Upon reflection, I think myself and my group would agree that our final animation is not as polished as we’d like it to be. There were a couple of factors outside my control, such as our team going from five to three. One member left a few weeks in and another stayed for longer, but I ended up redoing much of their workload myself before taking it all on when they left.

When I came into uni in September of 2024, I didn’t really have a solid idea for my final animation. I wanted to work in a team to share a workload, but most people were working alone or had their teams already worked out. Corey’s idea for a star wars inspired film with the art style of The Clone Wars and Bad Batch excited me immediately, as these shows have been among my favourites for years.

The only problem was that this was a designated 3D project, and I am much more comfortable in 2D.

However, I did not apply to Ulster University to only do only what I was comfortable in. As I have said to tutors before, this is the place to make mistakes. Over my years at UU I have taken most opportunities to animate and work in 3D to build up my understanding of the media, as much of the animation industry lies in this field. I did the same again in this instance.

I am slow to ultimately call this a mistake. While I am almost sure my final outcome would have been of better quality had I worked within my comfort zone, and this is important for showcasing to industry folks why they should hire me–I enjoyed working with Corey and Ingrid. I have made more meaningful connections to other students in the past nine months than I have the rest of my time at UU. Something about all being in the same boat.

While I have very little instict for 3D, I now know more than I did because of the mistakes I made, especially while building the mesh and rigging the character. I’m going to experiment further regarding 3D environments, and learn more about rigging and character building in 3D. I’m going to make more animations and be proud of them.