Digital graphics evaluation pro forma
- 2. Use this template to help you evaluate your project. You should give specific details about your work. You should provide both written and visual examples to explain your project. You should find areas to praise in your work. Be specific about why you think they are good or why you are proud of them. You should also find areas that could be improved. Look for areas that you could make better if you went back to them. Be specific about what you would improve. Add additional slides as you need to. Don’t be restricted by what is here. Any blank slides should be deleted before submission.
- 3. Does your final product reflect your original intentions? I think that my final product turned out very similar to my planning and flat plans, as I tried to closely follow what I had planned to avoid mistakes. In my planning I created an ideas board that featured different illustrations and images on it to help give me an idea of what I would like my product to look like, and I feel that this helped me to create the product in a consistent style. When I created my flat plans I mainly planned the positioning for my characters and their environment, but I also planned the basic colour I would use in my product so I wouldn’t have to spend extra time figuring out what would work best. Below I have shown an example of my finished first page of my book alongside the flat plan for the page design. Due to the plan being quite basic and simple it was very easy to follow
- 4. How well have you constructed your images? I feel that my images were constructed in quite a basic way, making the finished product look more unprofessional than I’d like. To create my images I rotoscoped simple body templates so I have the basic pose for a character and then add to it using the paint brush and pencil tools. This could be quite time consuming as some of my characters required more detail than others, and due to the fact that I am not a strong artist it was very difficult to try and make the images look good, but I feel that doing it this way meant that I could create images exactly how I planned for them to look rather than compromising.
- 5. How well have you constructed your images? The first few pages were constructed quite well. I tried to make the images look high quality and in depth by using shading and adding as much detail as I had time for. For example, I used several different tones for the sky, and used different brush sizes and textures for the stars so they’d all look different. I also used different tones for shading the skin and clothes.
- 6. How well have you constructed your images? However, as the pages go on I feel that you can see the quality dip as I was trying to get everything finished in time. For example, on later pages there is no shading added and lines look much more wobbly and messy. I used the same techniques as I had before to keep the styles consistent, yet due to having less time than I planned the pages still ended up looking more rushed and untidy.
- 7. How well have you used text to anchor your images I used text in a very basic way by just placing it in empty spaces of a page. Each page has a different ratio of image to text depending on the scene. Most pages just include a white bubble that fades into the image that I can use to place the text over so it’ll be easily visible to the readers. I only include text that links to the page it is on to keep the text and image linked together. On one page I tried to use text more creatively, matching the texts layout with the images on the page.
- 8. Is your product suitable for your audience? I think that my product is suitable for my audience. My target audience is mostly children between the ages of 5 and 7, of a variety of backgrounds and genders. Originally in my proposal I intended to have a younger target audience, however I feel that there is too much text at too high a difficulty for them to understand. Children ages 5-7, whilst mostly have a little bit of reading skills, are typically still at a low reading level. To make sure the text is understandable I tried not to use overly developed sentences or vocabulary. However, I didn’t want to make it so simple that it wouldn’t be at all challenging, as children need to be pushed when trying to improve their reading skills.
- 9. What do you like/dislike about the techniques you have used? The technique I used most to create the basics for an image was rotoscoping. To do this I used the polygonal lasso tool which was effective at making sure I could include lots of detail in the shapes I wanted to create. However, this technique can be very time consuming which is very unhelpful in situations like these where my time is limited. I also used the technique of warping shapes to create a more specific shape. This technique is very quick and easy to use for basic shapes, but can become more difficult when trying to create more complex shapes
- 10. What do you like/dislike about how your final product looks? I like the look of the sky and backgrounds I created, as I think they are quite detailed and and good quality. I spent a lot of time adding detail to the stars and blending in different colours to give the sky more realism and depth, and I think this style contrasts heavily with the rest of the pages. I don’t like the characters I’ve drawn as I feel they look quite rough and out of proportion. It took me a long time to try and draw each character and make each of them all look unique and different whilst making sure they also look neat.
- 11. Why did you include the content you used? • Images, fonts, effects, colours I took a lot of inspiration from existing children's books and work from illustrators. I made sure to use these as a reference when designing my pages as I wanted my finished product to follow a similar style. I used a more cartoonish style as I thought it would be more appealing to children than a more realistic style would. I used quite a simple basic text that would be clear and easy to read for anyone. However, this means that the pages look quite boring and less professional. The colours I used were all quite varied depending on what they were for. Most of the colours I used are quite vibrant and deep. I used a mix of different kinds of colours for the characters to give them each their own kind of personality. For the
- 12. What signs, symbols or codes have your used in your work? In my product I didn’t use lots of symbols or codes as I was keeping everything quite simple. To portray the children as younger I made them a lot smaller, and drew the heads quite large as this makes the illustration appear more childlike. Whereas for the pilot in my story I made him a lot bigger in comparison to the other characters as he is meant to be portrayed as an adult. I also used different proportions for his character design. As far as colours are concerned I used a variety of blues, reds and greens as I wanted to avoid overusing typically “gendered” colours such as lots of blues or pinks. This use of neutral colours means that the product will still appeal to a wide audience.
