Reflective Evaluation worksheet (U10, LO3: AC 3.1&3.

2)

DOWNLOAD THIS DOCUMENT, DO NOT FILL IT IN ON TEAMS!!

You are required to complete both sections on this sheet and place the content in your Weebly section called Evaluation.

Wherever you use a quote from any other source, please say where you got it from or it could result in a PLAGIARISM
mark which would automatically fail the unit.

Task 1/2: Reflect on how your work fits your audience (U10:LO3_AC3.1)
Please answer ALL boxes in order to pass this section. You can include screen grabs and links to help. This section is about
evaluating how your work fits the audience you have chosen to target. Answer all three questions fully with supporting
images, links and evidence of audience/survey feedback.

Choose THREE existing professional versions aimed at the same audience/genre as your work. How does yours compare to them? BE
SPECIFIC.

Example 1 of 3
URL/link, image and description
LINK: https://youtu.be/dq_j02m_9vE

This loop is named VISITORS and is based around aliens with two people looking up at the space craft.

Something your loop does as well

Both of our loops are based off very similar ideas and concepts to one another as in mine you have the small soldier
looking up at this big war machine and in theirs you have these small people looking up at the ship. They also fit into the
same genres being science fiction and horror. Another thing that is similar between both our loops is the use of rainfall
, and even though they are set in completely different environments they both match the theme very well. Our
loops also utilise a glowing type of effect to enhance the look of the imagery, specifically for machinery.
Something the example does better
I absolutely love how this loop is framed as all of the big trees in the foreground look really cool and they add so much
Depth to the scene. I also really like how the UFO has a little search light that looks around the environment because it
Enhances that theme of sci-fi and it’s a really cool little effect. Lastly because of the way the shot is framed it also makes
The humans look tiny against the massive ship which was a style I was hoping to recreate in my loop.
How you would improve yours based on this
I think that the main thing I want to improve upon after watching this loop is how I frame my shots, specifically how I
Frame my characters so that my shots don’t end up looking generic. And again with that search light it makes the UFO
seem much more animated and alive, and there are gaps in my loop where the machine seems a little stiff because it
doesn’t have something constantly moving on it to add that extra piece of detail.

Example 2 of 3
URL/link, image and description
LINK: https://youtu.be/pu-HY-mPG8c

Two images from this Over the garden wall ambient loop.
Something your loop does as well
What makes our loops similar is how they both have an empty and isolated atmospheric theme to them. This can be
referenced from the image above on the left. Our atmospheres are similar as they both incorporate small and meagre
characters in a much larger environment. There is also quite a lot of creepy imagery in this loop which can again also be
linked to the machine featured within my loop. Here are two examples of the creepy imagery I was referring to.

Something the example does better

Although my loop still does have themes of isolation. This loop has a lot more of it and because it isn’t limited to just a
City it can really go overboard on that feeling which it definitely does do. This can be seen in the two images above of the
Forest and of the pumpkin guy alone in the vast field
How you would improve yours based on this
Since mine was based in a city and not out in the country like there loop was I couldn’t really apply this to my loop as it
wouldn’t really make sense. But if I were to ever make something similar with the same themes in the future I could
Definitely apply this knowledge to that.
 Example 3 of 3
URL/link, image and description
LINK: https://youtu.be/uSj5M4tCdvc

This loop is named Dune runner and has mechanical elements featured in a harsh sandstorm
Something your loop does as well
Both our loops are framed very similarly, both featuring a character with their back facing the camera in the fore ground
staring off at something large and mechanical in the distance. And again with VISITOR they both fit into the same genre
of science fiction.
Something the example does better
I absolutely adore all the sand and wind that is blowing onto the scene from the right-hand side. Not only does it look
really cool but it adds so much flavour to the scene that I can’t even imagine what it would be like without the sandy
effect.
How you would improve yours based on this
Based on this I think it could have been cool if I had added some environmental animations. For example if I had thick
black clouds looming over the characters or if every so often some wind would blow past the stage carrying some litter
with it. And as mentioned earlier with VISITOR the machine can look stiff at times and this would be really helpful for
removing some of those gaps where no animation is occurring.

