Evaluation
In b Tec media level 3 this term we were given the
task of making our own stop motion animation. This was one of my favourite projects of this term due to
the fact it could be as weird as I liked it too be so my true colours could
shine through. However there were certain aspects of this projects that were
very difficult like the technical aspects of the cutting out, if not done
properly the things would look messy and unprofessional. This meant I put as
much effort as I could into them.
Another part which I found hard with cut out animation was the fact
everything had to be in the same place all the time, as if they moved the final
piece would not look professional and you had to try your hardest to find where
it use to be or start all over again. Sadly this did happen during my own and
starting again happened more than once.
At the very start when we were first given the project
we had to make a timeline of animators on our blogs. It required 10 and at
first I thought this would be hard to accomplish due to the fact at the time I
did not know 10 animators. Soon after we were then told that we had to create
presentations with a partner about an animator of which we were given. I was
the animators Oliver Postgate and Peter Firman and their show Bagpuss. I sadly
had to do most of the presentation, as my partner did not complete their part.
This wasn’t hard for me to do as I enjoyed learning about their work and how they came about their
creations. I listed about their early work, who they were, 2 of their creations
(Noggin the Nog and Bagpuss) and a short history behind them.
Once I had presented this to my piece my peer and
taken notes on their ones it was time to add them to my blogger. Each animator
I had to write a paragraph about them and with my notes and help from my
friends, this was done quickly and properly.
After the timelines were done we had to then practice
with claymation and cut out animation ensuring we knew how to do them properly
and decide on which one to choose as a basis for our final project. Before
practice of each one, we were given a short presentation about them to know
what we had to do and how to do them properly. It was just them time to
practice around with them, messing around with them and see what worked and what
didn’t.
I choose to work on my own for the cut out animartion
as I already had an idea in mind and just wanted to get on with it. I wanted to
do something with NME and make a band play infront of a crowd. This worked very
well as I made them look lke they were singing and cheering and have them
crowdsurf. It took me a while to work out how to time them perfectly but once I
decided to take three pictures at once so it would be prolonged I was on my
way. I would say I can cut out fairly fast so it did not take me long to find
what I wanted and cut them out and test them.
I enjoyed cut out animation a lot more than claymation
as it was more effective and I didn’t have to be artistic which isn’t my
strongest side. I chose to work in a pair for this and work with Catalin as we
get on so well and work really well as a team. Once we all set up with a camera
we had a few ideas in mind and went a clay man walking into a lake and being
dragged under. This wasn’t hard to achieve as all I had to do was cut out a piece
of him and move him back to where he was. It was very messy which is why I
didn’t enjoy it very much. But it wasn’t horrible I just choose to do cut out
for my final piece.
For our final piece, again I chose to work with
Catalin as we worked really together for the claymation. This difficult though
as we only had a day to film it due him being in an exam and me being ill the
week previous to starting the final piece. We scrapped an idea mid way meaning
we didn’t have very long to film and edit the piece and upload. We went with a
giant mouth eating things and spitting them back up into a city. It ate things
from Beyonce to minions and even a guitar player. It took us only an hour and
half to film due to us being fast and efficient with it. It took us no time to
edit due to Catalins experience so we added music and sound effects and we were
done.
I got some feedback on my animation from my peers.
They gave me both an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses. From Carlo of
whom I asked first to watch and evaluate my piece he told me that it was very
comical and smart to use the mouth and how the weirdness of it made it a lot
better. The sound effects were very effective and made the mouth more
realistic. He told me a few weaknesses and that was the length of them and how
we should made the segments longer, if made longer it would be more enjoyable
to watch. He also went on to say that we should spend longer on the cut outs as
some of them you could still see some white background from the newspaper. These
are understandable as I feel if we had longer to do it we could take our time
alittle more and cut out more precision.
My other feedback came from AJ who watched my piece
and seemed very amused by it. He said that it was a very good piece and again
commented that the humour of it was very effective. He also went on to say the
weirdness of it made it. This is understandable, as I wanted to make the piece
very weird and funny. Some negatives he gave the piece was the background was
small and did not cover the whole frame, he said if we had the chance to do it
again try and cover it the whole frame. I totally agree with this as I wanted
to make the background as big as possible but sadly it wasn’t big enough in the
paper.
Comparing my piece to something of a professional
standard like the intro to Russell Howards good news they are both different
and alike. They are different due to the professional standard and the narrative
that is being portrayed. As it is being shown on the BBC and to the public it
needs to be properly done and to have the right frames in place with no signs
of hands or real body parts. His one also contains real footage and the
movement along a page. They are similar as mine and his are comical, my own is
a mouth and his one is of him dodging news stories and tvs. We also share the
motion of movement as our mouth and cut outs move along the page to show a story
just like his one.
In conclusion, this project went very well and I enjoyed
it very much. In the very beginning I thought it would be quite stressful but
after a while and finding my feet I could then show my true colours and create
something funny and remember able. If given this task again the only thing I would
change it the time spent doing it as I feel like I could make the narrative
longer and more detailed but due to time not being on my side we had to make do
with what we had.
