Applied Animation: Evaluation

For the module-applied animation I produced two animations, which were for E4 and BBC 4 channels as idents. Throughout this module I feel like I’ve pushed myself into new software and gained new skills, that I’ve also used to help my peers throughout their animation. I’ve also found this module really interesting because we were taught about Maya the 3D software, which is what I would like to investigate further into in the future as 3D animation is what I aspire to be good at. I was also introduced into model making with plasticine and foam, which to me was very beneficial but not my favourite because my ability to mould and model a character with my hands is not good, so if I used my armature for a stop motion animation it won’t be the best, where as if I use a premade armature the stop motion animation will look reasonably okay.

The E4 ident animation I feel went as according to plan but I didn’t want to spend as mush as I did because I spent £65, which is a lot for a student. In my animation I like how the lighting in the animation looks because it really gives it that Indiana Jones running through a forest feel. I also like my sounds that I’ve used in my animation because it makes the whole animation become comical which is what I was going for. Although what I don’t like about my animation is that the speed Indiana Jones moves, it is faster than I wanted and it makes it a bit harder to follow. If I could change anything about my animation I would change the speed by refilming the whole animation and I would make sure the camera wouldn’t shake as well.

My BBC 4 animation I feel went better because the look of the animation is smoother and apparently to my peers it looks more professional. I create my animation using Maya which I feel I’m really getting the use to it and I’m learning a lot because I’ve been using it in the past module to create 3D models. The hard part was putting moving images into the moving boxes but I finally understood how to do this thanks to my tutor showing me how this could be done. However, what I don’t like about it is the background because it’s too bland and there’s not much there. That’s the thing I’d like to change if I had to redo the animation again, and I’d probably change the camera angles at some parts because there a bit off or the objects aren’t central.

Throughout the module we also got taught more about Maya and what we could produce animation and how we can do this. I feel that I picked up Maya quicker than most of my peers but that could just be because I’ve been using it longer than others, but this was a good thing because I could help other people with Maya because they didn’t understand it as well as I did. Overall the whole experience in the module was good and I learnt a lot from it, but it was also hard working and stressful at some points, which I over came it in the end.