FINAL EVALUATION

This term each member of the class completed an animation. I found this topic very fun and had a great time making it. I am satisfied with my final result though I believe that there are some parts of my animation that could be altered to make better. The animation took a lot more time then I originally thought. It required a lot of time management and patience and it took a longer period of time than I believed it would. I would have liked to change a few parts of my animation though I am happy with the final product. I would change a few of the ways I completed some scenes and redo the ones that weren’t shot in good quality, but I am happy with the style and the story. If I could start the project from the very beginning I would manage my time a lot better and stick with most of my original idea. I would also start filming a lot earlier than usual and complete my planning earlier than I did.

My final animation turned out mostly the way I wanted. The parts that didn’t turn out the way I wanted were the parts that I filmed in low quality without realising and a few parts of the animation where there were different things in the background that I hadn’t intended to be there, such as ibises and rubbish. The animation fits together well though and I am happy with the end product. I had to modify a lot of my original concept to be able to complete my animation. Once I started filming, I changed my original concept to make it easier and less time consuming. I believe if I had kept my original idea I would not have completed the animation and it wouldn’t have turned out very well. Because of this, I had to recreate my storyboards and shot list to fit with the new concept. Over the duration of the term my animation skills developed quite a bit. I became a lot more efficient when filming. I filmed faster and the quality of the animation improved quite a bit. It became a lot smoother as the term went on. During the animation process I ran into a few problems. I had problems with the quality of a few of my scenes because I shot them in the wrong size in iStop Motion. I didn't have time to reshoot these scenes so the quality of the first two scenes isn’t very good compared to the rest of the animation. I also had difficulty when filming outside, as there were ibises that weren’t willing to co-operate. They were running around in the background and I had to delete a lot of frames that they were in. I ended up with one ibis in the background of one of my scenes that I hadn’t noticed while filming. There were also a few leaves floating around in the background that moved a lot that I didn’t have time to reshoot or edit out.

I used my storyboards and shot list quite a bit. They helped me to see what I was doing and helped to develop my animation. The shot list helped with how long each scene had to be and helped break down the animation so it didn’t look as daunting. The storyboards also helped with the shooting of the animation. I knew where everything needed to be and what I had to do. I had a few time management issues at the start of the term, as I had to be in Shae’s animation as well as shooting my own. Shae’s animation took a few lessons to film, so I didn’t get to start on my animation for a while which set me back. I also had to complete my planning before filming which set me back as well. But I caught up and finished my animation with a few lessons to spare so I could work on music and exporting. I caught up by filming after school and taking a laptop home on a few weekends to film at home and I caught up fairly quickly. My reflections this term could have been a lot better. At the start of the term to about mid way through, my blog wasn’t working. I hadn’t had Internet at home and my blog wasn’t letting me upload videos, so I had to record my blogs in a word document. My reflections could be more detailed and accurate but I am still happy with how they all turned out. I may have a few less blogs than I could have but I tried my best and put all my work up when I could. I learned a lot about iStop motion and the Ipevo cameras during the process. I learned about exporting and filming in the right quality and how to set up the Ipevo camera so it was easy to film and the camera wouldn’t refocus on every shot. Overall I had a great experience making my animation and it was a very fun term. I am happy with my final product and I am happy with how the term went.