Throughout this module, I developed a more intentional approach to animation, shifting from simply creating movement to thinking more critically about performance and clarity.
The early sessions on cinematography and storyboarding highlighted the importance of planning and visual composition before animating. I began to consider how camera choices guide the audience’s attention, although I initially found it challenging to balance this with performance. Including storyboard sketches alongside final shots would help show this progression.
Facial animation and lip sync ended up being more engaging than I expected. At first, I approached it quite mechanically, focusing on matching the audio, but over time I started to prioritise emotion and intention. This made my work feel more believable, although I would still like to push the subtlety further, especially in micro-expressions. A comparison between early and later lip sync tests would help evidence this development.
A key challenge was the heavy weight exercise, which became particularly difficult partly because I chose to develop a more complex shot. This made it harder to clearly communicate weight and control, and the animation often felt too light. Even when I recognised these issues, I decided to continue refining the same shot rather than restarting. In retrospect, this helped me better understand how important strong blocking, clear posing, and timing are when conveying mass and resistance. Including playblasts of this exercise would help show both the difficulties and the progress made.
The sessions on overlapping action, idle movement, and breathing helped me avoid stiffness and introduced a greater sense of life into my characters. I became more aware of how secondary motion supports the main performance rather than distracting from it.
From a technical perspective, tools such as AnimBot, Animation Layers, and constraints improved my workflow and allowed for more flexibility when refining my work. A screenshot of my Maya setup would support this.
Overall, the weekly feedback process reinforced the importance of iteration and refinement. Moving forward, I want to focus on improving weight, subtlety, and planning in order to achieve more controlled and believable performances.