feedback results

I gathered feed back on the final product and they confirmed the problems with my product that I was already aware of  yet didn't have time to fix or change

results-

feedback questions

Did you enjoy the short animation?

Did the music match the atmosphere of the film? 

did you you feel you could empathize or maybe sympathies with the character?

would you have prefer more changes  in the character and the backgrounds?

how could I improve my work?

FMP evaluation draft

For my fmp research initially I planned to use the information I gathered from my research a lot more than I did, I wanted to gather information from local schools and health organization so I sent questionnaires to 2 local schools however neither of them ever got back to me even after multiple emails as for the health organizations I looked into the organizations and charities that deal with stress and anxiety however I never found a way to include the information on the charity's and I was unable to contact them as well to see If I could use their name or logo in my work so I decided I needed to research the symptoms of stress and the different way of countering stress however I did not plan on showing these in my work the were more so I could understand the mental state of a student under stress to do this i also looked at student forms and page on stress during exam season and I believe my final product reflects this in its mood and atmosphere.

However before any of this I did my audience research I surveyed my friends on facebook to see what topics and ideas were easiest to relate to the two most popular ideas were a story on bullying and exam stress I decided to use the story on exam stress because it gave me a good idea on how I would present the story through animation.

I also did research on the effects of colour on mood I planned on having my works backgrounds transition into colour as his mood improves or changes however in the end I found I was being too ambitious with my plan in the end I was unable to include this in my work, due to a problem with timing and a problem using photoshop to add colour.

As for the production my final product is the best I feel I could achieve in the time I was give the end product is not exactly how i imagined it when I started however it conveys the same story in a original and creative way which is what i set out to do however I wish I had time to include all of the things I had planned to add to my work i wanted my work to be a little longer and included a transition in the character and  the backgrounds however this was too ambitious for the time I was given since the majority of my project was dedicated to self study on animation and the flash software as well as other problem I encountered like trying to justify my creative decisions with research and moving my animations between softwares i encountered many problems with this however thanks to the help of my teacher i was able to overcome this problem.

I choose to do this particular story because it was easy to relate to especially for my target audience who would maybe going through something similar, I Still believe my idea was a good idea even for all the problems I encountered along the way my idea left a lot of room for change and creative changes. My idea slowly change thought review from my peers and tutors like with my music originally a calm track changed into a emotional piano piece and character movement trying to make it as realistic as possible thanks to the help from others.

In terms of time management I wish I had properly timed myself planning what i'd do in advance if I had done this properly I believe my work could have been a lot better and maybe even being able to add some of my other creative ideas like creating a more in detailed timeline and referring more to my schedule.

Early on in my development I knew my project was going to be harder than expected while creating my animation I encountered many problems like when creating the design of my character I spent hours redrawing him so that the body, head,arms and legs all worked together and were in relative proportions to each other then I had to redraw it on the next frame this process was most a trial and error stage however thanks to this I now understand the flash software better I learned many tricks and shortcut that will be useful in the future as well as the importance of planning my character on the stage in advance ,I also didn't understand the way the pen tool worked, I believed the pen tool added a free hand line which when connected to other lines on the layer creating a symbol however it turns out that the pen tool makes every line you draw a different symbol making moving and exporting the clip all most impossible this also prevented me from using shortcut methods that would have made animating a lot easier to do. I found out I was supposed to use the pencil tool however I didn't find this out until I had draw all the frames individually, I also didn't understand how the keyframe systems worked being able to merge and stretch frame which also speed up my production.

I also encountered trouble when I tried adding colour to my background on photoshop the way the images are draw makes adding colour to difficult and if I had tried add colour to every be able to finish  my product in time for the end of year show. I felt that it help my work a lot having a different pair of eyes review and look back on my work because sometime my opinions stopped my from improving my work or see flaws in my work because of how much time I spent on it however others were to see flaws i was unable to see like with my animation when I exported it I didn't see that I hadn't removed all of the background and small dots flashed in and out of my clips.

For my end of year I had a breakdown of the animation process and I made use of my research in to stress and anxiety and put the information up on display for anyone who maybe didn't get the story/message my work was suppose to convey.

