OUGD202 Evaluation

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I think I have managed to get to grips with and make use of quite a wide range of After Effects’ potential tools. Whether this was in the silent movie brief where I used lighting effects for the first time and learnt about nesting compositions or in my best and worst brief where I learnt about using expressions and editing to a sound track.

I have also developed skills with iWeb in this module, I think the main thing I can take from iWeb is understanding a websites navigation structure better and how to organise information to make it logical and easy to use. I also have a greater understanding of file sizes and how to optimise images and video for the internet.

Another skill I have developed during this module is how to manage my time best and also understanding how I work best. I have realised I don’t work well in the evenings and I work much better at college than I do at home. This has meant long days in university working and relaxed evenings where I can unwind and not think about work, so I am fresh in the morning.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

I think I did some really good quality research over Christmas, which started me off on the right foot and gave me lots of ideas and potential directions for this project. Once I had finished my research I started to sketch out a lot of ideas this helped me develop a large quantity of visual ideas and pick out an appropriate solution quickly.

Another positive thing I can take from this module is being quite disciplined about decision making, I think when I have come to a point where I have to choose which direction to take my project in next I have made my decision quickly and stuck to it. This has definitely helped me work towards appropriate solutions more quickly than I have in the past.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

One of my biggest strengths during this module is that I have been able to understand and pick up new software relatively quickly I think this is particularly important with After Effects because there is some much to know and so much that could potentially go wrong. I think the fact that I picked up After Effects quite quickly meant that I could utilise a lot of different aspects of the program in my final solution to make a more varied and interesting animation. It also meant that I was able to work more quickly and efficiently. In the future I would definitely like to consider animated or web based solutions to briefs.

During this project I think I have been able to decide on a direction and generate a large quantity of work, which I can pick an appropriate solution from effectively. I want to take this mentality and way of working forward into my future projects.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?

One of my weaknesses with this project was not leaving myself quite enough time before hand in to get everything exactly as I would have like it. If I had had time I would have liked to make a sleeve for my DVD so that it could have been presented more professionally. There were also so final changes to my animation, which people pointed out during the most recent show-time that I would have liked to address if I had had time.

The pacing of my animation wasn’t quite perfect again I would have liked to address this if I had had time.

I think I can be quite disorganised with the way I work, in the future I would like to be more structured and disciplined with the way I save my files.

5. Identify five things that you will do different next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

• Leave more time at the end of the project for final changes and improvements.
• Be more organised with the way I save my work.
• Experiment more with the Effects tools in After Effects.
• Improve my storyboarding.
• Work with sound to a higher level.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 5
Motivation- 4
Commitment - 5
Quantity of work produced - 4
Quality of work produced - 4
Contribution to the group - 4

Final Piece

This is my final piece for the Top 10 Best and Worst Brief.

A Couple of Things

Neither of them particuarly related to my projec but oh well.


Saw really cool stop frame animation, It has loads of cool ideas in it and is really nicely done. I would have liked to do some stop frame animation for this project,


Also a friend showed me this really cool iPhone ap which I have subsequently downloaded called for all seasons. It kind of reminds me of a guy who was doing some really cool stuff with kind of cascading running typography and cutting out huge posters of tiny point size type, whos name I've completely forgotten.