Over the course of the module I can definitely say that I have improved my understanding and ability to animation, in both 2D and 3D software.
I have had a lot of fun getting a more in-depth understanding of how to animate different body mechanics and how to work independently from reference, and the important of understanding the movement and seeing it from different perspectives before animating. I was able to build on my animation skills from last year, starting to cement the animation principles into my practice, and to look at how professional animators think while they work to inform my own way of thinking. I have learnt how to break more complex tasks into simpler more manageable sections and learnt how important taking breaks and rest is on my performance and on the work I am outputting (coming back to difficult tasks with a clear mind helps me finish work quicker!).
The biggest thing that I did this year was to challenge myself and change my way of thinking. I started to break out of my comfort zone a bit more so that I could start to improve as an animator and as a creative in general, I think I have held myself back in the past with this fear of failing and that has stunted my improvement a lot so throughout this module and continuing forward I will try and take more risks, (even if that means being too ambitious with tasks appropriate for my current skill level), so that I can continue to improve. I have also begun to think more consciously about why I am making certain decisions, like when I am easing in and out, why am I anticipating that movement, etc, which is something that I was lacking last year, resulting in a lot of trial and error and time lost.
I did find myself feeling burnt out after the first assignment, juggling the other module running alongside this one, so I feel the quality of my animation did suffer a bit, I know I could have cleaned it up but because I was a bit ambitious with the amount of animation and some personal matters I didn’t have time to manage this. I am looking to improve my work-life balance in order to prevent this happening, or recognise the signs earlier which will help as I start to branch into working in the creative industry.
I think this module was pretty fun and I liked having a lot of freedom with the context of each of our walks, jumps, runs and more. The skills I have learnt and the critique I have been given over the course of this module has given me the ability to go out and have fun animating even the simplest of things, learning how to better act for animation and explore how to translate both subtle and exaggerated movements.. I have enjoyed learning the industry standard software Toon Boom, although tricky at the start I can continue using this and am able to put this as a skill on my future applications.
This module has made animation fun again for me 🙂 and I hope to improve more next semester!