My Experience on This Project

Originally, I had made the decision to use the feedback obtained on both characters a platform for making alterations to them in order to create better, improved animation tests. However I soon came to realise that I had been unrealistic with this goal, because the original set of animation tests took longer than expected due to technical issues. Therefore, I decided to use the feedback gathered through the questionnaires as a way of analysing the success of each character, and to acknowledge how they could have potentially been improved if I were to use them again. 

Farah

For the character of Farah, luckily I managed to gather a lot of positive feedback. However something that did come up on more than one occasion was the fact that her 3D tests were less believable and slightly more robotic than the 2D versions. Therefore, if I were to animate her again in 3D, I would have to consider spending more time on it, in order to achieve a more fluid performance. In terms of her ability to be used in the 3D world, I was very happy with her design and felt it worked in both mediums. If I were to produce more tests, I would consider not just play blasting the Maya files, but actually rendering them all out with a background, because I felt this is something that may have also made the 3D tests seem less appealing in comparison to the 2D versions.  

Toby

After a while, when it was too late to make any massive changes, I had realised I was not as happy with my design for Toby. I couldn't fully put my finger on why, I think he just ended up not looking as good as I had been aiming for. However, despite this, he did prove to still have popularity amongst the participants. I came to the conclusion that as a character he was better suited to being 2D, because once I had finished modelling him in Maya, I thought he looked slightly odd. This reinforced to me, the importance of design when a character is going to be taken from 2D to 3D, and I now feel like I could do not only a better job a second time around, but I would also be able to go about it much quicker! 

Animation Testing

The animation tests produced allowed me to gather a broad and non-biased set of results, however there are certain aspects that I would consider making if I were to do an experiment like this again:

• I would ensure all tests were properly rendered with a background in order to keep it fair
• I would consider the use of more camera movement in 2D and not just 3D, due to the fact that this time I took advantage of the 3D tools at my disposal with out thinking about it for 2D
• I would produce performances that presented more movement and more extravagant actions actions from both characters, as I feel the tests for Farah were more subtle in comparison to the tests of Toby.

Writing 

The writing section of this project was by far one of the most interesting essays that I have had to carry out research for. It was an opportunity for me not only to submerge myself in a range of academic sources, but to also reach out and communicate with different practitioners, as well as taking advantage of my trips to MAF and ASFF. The process of gathering primary feedback from the practical work was extremely interesting, because I was able to identify a pattern running through the results, which hugely informed by final chapter. Finally, this project encouraged me to think more deeply about the more sensitive, cultural aspects that can influence a character's design. It encouraged me to have a more in depth outlook on the ethical issues that surround different stereotypes in animation, and how it is important to consider this when designing characters, especially when a character is of a specific ethnicity, gender, sexuality or religion. 

I have really enjoyed this project and  I feel I have not only produced some fresh concept work of which I am very happy with, I have also come out of this project feeling more enlightened and aware of the deeper, more sensitive aspects to character design. 

Academic Poster

As part of the requirements for this project, I have put together an academic poster illustrating and explaining the aim of my work. This highlights what exactly the goal of the project is, how I have gone about achieving this through primary & secondary research, as well as how this has informed the final practical outcome. 

Moodboards - Research

After beginning the research necessary for my first character, I began to think about the design for y second character. I knew this character would be from a different time period, the 1940's, so I began by gathering together different relevant images as a means of informing it's potential design.
 I began to think not only about other examples of young boy characters similar to the kind of style I was imagining, but I also spent some time researching the clothing that would have been worn by young boys at this time, as a way of getting a better and more realistic image in my mind.

Analysing Key Texts - Cultural Aspects

Through out my research, there have been a number of different sources that have had a significant impact on my findings. As part of the research that will influence my practical, I have been focusing on not just character animation alone, but also some of the deeper cultural, religious and ethnic aspects that can influence the internal and external design of a character. Despite it arguably being one of the most obvious areas to look into, I decided that Walt Disney Animation Studios was a relevant area to look into. This being, because over the years, Disney has produced a number of full length feature films, the main characters of which differ not necessarily in gender, but when it comes to ethnicity and cultural background these are aspects which are definitely very profound.

One of the main things I have been analysing is the way in which Disney, visually portrays these characters who are from all different parts of the world, at different points in time. After gathering together these examples, I decided that annotating the visual design of these characters would be a good idea. It is not my intent to design one of my characters in the exact same way as Disney, I actually want the design to be very different to Disney. However I felt it important to take note of the different physical and psychological traits given to these characters, and to think about why these have beeb applied.

How Did This Influence my Work?

This made me think more about treating the topic of ethnic representation with caution. After all, it is very easy to offend people, even it is not intended, so carrying out this research did encourage me to think more deeply about the effects of stereotypes used in animation. 

Animation Tests - Gathering The feedback

Once all of the animation tests were complete, I spent my Christmas break gathering primary feedback on the character performances. The key areas I wanted to address were:

1. Does age have an influence on a person's preference between 2d & 3d animation.
2. How big of an influence does a characters backstory impact their "appeal"?
3. How important is it for an audience to relate to a character?
4. Does it depend on the specific character?