Word count - 1052

By Connor Stewart

may schedule

				1 begin setting stage	2	3
4	5 add ALL backgrounds to stage start ordering them up	6	7 complete backgrounds and add effects-passivity changes and site adjustments	8 adjust script  add text to stage	9	10
11	12 Finish adding text and add effects to text	13	14 plan display for end of year show	15 add both animations to stage adjust timings and colour key the backgrounds	16	17
18	19 finish of anythign for the final edit and export	20	21 write evaluation and get feed back	22 update blog and finish anything that need doing
					30

Finished poster

synopsise

For my Final major project I self studied and learned animation and created a short 5 minutes long animation about the stress of exams on students my video is less of an awareness video and more like a relatable story for students moving between there last year at school and college,

change of mind

I have decided to cut out all non useful scenes that i feel are not necessary for the story cutting the run time back down to 4 minutes and i have added the text to the video.

I only have to get feed back from others and evaluate.

credits

Music by Mattia Cupelli
Animation by Connor Stewart
Backgrounds by Morgunova Tetiana, anirhapsodist, Edgeman13, Allan Linder

I do not own all images all images used are for educational purposes I was unable to locate the official names of all artistes and all images are taken from deviant art.

The start

i have converted my animations to quick time file and looped my footage for 2 minutes on both animations and placed them on After Effects and colour keyed the background 

One week left

I have finished my editing and only have to add the text and then show it to others and get there feed back on my work.

A Change

I've made some changes to my project first of all it seems like my video will be double the length of the original idea going from 4 minutes to now being 8 or maybe 10 minute plus credits this was unexpected however I feel my project needs the extra time to convey my story to its full extent and give the desired message.

Secondly I am unable to colour in ever because I cant do it on photoshop because the sketch like style make adding colour to difficult or because I colouring the image will take up too much time.

A Change

I have decided to add a opening title to my project which will also act as a disclaimer stating that i do not own all material used and that they are for learning purposes only.
I have decided to to do this because i feel an observer deserves to know that i haven't created all the background this will also be in the credits with a list of the official owners of the backgrounds

"disclaimer I do not own all of the images or music, all materials are for learning purposes and not for gain or profit."

FMP script

Final days

Main character = MC - lucida handwriting

Others = OR - lithos pro

All other lines will be displayed in a different font on the final product to show that they aren't the main character.

The MC font will be a sketch/hand drawn like style while the others will be shown in a low opacity san-serif font.

OR - mock exams are coming up.

MC - Who care it's not like we're taking the real thing anytime soon.

MC (inner thoughts ) - I don't understand why everyone tries so hard we still have an entire year  till the real exams, I know I'll be fine I'm not going to be getting any A’s or B’s but i'm smart another to just pass.

MC (inner thoughts ) - I don't even want to think about exams, I just want to have fun.
MC- Everything's going to be okay

Time skip of 1 year beginning of exams year 11

MC (inner thoughts ) -  where did i go, I thought I was safe, I thought id be fine i just wanted to have fun and not think about exams. and now im going to fail
MC- I cant take this anymore there isn't anymore time to study i don't understand half the things on the papers, the stress is to much
MC i cant take this no one will help me now theres no point in even trying anymore I'm going to fail anyway

Time skip to end of 11
MC-I barely maneged D’s and C’s and i have no idea what im going to do now next year at collge
MC-My teacher tell me theres lots of fun courses i can take i while i retake my maths and english im scared , im the only one of my friend who didnt pass all my subjects

MC- who know what my future will hold for me.

critical evaluation-notes

evaluation of planning ,audience research, contextual research 

Strengths 

planning-for my idea i planned out how it would look on a story board and how it would change/transition and how it would sound as well as timing and passing all in advance i made note on this in my blog.
audience research- I did a survey to see what my audience wanted to see from my product i also give them the choose on what kind of story my product would follow.
contextual research- I researched in to stress and anxiety and the stress of exam season. I also did a lot of research on animation like setting up the stage,designing my charterer, exporting ,stretching backgrounds and a lot more note of which are on my blog.

weaknesses

planning-My time management is has been bad i need to update my schedule and time line as well as recording my progress.
audience research- I didn't give my audience much room in my servery to give opinion or ideas.
contextual research- my research was useful however it was hard to apply it to my work

Putting everything together

I have imported all resources into Adobe After Effects  and will fish prediction soon.

