The document contains an evaluation by Ben Dix of the strengths and weaknesses of their research, planning, time management, technical qualities, aural qualities, aesthetic qualities, and audience appeal for their animation project. Some strengths included thorough research of similar games' animation styles, clear vision from a mood board, and variety in environments and character designs. Weaknesses comprised a limited scope of research sources, lack of sound effects or storyboard planning, and potential dullness of the forest map colors. Time constraints prevented additional details and extension work.

1. Evaluation
Ben Dix

2. Research
• One of the strengths of my research into similar products is the art style
that I wanted to emulate and imitate within my own project as well as the
type of project I wanted to create. This aided my product as it was able to
give me a clearer vision as to what it was I wanted to create and what I
wanted to look like, this includes the exaggerated fantasy elements and
the colour scheme that was used in my project.
• Another strength of my research was that really looking in depth at these
games , specifically how the animations were done allowed me to properly
rationalise the methods of animation that I would use in the product,
giving me confidence in my ability to complete the product with fluid
animation.

3. Research
• A weakness of my product research is: I suppose the existing products
researched was a rather limited number and could’ve been expanded on
in order to give me a broader view on animating techniques as the ones
researched had very particular styles.
• Another weakness in my research is that, for the majority, Is a similar
genre in theme and type of video game. Again this could’ve been
improved by noticing that earlier on and then looking at more varied
types. Doing this would’ve allowed me to have a greater sense of what I
could do instead of just focusing on one idea.

4. Planning
• One strength of my planning is the mood board in the initial plans
segment. Collecting the images was able to give me a clear idea of how I
wanted to design the art style of the animation. In doing so I created a
unique and fantasy based world which added to the production value of
the final product.
• Another strength in my planning is the in-depth mind map for the final
idea. This gave me a sort of sense of inspiration and an strong sense of
where I wanted to take the animation

5. Planning
• One weakness of my planning is that I didn’t exactly plan a structure to my
animation outside of a premise that was in my head. To improve this I
would've made a story board, this would have helped me better space out
my work load and have the animation process better organised

6. Time Management
• Whilst I was able to complete my project on time there is a rather
significant amount that I could’ve done to improve my product if I had
extra time.
Some of the things that I had to cancel doing were;
• Doing the sound effects for actions from characters
• Certain extra animation details, map screen animations,, greater deal on
forest map etc.
• Extension work like creating a game box cover
• One of the reasons I struggled with time management is the fact that I
was off sick for 2 days (6 full lessons) and ,due to the corona virus, 2 full
lessons in the final week. Which was one of the main reasons I couldn’t
fully complete my product.

7. Technical Qualities
• Some strengths of the technical qualities of my work is the detail of the pixel
art and the complexity of the animated elements, a way that I know of this is
that I spent a great deal of time focusing on animation and I would say that
the level of detail in the pixel art is high as most objects were drawn on a
bigger canvas in order to fully design them as well as the fact that I didn’t use
any enlargement or rescaling so the pixels themselves weren't messed with
which can happen in Photoshop.
• A weakness in my work is the smoothness of the animation, whilst I will say
that for the majority it all holds up there are some bits where the movement
speed of the characters or text is off, this is due to the afore mentioned time
constraint issues.

8. Aural Qualities
• One of the strengths in the music used is the number and variety of tracks
created over the animation, the music itself also varies in complexity this is
due to the fact that I didn’t know how long the piece would need to be for
each segment and to better match the tone I was trying to accomplish.
• One of the weakness is the lack of any sound effects . It would've been greatly
improve by rather minor ‘quality of life’ sound effects; i.e. option select noises,
battle noises etc.

9. Aesthetic Qualities
• I would say that my work looks good and is very creative, personally I really
like the character and location visuals the most due to the style of them and
how well they turned out. If I had to improve I would attempt to add more on
screen detail to the forest path , more textures , slightly more colours etc.,
• Via the use of colour I think it can be shown what’s hostile and what’s friendly
in terms of enemies, due to their size and their highlights of red in their eyes
for instance.
• One of the strengths within my work is the shear variety of environments
presented in the piece as they simply look good as well.
• One of my personal favourites is the design of the characters; soldiers seen in
the intro sequence, overhead animations of the main character., and(my
personal favourite) the overworld and battle sprites for the golem.
• One of the weaknesses is that the forest map could be considered quite bland
in terms of colours whilst it not being my intentions for it to be vibrant, I didn’t
want it to come of as ‘dull’ as it might.

10. Audience Appeal
• One of the ways that I’ve appealed towards my target audience is by using
energetic music which would get the player engaged in the game
• Another way is the hint to a deeper lore in the intro sequence, which a large
amount of players of modern games are very interested in.
• A more specific piece of content that would appeal to the target audience is
that the character designs are simple and yet memorable.