FMP Evaluation

Project Proposal:

I feel that I did not stick completely to the project proposal. My proposal was to create an animated short movie, however I severely underestimated the amount of time needed to produce such a movie, and my final product ended up being only 10 minutes long.

 

In the proposal, I did still stick to my action plan, mostly. I strayed off course, but I did get my work done.

 

Research:

I feel that my research could of gone better, as I had only done a small amount of research. Most of my research involved gathering images for design purposes.

 

I researched into script writing, as I felt that the knowledge was needed for better writing of scripts. I also researched character creation, as I was to create more characters and build upon the ones I had already.

 

I researched into my previous animation, as I was using it as a basis for this animation. I mainly used it for the characters and story base.

 

I did primary research as well for my FMP. I took a day taking images of landscapes and buildings that could inspire my designs. I also developed a questionnaire that I got my class to fill out, which went well and helped with my designing (including the bazooka design).

 

Planning:

I planned out my project by firstly coming up with ideas for what the animation could be exactly. This went well, but I spent quite a while coming up with plans for the animation. Next time I will stick with only a couple of ideas, rather than coming up with many plans that would fail to make it past this stage.

 

I planned out the characters, script and designs for objects, and overall, this went well. I could’ve use more digital designs, rather that sketches only, so that would be something I would improve next time.

 

Experimentation:

My experimentation at the start involved me writing a script. I wrote it, felt it could be improved, and wrote another script. I ended up wasting close to a month on script writing alone, and none of these scripts would make it into the final production.

 

My actual script that I made had two iterations based off similar plans. I picked the second for development into an animation.

 

Once I had the script completed, I planned out my animation. I drew up plans for the scene, done some sketches of what it should look like, and created the storyboards for it.

 

I then designed the characters that I would need for the animation. Because I was reusing characters, I had a basis for my characters, and so the designing for them was easier.

 

Once this was all done, I was ready to begin animating.

 

Production:

I created many models for this project. These models were highly detailed, and I am proud of them.

 

The character models were not rigged, which is something I need to improve on. Even though I didn’t use proper textures on my models, they still looked good, although I would like to learn how to properly texture them in the future as well.

 

My weapons were good as well, although they were blocky in comparison to my character models, as I originally intended for all the models to be “minecraft-y.” However, after the questionnaire, I found out that most people wanted higher poly models, so I did that for the people, but forgot about the guns.

 

The environment that I had to model for the scene was great and high poly. I added my models that I created to it, such as defense towers, troops and tanks, as well as some buildings, and the final outcome looked great.

 

When I begun animating, I had no issues, and I felt that I was going at a pace in which I could complete my planned length of roughly 10 minutes within the timeframe remaining. I had gotten to 3,750 frames in of roughly 10,000 frames needed when the big problem arose.

 

The environment turned out to be my downfall, as I needed trees in the background of my scene to make it realistic. I had reduced the polycount on those trees by 50%, however even with this, the file size eventually became too large, and the file wouldn’t open on my laptop.

 

The file could load on the Macs at college, however loading it took 5 minutes and the saving time was roughly 15 minutes, meaning that it would be un-feasible to use the Macs to do animating.

 

I resorted to re-creating the scene where I needed it, reducing the polycount of the trees by 75% instead of 50, and removing any models not needed for the scene. This made the new scene have a far smaller file size, meaning that I could use it for my animating. For each part of the scene, I recreated it  so that it would have a smaller file size. After days of animating, I finally completed my animation.

 

After the animating, I rendered the scenes and imported them into my video editor. I gathered the necessary sound effects, music and voice acting files. In all, I made 9 files for each of the parts to the animation, as well as the final edit and the animation trailer. The sound effects and music were gathered from youtube.

 

The first part of the animation (Intro), I feel was edited well, and it was quite simple to do as well. It only required a little bit of editing, and some subtitles.

 

The second part (battle scene pt1) was the first bit that needed multiple sound effects, and more editing. Even with this, I edited it well and feel that it is good.

 

The third part (office scene pt1) was simpler to do, as with the intro scene, only requiring a little editing.

 

The fourth part (battle scene pt2) was similar to the part 1, and required much editing. The fifth part (office scene pt2) was similar to pt1 as well, and didn't take long to edit.

 

The 6th scene (battle scene pt3) was pretty cool in editing, as it was the final battle scene part. Editing it took a bit of time, but it was good.

 

The 7th scene (outro) was simple to edit, but it took a little bit of time to get the timings correct. I also had the third office scene right at the end.

 

After editing and rendering the separate scenes, I edited them together in my 8th file (allvids) and then rendered the video, creating my finished product.

 

The finished animation is roughly 10 minutes long, and in my opinion, brilliant. The only thing I could improve about it is better editing and a wider variety of sound effects. However, as this is my second animation that was edited greatly, I am proud of the final outcome.

 

After creating the animation, I decided to create a trailer for it. I gathered my sound effects and music once again, and got to work. I created my final file (trailer) and imported my video files. I cut them down and edited them to fit the music, then once I was happy, I rendered the video.

 

I also created a business card design so that when I present my animation, I could have them on the table so that people could take them if they so wished. The business cards were well done and high quality with relevant information on them.

 

Blog/Journal:

Overall, I believe that my blog could of been way better. For most of it, I included barely enough detail, and in some of the blog posts, I had a sentence for a single day, when it should be at the very least a paragraph. The second half of the blog posts were more detailed, with roughly half of them being a paragraph or longer. The final week or two in my blog posts were the most detailed, so those were the best.

 

Total Evaluation:

Overall, My project went well. I got the work done, even if I wasted time on certain areas, and it was completed to good quality. However, I could definitely improve upon the project. Next time, I will make sure to manage my time more effectively, and plan more thoroughly to avoid any mishaps.

 

I am happy with the final result, especially my animation and trailer. The written work could be improved but nonetheless I have completed the FMP.