I had to fill the  character in and turn the flash background green and chrome key it so i can have my character over my backgrounds.

Update 28/04/2016

I have finished the backgrounds by removing the colour and thick lines to make the image look smoother i will now begin to put my work together.

Images

Finished both animations

I have finished both animation clips and made them longer by adding frames to make it look less jumpy, I also added motion to the heads to make the clips look more natural.

Second animation second opion

question for test viewer.
Test viewer - Luke Nicholas
seen at 10:50 on thursday 21 april.

Does the walk look natural?                 Yes the animation looks natural and flows well 

Do the low number of frames make it look jumpy?   Kind of however it adds it own style and effect

could you see any problems between frames?                              NO it looked good

Tuesday 19 of April

Today I have continued with my second walk animation completing frames 2 and 3 and staring next lesson i will finish thee animation and move on to my final character sketch or background coloring's.

Second animation

I am more confutable working with flash and keyframes and the flash timelines as well as drawing my character in different poses.

Begining my work

TodayI started my work and finished my 4 basic poses as well as working on my character design to make it easier to animate by changing the size of his legs and head.

Easter holiday

Over the holiday I installed and practiced with flash, learning the nature or the basic tools and layouts and manipulating the frames and layers.

What I learned, I learned that the tween tool fills in extra movement between frames and that the bone tool can be used to link drawings and create a flowing motion while saving time as well as 
colouring in vector images or symbols and shading using the flash tools (not Photoshop) by using the colour properties, shadings 

Backgrounds set

These will be my inspiration for some of my background Im going to put together on Photoshop.

How to make a Background for your Flash Cartoon

The Animator Survival kit

A highly recommended book by Richard E Williams  a easy to understand animation basics book recommended to me by my print teach and online tutorials and sites.

draft character sketch

I will probably not be using these sketches however Sam 1 was my first practice at trying to draw a character.

character design tips and researc

I have looked at PIXAR character design info page here are the tips i took from the page

Exaggerated characteristics - 
Exaggerating the defining features of your character will help it appear larger than life. Exaggerated features will also help viewers to identify the character's key qualities.

Colour -

Colours can help communicate a character's personality. Typically, dark colours such as black, purples and greys depict baddies with malevolent intentions. Light colours such as white, blues, pinks and yellows express innocence, good and purity.

Conveying personality -

Interesting looks alone do not necessarily make for a good character; its personality is key as well. A character's personality can be revealed through animations, where we see how it reacts to certain situations. The personality of your character doesn't have to be particularly agreeable, but it does need to be interesting (unless your characters is purposely dull).

Beyond the character -

In the same way that you create a history for your character, you need to create an environment for it to help further cement believability in your creation. The world in which the character lives and interacts should in some way make sense to who the character is and what it gets up to.

Second character design

For the end of my animation im going to fill in the blank character and make him seem more normal.
The character is going to be draw in Photoshop and I have begun to draw a rough sketch by hand.

Animation tutorial

From the tutorials I've learned how to set up and structure my stage or background and how character placement and layering this is when you build a character out of multiply layers and pin them together using the bone tool creating the effect that the different limbs are connected this make moving and animating the characters a lot easier.

Animation tutorials

I have watch video tutorials by Draw with Jazza a YouTube and professional animator i watched his videos on drawing backgrounds on flsash and walking cycle 

Indie animations

I have watched a couple of indie animations (Independent animation) to research any codes and conventions they may have. Indie animations are mostly personal projects with little to no story however most dont use narration but rely on character movement and expression
to convey the emotions and the theme of the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erUMp1WZ6l4

Short Animation.

The Final Exam : Animatic-StoryBoard - A animation with a similar art style to my own idea similar themes.

This Test Does Not Define You -  Is a narrative based animation with similar themes to my own however the style is too complex for my to replicate and I will not be using narration however it was interesting to see narration used in an animation and will make a good reference if I choose later on to use narration in my work.

