Who Am I Now?

What I've learnt so far
Over the last year, I feel that I have learnt a lot of new skills not only to do with practical side of animation, but also as an animator and practitioner. Not only have I learnt how to digitally create animations in Photoshop and After Effects, I have learnt how to weigh up my options and choose when a program will be appropriate to use and when not to use. I've also learnt how to think about my work in terms of film making, such as thinking about how things will appear in shot and how things will be framed. Although it seems obvious, I've learnt a great deal about how to animate in terms of the 12 principals and the technicality behind animation. In terms of being a practitioner, I've learnt how to effectively solve problems in accordance to a set brief and I've also learnt how to reflectively analyse and evaluate my own work in a way that allows for self progress.

What I want to look at
Although I've learnt a lot already, I would like to look more at Maya, as I'm not sure what I want to focus on within animation yet and I feel that I'm not familiar enough with Maya to make a decision about whether I like it or no. I'd also like to continue to build upon the skills I already have both practical and theoretical. I'd also like to look at the pre-production stage a little more, as I feel that I neglected this a little last year and I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked to. I'd also like to look at animation in different ways and explore different styles to develop as an animator and to give myself more versatility.

What are my strengths?
Digital drawing
Life drawing
Technology
Animating
Communication/ project management

What I want to improve upon
A very obvious thing I want to improve is the skills I already possess, as I want to keep developing as an animator and practitioner. I also want to improve upon my project manage. Although I feel that it is one of my strengths, I also feel that I need to learn when to take a break from my work and when to not stress so much. By doing this I feel that I'd be able to work more efficiently and with little stress. Maya is another thing I want to improve upon, as I feel that I haven't explored this much and is like to explore this in more depth. I'd also like to improve upon my character designing. Last year I didn't enjoy this aspect of animating very much due to me not being very confident with designing characters. I'd really love to develop my skills as a character designer, because I feel that I could enjoy doing this if I built up my skills. Animation in general is another thing I'd like to continue to improve upon. Animating is the part of animation that I enjoy the most and I want to continue to develop my skills.

Practitioners that demonstrate my interest in animation
One practitioner I've been looking at lately is Sunmin Inn, a visual development artist at Warner Bros Feature Animation (http://www.sunmininn.com/8qy9l9jf9c0nn4az76sop04dnywhyt). Looking at her 2015 portfolio, it's clear that she works on a range of different visuals and I like everything that she works on. In particular, I like the style of her work and the colours she uses because they create a strong atmosphere. I also like that she uses a range of materials to create her work too.


Another practitioner I have been looking at is Zealous Creative (not really practitioner as such but more a couple of practitioners). Although they focus upon stop motion animation, which I'm not all that crazy about, I still really like their work because I feel that they are good at framing. In particular I really like their most recent short The Maker because of the style and the atmosphere of the animation.

Screen shot of Zealous Creative's The Maker

Joe Olson (@jobus) is an art director for Disney Infinity Box that I stumbled across on Instagram a couple of weeks ago. Although his work seems to focus on character design, I like his work because of his quirky style. They aren't all cute and pretty, but actually some are quite ugly and little uncomfortable to look at. I really like his style and the personalities that he gives each and every one of his characters.

Adam Brockbank is another practitioner that I stumbled across whilst scrolling through the interwebs. He's a film industry concept and storyboard artist that has worked on a number of films including; Maleficent, many of the Harry Potter films, Inkheart, and many more. I really like his work because of how he uses light and shadows and how he captures the environment. I also like his style and how he uses both black colours and detail to create his work.

Concept art for Maleficent

I've also been looking at Cartoon Saloon recently because of Song of the Sea. Although I haven't managed to see the film yet, I have seen some of the artwork and snippets of the animation and I feel that it is an incredible piece of work. I love the style and simplicity of the animation and I really love the use of colour too.


Online resources that demonstrate my interest within the creative industries
- Skwigly
- Short of the Week
- LoopdeLoop
- Tumblr
- Stash