New shots + plans for the near future

A much later update than I was expecting. As always, the struggle is real when it comes to the summer. Not to mention, my 2 summer classes have started up, which I of course need to be making time for.

I've been working on some sort of animation every single day, but it's mostly been the grad film shots, which, again, I can't post on here.

As far as that project goes I am rather pleased with the results. And I'm looking forward to having it on my reel.

In the mean time I have set up 3 new projects with various reference footage I've found.

I want to do this one above with the punching bag. I even took the time to rig the bag and also downloaded some boxing glove models that I will be removing when I go to animate. I also have one set up with parkour footage as well as a pole dance routine, which I was inspired by an animator named Chiara Porri (whom I may have mentioned in an older post) who is the runner of the blog, I Want to Be an Animator. I stumbled across her website over spring break and found so many of her tips and tricks to be so helpful and I also love her animation style.

I know that I have to still keep practicing quadruped animation. I've fallen a little behind on that as I've been trying to assure that I'm still keeping up with regular biped acting. Also, I need to sit down and find some audio so I can try working on an actual acting shot.

I think what I need to do to help manage my time is by really scheduling myself. The workload feels overwhelming sometimes. The to-do list just seems to keep growing, when it's really not that bad. I just have to make time for it all and ensure it all gets done.

Admittedly, it's hard. I say it all the time. And I also have to admit that often times the idea of doing all these things is a lot more fun than actually doing them. I feel like as students, we all get ourselves super hyped for the opportunity to have so much time to work on the things we don't have time for during the school year. But when that time comes, that extra time feels a little too good and we try squeezing in more unnecessary things that we really don't have the time for.

I'm doing my best to work through this struggle. I admit to being human. I get distracted and start working on other things or doing things unrelated to animation out of frustration. And yes, it often gets frustrating when trying to learn something new or to become good at something. Accepting and getting back up from the failure is easier on some days than others. But I'm trying to keep my goal- that vision, in the back of my mind. I'm not giving up. Even if the climb is slow and steep, I will make sure that I get there. (sounds more poetic than I intended).

I'm learning to get better at not being so discouraged when I mess up or do a bad job with an animation (which happens a lot).

Another goal that I have in mind is my hope to get out to the CTN Expo this year. I'm hoping to be able to save enough money this quarter to fly out to the west coast and attend the convention. It's something that's been on my radar for a couple of years now and I feel like by November, I will finally have enough of a reel for the trip to be worthwhile. Like the career fair, I plan to go in with no expectations. And if anything, I will definitely come out of with far more knowledge both in animation itself as well as the industry and the companies. I've learned so much being at school and have so much more insight from my professors than I ever had, but I'm sure that even now, I am still in the dark on some things. I seek to become more aware of what's out there. It's scary enough as it is, but knowing what I'm going into before graduation can only be more helpful.

So that's where I'm at right now. And honestly, I think back to the types of animations I posted only 1 summer ago (really bad walk cycles) and I can't believe how far it's come. I really hadn't even used Maya to animate before at that point. They always say that a way to stay motivated is to stop focusing on how much farther you have to go and look back to see how far you've come- all the progress that you've already made(the whole point of this blog). Though as disappointed and frustrated as I feel when I work on some of my current animations, I do feel a huge sense of accomplishment when I look back at all that I've learned in the past year. A year ago from now, I had never rigged anything before or weight painted or even knew how to properly set up a scene. And I know that this is still just the beginning. I still have so much more to learn and I look forward to the Character 1 class I will be taking this fall that will really get me into character performance. Something that I have yet to really work on. Right now, so much of my projects have just felt like body mechanics, of course is extremely important and probably what should come first. But applying those principles to create performances will be a step up for me.

There's so much to look forward to.