Evaluation

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


Before this module I had never used After Effects or any software like it,
 so this has been a whole new experience for me. At first I found it very
challenging I find digital software hard to get to grips with anyway and 
After Effects was a lot harder than any of the others I had learnt before.
At the start of the module I found it hard to get to grips with, and struggled
 on the first brief, Silent Movie, I felt it was hard to get my ideas from paper
 in After Effects and I didn't have good enough skills. I think this is reflected 
in my Silent Movie outcomes and if I was to re-do them now at the end of the
 module I feel that could be greatly improved.
However I feel that during the second brief of this module my skills improved
greatly, I felt a lot more comfortable with the software and I think my improvement
of storyboarding skills helped this. I am pleased with how my Top Ten moving images
came out, I think my skills could still be greatly improved to achieve more impressive
work but this is something I can continue to work on.

2.What approaches to/methods of design production have you 

developed and how have they informed your design development process?

Learning how to storyboard and timeline my work had been a whole

new method of designing that I have never used before. At first I found

 the whole concept of working with time quite confusing. I couldn't get

 my ideas that were in my head to translate on my storyboards and in After Effects. 
 However as time went on I came to grips with it a lot more and saw how 

spending time storyboarding and planning my ideas saved a lot of time and stress when working in After Effects.

I also learnt that aiming to do something amazing in 60 seconds on a piece

of software that was new to me was not going to happen. I learnt I had to

be realistic, I couldn't produce a Hollywood Blockbuster in the time I

had with the skills I had learnt.

I also found during this module that the best way of learning was to learn by

doing, at first I avoided using After Effects in fear of it but once I started

playing around on it I started to improve and gain more knowledge.

3.What strength can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise

on these?


I feel that I spent a good amount of time storyboarding my ideas before I started
working on After Effects. I feel this helped me a lot, I also spent time making
all my assets for my motion graphics so when I got into After Effects I was 
all ready to go and I could produce the work I had storyboarded and planed
to produce. I feel that this lead me to produce work how I had planned it to 
look in my head and on my storyboards.
I also tried to organise myself a lot more in this module, I tried to make
realistic plans for each day so I could achieve all I set out to do. I normally have
problems when it comes to my end result in projects but this module I tried not
to leave it all until the last minuet which ment I could produce an outcome which
reflected the amount of time and work I have put in throughout the projects.
I am most pleased with how my idents came out, I felt I planned and spent the 
most time storyboarding and organising these and this reflects on my final 
outcomes, I felt working to smaller time constraints for the idents worked well
for me.


4.What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these
in the future?


I feel like I could of pushed myself more and tried to learn the software in more
detail so I could of gained more skills to apply to my work.
I did find the software very challenging and I think this reflects on my 
outcomes for this module. I am pleased with what I achieved but I 
still realise I could still have a lot of improvement in my work.
I found working with time a hard concept to grasp, I feel I am a very much 
print based designer so this wasn't in my comfort zone. In the 60 second title 
sequence I tried to fit too much in which ment everything looked rushed
and the pace was too fast which I hadn't anticipated in my storyboards. I 
therefore had to go back and change my original idea.


5.Identify 5 things you would do differently next time and what you expect
to gain from these?
-Think about the timings when working with motion graphics, what I expect to 
happen may not always be the case.
-Push myself more to learn more skills and learn the software in more detail
so I can apply what I learn to my work.
-Do more contextual research so I can gain a wider knowledge of the 
possibilities that can be achieved.
-Leave my comfort zone more, I could achieve more than I think I can
if I try new things and be more open minded.
-You can never do enough storyboards and timelines, have as much information 
 as you can to work from and work with.

5. 5       5