Animation 1A - Formative Reflection

I think the most surprising thing about my animation work is how vastly I feel like I've developed. I have dabbled in animation before but it wasn't anything big or even based on the basics. It was mostly just me going for it and hoping it would turn out nice, but even with just the one task a week, I feel like I've improved. Practice has definitely been key to understanding animation concepts, at least for me. For the times where my process was short and strait-forward, I think it helped me get faster. For the times I had to go back and rework and take more time, I feel like I got a better understanding of what the movement should be and how to make the happen. My time for these animation tasks wasn't super consistent. Some of them only took me about a day to complete, while others took a couple. The same thing goes for the concepts, too. Some I had a very clear idea going in, so I just went for it on my own. Others I had to rework and find specific reference to complete. I think one of the most difficult aspect was deciding what exactly to do for each frame. You could draw as many frames as you possibly canto get the smoothest motion, but ultimately a simple 12 would do the job perfectly well. It's up to you to decide what, where, and how everything plays out in a limited amount of frames, and that's where reference also comes in handy.Youtube, other people's work and online photos were all very helpful when I needed it, but even just using my hand and my blanket to to see how fabric folds works great in a pinch. Actually, using myself and what I have around me may have been the most helpful, because I could play with it how I liked. I was in complete control, and could get exactly the kind of reference I needed. As far as process goes, I genuinely enjoyed pretty much all of it. Each stage comes with different puzzles to solve. In research you build the base, you are fully engaged artistically in creating, and you get to see it all fall into place in producing. It's a very satisfying process as well as a very satisfying outcome. 

For most of the assignments, I felt pretty proud of what I had completed, but I feel sort of mixed on this past week's assignment. The first direction I went turned out less than ideal, so I made a different one. Then that one felt too short and I couldn't figure out a good way to make it longer, so I made another. The 3rd attempt still feels too short, but at that point I had to call it to get some other class work done. I like what I made, but they just don't feel like enough. Maybe if I have time in the future I can come back to them and rework and revise. I think f I were to do this again, I would try to carve out more time to animate. I'm sure that's what every artist wishes would be different, but time really does make a big difference.