Evaluation

1. Evaluation:
Research:
My Research was split into two parts. Context research which looked at existing people. And
research that includes audience research, existing products and techniques. For the context
research, I looked at people, animators, illustrators and story tellers, because these are the
main areas which I am going to explore for my project. At first, I was quite unsure about
what to look at specifically about the people. I wasn’t sure how to learn from what I
researched about them and how it would benefit me or affect my project. I looked at
Charles Addams first. I chose him because his humour is different to most and I really enjoy
his work. Also, I have a book of nursery rhymes written by him which I used to read when I
was younger. My idea in my pre-proposal was to create a twist on a nursery rhyme and I just
feel strange twists on familiar things or something that is seen as totally normal was very in
his element.
The next person I looked at was Richard Williams. I chose to research him because I was
going to attempt my first animation so looking at someone famous for his animations
seemed like a good idea. I really enjoyed learning about his works and how he developed his
skills over the years. I also used the book written by him called ‘The Animators Survival Kit’
which was highly recommended in the universities I visited. Some of the research I did on
him may not have been directly helpful to this project, but I definitely learnt things that will
help me in future, in particular the techniques of animation.
The third person I looked at was Dr. Seuss. I love Dr.Seuss and his work because it is so fun
and entertaining to read with adorably unique illustrations. But I chose him because not
only are his books funny nonsense, but they actually have quite beautiful messages. I feel it
gives kids the opportunity to be silly and strange and it be acceptable. For example, one of
my favourite books by him is called ‘Oh, The places you’ll go!’ I find this book very
reassuring and inspirational with its choice of words and general message of finding your
way and being able to move mountains. It is written in rhymes with words that don’t exist
but for some reason I really connect with it. I knew I wouldn’t be able to write anything as
good as that, but it was fun to put my own message in my work. Maybe it’s not as obvious
as it isn’t the whole focus of the story and it isn’t as well written, but I don’t think it matters.

2. In my second research, I mostly looked at already existing products pulling different ideas
from each of them. I did more secondary research because that’s just what I prefer, I do
understand the importance of primary research but looking at others existing work and the
development of it and meanings behind them fascinate me and I like getting my own
opinions and views on different products. First I looked at a series of existing products which
included Hazbin Hotel, Miss Butterpat goes wild, The Fairy Tale Police Department (FTPD)
and the cartoon series Hey Duggee. I looked at these to develop my idea for production.
Then I looked at the rhyme I was going to twist. Doing this research, I actually learnt about
the history of a lot of different nursery rhymes and how they told stories, some fictional
nonsense and also how some researchers have linked nursery rhymes to historical events or
politics at the time. There is a lot of debate on this. It was interesting to read how over time
some rhymes have been revised to be more child friendly or politically correct or relevant to
the current time. I also researched children’s programs and how different each one is for
slightly different age ranges. I always knew people aimed their productions to suit the age of
the audience, and why people did it. But I never realised what a difference it could make to
the product. For example, ‘Hey Duggee’ and ‘FTPD’ are both aimed at young audiences with
just a few years’ difference but they are totally different levels of storytelling and very
different animation styles. I researched the stages of storytelling and learnt how even the
simplest of things can be important. I can take a lot of what I’ve learnt in doing this forward
to university and maybe even beyond.
Methods used, missedopportunities?
Overall, I think my research went well and I enjoyed doing it. My main method of research
was secondary research where I looked at existing work and pulled ideas from it. I looked at
the main areas which I wanted to focus on like the animation, drawing style, character
design and storytelling. I prefer using this method because I enjoy learning about other
people’s work and seeing their thoughts and developing my own ideas from it. I like primary
research less because I’mnever sure what to ask because I rarely have a solid idea to ask
about. I think I may have missed some opportunities by not doing primary research because
new ideas could have come up which I couldn’t have thought of and it is important to get
feedback from different perspectives. Other people’s ideas and advice I feel would have
helped me further my plans more quickly and I have learnt about the importance of primary
research.
Another area of research I feel I could improve is my audience research. I don’t think I was
entirely clear about the specific audience I was targeting. I was more focussed on the idea
behind the story and creating a good visual effect. I wanted the production to be accessible
to quite a wide audience. Everything I learnt I could take forward into my future studies.
Final concept
My final concept was quite vague. It left a lot to be explored in research. It says I am going
to make an animated story about an old nursery rhyme with a twist. I didn’t specify which
rhyme I was going to do. This meant I could research different rhymes and choose one best
suited for me. I chose the one with the most characters imaginable as I wanted to practice
my drawing skills and make a good range for visual effects. However, even though I didn’t

