Evaluation
Evaluation for my FMP (Final Major Project) Dog Tales, a documentary film about rescue dogs.
Section 1: Context, initiating and analysing the requirements of your FMP.
1) Describe what you wanted to achieve with your project (i.e. Aesthetic, style, feeling,
technical).
I wanted to achieve a 3D animation film initially. However, I realised that it would take a long time to produce this and I was starting to learn more techniques on Adobe Animate to develop 2D character designs. I was heavily influenced by an Australian TV programme called Bluey which helped me to design my own dog character. I made it walk on four legs instead of two because I wanted to make it more realistic, and I like the designs on how it was created, so I decided to make a replica of a character from that show but walk on four legs and I also gave it a collar too.
I changed my character designs to avoid copyright by changing the colour to brown. I also hoped to make my dog character's eyebrows move but I never got the time. I also hopped to make his tail wag, but I ran out of time. I wanted to add the visual scenes of when dogs were badly treated in the 1800s and how Dogs Trust was first opened to help rescue the dog. I also wanted to add some interviews with people asking them why they bought a puppy or a rescue dog so the public watching my documentary would see a live person talking about their own opinion. I was also hoping to finish making my character walk, run and talk. The finished documentary should look like my 3D character narrating the documentary while running and moving his body in front of a background of different visuals. I'm using Adobe Animate to add different layers and Premier Pro to edit them together.
2) What information did you seek out to help you achieve these things?
I learnt about the Pecha Kucha techniques in creating a documentary which helped shaped my ideas and thoughts on creating my own live action/animated documentary. I researched a lot of information on the Dogs Trust and puppy smuggling. I also did researched on various artwork and animations of dogs to finalize my own character design. I had to learn lots of new skills on Adobe Animate like how to make my character move, and learn how to merge him into the live action scenes.
3) How did you initiate your Project?
My teacher gave me and the rest of my classmates 3 different ideas to create a Pecha Kucha, like creating mood boards and mind maps. My first idea was to create a slideshow for one of my own projects that I’ve got written down. I was told to make a mind map about pets, like Rescue dogs, Shoreham, and my pets. I was also told to make mood boards on the projects that I’m planning to create. After I created my mood board, I decided to make my FMP about pets. But after a few weeks, I decided to make a documentary about rescue dogs. The style of this documentary has live action visuals and a 2D animated character, but I needed to learn how to use Adobe Animate to animate the character.
Section 2: Research and Design
4) i) Self-evaluate your use of different Design tools, skills and methods in Stage 3.
Start by comparing the different Design tools, skills and methods you used. Then self-evaluate how effectively you used them.
First, I created my dog character in Paint.NET and the tools I used in that software were the paint bucket tool to fill in the character, eye drop tool to get the correct shade of colour, line tool to trace around the character. I used them really well because I've used Paint.NET many times and know most of the tools I used. I created and traced him in Paint.NET with two legs standing up like the original TV show Bluey, but then I decided to create him walking on four legs because that would make him more realistic and to avoid copyright issues.
The next step was imported my character into Adobe Animate. When I was using Adobe Animate, the tools I used in it were the pin point tool for adding the bones so that my dog character can move and the eraser tool because I had to get rid of the white background from the mouths that I created, even though I converted them as PNG on Paint.NET. These tools were all new to me and I needed some help and practice to use them. The tricky things to begin with those tools were adding the bones on the dog. This was because my design didn't have all the leg joints draw separately, so they were hard to move individually. To solve this problem, I went into Photoshop and separated two of the legs so I can move them more realistically. I needed some practice but in the end I was very pleased with my results.
I chose video clips throughout my film instead of using of any still photos because I thought it would look more professional and to make my audience more interested and more professional. I decided to add music to make it more interesting as well, I chose Kevin Macleod because I like the style of it. I chose Sneaky Snitch for when dogs are being used for fighting and gambling and Carefree for happy and jolly scenes. I added some old clips onto my FMP, to describe the audeince how the dogs trust first opened and how dogs were treated before The National Canine Defence League opened in 1891. I decided to add a title card onto my project to tell everyone what it's all about and I named it dog tales because it's a joke to refer tails from dogs. I added my own dog Willow in the credits because she's a rescue dog and gave me inspiration for my FMP dog project. I added a bark sound effect to my FMP because it's about dogs and to make it more exciting and bringing the character to life.
ii) Summarise the ‘Best Practices’ and ‘Methods/ Processes’ you researched that other animation artists use. Self-evaluate your use of these ‘Best Practices’ and ‘Methods/ Processes’.
I looked at animation such as 2D work from an Australian TV show, Bluey, I like the process and they used a software called CelAction. I didn't use Celaction but I used a software that was similar to it, I used Adobe Animate. I feel that my skills have grown using Adobe Animate in this project, compared to the last time I tried it. I felt like the methods and process I've used are successfully presenting my ideas by bringing to life my script, my voice and character on Adobe Animate. When I was creating my character in Paint.NET, I traced over a couple of existing characters by separating the body and the head and putting them together and recolouring it.