Results and reflection of your survey

Show evidence of your audience feedback and reflect on what it tells you.
Show evidence of your survey results here (screen grabs/graphs/urls/Youtube comments/other)
See Weebly page for Audience feedback images

What patterns or trends did you notice from your audience feedback?
Positive- My Ambient loop scored 4.8 out of 5 which tells me that I have reached my target audience. Another sign of this
Is that around 95% of the people that answered my survey were in the age category I was targeting. Also everyone
Who watched my loop and then completed the form said that they felt the animation was ambient, which is very good to
hear as this was my biggest worry as obviously the visuals in my loop aren’t very calming.

Out of all the responses for the question ‘what did you like about my loop’ the most common answer was to do with the
robot with 5 out of the 12 responses mentioning it. To be honest that doesn’t really surprise me as it was the focal point
of the loop and it’s what I put most of my time into creating. The second most common responses were to do with the
audio with 3 out of 12 responses mentioning it. And with all 12 respondents agreeing on saying that the choice of audio
matched the visuals of the loop, I can safely that people liked the audio that accompanies the loop. Further proving that
I have reached my targeted audience.

Improvements- On the question ‘what do you think I could have improved’ 5 out of the 12 respondents said that they
would have liked to have either seen more movement in the background or in the sky. 2 of these responses
specifically mentioned adding a few streetlights along the road just to add that extra bit of light and detail to the
environment. Another 2 out of the 5 background related responses mentioned adding more detail to the sky whether it
be the time of day changing or clouds and lightning. All of these responses make complete sense to me as I definitely
crammed all of the animations into that machine/robot when I should have spread out the 3 tweens and stop motions.

What did you learn from thinking about this?

From looking at these results it tells me that I have managed to reach my targeted audience and that they did like the
Loop for the most part. But I have also learnt from my results that my audience would have liked it much more If there
was just that extra level of added detail and depth to the loop, and by having weather and more things going on in the
background this would have accomplished that issue.
How might you make improvements to your work based on what you’ve learnt from your audience? Be specific
From what I have now learnt from my audience’s feedback, I now know what improvements I can add to my work in
future projects and assignments to make it more appealing to my target audience and to overall make it better. This
improvement being to make sure that when I’m animating something in a similar style again to not focus all my
attention on one singular aspect of the assignment like what I ended up doing with the machine. As doing this leads you
to use up all your time on that one thing meaning that the other aspects of the assignment will then be forgotten about
and will be neglected like how my background ended up looking flat as there was no real animation present on either the
buildings or the sky itself apart from the two tweens of the people in the windows.

Conclusions on your audience feedback

Based on what you’ve learnt above, write about whether your feel your work is fit for your specific audience overall.
Remember to say why and prove it
I think that my animated loop has reached the audience I wanted it to be targeted towards, and I feel that my work is
fit for this particular audience. The audience that I wanted to target my loop towards are people with an age range from
around 15-30 years old, who either enjoy science fiction video games or other screen-based platforms like film and TV. I
was targeting this specific age group as I wanted the people who would be listening to my loop to be students. I chose to
target towards students because of my audio choice for the loop being natural rain. And rain is often listened to by
people, especially students to either lower their stress levels or to help concentrate when working on a certain project or
assignment.

What shows to me that that my work is fit for this specific audience (and as previously mentioned) is that when asked
‘what did you like about my loop’, 5 out of the 12 respondents said that they liked the machine/robot that I drew. And
this is a massive sign to me that my loop is fit for that targeted audience, because not only did they just like the robot
but they liked it enough to make it the subject of what they liked the most in my animation. And this robot is what
adds the science fiction genre and theme to my animation. So those 5 responses alone are what tell me that my loop
appeals to people who like the science fiction genre.
 Another sign that tells me I have reached my specific audience is when looking at the responses for the question ‘what
do you think of the audio I used in the animation’. Every respondent said that the audio matched the visuals of the
loop very well, and a few of these responses even said that they found the natural rain to be ‘calming’ and ‘relaxing’.
This again tells me that my loop is fit for my targeted audience, specifically the student side of my audience as those two
words ‘calming and ‘relaxing’ confirm to me that people would consider using my animation as an ambient loop when
either studying or when trying to relax.