3. specify what I would do I did talk about how I would do it. I talked about the method I was
going to use i.e. I would have a narrator to tell the story over the visuals and I would use
sound effects. I was going to possibly have the words to the rhyme along the bottom of the
page for the hard of hearing, which I explored in my research. I stuck to this method in my
production but I didn’t add subtitles along the bottom. This won’t be a difficult addition to
do should I wish to add this as a future change.
I was quite excited about my final concept when I first decided on it and through planning.
But as I went further into my production I started to realise the issues with it, mainly the
number of children I would need to draw. I’m not very confident at drawing people and so
trying to coordinate all of the old women’s children into the scenes was next to impossible
in the time I had. So in the final piece I just left them out at the beginning and had the sound
of them arguing and I focussed on drawing them as adults in their different and diverse lives
as the main message of this rhyme is opportunity and the possibilities in today’s society.
I learnt that it is ok for the final concept to just be a concept but it still needs to be well
thought through and achievable with a clear outline i.e. beginning, goal and end to fill in and
not add around.
Planning
My planning was ok, there were definitely areas where I was more confident. For example,
creating the rhyme and relating it to modern times with opportunity and possibilities for
people I found really fun and I think it went well. I also enjoyed creating the story around a
classic nursery rhyme because it is so well known and anything I write would not be wrong
because it is just my interpretation of a version more relevant to modern times.
However, making the story board to match was a little more difficult because drawing and
creating was new to me. I was trying to keep the story simple so it would be achievable in
the time frame but I also wanted to create a good visual effect and interesting piece of
work. So, I was torn between keeping it short and achievable and knowing how much detail
was acceptable to include and deciding when I had included enough.
This gave me a general plan of what I was going to do but by the end of planning my story
board was incomplete and I found it hard thinking of visuals for some areas and ended up
filling in the story board as I went through production. One piece of advice that I got when I
went to a university open day was that rather then seeing your final concept as a goal to
rather see it as a starting point. I found this really useful to me because I could relax a little
bit more about letting the creative process happen during production and not over worry
about not having a solid plan. This also meant that I could get on with the production in
good time and set myself clear deadlines for completion of the different stages. The initial
designs were fun to make, especially the locations, which helped me to get started on the
drawing. I was worried about my drawing ability for the people and so I signed up for some
life drawing classes on a Thursday evening after college. My drawing style is quite simplistic
but I think this has helped me to get better proportion in my characters and in particular
helped with the movement of Archie the dancer. Life drawing is also a mandatory
requirement for university and so will be helpful for future studies.
There are some aspects in planning which I failed to use in production, for example, I
planned to add subtitles so it is open for anyone to enjoy. So in future projects when making
changes going forward from planning to production I need to look back at planning and
check that all the ideas I want to use are included.

