Ok so starting with the good I think.
Here is my opening scene -
So I decided to follow a leaf down across the Edinburgh skyline so it became obvious that this story was in fact set in Edinburgh ans not just in a city somewhere. I also thought it opened the actions nicely, instead of just opening straight with the pigeons. It's my establishing shot I suppose. The viewer now knows this is Edinburgh and with a competition like Hidden Stories I think that's very important. So I feel this was one the successful elements of my film. It's actually one of my favourite parts of the whole film so I think one way I've captured my audiences attention at the very beginning of my short film.
Moving on to another successful points -
This scene I feel worked well as it helped me establish the pigeons as statues and not just ordinary pigeons. I had already put them on bases so you could see they were screwed to the floor. However I felt having them interact with real pigeons was a very successful way for the audience to see these pigeons are infact statues. Which is why I had it happen early on in the animation because it's an important factor in the rest of the film. So this was one part I was glad I included because without it I feel the film would have lost some of it's quirk.
Ok so this scene is a little different -
This scene I have included as a positive for my film because of the classmate's response to him. I wasn't really expecting him to be so successful. Initially when I thought about this character I believed I would have his fingers moved when he played because I couldn't think of another place that moved when a person played the bagpipes. Maybe the foot but then I realised that giving him a moustache would be a brilliant solution as it would allow me to limit my animating, as I could loop it, and also be an effective movement. Really I was being a lazy animator but people liked him. Whenever someone asked me if they could watch what I had done so far they would comment on his moustache moving as they enjoyed it. It was slightly comical. So this is a point I thought was good because it went down well with my audience, which is exactly what an animator wants.
The next positive was a recurring motif in my film -
So to show the passing of time in my film I used leaves. As the film was around the winter I use autumn leaves to show that these events aren't following on from each other that closely in time. There are parts missing between. It was a necessary part of this film because other wise it would appear very messy and confusing. So I am thankful that it worked well. I also feel like it's interesting to watch from an animation point of view because of the way leaves twirl in the wind. So actually there's a lot of animation done in these ambient pieces.
of course this success -
Obviously this scene would be here. This scene was really just a perfect success. I have no idea how I managed it because my plan was to take a lot of materials I could make snow out of into the department with me and just go for it. And refilm and refilm till I thought "that's the one". By this point in the production I had gotten really sick of planning and I just wanted to do. But luckily this was the first one I tried out, I assume because my hypothesis was that this would be the most successful material choice. So in that way I would call it a success because it really was a production success.
The other way I would have said it was a success is because it feels like a storm. You know what's happening and you feel it. But it's different from the pencil rendered characters and backgrounds which I think works to break it up just enough for it to be striking.
Lastly -
Ok so this idea I came to me right at the beginning of the project and stayed with me right until the end. I wanted to bring the real life of these pigeons in and what better way to do that than actually have them in the film. The real them. I had been building my technical skills a lot this year and I wanted to use some of them so this fade worked well for me. People seemed to enjoy it and it was often commented on when played in the department.
Now to move on to the bits that I didn't like, or there are errors, or could be improved, or didn't quite work.
To start off with one that isn't quite as bad as some of the rest and only really a minor problem -
This scene here was a night time scene that didn't really feel like night time. It was pointed out to me that because the sky isn't visible in the shot because of the tight frame it looks as though the scene just gets darker instead of the sun going down and it becoming night. I did myself think that it didn't quite look right and something was wrong with it, even after I changed to a bluer light which would be more indicative of night. But it hadn't occurred to me that seeing the sky would improve the situation. So although this scene could be improved I know for next time that when it comes to night scenes, seeing the sky helps convey that.
Nextly a filming error that actually kills me a little inside every time I see it -
This one really annoys me because it's so conflicting. The way I filmed this scene means that I had drawn and rubbed out the face of the character which was difficult to undo. But just one cell moves. The corner in which I myself leaned on to change the character bounces up and down. Which infuriates me because I know if I had noticed it before I began rubbing out and changing I could have fixed it. Grr! I thought if I had enough time I could have changed it but I didn't and because of the camera being fixed I amn't sure I would have been able to line it up again anyway. I would rather have this small moving section that the whole thing moving when it shouldn't.
Lastly the cursed walk cycle -
This I really wished had worked out because when people watch my animation they comment on his quickness of disappearance. I had originally planned to have him walk on pick them up and walk out with them. However because of a previous walking character that I had to cut completely from the film I didn't feel it was a good decision to have another one. But this scene was important and I couldn't cut it because it explains where the pigeons go and if I cut the scene completely I thought it would be even more confusing. I also loved the character. He is the only bad guy in this film and he looks like it! He's clearly a basic civil servant with an inflated ego and idea of self importance and authority which I really wanted to keep.
On reflection I feel I have a handful of good bonus' and things to work on in this film. Some things to take forward with me. I don't feel like there's any points that worry me about my future in animation. I learnt some things and got some good advice which I think can only make me stronger at this point. To be honest I'm kind of relieved I can look at my projects like this and see that the things I liked weight out the things I think need work. I never thought that would happen.
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