- 13. Audience Responses Cultural competence: Media texts require us to have a certain level of cultural understanding to be able to interpret them. At a basic level, this could mean being able to read the language that a magazine is written in. At a deeper level, it means being able to interpret signs and symbols that we use a visual shorthand to communicate ideas. We recognise these signs in our own culture but find it harder to understand when looking at others. We create and attach meaning to signs and symbols in many different forms. 13Creative Media Production 2012
- 14. Audience Responses Cultural competence: What is this? This is a Norwegian Pine tree, covered in snow and with a red ribbon on. Our cultural understanding allows us to interpret its meaning. To us, in British society, it means Christmas, presents and family. This is because we share a cultural knowledge. 14Creative Media Production 2012
- 15. Audience Responses Cultural competence: There are many other signs and symbols that we attach meaning to. A leather jacket can imply rebellion. A sports car can imply wealth and power. A cross can represent religion. 15Creative Media Production 2012
- 16. Audience Responses Cultural competence: Visual representations of everyday objects are often the same the world over. A car appears as a car, no matter what country it appears in. What that car means however, can be very different depending on your cultural background. 16Creative Media Production 2012
- 17. What representations can be found in your work? I wanted to make sure that there was equal and varied representation in my product. To do this I included characters representing both genders and different races and cultures, as a way to introduce children to diversity early on. I didn’t include much representation of any religions as I want the product to be available to a very wide audience rather than only Christians or only Muslims. The original story is a Christian story and has an emphasis on God rewarding generous and kind people. I thought that the moral story was important but I wanted to remove the heavy religious implications so it could be enjoyed by a wider audience.
- 18. What style have you employed in your products? I looked at several different existing products to try and get inspiration for visual styles and influences. I really liked the hand-drawn, watercolour style of most images, which is why I looked at an illustrator and animator named Louie Zong who specialises in children’s books and cartoons. I found his style really inspiring, however I couldn’t seem to replicate it. Though I still took inspiration from the cartoon style he drew his characters in. His characters are all quite small and childlike, with large heads and eyes and small limbs. He also uses quite detailed backgrounds behind his simplistic characters
- 19. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-production and planning I think that at first the planning and pre-production work I’d done was extremely helpful, as it kept me up to date with knowing what needed completing when. However, as time went on it was harder to follow the planning schedule as I had some pieces unfinished even though I was scheduled to move on to the next. Because of this some of my work has gone unfinished. When doing my work I wasn’t the best at time management, which is why my work has suffered for it. It can be visibly seen in my work where it starts to lose it’s quality due to being rushed. For example, the top image shows the main character on the first page. I used shading and tried to make the illustration look smooth and professional. However, the bottom image shows the same character on page 5, which is not shaded and looks more rushed.
- 20. Historical and cultural context The story I based my work off is a very old Grimm Brothers story that hasn’t had many renditions made of it. The original story has a lot more religious contexts, as at the end of the story god gives the young girl new clothes and money falls down from the sky. Due to the fact that a lot less people are religious these days I decided to alter the narrative so it was more neutral and relevant to present day families, whilst making sure it still portrays the same moral lessons.
- 21. Feedback 1 • What do you like about the graphics? – The backgrounds are really beautiful and immersive. – The idea of using realistic grass is also an interesting idea. – Your character feel very effectively drawn and I love the cartoon feel to it – The idea behind the story I can already feel just with two pages. • What would you do to develop the graphics? – I feel the idea of calling stars “little dots” is sort of limiting on the reader’s intelligence. – Instead of black text on white faded blocks, maybe use white text without blocks. I feel it would look nicer and more graphic would be shown.
- 22. Feedback 2 • What do you like about the graphics? The graphics of the background is really well done, I really like the clouds and stars. I also like how you put a bubble around the text, It feels like reading a real story book. The texture of the grass is really well made. • What would you do to develop the graphics? You could develop the character by adding some shade effects or texture like you did for the background.
- 23. Feedback 3 • What do you like about the graphics? The sky looks really nice and beautiful as well as naturalistic. Its well detailed and looks like a real sky. • What would you do to develop the graphics? I would ad a little more detail to the character design such as the hands and the eyes to make it look more human.
- 24. Peer Feedback • Summarise peer feedback and discuss – Responses you agree with I agree that some parts of the script will need altering, as some of the wording may be put too simply. I also agree that maybe more detail could be added to the characters to give them more depth. – Responses you disagree with One piece of feedback said I should try to make the characters look more detailed and human, however I would rather stick with the current, more cartoonish style I have used as I feel it contrasts against the detailed background giving it a more surreal feeling.