In order to gather substantial and fair feedback, I produced I questioner that would address these areas: 

Age:                       Gender:

Do you have a preference when it comes to 2D & 3D animation, if so, why?

Out of the tests you have seen, is it the 2D or 3D characters that appeal to you the most?

Can you explain why?

Are there any aspects to the character's’ performance that you especially like or dislike? Please explain why.

Out of the two characters, do you have a favourite? Please explain why.

How Did I Find This?

I decided it was necessary to include the participants' age and gender, in order to see of there was any running link between these factors and the feedback given. This method of gathering feedback proved to be quite effective, because it allowed me to obtain qualitative and quantitive feedback. The fact that I was able to ask people of varied ages and genders, meant that I was able to gain a non-biased view point on the topic of 2D & 3D animation.

What Would I Change?

if i were to use this method of gaining feedback again, i would consider recording the feedback as well as having it written down. I would also consider asking people to rate each character performance based on certain qualities such as "believability" and "reliability"

Animation Tests

After producing all of the 2D and 3D animation tests, I decided that I wasn't going to post them all online. I didn't feel happy posting work that I wasn't excited to show off. However I did post the 2D tests for Farah, because I felt the happiest with these.

I decided to that I would submit all of the tests together separately from my blog, simply because they played a bigger part of informing my final chapter of writing than they did my showreel.  

Further Concept Work

As I got further into the 2D development of my two characters, I began to feel disheartened. This was because, on the one hand I felt extremely happy with my design for the character Farah, but not with Toby. I began to feel the design for Toby wasn't as good as it could be. However something I needed to remember was that these two characters are not supposed to be compatible with one another. Due to the stage i was at in the project, I was unable to go ahead and design a new version of Toby because I needed to get going with animating.

How I dealt with this?

I knew that as part of my outcome for the practical artefact, it would be necessary to analyse the success of both characters and state any changes that would need to be made if I were to use these characters again. So I held onto my dislike for this character as a way of allowing me to know where improvements would need to be made in the future.

As a result of my decreasing interest in the character of Toby, I ended up spending more time on the Turnaround for Farah. However I decided this was wiser than spending more time than necessary on Toby, because I knew he wouldn't end up in my showreel. So I decided to only produce the necessary work required for Toby that would enable it to influence my final chapter. 

Character Backstories

One of the most important things I needed to establish about these two characters was:

• Who they are
• What kind of personalities do they have
• How is their personality/lifestyle influenced by cultural aspects
• Who is their audience. 

Since these characters were not supposed to be designed to work together as a pair, I decided to create two contrasting backstories. Not only would this challenge me more in terms of physical design, but it would also allow me to see if this influenced the practical outcome of these characters in any way, and weather or not it would influenced the way they were received by an audience. 

Character 1: Farah

For the character of Farah, I decided base her in the modern day. This is because, at the point of designing I had found myself quite distressed and angered by a lot of the political and religious issues going on at this point in time. After thinking about this I had the idea of designing the character with the purpose of educating an audience. 

In what context would this character be seen?

I imagine that Farah is the main character in a short animated film based on the topic of racism and inequality. The general storyline of this short would be based around Farah and her family, emphasising how much of a kind, normal family they are. The purpose of this character and the short that could potentially be made would be to reinforce to a young audience (school age, between 13-16) the importance of acceptance, and that somebody's ethnicity or religious beliefs does not define their whole existence, and that everybody should be treated as equals. 

Character 2: Toby

For the character of Toby, I decided to go with something that contrasted the backstory of Farah. When thinking about culture today, and I started to think about how different things were 70 years ago. With no iPhones, no internet and the different ways in which children were brought up I decided this would be an interesting aspect to think about for this character. I wanted to reinforce the fact that because of the non-existent internet, it would e much easier for this character to shut out the bad things that are going on, allowing him to carry on being a kid.

In what context would this character be seen?

The target audience for Toby would be children aged around 6-9. Toby would be the main character of a children's animated series based around the life of an evacuee. I decided that this would be an interesting storyline to go with, because it would be aimed at youngsters but wouldn't incorporate any of the modern day gadgets we have today. I would hope that this would be the kind of series that would remind kids to go out, get messy and play.  

Primary Research - Paul Wells

During my visit to Manchester Animation Festival, I managed to have some really useful discussions with people, as well as seeing a variation of both 2D and 3D animated shorts. One of the most memorable things I took away from this visit was the discussion I had with Paul Wells. After explaining to him what the topic of my dissertation was on, he offered a lot of advice.

During this conversation, we discussed two key areas. The first of which, the use of non-human characters, because this is something I will be mentioning in my dissertation. Wells said that one of the key reasons that the use of animals instead of humans works so well, is because children often see their pets as their "best friend" and this really had an impact on my writing, because the relationship between children and animals wasn't something that had crossed my mind. This fit in really well with my section on Disney and Pixar's frequent use of non human characters.

We also discussed some of the benefits of the use of both 2D and 3D character animation. This was really insightful because I was able to hear the view point from one of the authors who's books I had become very familiar with during the research process. I took away some really useful notes from this discussion and it gave me more to consider when writing.