4. Production.
I think overall production went well I have really enjoyed creating the drawings and
animation, I found it really fun to do. Considering this was my first animation I’ve ever made
I actually quite like it. I do know there are aspects of quality that need to be improved on
but I liked the experience and the things I learned doing it. My favourite part was the ending
with the descriptions of the kids and what they are doing in their adult lives and where the
old woman has a chance to go on holiday and have some time for herself. The different
designs of the characters were a challenge at first but I spent a lot of time on it because this
was the key message of the rhyme and in the end enjoyed creating this part the most with
the different transitions between characters. As a result, I think this section is the most
effective animation.
For the narration I originally tried using an older woman’s voice to give the impression that
the old woman was telling her own story. I thought this would also link to the message of
opportunity. As it turned out their voices were quite slow and didn’t bring the story to life.
Andrew had a more relaxed and natural style that was easy to record, came out well and
was easy to edit and overall just really nice to listen to. I did try putting the woman’s voice in
to the story at the point when she speaks and requests a building loan but again this just
didn’t seemto fit well with the flow of the story. So instead I asked Andrew to change his
voice for this part.
An area which I could have done better on are the actual drawing’s. I would like to have
added more detail to the earlier parts of the story. There were too many characters in the
story and this slowed down production because I don’t feel confident drawing people so
they don’t look good and take twice as long to draw. In the end, I left people out of some
scenes. I think I could have made it more detailed and if I had more time or planned better
than I would have. I feel I could do a lot better with the lip sync as this had gone well in my
previous project but is not as fluid in this production.
But these are all great learning points and I am working on drawing people now. I learnt a
lot about the positioning of things and characters which is something I didn't think would be
an issue and the ideal positioning for things to get the best effect of the animation and get
the scene across. I learnt a lot about movement, the flow of things and how different
elements effect different objects differently. I also learnt about the principles of animation.
All of this I can take away to university.
I used a 2D animation method where I drew the images repeatedly on different layers
slightly changing them each time so when you play them in sequence the image moves. This
method wasn't as slow as I originally thought it would be as during production I decided to
simplify the movements so I could finish. I think I missed some opportunities for some more
advanced animation and more detailed drawings if I had more time.
Post-production.
I also think the post production went well. The narrators voice sounds really cool; I didn’t
edit it too much I just cut out the long pauses so it wouldn’t drag on. Mostly I just edited the
length and speed of the videos to fit the narrator’s dialogue. Because the sound wasn’t
directly linked to the visuals I was able to adjust the speed of the videos with no adverse
effect on the sound, but I did have to re-animate some scenes back in Photoshop because
there was a big gap left between two scenes and if I slowed the clips down anymore then
the animation would be too slow and jumpy. This additional work put extra pressure on
timelines for completion. Also in some areas, I found that the story didn’t match what was

5. being said or there was a big jump between the scenes which let out part of the story which
I needed to add in. This caused a bit of an inconvenience and I was limited on time so some
scenes such ‘they decided they’re off!’ are not ideal to match the dialogue. I feel it is a little
flat compared to the energy of the narrator.
In doing post-production I learnt a lot about the effectiveness of sound effects. I always
knew it made the video more interesting to listen to but I didn’t realize how plain the video
would be without them. I learnt a lot about preparation, having to book out a sound
recorder and go to different locations can be quite time consuming so preparing a list of
sounds I would need so I can get them all in one booking saves quite a bit of time. Also, how
useful it is to organize all of clips in premiere so you can see them. At the start of
production, I just kept all of my animations in the Photoshop document which made it
difficult to keep track of what I had done and what I haven’t. After putting them on
premiere and fitting them to the audio it put everything into perspective and it was clear
which parts I still had to draw. This knowledge will definitely help me in future projects look
at the whole picture.
How you dealt withTECHNICAL problems?
I didn’t really experience any technical problems and the few I did have weren’t big issues
they just inconvenienced things a little. For example, my memory stick was really slow and
took a good 20 minutes to download all of my work onto it. So, I tried to transfer the work
in as small a number of documents as I could. Over the break I got a new memory stick with
a much greater capacity which does it in seconds and so relieved this problem. Another
technical issue I experienced was with the pen for the tablets at college. When using the
pen on Photoshop the pens pressure would make the lines I drew go strange which wasn’t
ideal for line drawing. I didn’t actually do anything to fix this issue I just adapted to it
pressing lighter so as not to cause such a different size too quickly. I learnt about
adaptability, for example doing most of the line drawing at home and adding the colour
colouring in college. Adaptability is definitely a skill I will need in future.
How you dealt withMANAGEMENTproblems?
I don’t think I had a lot of management problems but there are a few such as my time
management. I have always found managing my time a little difficult. In the end, I always
feel I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. I do think for this project I have
managed my time in production better than previously and I got most of my other areas of
work in on time too. When recording some voices for narrator some people didn’t do what I
wanted them to do. For example, they emphasized different words and had the wrong tone
of voice and so on. I found managing this rather difficult because they had their own ideas
of what the rhyme would sound like and it was difficult to break the image and show them
mine. This may have been due to poor communication.
At some points, I had quite poor morale which can lead to poor motivation and then poor
productivity which I don’t think I managed very well. I was worried I wasn’t going to finish
and I was stressed about the quality of my work, but in the end, I tried to stop thinking
about things so much and just encouraged myself to keep drawing, so the process sped up
and I was actually doing stuff rather than over thinking each scene. I learnt about
confidence and not needing to worry to much because in the end the only worst
productivity is not doing anything. Its better to do something and it be bad so you can look
over it later, clean it up and hopefully get a new idea of perspective about your work.

