Final Project Part 4: Final Critique Day

I honestly cannot believe that I'm sitting here right now typing this. That I made it. I got through the this 2D principles class. I mean, it's not like I wasn't going to make it to the end of the class. I wasn't going to drop it or anything, I think it's just that feeling of shock that it's over and it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.

My biggest disbelief is just the fact that I got an A! I had only gotten B's up until this point. The only A's I received were on redo's. I know the grade doesn't matter and it's more about the skill, but it shows that I've learned and improved. My professor grades us based on our individual performance rather than based on the whole class (crew).

I'm just crossing my fingers that I didn't screw up the X-sheet. I was rushing to do it before class this morning because I could not think clearly enough and had no energy by the time I got home. I realized I forgot one thing before class ended and asked to quickly add it before I left.

I thought it was weird that I was so exhausted when I've managed to pull all-nighters before. But I suppose, yesterday I was up since 6:30am from my 8am class.

I noticed that I started to become more comfortable too through the duration of this class. I was so nervous in the beginning and I could feel my voice go weak and my face go red whenever I spoke in critique.

It was very satisfying walking out of that class today. It felt like I actually learned and accomplished something. This animation isn't perfect. My hand was trembling as I was trying to draw the volumes and finish this thing up last night. It was actually becoming physically painful. My back was hurting from hunching over the board or having my arms raised to draw with the table elevated. I was also getting a headache that was coming and going as a result from the back pain. I didn't get home until 3am, which honestly wasn't as bad as many others that were still working when I left. So I really can't complain. It's also not nearly as bad as the people still shooting before class started.

(Model Sheet Redo)

The critique had a lot of things I expected. Volumes and my drawing skills, as always, were an issue. The profile view I put him in didn't make sense, and for some reason I didn't realize that until watching it on the big screen. It would've made more sense to turn the machine and keep the character in the 3/4 than to do so much moving with him. He seemed to like my fore-shortened stacking of the body, but I did make him go back too far. I wanted to have more anticipation before the step forward and a little more squash when his head made impact with the machine.

This class has been quite a ride, but this has probably been the most enjoyable quarter so far. Probably because I've finally gotten to animate. Even though this was 2D and with PENCIL AND PAPER, I still found myself able to enjoy it. It makes me miss and feel grateful for working with the computer and I was afraid I'd be really dreading it, but I wasn't. I certainly don't feel like pursuing that. I still don't love drawing enough to be creating 120+ frames, but this experience taught me a lot and was well worth it.

Getting through the stress and workload of this class really makes me feel like I can get through anything now.