Critique and Potential New Directions

This past class meeting my classmates held a critique for the current state of my project. I feel they provided a great deal of useful feedback, regarding both what worked and was really cool and well done, and what they felt didn't quite do so well and/or could be more than what it was. It should be noted that, at the time, the animation I was showing them had yet to recieve any coloring. The way it was, black and white with a static background moving star field, recieved the unanimous response of being relatable to the look of an old screensaver. Other ideas were thrown around, such as having a video or picture behind the reactive animation, but I politely dismissed these almost immediately. While having the potential for a memorable image, concepts like these would deviate from my goal with this project. Nonetheless, I easily saw the need for a more reactive visual. Something in addition to a couple scenes showing fairly similar animations. I needed to brainstorm on this further. A secondary issue found was that running the multiple softwares and the animation and all the necessary connections was too much for my laptop to work with, leading to a more than noticeable lagging int the animation.

This critique was rough, I’ll admit that. Then again, they’re supposed to be. They’re specifically for your peers to find something wrong, and I feel lucky that my classmates found these crucial errors. Better them than my audience later in a month, a crowd of friends, family, and even maybe a potential future employer. Additionally, this in no way adds to my stress level, as I’m proceeding right on schedule. I’d already planned to have a completed working demonstration ready about a month before the showcase, leaving me with a month to work out the issues that were found and then make it even more than what I initially imagined it to be last semester. Progress with this project was not just suddenly stopped, rather just veered off in an unexpected direction.