EP: Weekly Progress - 31/03

Yesterday marked my presentation screening of the work I had completed so far for this project. I was a little nervous about showcasing my work to the group, as I felt that I was behind the majority of people and had the least to show. I was also still wondering if my story was still confusing or not, as the last screening we had left me feeling a little unsure.

However, although I only had 8 seconds and a key framed shot, I feel that my screening went well and that I received some very useful constructive feedback.

The first point that was made is that I had to hold some of the frames for a little longer and allow time for these scenes to breath and for an audience to catch up with what they are watching. There are many places in my animatic where the shots seem to move too quickly from one to the next, and some of them were difficult for people to follow without the actual movement being there. I'm happy to hold shots for a longer period of time, as this won't necessarily require me to animate any more, but simple pause on a shot before moving on. Also, I'd like my story to be as clear as possible, so I will definitely add the time if I have to. 

The second thing that got mentioned was the fact that my introduction was really confusing, and people didn't know what was happening at all and decided that the many cuts back and forth from one scene to another wasn't necessary. They suggested that it would work just as well to have the action start immediately as the credits were on screen, as this would still give an audience an idea of what happened before hand whilst being clear and simple. Not only this, but it cuts down on animating, which gives me more time to focus on the remainder of the work. 

This is a change I've already made to my animatic since yesterday and I have altered the beginning of my animation. Although the introduction isn't any shorter in length, I have reduced the amount of animating needed, which has saved me at least a few days work. I've also mentioned this to Daniel and sent him a copy of the updated animatic. 

On top of this, people also suggested to me that I focus on the key points of the story and get them animated first, so it makes sense with the animatic filling in the gaps, as it is unrealistic to believe that I will get this completely finished for submission. This is something I will take on board and try work out as I go along, as I'm not 100% certain which bits are key to an audiences understanding and which aren't.

Finally, I was told that I need to do a few background tests to make sure that my character fits in with the environments, and to do these as soon as possible. However, James is away for the next few weeks, so I will have to wait until he gets back. In the meantime I will think about colour palettes and continue to animate.