After Having The Exhibition We Have Now Been Asked To Evaluate Our Work…

 My feedback forms showed that people enjoyed the installation and everyone said that it reminded them of the first time they watched Toy Story, Some people had seen installation work before but the exhibition was the main thing they had been to. They said that the installation could be improved by making the lighting different and having a more defined storyline. They said that the best part of the installation was how well the audio was laid over the visuals and how the camera angle changes throughout the production. They said that the audio and the visuals suited each other and were appropriate. Most people said the installation was easy to understand but needed a more developed storyline in order for it to be better understood. This feedback was taken on board and has been archived for when I come to improve the Animation and for any future projects.

My InstallationExhibition

Funny Good Filming Intense Good Audio Good Representation Understandable

For copyright reasons my video was taken off YouTube even though the credit was given to Walt Disney for the logo and idea. However, a helpful reviewer left a detailed comment at the foot of my feedback form after watching the video: “Very interesting video. I like the way you set the scene by adding in Pixar’s opening sequence – nice! I also enjoyed the way it was projected within a square of beams on the wall – it gave it boundaries that few other animations had, and I felt more immersed in it due to this. One thing I might have liked to see improved was the lighting – I noticed one or two shadows in some of the shots. Apart from that I thought it was smoothly animated and I like the adjustments you made to the focus and the camera angles – created some very well individually composed shots that made the whole thing look great. Plan the lighting a little more and I’d give it 10/10!”

 The feedback I received was a mixture of positive and negative elements. The audio, filming and shot types used were received the best and made the production look more professional. However there were some negative elements which, if I came to re-do the production I would have to look at further. These included the lighting (Images were quite dark and my shadow came up in the images towards the end), the storyline needs to be more developed and it should have some dialogue.

My animation was inspired by Pixar’s TOY STORY™ and Aardman’s A TOWN CALLED PANIC™. For my idea I had both of these In mind when I was choosing my models, the fixed base are like the ones they had in Toy Story and A Town Called Panic. A Town Called Panic was all stop motion unlike Toy Story but I found that a more interesting animation could have been achieved through the use of toy soldiers.

 Having completed my animation I think that the aesthetics of the production are quite good, the colours work well and the intro gave it a more professional look, If I had planned out the lighting more I would have achieved a better quality video and some more interesting and natural shots.

I think the project went well after everything that happened in the pre production, My original idea was too hard to make and I ended up leaving myself with little time to create a viable idea and shoot it. This meant that I had to quickly come up with an idea, re-write all the pre production and shoot the animation within a very short period of time. Having had all this happen I think I have been able to come up with a good idea and although it didn’t have much of a story line I managed to shoot a video that had a comical and sad element to it and gave the audience a simple but understandable story. The final video was a small group of toy soldiers (like the ones from Toy Story) who had the challenge of getting over life sized obstacles and then met a group of hostile soldiers who then shot them. So the challenge they had completed was all in vain. The project ended up being slightly longer than the pre- production had intended. The pre-production did not include the part where they came across the other soldiers. The Audio was a version of ‘You Got A Friend In Me’ which was used in the Toy Story films and then for the part where the other soldiers come there was a short piece of suspense music. The fact that I was basing it on a Walt Disney film meant that I needed to make sure I didn’t take any Credit for the footage that wasn’t my own (Opening Title and Logo’s) this was given in a disclaimer at the beginning of the production. My animation got some very positive feedback and some constrictive criticism.

My InstallationExhibition

While I was filming my animation I had made some improvements to the ending. The Pre-Production did not include these improvements as they were made after the hand in date. The improvement to the ending came from a spontaneous idea. The soldiers, after completely their primary challenge, unfortunately met a large group of hostile soldiers that showed no mercy. This added about 7 seconds to the production and made it more interesting and gave more of a storyline.

 The production went as well as it could have after the issues with the initial idea and the Pre-Production, after this was resolved with a new idea and fresh Pre- Production, the lack of time made shooting the production top priority and I managed to get it done to the best standard with the time I had. The audio and visuals related quite well and connected to create an atmosphere and give the production more of a fun/ suspense factor. Next time I will concentrate more on the lighting and storyline in order to create a more interesting animation.