Evaluation

Critical Evaluation

As the name of the module is 'Virtual Environments' the group and I wanted to emphasis our efforts on this aspect. Although this module is comprised of the combination of modelling and animation we wanted to have the main focus on our environment, ford island.

I believe that our animation skills aren't as developed as our modelling skills and therefore our animation aspects suffered making the end result not as impacting as the still shots of the environments and models. Our animation does tell the story of Pearl Harbour but doesn't deliver the shock effect when watching it, however I think the models and the environment make up for the animation.

As a group we wanted to include human activity to make the animation more realistic, so having them walk around the harbour and then start running when the explosions started really enhances the animation effect.

As mentioned in a previous post it is important to set the scene for the entire animation at the start, we decided that panning shots of the harbour allowed the audience to appreciate the modelling techniques used as it shows the environment and the individual models.

Including the LEGO theme allows the animation to be watched and appreciated by both children and adults whilst remaining educational. Although are sound is comprised of sound FX that we downloaded from freesound.org and apple loops in LOGIC PRO it still informs the audience of the events of Pearl Harbour. In our animation we tried to stay accurate to the events in 1941 by using the sun to illustrate the time of day.

Upon completion of this process I believe our group as created a effective animation that informs the audience of the events of Pearl Harbour. If we had more time we would have developed the animation aspect further and included more scenes. We did have issues with our explosions changing colour when panning across the environment because of the sun effect we had included - this is something we would have explored in more detail if we had a longer time-frame. The combination of sounds, models and animation we have created an animation that shows our skills as modellers and animators.

If I were to do this module I would concentrate on the animation aspect a little longer, rendering issues and explosion issues meant that we had less time to animate.

Time spent animating: 6 hours
Time spent rendering: 30+ hours (Computers left overnight)
Time spent compiling animation scenes: 4 hours
Time spent adding sound: 2 Hours

From completing this module I have learnt not only more skills with animating, like using splines and water effects, but organisational, timing and adaption skills. I have learnt that if you come across a problem you can use it as a positive with your animation.