5) Self-evaluate your use of different Research tools, skills and methods you used, in Stage 3.
Start by comparing the different Research tools, skills and methods you used.
I used different websites to research for information and creative techniques and creative skills I needed to use for my project. I used Google to research the websites and Images that helped me with my research and project. I also used YouTube to find some tutorials to help me do my animation on Adobe Animate and other ways that I don't know on Adobe Animate. For e.g: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07d2dXHYb94
6) Explain how you researched methods and processes that you applied to your project.
How did this help you to develop and inform your idea?
I learned many new ways in Adobe Animate by researching how to use lip animation to make my character talk, cutting and shortening my voice audio (that I recorded on my IPhone). I wanted to make my character talk, but I needed different facial expressions, so I researched an image on Google Search and found an image with the expressions I needed. I copied and pasted it into Paint.NET, then I traced over them, recoloured them and converted them into PNGs (because that was the file for transparent images to go on Adobe Animate).
7) Explain how you researched contextual sources. How did this inform the development of your idea?
I researched websites online including The dog's Trust and my research on Dogs Trust provided context for the monologue by my character who is a Labrador dog called Buddy.
I watched short documentaries on YouTube about dog charities and loads of animation as my contextual research. Through this research, I understood what I wanted my final project to look like and move like the show Bluey. I adapted my character to be more realistic because I thought it could relate more to the audience who will be watching the documentary and hopefully get a rescue dog instead of a puppy.
8) How could you improve the quality of your research?
I could possibly look up on some behind the scenes videos or images so I can inspire my idea to my project. Look on some video tutorials on how to make characters like someone else have created for their projects, find out and learn more on Adobe Animate, although I'm quite thorough when researching subject that I'm interested in.
The reason why I chose to add an animated dog onto my documentary was because I thought about, why do I like seeing animation and I asked myself why do I like learning things when a documentary is animated? I find it easier to remember the information and it keeps me interested in the topic or the show. So I looked up on Google to research if this was happening for other people. The websites said that by using animation, it can help my work stand out from other documentary films, so I can use my creativity in a better way. The websites also said that animation can get my message across so the viewers will focus more on the information on the documentary and will retain this information for longer. I can create a character which will be memorable to deliver the information and these characters will be relevant no matter how much time will pass. This is because the character is not bound by fashion, interior decoration or any other time signifiers. It can also be cost effective because I don't need to rely on other people. Normally to produce a documentary, I would need a crew like a camera man, equipment and participance which can be time consuming and costly. Instead, with animation I can do the work by myself by using a software that uses animation and punctuation. Animators have to consider when to include voice over and text on the screen because it's been found that when both are being used at the same time then people can't process the message. So that's why I just had a voice over for my character and no background text, just visual pictures. Here are a couple of documentary films that have animation and live action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du_co55SJTI (Really Wild Animals),
Section 3: Planning
9) In what way was your planning useful in developing your project?
My planning helped me to start building my concept ideas as well as my technical ones. I also planned to record some footage of some dog rescue centres especially Dogs Trust, unfortunately I didn't have time to get this footage so I couldn't add it in. After I made my script of what my dog character would say, this helped me have better ideas of matching my animation to his voice, for example when he is sad, I hoped to move his eye brows down to give a better expression. After writing the script and knowing how my dog character would be moving it also helped me record my voice to narrate and voice my dog character and I think it worked pretty good once I installed the recording of my voice.
10) What planning strategies did you use during your project? How did you organise your time over the twelve weeks?
I used my reflective diary to keep on track and to continue to assess my work as it developed. However as the weeks passed, I realised that my project and learning the new skills was taking longer than I expected, so I had to decided not include so things in my project like the real life interviews and the live action scenes of the Rescue dog places.
11) How could your planning have been improved?
If I had more time I would've liked to have done additional planning for 3D animation as well as looking into further technical aspects with character design software. Also if I could have more time I wanted to add some interviews of people on why they brought a rescue dog instead of a puppy. A friend of my mum has interview her after she got a rescue dog instead of a puppy but there wasn't enough room to add the interview on my documentary and I didn't involve any interviews on my script. Also, if I had access to Adobe Animate software at home, I could have had more hours working from home.
Section 4: Organisation and Time Management
12) How would you rate your time management and why?
I feel I managed my time very effectively as I was always punctual for my lessons in college and made the most of the extra support I was given, in order to make good progress and not fall behind with any deadlines. However, only having access to the Adobe Animate for part of the week while in college made it difficult to work as many hours as I wanted on this software. Also I didn't realise how complicated when i had to do the lip sync and making my dog character's legs move and make them separate.
i) To what extent has the Planning Meetings helped you with your project?
Did you meet your deadlines? Give examples.
Which targets did you set for yourself that you achieved? Give examples.
I had regular feedback from my tutor which helped me keep on track with my work schedule.
