Stop Motion Animation Unit 33 Lo4: Evaluation

Introduction As part of our stop motion animation commission from Vibe Productions, we must now evaluate our work with regards to audience response.

Task One: Feedback Forms My feedback forms asked a variety of questions ranging from to do with the style of my animation to the professionalism of my animation. The majority of my questioners I asked all said the same thing, that my stop motion animation was funny but needed a lot more time and effort spent perfecting it. I have found getting public feedback very useful and will be used in the future when planning out a another production.

Task Two: Photographs of the Installation

Task Three: Focus Group “Very Inventive” “Funny to watch” “Very tongue in cheek” “Slightly Make shift” “Hilarious” “Too Quick”“sloppy but funny”

Task Four: YouTube Feedback ENn0 ENn0

Task Five: Analysis of feedback After reading through my feedback of my production, I have realised I did need to spend more time perfecting it and making it look overall more professional. Over half of my feedback I got given all said it was too rushed and slightly sloppy in places. The other half did say is was funny in places but again it looked like it had been thrown together over night. After comparing all my forms of feedback I have decided that the questionnaires I conducted are actually the best form of feedback as they give a variety of people’s answers. As you can see from my pie chart, my feedback showed a split decision, half of the people who gave me feedback gave me a negative comment where as the other half gave me a slightly more positive comment.

Task Six: Comparison of Animators When I was planning my animation I tried to compare my thoughts with other well known animators to see if they matched well with my ideas. I researched a lot I was able to find some other videos that had been done online buy other stop motion animators using babies, so I tried to base some of my ideas around these videos. The people that created the videos weren't necessarily famous animators but they created a good production for me to take ideas from Below other stop motion Barbie examples-

Task Eight: Photographic Comparison Here you can see a snapshot from somebody else’s Barbie stop motion and you can see the comparisons. The location is quite similar. The outfits and general mise-en- scene are very similar. The general look is the same. My version of the Barbie stop motion is different is other ways- Different music is being played throughout. The narrative is different and less effective. Mine looks less professional and less fluid. ComparisonsDifferences

Genre I chose to use the genre- comedy for my stop motion, I decided to do this because I feel I would be able to make a better more interesting and funny production as opposed to creating a serious or scary stop motion.

Content I included funny content suitable for my age range which I decided would be about 6-13 Years/old. The content was slightly tongue in cheek but would still make sense to the younger selection of viewers.

Style The style of my stop motion was ‘Comic Adventure’. I decided on this as my style because it is makes my production more fun to watch and gives the audience a sense of adventure when they watch it.

Narrative The narrative for my production was a self created script based on the Barbie theme for my animation. I made sure when writing my script that it was all suitable for my viewers and that it all related to my theme and the video itself.

Character The characters I decided to use were Barbie dolls which when I started I thought they were a really great idea but when I actually got to start filming I realised it really wasn’t going to work and they were so difficult to manouever and bend fluidly that in the end the actually production didn’t look very professional at all.

Animation techniques I used stop motion animation as my technique, I chose this because when it is done I feel it will look most professional against other animation techniques. From the feedback I received my audience thought this was a good choice but it could have been more fluid looking. The part in purple shows the amount of people that I asked that thought the animation worked well as a stop motion. The part in green shows the audience that didn’t think it worked as well.

Technical Qualities Having completed my animation I think that the technical qualities I showed throughout my production aren’t up to a high enough standard and if I had more time I would try and produce a more professional look to my technical qualities. From the feedback I received my audience thought the work they saw wasn’t really up to a higher enough standard and I should have put more time and effort into the technical work eg- editing and photographs.

Aesthetic qualities Having completed my animation I think I could have done a lot better and spent more time but with the time I had I felt that I did create a semi presentable stop motion worthy of public viewing. From the feedback I have received a noticed that it was the younger audience such as people from this course that didn’t find it very funny and actually the older audience found it slightly more tongue in cheek. From this pie chart you can see that the larger percentage on the pie chart are younger and this majority didn’t find my production as funny possibly because they know what is entailed and they know whether something is actually good or not.

Task Seven: Full Evaluation After receiving all my feedback from the various components, (Youtube feedback, Feedback forms and photo feedback). I have decided that if I were to take the take to re do my stop motion I was spend a lot more time trying to spread my time more evenly. I am pleased with myself for my ability to pull through with so little time and still create a presentable piece of work to show but of course it isn’t at the standard I would hope for The parts I thought I did well were- My voice over/ script Pre production booklet First set of images The parts I didn’t do so well were- Lack of photos Not very professional looking editing Bad choice of mannequins to use In conclusion I am pleased with some of the work but the main problem was the lack of work I was able to produce.

Task Nine: Improvements Made to my Animation If I were to re do or try and improve my animation in any way I would definitely start back at the beginning when choosing my actual dolls and try and find dolls that were easier to control and had a wider range of movements, this would then hopefully make my animation look more fluid and more professional to the viewers. Another part I would improve would be my time keeping skills and my organisation. I know I left my production too long and didn’t give myself enough time to complete my production to a high enough standard, so if I had another chance I would try and think of a better idea and general planning to hopefully create an overall more professional looking animation. If I were to improve my animation further I may contemplate lighting and the overall look of my production, I may have tried to create some kind of planning timetable to help make sure everything is done is manageable slots.

Conclusion In conclusion I feel that overall my production is funny in places but has a lot more work left to do. As I have mentioned in my ‘Task Nine’ I am planning on improving my production over the next few weeks so to hopefully create a longer, more professional looking stop motion animation. I do feel even through struggling with ideas and pre production at the start I did manage to pull through a presentable production in time for the exhibition but if I had longer I would of definitely spent more time setting out a better time management plan. My narrative and visuals do work quite well together and do connect and you can work out what goes together so it wasn’t a complete fail! Overall I am slightly disappointed with my production but I know with enough time I can improve my work to a higher standard.

Action Plan My three bullet points I have chosen to help me improve my work are as follows- Create a timeline or work chart to help me plan out my work load. Think about the use of mannequins better when creating my next productions. Understand the task a bit more before starting it off.