Creative Response: Finished Animation

I have since decided on a question to end on, so I have been able to complete my animation; "Where do YOU think gaming will go?". I thought this was an appropriate way to end the animation, as it engages the audience - which is emphasized by the way the question has been visualised - and it is quite a broad question, allowing for the audience to think of many different aspects of gaming, which in turn could create a number of different views and debates.

After hours of searching I have also found a sound track that I find to be suitable. It is just fast enough to be entertaining without being too distracting, allowing for the audience to take in what the infographic is saying. It also has the tone I was looking for in a backing track, and makes the viewing experience more pleasant.

To edit the sound track, I initially made the start of the song and the animation line up, and I was going to trim the song down and make it fade out so it wasn't such an abrupt end. I didn't really like how it sounded, as it didn't sound like a natural time for the song to finish, so I tried lining up the end of the sound track with the end of my animation, to see whether I could make the start of the song sound natural instead. Luckily, there was an appropriate starting time near enough to where the animation began, so I made these line up, and simply extended the last frame of the animation so it cut out when the music did. I think the sound track now works very well and it greatly improves the piece overall, especially as some of the sounds compliment some transitions in the animation. 

Final Animation

Overall I'm very pleased with my animation, especially as it is my first ever info-graphic. It hasn't been the most interesting project I've ever worked on, but I certainly can see myself producing things in the future of a similar nature, as I have enjoyed creating the different components that I was going to need, and the finished product is very satisfying and professional. I feel that I have learnt a lot more about After Effects now, and I believe that I am much more efficient with it, though I would like to see what else I can do in terms of animating, and see whether I'd be able to make a more interesting piece.

I think my infographic accompanies my essay well. I like that it doesn't necessarily repeat what I've talked about it my essay, but it does shed light on a different area of gaming that I only mentioned briefly in my essay. It outlines how gaming has developed over the years, just like how my essay does this with gender representation.