Stress?

LONELINESS AT SCHOOL

Earlier this year YoungMinds surveyed 2,000 young people in education aged 11 to 25 across the UK.

The results were distressing, with a third of pupils feeling that they had no-one to talk to at school during difficult times.

Loneliness emerged as the central problem confronted by these 15-17 year old school students – 35% of males surveyed said that they had no-one to talk to about their stress, and 31% of females.

The poll reveals that children and young people are growing up in a ‘toxic climate’. It found that:  

• Over half of children and young people believe they will be a failure if they don’t get good grades.
• Half of children and young people have been bullied.
• Four out of ten 11-14 year olds are skipping meals to stay thin.
• One-third of children and young people don’t know where to turn to get help when they feel depressed or anxious.

ABOUT SCHOOL WORK AND EXAM STRESS

There is a lot of pressure on children and young people to do their best and get good results, and the stresses and strains of school life can sometimes get on top of them, and they can find it hard to get on with their school work and homework.

There may be a number of reasons for this:

• Difficulties concentrating in class due to noisy or disruptive pupils
• Problems with friends or bullying
• Difficult relationships with teachers
• Pressure around course work hand-ins or exams
• Problems learning due to specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia 
• Problems paying attention due to developmental problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Problems at home getting in the way
• Feeling unsupported by parents or carers.

TIPS ON MANAGING EXAM STRESS FOR PARENTS

The following tips should help:

• Accept this is going to be a stressful time for the whole family – expect outbursts and try to remain calm
• Try and find out as early as possible what is expected of your child, when their exams will be and when coursework needs to be handed in
• Try and work with your child and support them rather than policing them
• Be clear that avoiding subjects they find difficult will not be helpful in the long run
• Encourage children to talk to you if they are really worried they haven’t done enough work. Reassure them that if they do not get their expected grades, there will be other opportunities ahead, and they should just do their best
• Find out what revision techniques are recommended by the school, and check out online revision sites
• If you have any concerns or questions, contact the school rather than relying on your child to do it – most teachers have email addresses which can be useful if they are hard to contact
• Encourage your child to have regular breaks, to do something they enjoy, even if it’s just half an hour off for their favourite soap
• Make sure they eat healthy snacks regularly, and drink enough so they don’t get dehydrated – you can always pop your head in to see how they are doing and bring them a drink
• Exercise is also a good way to relax, even just a walk round the block
• Children have different ways of revising – some may prefer to be alone, others work best surrounded by noise and family
• Respect their body clocks – many teenagers are more alert during the night and this may be the best time for them to revise even though it makes parents anxious!
• After an exam or hand-in, they might not want to talk about it immediately so let them decide
• Try and plan something nice for when it’s all over – reward them for trying their best, however they feel it went.

What is stress?

Stress- A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.

Stress is simply a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium. In other words, it's an omnipresent part of life. A stressful event can trigger the “fight-or-flight” response, causing hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to surge through the body.

Emotional symptoms of stress include:

• Becoming easily agitated, frustrated and moody
• Feeling overwhelmed, like you are losing control or need to take control
• Having difficulty relaxing and quieting your mind
• Feeling bad about yourself (low self-esteem), lonely, worthless and depressed
• Avoiding others.

Physical symptoms of stress include:

• Low energy
• Headaches
• Upset stomach, including diarrhoea, constipation and nausea
• Aches, pains, and tense muscles
• Chest pain and rapid heartbeat
• Insomnia
• Frequent colds and infections
• Loss of sexual desire and/or ability
• Nervousness and shaking, ringing in the ear
• Cold or sweaty hands and feet
• Excess sweating
• Dry mouth and difficulty swallowing
• Clenched jaw and grinding teeth.

How to reduce stress

1.Eat a healthy diet. Well-nourished bodies are better prepared to cope with stress, so be mindful of what you eat.

2.Reduce caffeine and sugar. The temporary "highs" caffeine and sugar provide often end in with a crash in mood and energy.

3.Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs.

4.Get enough sleep.