Evaluation

Overall, this module has taught me SO much. I have developed skills and gained confidence I never thought I had and I am excited as to what else I can take from the course.

Starting with the basics, the 12 principles of animation, coming from a graphic design student I had never heard of these or the terms within and I think i have gone from not knowing to being able to apply them to my animations subconsciously. I also now find myself seeing 'squash and stretch' purposefully in anything that is animated. I have greatly focusses on 'timing' in most of my animations because I find this to be the most challenging but in actuality it is the one I enjoy planning and applying the most.

I also feel like I have learnt to PLAN. I have briefly planned things before, but it has become more and more evident with each project that planning is such an essential part of making a good piece of work. I now find myself loving to plan, to brainstorm and storyboard, because it is the only way I can come up with several ideas at a time and I can save the rest for another date. In the beginning I hated storyboarding, but now I see how important it is, especially paper editing.

I think as far presenting goes, I have improved. I still get really nervous in showing my work because I always think of the worst, and take criticism personally, but now I feel like I can listen to what people have to say and not feel bad about it. I can see where they are coming from and actually take that advice and apply to the next piece of work that I do.

In addition, I can't believe I have made flipbooks, gifs, video timeline animations and pixilations. Some of these I didn't know existed and I truly appreciated experimenting with these and researching about artists who use these techniques. I have become familiar with a bunch of new animator's work and this is incredibly exciting. I have found independent artists work which to me, is more interesting that mainstream films, and that is down to finding websites like 'shortoftheweek' who offer them. I love politics and websites like these allow me to watch political animated shorts which is absolutely brilliant. Also in conjunction to experimenting with flipbooks, pixilations, and Photoshop, I have been able to distinguish what my strengths are. I have improved on my drawing, from making my illustrations less 'flat', but I have found I have become even more comfortable with Photoshop and digital drawing than I was before. I used to always paint on photoshop with my tablet, but now I can animate on there and it has opened up a whole new door.

Though I have found some of these projects very stressful, it has been worth it because I feel like I have learnt so much in such a short amount of time. Even taking time to sit and review my work and see where I can change things has improved and I am grateful for that. My favourite modules has definitely been pose to pose animation and flip books, but I also loved learning about stop motion animation and the different types because it is my most favourite aesthetic of all animation. I hope I continue to learn as much as I have been doing and I am very excited to what else the course will bring.