6. How you dealt withEMOTIONAL problems?
There were times during this project, especially through the middle of production, where I
was getting stressed and worried about the quality of my work and there were times in this
project where I was worried that I wouldn’t get finished and I hated all my work so much it
made me angry thinking about it. Usually I solve stress with tea and cake and try to take a
step back and make a list of what needs doing in small chunks of work. I don’t know if I got
stressed rather than just tired. I tried going to bed earlier so I could wake up refreshed but I
still couldn’t get up. I also like to watch films to distract myself, especially funny films to
make myself laugh. Eventually it got to the point where I was so stressed I was calmand
didn’t care about the quality anymore and so just drew without worrying about so much
detail in the drawings. It was good I was actually very productive in this period and got a lot
of work done. Then I took a break over Easter holidays where I also did some reading and
took a complete break from the project. As it was sunny I also lay in the garden and did
nothing. It was good to have this complete break because when I came back to the work I
realised that the quality and volume of work I had done so far wasn’t even that bad and I
just cleaned up some areas of it and got on with it.
I learnt to take a break and do something which has nothing to do with the project, drawing
or anything. Don’t even think about it. This gives you an actual break where you can come
back to your work with a new mind-set and new perspective. If you keep thinking about it,
you will still be thinking about the same work and the same issues with no progress.
Forgetting about it often reveals simple solutions that were originally overlooked.
Does your product meet your intentions?
I think this project does meet my intentions even though it isn't how I originally expected it
to turn out. My intention was to create an animation of an old nursery rhyme and put a
modern twist on it. I chose to do this to practice and create and animated piece of work, to
improve my drawing skills and to be able to create a good narrative that would engage a
wide audience. I am going on to study Animation at university and these are all very
important elements of it so I found it really useful to explore them.
If we look at nursery rhymes they all have some kind of meaning. The old woman who lived
in a shoe to me represents poverty and how woman in those times didn’t have options and
big family’s and how common death was. The story has depth even though it is a nursery
rhyme. My version goes in the opposite direction. Simply put it is about an old woman who
lives in a shoe. Underneath that it is about her coping with the everyday struggle of bringing
up kids and paying the bills and it also explores other related material such as the
opportunities people have today and the acceptability of diversity today.
Overall I think it meets my intentions and expectations.
Dear Joan,
Thank youfor readingforme,thishas beenreallyhelpful inthe developmentof myproject.
I nowneedto askyou a fewquestionsregardingyourexperience of workingwithme andif Ihave
demonstratedconsiderationandprofessionalism.Pleasecanyouanswerthe followingquestions:
Where youmade to feel comfortable inthe recordingstudio(car)?
Yes.

7. Was it clearwhat wasexpectedof you?
If not howcouldI have improvedonthis?
Yes,it was clear what I had to do.
Were your questionsansweredappropriately?
Yes.
Is there anythingIcouldhave done differently?
I can’t thinkof anything else that could have beendone differentlyno.
Do youhave any othercommentsaboutthe experience?
It was verynice to hear my voice and have a chance to read poetry.I enjoyedit very much.
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Dear Andrew,
Thank youfor readingforme,thishas beenreallyhelpful inthe developmentof myproject.
I nowneedto askyou a fewquestionsregardingyourexperience of workingwithme andif Ihave
demonstratedconsiderationandprofessionalism.Pleasecanyouanswerthe followingquestions:
Were youmade to feel comfortable inthe recordingstudio(car)?
I found the recording experience verycomfortable – a little bizarre beingin the car but not
uncomfortable.
Was it clearwhat wasexpectedof you? Youexplainedeverythingveryclearly.
If not, howcouldI have improvedonthis? n/a
Were your questionsansweredappropriately?
We recordedthe linesseveral times – I understoodeach time why so didn’t needto answer
questions(ifI recall correctly)
Is there anythingIcouldhave done differently?
As above,everythingwas clearly explainedsono, I can’t think of anything you could change.
Do youhave any othercommentsaboutthe experience?
I was flatteredto be part of the project(eventhough there wouldbe no guarantee of
‘making the cut’). I’d be interestedtosee and hear the final product.
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