Learning and Growth：
I think Term1 helped me get into the habit of looking at References. Before I came to UAL, my search for References was not comprehensive, and the scope of the References was not complete. However, because of the Blog’s creation, I needed to find a lot of information to complete the prep work, so I started researching References in a more planned way. Whenever I was animating, I would go to the web and look for keyframe drawings similar to my designs, and I would also be looking for a lot of reference videos. This also helped me understand a lot of patterns of animation movements.
I practiced making and modifying animations in [3d Animation Fundamentals]. [Ball Tailed and Ball Walker], [Human walk], [Rigging], [Stylized Walk], [Stylized Walk Feedback & Rending Farm], [Body Mechanics], [Phonemes] have helped me systematically to learn the basics of animation. My initial character animations were a little stiff in the waist and back, but this has improved a lot. A lot of practice has helped me improve my animation process.
The course [Design For Narrative, Structure, Film Language and Animation] includes:[The History of Film, Animation, VFX and Film Language],[The Relationship between Politics and Media],[Visual Culture],[Story Circle, Story Arc, Type of Characters and Archetypes],[Characters and Story Development in Three Films]. These lessons helped me learn more about the animation field. While I’ve been writing this part of the blog, I’ve been researching the number of references it’s organizing, and the overview has improved my knowledge. During my organizing process, I have gradually developed some systematic concepts about animation fundamentals in my mind.
I also learned about 3DE tracking technology this semester. I was able to use camera tracking to create special effects on the video being filmed. I’ve had many problems with 3DE, but fortunately, through a lot of replay practice, I’ve been able to understand better and memorize 3DE production.
I also used the rendering farm on the school computer via remote control software. Although there were times when the render farm gave me one or two wrong renderings, this added to my experience of dealing with the problem of rendering. And the use of the render farm helped me save a lot of time. I usually test the rendering of one or two images on my computer and then use the render farm to render them. The most helpful thing is that I can use the render farm to do my rendering work while using my computer to do other tasks.
I think the character animations I’ve produced so far are a lot more rhythmic, and the fluidity of the character movements has improved compared to my undergraduate work.
Still need to improve:
I still have some shortcomings in the animation of the movement of characters. It is necessary to adjust further and learn the consistency and balance of the movement of the characters. My teacher’s advice is to watch more live-action videos and summarize the patterns of characters’ movements. The character animation will be more fluid and natural in this way. As I collected reference videos, I gained a deeper understanding of the patterns of characters’ movements. I’m also trying to think about ways to enrich the details of the model’s movements. My imagination is still not rich enough, and I will keep watching many materials to enrich the design of the character movement.
Research direction in the future:
As I described my dream when I applied to UAL, I would like to become a university teacher in the future. After Term1, I think I have a deeper understanding of how to learn about animation systematically. But I still have a lot of knowledge that I need to learn, and I realized that I have so much software and knowledge needed for research and practice. At the moment, I always learn from my teachers and classmates in our class, constantly learning from the new knowledge and production techniques. I want to try to learn and practice more about the animation field. In addition to the animation process itself, I believe that studying animation in conjunction with other disciplines (VR, games, special effects, film, etc.) will also help me expand my research into animation’s practical applications.