Evaluation

Firstly, I would like to reflect on the successes of this project. Firstly, I have defined a clear target audience, done both primary and secondary research into the demographic, and created a product that is appropriate and effective for that target demographic. I will discuss this more when I reflect on feedback from my peers and tutors, however as it regards the effectiveness of my concepts and trailer, I think I have sufficient evidence to suggest that it is. Secondly, I believe that the final aesthetics and composition of my trailer and concept art is also extremely professional and effective for its intended audience. Of course, my original plan was to do entirely concept art, and so I was pleasantly surprised when I not only enjoyed but excelled with the blender models I made. Finally, I was very happy with the post-production aspects of my project, such as the portions edited in Adobe After Effects — I asked for help at the right points, looked up tutorials when needed, and innovated my own solutions to create professional-looking designs. The concepts that I created for the backgrounds also looked alright, however they ended up mostly being a means to an end for creating my trailer. They weren’t nearly as big of an aspect in my product as I expected.

This brings me swiftly onto my next evaluative section; my shortcomings and failures with this final project, and how I would amend them if I had a do-over of this whole project. Of course, there are the things I’ve already mentioned; for example, my lack of enthusiasm with my original production aspects. I hold a very high personal standard for myself, and so seeing my work suffer because of something as fickle as demotivation makes me truly upset. All the changes I made for my project were for the best and were reactionary to my wants and needs. I think that if I were to do this project again, I would create more in the way of first drafts; a lot of the work I did regarding concept art was finalized prints, and I would have liked to have more in the way of initial sketches and development. Something else that was affected by this immense trajectory change was the retrospective quality of my research. If I had known when I started the project that my outcome will be a trailer, I would have probably redirected some time spend researching cosmic horror and worldbuilding into some more practical research. Because this choice was extremely sudden, I have had to quickly copy and paste over research from other projects, meaning it is not as in-depth and specified as it could have been. Furthermore, from a technical/aesthetic perspective, my final product certainly has its pitfalls. For example, I think that some animation looks a little unnatural and could have done with more smoothing out — this might have also benefitted from some more research, although the test animations I did for each model certainly helped in that regard. On the whole, if I were to do this project again I think I would really try to work with my interests and existing strengths, rather than attempting to create interest where it doesn’t exist — a lot of the more disorganized aspects of my production could have been avoided if I had thought more carefully about what I actually want to be doing with my time, and not just about what I think “might be cool” in a theoretical sense.

I would now like to discuss how I think my research effected my final product — when it comes to how effective my research ended up being, I think that the insight I gained from looking into worldbuilding and aesthetics was massively influential to the designs I ended up creating for these biomes and creatures. Even though I didn’t include as much concept art as I originally intended, these creatures’ designs were still influenced by the three core ideas that I outlined in this section (unique ecosystem, aesthetic components, and familiarity). Even though I might not have directly stated this in my research, you can clearly see the influences I took from this section of my research were massive. When it comes to cosmic horror, however, I know I didn’t necessarily include that many aspects of it into my final product. However, I still don’t regret researching about it, as it was interesting and certainly may have influenced my final product subconsciously. As for my research on concept artists, gaining insight from Cory Strader ended up giving me loads of ideas and inspiration, especially regarding creature creation and colour. This interview really was invaluable for getting some solid primary research into the industry, and learning more about how concept art is utilized in a very real way in the industry. All these research aspects were crucial to creating a well-rounded project, however as I mentioned previously there are some areas I would have liked to research deeper into. These aspects were missed, of course, because a trailer wasn’t intended to be my final product, so at no point did I plan these research topics.

