For today, I worked on my life drawing skills, using my iPad to create digital drawings. These drawings were done with the purpose of expressing character and emotion. I had to observe the models movements and try to convey the emotions they were expressing.

During this experience, I felt that I was able to draw a bit better than before, especially when drawing the hands which are typically very difficult for me. I’m not sure why this is but maybe it was because I focused more as character was the topic and I really want to do well in creating characters. Furthermore, I think that the remote learning for this in a way, helped with my confidence in drawing as I wasn’t surrounded by others who I would normally deem as better artists and it knocks my confidence back. I didnt give up during this and I was more pleased with these drawings than previous drawings I have done.

Learning about expressions and character was valuable for my learning. It has given me more insight into how to make character more interesting with poses and facial expressions.

In conclusion, I plan to continue with my life drawings to improve on poses for characters as this is something I need when designing characters.

For today, I have been working on my presentation. I have focused on animation in video games for my presentation as well as looking at a specific video game and how the animation and the graphics have changed over the years. I researched into a few aspects of animation in video games such as the software used, animation principles and how audience’s expectations affect video game sales and reputation.

In reflection, working on this presentation has been a very useful experience for me as it has helped to be better at researching my chosen subject and has broaden where I look for research, rather than just using websites. I have been able to be creative with this presentation and really show off what interests me in the animation world. Since 3D isn’t discussed much on the course and its very 2D central, I am able to project my interest in 3D to the rest of the course with my presentation and shed light on this evolving industry. Furthermore, this is very valuable to me as I enjoy showcasing and projecting my interests on a subject. My time on the course has proven that there isnt much knowledge on the gaming world and how animation impacts that so it is really good for me to hopefully educate and inform the others on this.

In conclusion, I plan to use my presentation as a way of building my confidence when presenting. I have never been confident in presenting to others so this is an opportunity to work on my confidence.

Today was my first tutorial in Maya, learning the basics of moving and rotating a character model. This included using the controls on the character to adjust the body for example, making the body squish down for more of a ‘bouncing’ effect.

This was my first experience in animating in Maya and it was more straightforward in learning than I initially expected. I was able to learn key framing very quickly in Maya and I developed basic movements for the character whilst still learning the skills.

Furthermore, this first initial tutorial into Maya was really useful as I had no experience in Maya prior to this and the subject was explained really well. The tutorial was broken down into where everything is in Maya, what keys or short cuts to use and how to animate efficiently.

Finally, I plan to use what I learnt during this tutorial to practise animating in 3D. I aim to redo these basic animations to make them more interesting and improve on the movements and key framing.

During my first sessions of learning the software TV Paint, I attempted to make a variety of different balls roll down a ramp and bounce. The different movements varied depending on the ball and its weight. For example, a bowling ball would fall quite hard on the ground and barely bounce. This is because it is a lot heavier and is more solid in its shape. Furthermore, I attempted both soft and hard balls, trying to emulate their movements by animating.

In reflection, I think I did well in this exercise, considering it was my first time animating in 2D. I think I was able to portray the different weights and movements in these simple animations and showed an understanding in how weight works in animation.

Furthermore, I think that this exercise has helped my way of thinking and learning when doing animation. I never really thought about these things until I started these exercises. I never really thought about weight and how it effects living things or objects so this was a very valuable exercise and now I can apply it to future projects.

In conclusion to these exercises, I will use this learning in my future projects and work in order to correctly portray weight and movement. This will be very valuable in my 3D work as it can be difficult to portray these things and I want to be able to animate well in 3D.

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This was the first session of life drawings I participated in. We worked on various drawings such as 30 second drawings to 3 minute ones. This was a really good way for me to get back into drawing as I had been ‘out of action’ for a little while in terms of sketching/drawing. In reflection of my work during this session, I think that there is a lot of room for improvement with my life drawings and I should attend as many sessions as possible. If I don’t attend the life drawing sessions then I should continue to draw things around me or observe people. This is so I am constantly drawing and improving on my skills in life drawing.

Furthermore, I find life drawing valuable to the extent where I can draw human bodies better and improve on anatomy and proportions. However, I think my drawing skills would appreciate drawing other aspects of life such as environments or wild life. This is so I can develop a better understanding and skill in drawing other things that also come into animation.

Finally, I plan to use my learning in life drawing for my 3D animation work. This is so I can create stronger poses for my 3D characters and create better animation sequences with more interesting movement. By observing people and participating in life drawing, I can greatly improve on my 3D animation.

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