I dedicated time at home by doing things that I didn't necessarily have to rely on doing in college, such as designing my character and deveope my script writing. This also helped me stay on track and not fall behind.
ii) To what extent has the Production work stage helped you with your project?
If it has not helped you, explain why you think that is?
iv) To what extent has the Retrospective (Min-evaluations) helped you with your project?
If it has helped you, how has it done so?
If it has not helped you, explain why you think that is?
Section 5: Problem Solving
14) What technical problems did you encounter? How did you deal with them?
The technical problems I had was on Premier Pro and on Adobe Animate. The problems I had with Adobe Animate were trying to make my character move and add bones onto it. Also I had to learn from scratch how to separate some of the body parts, trying to make him walk and run, and the most difficult bit of all was trying to make my character talk. I had to create some mouth expressions for the dog character and I had to make the lips move along with the audio, but when I played the audio in a scene I couldn't hear it because the audio can only be heard when it starts from the beginning.
After I recorded my voice on what my dog is going to say, I converted it to a WAV file and added it on Adobe Animate. But when I did the lips (facial expressions) of the dog didn't fit with the talking because it was out of sync, so it took a lot longer than I thought. I had to use another software which was brand new to me that can cut and shorten the audio and fit the lips with the talking. I found a video on how to combine animation and real life together (just like they did in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Looney Tunes: Back in Action), and the software that was used was called Adobe After Effects, but I never got to use it because I didn't have enough time to use it or to finish my project.
15) How effective was your theoretical problem solving? For example, your design problem solving skills. This could also be your written idea generation, research and selection. The selection part of this process is what is referred to as theoretical or conceptual problem solving.
I did have some problems to solve like making my character to walk and run realistically and the voice over material that I recorded had to be adjusted so it can all be in sync with the character's mouth movement.
Section 6: Production
17) What planning documents did you use prior to and during your Production Work?
I have my reflective diary helps me to constantly evaluate and think about what I need to be doing next and how I felt after I've done the day's work. The documents I used during my production work were Google Docs, I used it to create the script.
18) How did these help during the Production stages of your project? Did they help you create your project within an “agreed timeframe” (Assessment Criteria 3.1).
It was roughly OK. The reflective diary helps me keep on track and how I felt after I've done the day's work. However, the technical problems I had to solve to a lot longer in my schedule so I had to make decisions to cut and adjust some of my ideas.
19) Describe the production stage. Did you manage to keep to your schedule?
Did you put your Contextual Research into practice? How?
Section 7: Presentation
20) How have you considered presentation in your Sketchbook and Reflective Logs?
I used my computer to do all my character designing and I used my reflective log daily. I used a range of photos and links in my reflective logs from the websites that I researched, so that it was very clear to track my progress.
21) How have you considered presentation in your finalised Production pieces?
22) What was your specific target audience?
It was for a wide adult target audience
What design decisions have you made that considered your audience? I made him walk on four legs instead of two legs as this documentary is for an adult audience, the original character design came from a children's TV show, Bluey and children don't mind having an upright character talking to them. I add a collar on him to make him look like an owned dog.
Which of these expectations have you fulfilled?
Which of these expectations have you changed or subverted?
Section 8: Conclusions
24) Look at your project proposal. How does the finished work differ from the original plan? What could be improved?
In my original proposal I said I would include some real life footage and some information from a previous podcast about rescue dogs. My ideas for my FMP evolved into a live action documentary with a 2D animated dog figure with combining him with still photos, video clips, background music and sound effects. The technical difficulties meant that I ran out of time to make my character move as much as I hoped but I've happy with the end result.
26) What are you happy with? Why? Any surprises or discoveries? Thoughts for future projects?
I am happy with the character because he looks and moves how I want him to look. I'm very pleased with the new skills that I have learned on Adobe Animate and also the new skills I learnt when I was doing the voice over. I would be happy to use these new skills again for my own projects that I've got planned
27) How has this project helped you with your understanding of your chosen specialism?
You chosen specialism is the type of outcome you created for your project - 2D Concept Art, Marketing Material, 3D Characters, 3D environments or a playable prototype game.
I would like to create 3D characters in animations so this experience of using different technical software and learning more skills has enhanced my knowledge in this area.
I need to ask myself, what changed in my development page to my finished documentary. So go back and read over what I wanted to create and why and write about if anything did change and why did it change.
Initially I wanted to have real interviews with dog owners, but unfortunately I wasn't able to find anyone suitable and I was running out of time.
I had to take out a few scenes in my script because when I placed the audio into Premier Pro I realised that the length was longer than 5 minutes, so I decided to edit it down to 5 minutes exactly.
What would I do differently if I was starting my project again?
I would've liked to have added those extra interviews and I also would've liked to have added ambitious animation effects, using Adobe After Effects. It takes a long time to do all of this detail in animation and combining with the voice over and script and background visuals.
I am keen to use Adobe Animate for my other projects in the years yet to come, and to try to use Adobe After Effects as well.
