Production Analysis

For the purpose of this evaluation, I'm going to look at each section of the project separately.

First the Title Sequence: this is the one section that I have been happy with throughout Production. I had planned to paint everything digitally as I had not worked that way before, but as I explored ArtRage I realised that my lack of experience was making it difficult for me to achieve the results I wanted. Using my personal work of the children's book as a base was very enjoyable but it made it very hard to move away from the original storyline when trying to storyboard the sequence. After reworking the storyboard and inking the backgrounds traditionally, I found it much easier to progress with the sequence, and everything came together. I enjoyed combining the traditional backgrounds with the digitally painted characters, and would like to explore this more in future work.

Character Redesign: this was the hardest section for me. I couldn't decide on the style I wanted during PreProduction, and on the advice of others ended up with one I wasn't comfortable with. Instead of fixing this issue, I continued working and ended up hating my designs at the end of PreProduction. Seeing how unsuccessful the designs were at this point, I then rethought my idea. I ended up with characters that I was really happy with, but then I didn't have enough time to do as much work during Production as I should have. I learnt that you shouldn't work on something you know is unsuccessful, and next time, I will make sure I keep designing in a way that is different yet still something I'm happy with.

Collaboration: I had a number of projects lined up but, due to different reasons, some of them didn’t work out. I found Beth's backgrounds hard: I am not good and need more understanding and practice in the area. Sian's colouring was the project I was looking forward to all year, but because she only finished animating a few days before the deadline, I had to rush all the clean up and colouring. I only did shots 1 to 21, and they took a lot longer than I had expected, so I felt that I couldn't work to my usual standard. Next year I will make sure it is started sooner so I can put in the time and effort that it deserves.

Overall, I think there have been a number of issues for me this year, some of them unavoidable but many of them due to bad judgement. Next year I will think about what I want to achieve at the end of the project, and want to work in a way that not only looks great but I really enjoy. That being said, I still tried really hard this year, and have produced some nice pieces that reflect this. Next year I‘ll focus on better scheduling, more confidence in my ideas, and put more thought into the decisions I make.