The visuals and technical qualities I used in my trailer and final concepts are linked intrinsically to my research and development – I would like to critically analyse all aspects of this retrospectively. Firstly, the quality of my final product; this is something that I think benefitted the most from my development and change of trajectory. I believe that if I had continued pumping out concept piece after concept piece the quality of my work would have suffered, as it always will when I am not enjoying my work. In the end, however, the quality of my work lives up to my personal expectations, and I believe it is appropriate for its intentions and target audience — the 3D characters are intentionally “low quality” to contrast the detailed backgrounds, as my target audience are the types of consumers to value unique art style and aesthetics as well as intriguing storylines and worlds. I do think there are some weaknesses with how the final product turned out quality-wise; if I had more time, I probably would have rendered all the animation in a slightly higher resolution, however rendering it repeatedly for troubleshooting reasons in 1080px took long enough. I can absolutely see how this possibly sub-par video quality makes it look slightly more unprofessional from an outside perspective, though, and so I should have given myself more time to render and make sure it looks completely good. Audio, of course, was never particularly a consideration, however I happened across a song that fits perfectly with the aesthetic and the vision I had for the trailer when I first began thinking about it. This song, because it was produced by an existing successful artist, will come across as extremely professional and effective to my target audience, and to anyone watching the trailer who does not already know the song. The song being slowed down almost helps with targeting my ideal demographic, as the slow, robotic sound of the music fits with the melancholy sci-fi vibes of this game. It really was fate that this song fit so perfectly with the trailer, and so I can’t exactly take any credit for the audio design of this project. Perhaps I should have considered the audio for my trailer slightly deeper, as while this song does fit extremely well, there could have been other options as well. Plus, while I attempted to add some subtle sound effects to the transitions, there wasn’t much in the way of extra sounds and immersive audio, which is something I could have researched and considered. The post-production aspects, as I discussed in my successes paragraph, is one of my favourite aspects of the final product — I asked for help when needed and ended up creating some professional-looking logos and animations in Premiere Pro and After Effects. However, as discussed, I did not do any dedicated research whatsoever into these programs, and the tutorials I had from my tutor were not documented. This means that while the fruits of my labour can be seen in the final trailer, I have no proof that I know how to use these skills on a theoretical and research level. If I were to do the project again, I would absolutely include some research into these areas, possibly with guidance from my tutor. Finally, I want to discuss how all these aspects combine. They are all relevant to the target audience, and will be effective in portraying this alien world to a demographic of people who value interesting aesthetics, calming yet haunting visuals, and intriguing unique worlds. There are certain transitions and combinations that I think could do with smoothing over, but I don’t think that anything drastic really needs to be changed or fixed.

Finally, I would like to discuss some feedback that I received from my peers and tutors. Firstly, I was given some feedback from one of my peers, also doing the same qualification as me. They specialise in worldbuilding, as I would actually regard them as more than an equal in this field, as they have a particular knack for it. Regarding my trailer, they said: “Overall it’s really good, I like the animations and the design of the creatures, though I feel on the first one you show there could be some small changes to make it a bit smooth, but it’s not a dealbreaker. I feel like the title and logo at the end could be slightly less bright, and the guy just standing there is a bit awkward, but overall I really like the trailer, the starting sequence with the orbits looks amazing, and I like the way the “O” in astral studios looks like a moon going through its phases.” This confirms some of my own self-reflection, however this person also discusses some of my post-production that I did not notice at first, with regard to the title sequence of my game. Someone else I got feedback from was my partner, who isn’t on my course but has seen the trailer several times during its production. They said the following: “I like the music, and I think the combination of the calm and relaxed song and the slow moving animals mix well. The lighting in the scenes with animals, such as the shadows in the cave, are very appealing, and the design of everything is very unique and cool. I really like how the character at the end looks up as the camera moves, it gives a very professional impression. I would say that the models of the second animals shift around slightly when the camera transitions away from their scene, and I would say that if this is supposed to be a game trailer, it’s very abstract and doesn’t hint as to what type of game it would be, and I would personally look for that in a game trailer.” They make some very interesting points, numerous of which I actually hadn’t considered. They complimented the way I’ve combined the visual and video aspects, but pointed out some technical errors I hadn’t spotted. Perhaps it would have been useful to get continuous feedback throughout my project to help aid my troubleshooting. Another interesting thing they pointed out was regarding the content of the trailer – they’re right, you can’t really tell what type of game Moonstruck is supposed to be just based on these sliding visuals. This is something I could have amended if given more time to make a full trailer, however because this is simply a trailer I don’t think there’s anything I could have done with the time I gave myself. My tutor Nick didn't have any notes for me, which while not particularly useful, was good to hear. I also got feedback from my friend who does not do the course, and is not at all in the industry. What's more, they are unique in that they have not seen any of this trailer's development, and are coming at it with fresh eyes; given that they are my target demographic (someone who appreciates aesthetics and unique indie games), I would consider their feedback to be invaluable. They said, “I liked the beginning and the transitions between scenes, they were really smooth and felt natural. I also liked the difference in backgrounds between each scene, it got me curious about visiting the different areas in the game. To improve work on the soundscape, maybe? The music fit really well with the vibe of the game, but you could add some noises of the creatures moving around/to fit each scene faintly so it's even more immersive.” My friend described the trailer as intriguing and talked about how curious they were about the world and game — this is uplifting to hear, given it was the intended effect. I also agree with their point about the soundscape, as I mentioned in my technical qualities paragraph, and I also think that soundscapes are more important to a target audience who desires creativity and comfy aesthetics.

To conclude this evaluation, I think that while this project ended up being rather disorganised and messy, the final product was clean, effective, and relevant to my intended target audience. Technical errors are a given when you give yourself so little time, and I think that the one thing I would have done if I could have a do-over is thought a bit harder about what interests me most — character animation, personal storylines, and more character-driven concept art rather than backgrounds. Just thinking more about this would have saved me a lot of grief, and given me a more firm idea on what kind of production I want to make before I started working on my final creation. This would have given me more time, and therefore would have made everything run a lot smoother. Despite all of these elements, I am happy with how this project came out, and this teaser trailer has ended up being one of the best things I’ve ever created.