Overall I’m pleased with my work and with my progress through this module and with my final animation. Throughout the module I found my work improving significantly because my sustained interest in our weekly topics really spurred me to involve myself in the set work. Comparing my first attempt at animation during the induction week and what I’ve since achieved, I’m very happy with what I’ve learned and my subsequent outcomes.
By way of my final animation; I think it conveys what it needs to convey in an entertaining and pleasant to watch way, which is partly why I’m happy with it. Concerning the quality of animation, having as little action as I did really allowed me to pay more attention to things that may have been afterthoughts in a more action filled sequence. For example, I was able to lend a whole 3 second shot to experimenting with the concept of a human scent, which I enjoyed doing, and that I think turned out well- I find the straight ahead approach combined with a pencil brush helped the look of those effects too. Notwithstanding that, the smoothness of my animation certainly dips in places, especially in some of the facial expression animation, which isn’t ideal, but that will be a definite area for me to continue experimenting and working in to try and build on my skills and ability.
Before I started the course I didn’t have much experience with group work creative or otherwise, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself enjoying it. Moving from group to group week to week let me get to know some of the class and their personal styles and their worlds, pushing me very far out of my comfort zone sometimes but absolutely for the better. What I’ve learned about creative team work is that it’s an incredibly good way to generate more fleshed out ideas and get second or third opinions on your work, and to help others with your own feedback. Getting to work outside of my usual thematic realm via group work led me to realise my enjoyment of things I never thought I’d enjoy working on so much- in particular with the Magical Academia group and the group I ended up choosing- which I’m grateful for.
If I were to start the module over I would probably like to put in more independent practice. Although I believe I did all the work to a good standard, I could have planned ahead a bit better when it came to my final animated sequence and done some more test shots, particularly for the facial expressions which I struggled with the most. This would have allowed me to work out particular kinks and improve my skills before going into the actual roughing and finishing of the shots. That said, I would keep the straight ahead, unplanned approach to the SFX shots because I found that to be a very gratifying way of approaching that kind of work.