With the overall body of work being complete, comes the evaluation. I have learned quite a lot over the course of this project, and my idea has formed with my constantly evolving skill and research. 

 

From the work carried out this year, before the FMP, I found that I had an affinity for after effects after using it on previous projects. I had specifically chosen a title sequence, as it was something I had done before, and I have always found them rather enjoyable to watch; I figured there would be some interesting history to investigate, and plenty of examples throughout many pieces of media, to talk about during the contextual essay and research stages. My initial thoughts were to make a title sequence for a videogame, a medium I have an affinity for, but wanted to keep my options open from the start if my idea changed. My hope was to create something exciting that an audience would highly enjoy, as well as greatly develop my skills in after effects to a much higher level by the end. 

 

This project required a lot of research, both primary and secondary, to allow me to strengthen my skills and knowledge in the medium of title sequences. Audience research and secondary research into videogame title sequences, the game itself, and techniques like storyboarding and camera angles were conducted. 

I believe my secondary research into other title sequences supported the work the most, as it gave me a lot of inspiration and ideas to link back to and think about during all later stages of the production. It created a backbone for all my project and allowed me to look further into videogame title sequences myself, since there was not as much information about it compared to movies and TV. This task really helped most during planning, and even some of production, as I thought back on this and used it for a wealth of inspiration. 

My audience research was the most helpful, as it gave me the idea for the media I chose (based on the target audience data gathered) and allowed me to collect a great wealth of information on my target audience to guide the entirety of the project throughout. 

 

The project also required plenty of first-hand experimentation, the purpose of which was to gain a much greater level of skill and experience in after effects. Experimentation consisted of following tutorials and learning in after effects, attempting to learn effects and techniques such as rotoscoping and text effects. 

Most of my experimentation proved successful, granting me the ability to use new techniques in after effects, but I did still make a lot of mistakes with the newer and more complicated techniques that I tried. Rotoscoping proved to be tricky, even into the production stage, and took quite a lot of time taken on refinements to get it to look good. I also encountered a technical issue with my composition framerate being different to my source video, not allowing me to rotoscope properly, which took me a while to figure out I needed to make them the same for it to work. 3D also took a while to figure out, as it was something completely new that I hadn’t tried before; using the 3D on my own helped me better get to grips with it. 

 

My ideas for the final product started to form during the experimentation stage, as I was thinking on what types of effects and techniques to learn and utilise, eventually forming into some basic ideas of shots I wanted to do even before planning had started. 

My idea for picking the game itself was decided upon during audience research, as I felt it hit all the criteria to make an interesting title sequence for me to make and the target audience to enjoy. 

My ideas were refined and decided upon during planning, when I had to work around the music I had selected and thinking up thematically correct shots for each credit. The idea for the 3D shots was selected during storyboarding, as I thought that I wanted to feature some more impressive visuals in my title sequence. The text boxes were selected to tie it into the original game’s menu design, and things like the green colour grading and smoke effect were chosen to give it a gritter feel to contrast. 

 

At the end of it all, I feel satisfied with the final product I manged to produce. I believe it showcases my skill and evolution over the project well, and I believe it achieves my aims from the beginning in being an exciting title sequence that captures everything you need to know about the game in just under 2 minutes (the purpose of a title sequence). 

I feel it reasonably lived up to what I was expecting for my skill level and from what I had planned and learned. It has just the right feel and speed I wanted, and I really like my work on the rotoscoping shots. I feel that the ending bit with Aerith really helped to show the game’s lighter side, and flowed really nicely out into a smooth finish with the logo. 

I do still believe there are many areas it could be improved on, one of which is especially the 3D; The 3D could have been much better and more detailed, and it wasn’t resolved given my lack of skill and knowledge in that area. I am unsure if I made the right decision with the smoke, as it clutters the frame and drastically lowers the video quality. 

 

After finishing the first draft, I surveyed the audience on their opinions for what could be improved. From this I got a lot of helpful advice on things I should change, helping the improvements stage and the final cut. It showcased that the audience approved of what I had created, showing me that I achieved my aims in that area. A lot of those surveyed mentioned rotoscoping, which I had tried my best both before and after feedback to refine to the best of my ability. Some mentioned things like colour and certain shots, which I found extremely helpful in developing my improvements onward. 

 

Overall, throughout the project I found that I learned a great amount of after effects skill and contextual knowledge. Through experimentation I gained a heightened knowledge on how to utilise after effects, and a wealth of new techniques to use. Through writing my contextual essay I learned a great deal on the history and practitioners of the art of title sequences, which really helped by furthering my knowledge for working on the later stages of the project. Secondary research on title sequences were a wealth of knowledge as well, as previously mentioned. 

I believe that I did quite well on the practical side of the project, as it gave me the ability and motivation to get to work directly on experimentation or production. I always had an affinity and interest in after effects, and found my work it that area to be the greatest. 

An area that I need to improve on is my research. With greater research skills I could’ve included a wealth of much more information, which would really help with later on in the project to give me a larger understanding of the theory. Evaluation is also one of my weaker areas, and I feel they could most certainly be a lot more in-depth and reflective to properly gauge how much I had learned and evolved from doing a task. 

If I were to go back to the beginning of this project I would probably give myself the advice to focus heavily on learning as much as you can to maximise your output and quality, during all stages of the project including research, experimentation, and production. 

From this project I have accumulated a wealth of additional knowledge and skill in title sequences and after effects, which I can apply later on in my career going forward from this course whenever anything after effects related may come up. I can also utilise my heightened audience research skills to conduct appropriate research, something very useful and necessary in the media industry. As well as take feedback, needed whenever working with a client.