Year Review: Exploring Animation

This year was quite an adventure.  I learned so much with special effects 3D and 2D animation, Although I am heading into the Entertainment Strand next year, I've learned how to put my animation knowledge into my videos.

My Valuable Takeaways:

My final product
(Can you count how many copies of me are there?)

Technology: Jeez. I've learned so much this year. I learned how to use a green screen for one. My teacher, Mr. Netterville took my class down to the studio and each student got a photo taken of them to edit onto a background. it was quite a struggle for me because, back in February, I dyed my hair blue and turquoise, so by the time this project came around, my hair was fading into mostly green, so it was pretty see through when I keyed out the green screen in AfterEffects.

I'm very happy that I learned how to edit with a green screen because that allows me to make my videos more interesting with certain effects. This will further my skills and increase the quality of my content.

Collaboration: Collaboration is a big life skill. Although most of the time, animation is solo, there are still many occasions where you need good collaboration skills. One of these times was our VFX assignment. My group was Sarah Pitts, Nicholas Compton and Johnny Robinson. We decided to "remake" the classic cartoon, Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner.


This combined a lot of skills that we learned this year, including greenscreening, and 3D modeling in Maya. It was a way to show how all of these different skills cam be combined. The hardest part was the rock. It was modeled in Maya and it involved a lot of masking, some of which we forgot to do. While this is by far not professional grade, you have to admit, It's kind of funny.

Communication: When learning a new skill, communication with the teacher is very important because if you learn wrong, then that is how you are going to keep doing it like that. Learning in Maya involved a lot of communication because of all the parts that I had to remember.

Project Management: I cannot stress how much project/time management is. You have to work when you have the time and stay on task. If you are not focused, your project will not be done on time, and if you are rushing to finish, there are going to be mistakes. If you are working for a client and it's late, you might be payed less or not at all.

Leadership: Leadership skills are an important life skill. You must take charge and make sure people are keeping up with the project. It can also be seen as helping a fellow animator and taking that initiative to make things in the workplace/ environment run smoother,


Strengths/Weaknesses

My greatest strengths are my Maya models. I am very proud of my skills. It takes a lot of skill to make things look realistic and I think I achieved that pretty well. I think I could definitely work harder on them and improve my skills majorly.

My weakness is my 2D animations. That includes my walk cycle and multi-plane animations. Using the pin tool and not allowing it to slide was a problem I struggled with, although my worm looks pretty good.

Overall, this year was a great learning experience. It has taught me so much that I can apply next year in Entertainment Video. There is a lot I can improve on some of these projects. I also learned a lot about time management that will help me in the future.