Overall, I had a lot of fun with this assignment. The body mechanics one taught me a lot about posing and spacing – specifically inspired by Kurosawa, and I would love to experiment with more movements and actions within a story. The run and walk covered many animation principles and I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to add nuances of character and personality based on other references such as The Clone Wars and Frozen II. I am excited to play with a wider variety of characters and personalities over the coming months.
Over the course of this assignment, I was able to apply advice and skills given to me from various sources to feedback and improve my work. Alec, Niall, Richard Williams, Keith Lango, as well as animators from the shots I was inspired by all contributed to my learning and iteration. I made sure to be careful of contact poses, keeping curves as clean as possible (especially at the start and end of a cycle), making sure the head is what the pose is pointing to, and concentrating on the shot as a defined story.
In the future I would like to play with even more detailed renders for my portfolio, as well as play with more extreme and stylised rigs.