In conclusion after looking at the responses on my audience feedback survey I am happy to say that I think I have
managed to make my ambient loop appealing for my specified target Audience whether it be people liking it because
of the sci fi elements to it or whether it be students listening to my loop while at school, college or even just at home
to help them concentrate and focus on whatever tasks or assignments they have been given.

Task 2/2: Reflect on your own skills, processes and personal development (U10:LO3_AC3.2)
Please answer ALL sections fully in order to pass this section. You can include screen grabs and links to help. This section is
about how you feel your creative abilities and processes have improved during this assignment. Answer all sections fully
with supporting images (including your own screen grabs: CMD+SHIFT+4), links and any other evidence you feel is relevant

Talk about three issues you had during production. These could be based on practical parts of the work, supporting tasks
such as research or even audience surveys.
The first problem I encountered was during postproduction when I imported my animation into Aftereffects. All
the layers that should have been transparent weren’t and because I had a navy-blue tint over the top of my loop I
1.
was just sat with a big blue block of colour on my screen and I had no idea why this had actually happened
because as to my knowledge I had done everything correctly.
The second issue I had with my ambient loop was after I started fixing all the transparent layers as mentioned
previously. After the transparency issue had been fixed I then started to add the glow onto different elements of
2. my loop. But when I had finished working on it I sent the Aftereffects file to myself in the incorrect way meaning
that I wouldn’t be able to work on the postproduction until 4 days later which was annoying as I was so close to
finishing and I wanted to get it out the way but instead I had to wait until I was back in that room.

3. N/A

How/to what degree were you able to resolve each issue?

Fixing the transparency issue really wasn’t all too difficult to do but it was very time consuming and tedious as I
had to go through every layer and keyframe and then change the alpha value. So in the end I overcame the issue
1.
but it just took a bit of patience. The reason the transparent layers were behaving this way was because I had
done all my alpha layers in the frame panel when I should have been doing it in the objects panel.
I resolved this issue as all it took was just waiting a few days until I was back in the same room. And thankfully
2. waiting those few days didn’t impact the project at all and I was able to catch up fine as by that point I had no
actual animation left and the evaluation hadn’t been set yet.

3. N/A
 Write about at least three things which well during the whole process?
Talk about what you felt went particularly well about them.
One of the things that to me went exceedingly well with my loop were the actual animations. I had always
seemed to be better at the drawing aspect of animation rather than actually making those drawings move. So I
was really surprised at how good the animated flames and smoke looked, especially when comparing it to the
animations I did for my year 1 Final Major Project. And I feel like all the stop motion keyframed animation I did
sort of pushed me out of my comfort zone which has now shown me that I am a lot better at animating than I
thought.

1.

Another thing that went very well for me was how the big machine ended up looking. I hadn’t really expected it
to look as cool as it did and it perfectly conveyed the emotions and feelings that I wanted it to, being fear and
horror. All the glowing elements that I later added to it in Aftereffects also made it look cooler and it really added
life to the character.

2.

3. Lastly another thing that went really well was the background. This was the first proper background I have ever
drawn but I actually really like it. Especially all of the little brick textures that I did as it adds another layer of detail
to it. I was a bit hesitant at first to draw my own background as I could have just gone with an image instead but
now I’m actually really glad I didn’t and although it isn’t perfect it still surpassed my expectations and I am very
happy with it.
And finally, write a small amount about what you enjoyed about the project which you could possibly use in future work
or assignments. This could be from research, design or your practical production process. Feel free to use screen grabs.

I think the most beneficial thing that I learned from doing this project was how profitable Aftereffects can be to your
animations. I would have never guessed how easy it would be to simply add rain and snow and other effects to an
animation. And as I mentioned earlier the glow effect adds so much more detail and life to your characters and
backgrounds as it adds depth and realism to your scene. So I’ll definitely make sure to use Aftereffects as well as Premier
pro for my future animation projects whether that be in college or at home.