Evaluation

Introduction:

I want to reflect and evaluate on each of the components of the project so that I can consider how I can improve in future projects. I want to review what I enjoyed and what I struggled with so that I know what skills I can use next time and what sort of workflows worked the best for me.

Research phase:

The research phase was relatively simple at first, it involved exploring and taking notes on the artist Edward Hopper and his other potential inspirations. I enjoyed this segment of the project as it provided me with the freedom to explore and research different art styles and mediums of work. I reviewed the word of Edward Hopper and Edgar Degas and their uses of light and parallel lines. The use of light as well as straight lines within their inspired and affected my work to come similar to how Edward Hopper was affected by it. When I analysing the work from both of these artists it aided me when I was considering how I could use and manipulate light and geometry within architecture. I thought about how I could create shadows or highlights onto walls to create a dynamic contrast. Eventually instead of using highlights on the walls I used highlights and light rays that reflected and shined off of the fog in the scenes. During the research on the Rule of Thirds I realised how much of an ally it was when it came to creating a sense of power and focus within an image or film. The same went for the different camera angles I researched, they were a great help when it came to creating a storyboard and film that created a strong atmosphere and message that was clear to the viewer. Overall the research segment of the project was very important and influential on my later work.

Photography workshop:

After researching different camera angles and the rule of thirds, I worked on capturing a set of images that used these techniques. These pictures were only experiments that I could take inspiration from later. This photography workshop was important and influential upon my later work, however at the time I had not known that a few of the images I had taken would become scenes within my final storyboard and film. This photography helped better understand how I could use the direction of lighting and its colour hue to determine the atmosphere and mood, this would later play an important role within my filming and editing work. The photography workshop was just as influential as the original research that I had conducted, just this time it was more specific to my medium of work. I had taken a few of these images into photoshop to manipulate them to get some ideas for the next task which involved story boarding. this part of the project was really fun and insightful into how I could include a combination of different camera angles, lighting and filters to create a realistic looking degrading world.

Story boarding:

The story boarding aspect of the project was the most important when it came to sculpting the result and quality of my film even when the content of the storyboard didn't remain consistent compared to the final result.

Upon looking back at the first storyboard I made, it provided no context to who the character was and why they are walking though a building. I created a second storyboard that this time had a few additional scenes that displayed the character scavenging and returning back to a room they had made their home.

I had decided that then we would get to watch them travel though a decaying building that they had made their home. With the final shot being the character looking out of the window looking somehow at peace with this new world that they lived in. The narrative changed drastically and quite suddenly after this as I began working on creating the character models for the film as the program that I was using became discontinued and prevented me from using the characters I had created, this meant that I wasn't able to exactly follow the narrative and plot I had created within the storyboard. On the other hand I was able to keep the same environment and architecture but just change what action took place during each area. The story boarding segment of this project was one of my top two favourites as it allowed me to begin researching and designing the levels that I could create in Unreal Engine.

Film-work:

Creating an animated film was something I had never done before nor did I have any experience when it came to rendering scenes from Unreal Engine, this meant that I had to quickly learn everything as i was doing it so that I would have enough time to create this ambitious project. There was a lot of work that went into creating the different elements of the film such as, level design, animation, particle systems (eg rain), texturing, rendering and editing. Creating all of the scenes was the job that took the longest but was also the most worth while segment that I was also the most proud of due to how well it turned out. I am only a little disappointed in how the characters look within the animation but it was the best ones I could find for free online after i lost my original characters. On the other hand in the process of losing those characters I was forced to come up with a new storyboard that produced a much smoother and interesting narrative compared to the original plan.

I had a little experience when it came to editing but none to do with cinematic editing. I enjoyed making different clips become one complete movie with the use of transitions, however the part I struggled with the most was the sound design aspect as I had no experience at all in that subject of work. I was able to find audio that matched what was happening in the scene but I found that I couldn't make it auditorily interesting. I personally feel like the film is lacking when it comes to what I did with the sound design. If I had more experience in this area of work I think I could have made it more natural. Overall I would say that the film was a great success because I learnt so much from it while I was working and still managed to produce a great result.

Promotional work:

The promotional was something I struggled with quite a lot as I just wasn't able to create a poster that I liked, on the other hand it did help me discover digital artists that I really liked, including an artist called 'Benny Productions' and I know I will take inspiration from their work at a later date. I think overall the promotional work that I did was the weakest out of everything when looking at the quality and quantity of the work, luckily I know it is something I don't want to pursue as a career.

Overall this project was really fun and informative so I think I've learnt a lot that I can take into future projects.