OUAN406 Applied Animation Evaluation

Overall I feel this project was largely successful, but again the biggest problem I've had with this project has been time management, we'll start at the beginning.

I didn't really know how to approach this project. I think it's fair to say it was probably the most difficult project in terms of subject matter. I chose to do the charity option because I hadn't read too many books in the past so felt it wouldn't be appropriate for me to make a title sequence of a book to film adaptation that hasn't already been done. Furthermore I also didn't want to do the idents brief because I've never been very good at coming up with visual gags and also the thought of having to come up with two ideas for two idents seemed too difficult.

I chose the campaign option because I felt even though it might to be the most fun of the options and could be the hardest to get right tonally it could be the most rewarding if its done right. But I feel that pressure of trying to come up with a good idea that visually represents depression got in the way of what was just important in the early development stages. I didn't realise just how much research I needed to do into ChildLine before I could begin coming up with an idea for the actual animation. It's fair to say I should have spent more time on researching ChildLine, but even when I did go about conducting research, I went about it in entirely the wrong way. I felt that the best research I could get would be primary, so I looked into how to volunteer for ChildLine's helpline centre in Leeds. Of course now looking back I realise how ridiculous an idea this was and that it would have just eaten up all my time just to understand a little better what ChildLine does.

I received feedback about this plan and was advised to not do this and to instead go about conducting research by simply taking a massive amount of statistics from the ChildLine website.

The idea for the narrative of my ChildLine animation came relatively quickly to me and once I was given the idea of how to visually represent depression I was ready to animate. After I showed the class my animatic I was advised to change relatively few things and I was given positive feedback about the visual aesthetic of my animation with people commenting that they liked the simplicity of the character and how it made her relatable and accessible to the viewer.

The feedback for my final animation was very positive with viewers liking the choice in music. This was enlightening to hear as the soundtrack choice was very last minute since I was originally collaborating with a student at Leeds College of Music but he had to pull out due to time constraints. Had I another chance to do this project again I would have dedicated more time to the initial research stage and I would have figured out an animation style earlier and begun animating sooner since I had to loop some of my animation since I ran out of time to create new original animation.