Tag Archives: feedback

Production Principles: 3-Panel Story and Feedback

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My final 3-panel story was based in this location drawing I did at Tate Modern:

I chose this one because I was pleased with the proportions of the girl (you can tell it’s a child) and she reminds me of the sort of characters that featured in books I read when I was growing up.

The way she’s standing made me imagine her waiting for something, which is how I ended up drawing her standing on a train station platform. It made several drafts before I decided to submit this one, most of which came from my head rather than using references.

I was pretty pleased with the final result, given that I rarely draw entire scenes like this from my imagination as a polished piece. However, a number of issues were flagged up during feedback. People felt it was unclear that it was at a train station, and some people thought the person on the opposite platform was another version of the girl. I had tried to change the proportions to show that this was an adult, but maybe the differences are too subtle.

The tutor said that my piece isn’t really a story, more just a single moment, and commented on the fact that it is very static. Part of the reason for this is that my moving image work is often influenced by director Wes Anderson, who uses a lot of static camera work and central alignment in his composition, and hones in on small, seemingly inconsequential moments. So I think I got a bit too caught up in my own stylistic tastes and didn’t think about whether I was creating a genuine dynamic story here.

But I still like the non-moving camera angle and the simplicity of it. I can see that it’s not very exciting, but it feels authentic to me. To me, this 3-panel story is about the feeling of waiting for someone important to arrive, not being able to move until they do, and then finally seeing them. I think you can communicate big things like that in small ways, and if I were to make this into a film or animation, I would include those little details like the girl’s hands fidgeting, or the wind blowing her hair and coat.

Actually I kind of want to make that now…

So to improve this piece, I would add some colour to help distinguish the different elements, and I would make the drawings more detailed for the same reason. If I were to change the camera angles, some ideas would be to show the little girl from the side in the second one, maybe looking at her watch or down at the long length of the train tracks.

Production Principles: Final Storyboard Feedback

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Everyone enjoyed the story I had written, and seemed interested in what had happened. People seemed to think my method of using photographs instead of drawings worked well, and felt that the emotions of the characters came through despite their simplicity, due to the use of different angles and close-ups.

There was also an agreement that a bit more detail would make it even more clear. If I were to do this again, I would draw the facial expressions of the characters onto the photographs in Photoshop. I would also go with my original intention to stick pictures of the setting onto the cardboard set.

Overall, I’m really pleased with the reaction I got from this, particularly the things people found funny. Some of that was from the story itself, but people also laughed about the techniques I’d used to make it, such as the poorly-cropped images of tea and cake pasted onto the photograph of the table (a cube made of card with stripy paper glued on). I don’t mind the scruffiness or haphazard elements of my work being laughed at, because it’s generally at least partially deliberate and shows the character of my style. Because f it wasn’t deliberate at first, it probably was by the end. I was only person in the group who didn’t draw their storyboard by hand, and even though this method came from a lack of confidence in my artistic skills, people seemed to really enjoy the creativity and uniqueness of it.

Production Principles, 2D Motion Graphics: Feedback and Final Changes

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Feedback from class:

  • They thought it fitted the children’s cartoon style, in colours, movement and shape
  • Someone agreed that the square would look better if it fell faster before it hits the pentagon

Feedback from tutor:

  • She felt the final movement of the pentagon not quite right. It could be more exaggerated

Final changes:

To finish off my piece, I just changed the final movements of the pentagon when the circle stops. Instead of having it slowly fall and then drop quickly, before bouncing back up again, I made it stay mostly upright and just settle back and forth, increasing in speed by decreasing each movement.

This change is maybe less confusing, but also perhaps less interesting. I think in future work, I’d like to carry on with messing with gravity and how the viewer would expect something to move.