Starting off, knowing that animation studio would be one of the more tedious modules I had this semester definitely stressed me out. I had briefly touched 2D animation before and had never done anything digital so I was worried.
I felt like I had been thrown into the deep end but now thinking back to week 1 I was just being dramatic, my homework was to draw the form and shape of characters that had already been created, and I was constantly wondering if I had done enough and if I had done it correctly. I have now come to realize that there is no ‘correct’ way to make an animation or draw characters as it’s all about the individual creative process and what suits me the best.
I enjoyed teamwork at the start, my original group worked well and was very open to my ideas, making sure I felt heard. I enjoyed being able to bounce ideas off of each other and help make the desired end goal as good as it could be.
After moving group, I learned that when nobody takes the lead then everything gets confusing. My group had no lead and it did not work well, my animatic ended up being wrong because someone had changed the script and had only told half the group so I had to remake it in very little time. I constantly had to double-check with people what backgrounds we were settling on and what characters would be best because nobody would make a final decision or if they did, would share that decision with the group. Eventually, I began to take a bit more of the lead, gathering the group so that we could plan what to do next and making sure people clarified with each other if any changes were to be made. I learned that in the future, I won’t work in a group that doesn’t have a definitive lead because it wastes time.
Making the final animation was difficult, I need to practice Krita so that in the future I can use it more. It has more to offer than procreate and it is more similar to industry-standard software. If I were to start this module again I would have spent more time focusing on Krita so that I wouldn’t need to stress about that now. I think this would have improved my animation skills immensely, it would have forced me to draw more characters and backgrounds. I want the drive I have to do better to stick with me so that I don’t lose hope and can keep balanced.
I would like my character designs to improve, I am that confident in my skills. To improve this I need to practice life drawing and posing, especially in parts of the body like expressions and hands. I need to focus less on colour and more on finishing my final piece. I need to focus less on trying to get approval from others. Although I need to practice I do want to keep the style I have adopted which is Disney Pixar but more 2D, I love the look of it and would love to perfect it someday.