I have more experience and shorthand developed for drawing human figures and shots where the main character Amka has a focus are to a higher standard than the animal scenes. Unfortunately, I’m a perfectionist so I think everything could be improved in some way. I had more fun drawing those shots than those with the seal and fox and it shows in quality. I was frustrated in drawing the animal scenes due to my lack of ability in drawing their forms, despite trying to study as much reference as possible. The final result for those shots is passable but needs improvement. I used Blender for my animation which had its benefits and drawbacks. I could quickly add post-processing effects such as rimlight, saving a lot of time in the final stages. I use Clip Studio normally and learning to draw and animate in a 2D/3D hybrid software was challenging. I didn’t use Clip Studio since I’ve heard it’s not great for animation. Blender lacks some of the tricks I use in raster software, particularly the use of gradients and correction layers to create interesting lighting and colour. However, I adapted and produced an outcome I’m mostly satisfied with.
I learned a lot about creative team work, positive and negative. My first group was also my final one and I had fun working with original members on concepts for the spirit world. I worked well with some of the same group members when we split to a new group where we started developing the initial ideas of previous members. I feel I was quite involved at the initial stages and I meshed well with the others in those groups. In our final group, it was hard to bring new ideas or make changes. Due to my commitments with Worldskills, I couldn’t contribute much at this time and I wasn’t entirely in the loop but it felt difficult to be as open and relaxed as before with some group members feeling strongly about their ideas, which created conflict. As a previous member, adapting to your initial ideas changing or removed entirely is something to expect, and accept. Getting along with people is also key to progressing projects.
If I had the chance to restart this module, I would evaluate my strengths and choose a scene that reflects those better. The scene I chose could’ve been improved by more animal studies before starting the roughs. I wish I could’ve done more character designs and other experimentation. I struggle with timing and it’s a principle I don’t have a good grasp of, my animation has mostly even spacing which makes it less dynamic. I think moving the horizon line in my shots to create more interesting camera angles would have also made the animation more appealing, although I refrained from doing this to save time and my own ability. Trying to juggle animation principles while also considering other design concepts combined with learning new softwares to produce a presentable animation for a deadline was a challenge. Despite this, I want to become more proficient in 2D skills. I’ve seen Blender’s potential for amazing 2D animation. I watched many videos from Toniko Pantoja on the fundamentals of 2D animation and for learning Blender I watched Sophie Jantak; their works inspire me to improve.