1. The production of my project began on the 24th October, and finished on the 20th December.
During these two months I have been working on the presentation for lazy eye media; having not
completed my assignment by the deadline, I cannot truthfully say that I used my time as efficiently
as possible. However, having finally completed it, looking back at my log, I don’t think I did a bad job.
Using what I learnt when I researched the project lifecycle management technique, I effectively
executed all the stages of Initiation, planning, execution and closure, giving myself what I felt was an
appropriate amount of time to complete each one. I usually stuck to my schedule but tasks
sometimes overlapped, ultimately leading to my falling just short of the official deadline.
I had begun the project by gathering research into 2D characters, relevant to the brief (‘Idiosyncratic
characters with personality and soul that the viewer can connect with’). This step then allowed me
to begin forming my own ideas, using reference images gathered from the web. I think I dedicated
the right amount of time to this section – anymore and I would have been overindulging – any less
and I no doubt would have been lacking in inspiration and unable to create something original and
appealing.
The part of the project which took the longest amount of time was the digital realisation of my ideas.
Although I had created several hand rendered sketch-ups to significantly speed up the line art
process, I still needed to colour, shade and animate these. Animating them took a very long time as
it meant having to redraw the area I wanted to do again and again to create the frames; this was a
hassle because of how the lines were intertwined and getting in the way. If I were I to go through
this process again, I would animate the sprite before adding the more intricate detail and shading.
Doing so would hopefully make it easier for me, a speedier process and may even result in a better
end product.
I think I used the time available to me fairly well but evidently not well enough. Ultimately, I did not
finish my project in time for the deadline however I did manage to keep on top of what I had left to
do (which was just the evaluation) and set a new goal for myself which I have achieved in time. I
should take the opportunity to use what I have learnt about project time management during the
course of this project. In the future, I will try to more effectively balance out quality with the time I
have, so that I can get what I need to get done within the time I have available. More or less than
this is really no use to myself or the client.
In my opinion, my finished presentation and all the elements included has been a success. I think
that I have created a character concept which fits the original criteria, while making something
which is suitable for use in casual gaming, web advertising and smartphone/tablet apps, partly due
to the nature of vector and it’s flexibility plus the easy integration it brings being part of the adobe
selection.