Module OUAN403 Evaluation

Well, the past few weeks have been challenging to say the least, and despite being close to having a mental breakdown on numerous occasions I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have also learnt a lot in these first few months, the most useful to me being the 12 principles of animation. I feel as though I have been able to apply this knowledge well in the animations I have produced, in particular Squash and Stretch in my flipbooks and Follow Through action in my Pose-to-Pose Teddy animation.

I don’t feel that there has been any work that I have produced so far that I’m not happy with, which is quite surprising to say it’s early stages. Granted my animations are only basic and I favour some over others, which is expected, but considering the majority of my animations have been a first attempt at using some techniques I think I’ve done very well. I think I have been particularly successful with Pose-to-Pose and Frame-by-Frame animation. I think the sequences I have drawn are quite realistic and they flow nicely. I also believe that I have been able to incorporate the 12 principles of animation well. Another area in which I think I have been successful is Pixilation, and I think this is down to the amount of planning I put in before I started production. I really thought about what was going to happen in the animation, and put these ideas into storyboard where I was able to consider shot framing, something that I was taught about at the beginning of the module, and again, something I found very useful. To be honest, I think I have been quite good at documenting my ideas and planning out my animations, it has been my time management that has been lacking, particularly over the past week.

I felt very pushed for time this past week, and I thought that I wouldn’t be able to get my “Apply” animation finished. I did pull through though, and ended up having enough time to spare to get my work sorted out before it needed to be submitted, but if I had planned my time better I wouldn’t have felt so stressed. I left a lot of my research blogging until last minute and it almost got on top of me, so in the future it might be wise to force myself to do at least one or two research blog posts a day, on top of blogging about what I have been able to produce In that day. With that being said, I am now aware that I can push myself to meet deadlines and even though it has been hard, I can juggle more than one project at a time.

I also feel that I need to improve on some aspects of the 12 principles of animation, in particular Timing and Spacing. I don’t feel like my first attempts have gone bad, however I do feel that I could improve in this area.

Overall I think this module has been rather successful, and I am looking forward to proceeding with this course. I also can’t wait to practice using Photoshop and other animation programs, as well as practicing my drawing skills within visual language.