation boards, in which I have digitally sketched images of my cryptid designs and images related to them, such as their diets and habitats. To achieve this effect, I looked at many examples of journal pages and bestiaries, achieved in real sketchbooks as well as digital images, exploring how the style of illustrations in these journals are usually portrayed and researching what I would need to do in order to imitate it. To create the effect myself, I looked through various custom, pencil-sketch digital brushes in an online brush library and experimented with a few that I liked. Once I found the brush I wanted to use, I experimented with shading in a pencil style, being limited to only one colour and being forced to experiment with tone and shading techniques such as cross-hatching to portray depth and form. I'm really happy with how the final results turned out, as the style of my sketches have turned out more or less how I envisioned them and really help to sell the authentic, journal theme of my project.
A similar skill I have learned in this project is learning and practising making semi-realistic images in a 2D software. For my sighting photos, I had initially planned to use 3D software to aid in their realism and authenticity, however I ended up finding it would be more beneficial to work entirely in 2D. To try and maintain the realism of my photos, I looked at examples of 'real' cryptid sighting photos, similar to the famous images of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, as well as other photos taken with poor camera quality. In researching these, I found many methods and techniques to make a photo poorer quality, and practised recreating them in a digital software, experimenting with ideas of lighting, noise, filters and more. Looking at my end results, I think I've done quite a good job at making 2D images look semi-realistic and I'm really happy with the results.
Additionally, I have learned and improved in many project management skills during this project, such as time management and project planning. Compared to my other projects, in this project I have been much more consistent in wisely managing my time and being aware of how much work I can do in a realistic time frame. One of the main reasons for this is the combination of my plan I made for each week in my proposal, as well as my weekly development logs that ensured I always had something to do for each week and allowed me to keep track of what I was not able to complete in a previous week to avoid missing work.
Reflect on peer and tutor feedback - what were you told to improve, what actions did you take to improve?
The feedback I received throughout this project from tutors, peers and others was incredibly helpful and invaluable in the development and creation of my final products, giving me outside views on my ideas and concepts, showing me things that could be improved and highlighting what I had done well, as well as giving me useful advice and new concepts for my project.
One example of how feedback has influenced my project was weekly checkups on my work by my tutors, in which I would present the work I had completed from the previous week and explain my plans for how I would continue from that point. This was really helpful to me, as it made me take a moment to look back at the quantity of work I was producing each week and allowed me to evaluate what I would have to achieve by next week to keep on track. Additionally, getting an outsider's view on my work and having them expect tasks to be completed helped me to stay motivated and manage my time wisely, rather than ignoring tasks and letting overdue work build up.
As well as tutor feedback, peer feedback was also very useful in the development of my project and my final products. An example of this is the three peer reviews I have received, looking over different aspects of my blog and informing me where I have exceeded and which areas need more work. For instance, in my first received peer review, I was informed that my initial idea proposals were too text-heavy and lacked images to break up the page. I took this advice and added some moodboards showcasing images depicting similar scenes or characters to the final results I was planning to make for each respective idea. I think this definitely helped to improve the flow of the page as well as being excellent in portraying my ideas with more visible examples that are understandable at a glance without having to read through all of my descriptions.
Another major way in which feedback impacted and improved my project is through the polls and forms I conducted to gather people's opinions and feedback on my work. I created multiple polls for this project, showcasing my ideas to peers and asking what people liked about them, what they thought could be improved, and any other ideas they could come up with. This was incredibly useful as it showed me which ideas appealed to people and helped me to make decisions of what to include and what to rework or scrap. A large example of how the feedback from polls influenced my final product can be seen in the project theme itself of cryptids, which was selected in a poll from the three main project ideas I came up with. Other large parts of my project were influenced by this feedback too, such as the art style and direction of the project and the creature's designs.
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