I had a lot of fun making my animation, I had a limited knowledge about animation when I started but I am very proud with the progress I made from learning new techniques, animation fundamentals and new software.
I am not entirely happy with my animation, but I am proud that I got some nice smooth movements. I think the still shots I used allowed me to focus on the movement of the characters and really think about the 12 principles as I worked, but in future I would like to challenge myself to incorporate more dynamic and interesting shots and put a larger emphasis on framing.
I had a lot of fun learning about colour theory, and in my animation I have quite expressive colours in my background that worked well. I haven’t worked on things like colour palettes and backgrounds before and I found that it is a very enjoyable area to work in, and I think the character designs were really nice and played well in telling our story.
I found working with people quite hard. I suffer from anxiety and before this course I couldn’t even go outside, never mind talking to people, so it was quite daunting being around so many people. However, I did learn that creative teamwork is all about everyone being able to put in their own ideas and influences to make a constantly evolving piece of media and that we all help each other to be able to reach the best with our art. I believe that I still have a long way to go with improving my teamwork skills, but I am proud that I was able to take the lead and produce a lot of work for the group.
If I were to start the module again, I would try and space out my work a bit better. I found myself getting burnt out quite quickly and not allowing myself to improve on my personal art, this also negatively impacted my mental health a lot, I was able to push through it and work this time but developing a balance would guarantee I could in future as well. I would also try to not put so much pressure on myself, art is about allowing yourself to make mistakes and have fun with experimentation, even when you don’t get the best results.
If I were to change my animation, I would try to work on my timing more. I knew when making my animation and now upon reflection that my timings were too fast paced and they weren’t given room to breathe. I would say that I was a bit too ambitious with the amount of action I could fit in 8 seconds and the hair movement is a bit too jumpy and could benefit from better spacing and easing, I know now that simplicity is better and gives more room for creative elements in character movement.
I think the best way I could improve my animation practice would be to just try animating more, it is a lot of fun especially when there isn’t a deadline involved, as well as watching professional and independent animators’ work to take reference and experiment with their styles.
In conclusion, there is a lot of room for me to improve, looking over my timing and easing as well as volume control and consistency, as well as looking into how to clean up my animation nicely. Even with my struggles, I did put a lot of effort into my section, and even with my limited experience I think I was able to achieve a nice piece of animation.