Month: April 2026

Due to the TFL strikes, Thursday’s session was moved online. During the class, Ting gave us another workshop that built on the overlap and drag concepts from the previous week. This time, we focused on creating a simple idle breathing animation and explored how looping cycles are commonly used in games and interactive media. It was interesting to see how a small amount of movement can make a character feel alive, even when they are standing still. Ting also introduced animation layers and demonstrated how they can be used to stack motion on top of existing animation rather than constantly editing the original keys. Although it was only a brief introduction, I could immediately see how useful animation layers could become, especially when refining shots or adding secondary motion. After the demonstration, she gave us some time to experiment with the techniques ourselves, which helped make the concepts much clearer.

Friday’s session was dedicated to feedback on the blocking pass for our dialogue shots. At this stage, we were not concerned with lip sync and instead focused on body language, head movement and facial expressions. I presented my blocking pass, and Ting thought it was a good start but pointed out that my head movement felt “floaty.” By this, she meant that the poses lacked strong accents and that the transitions were too smooth, making the character feel disconnected from the dialogue. She encouraged me to make the poses sharper and snappier so that the performance would have more clarity and intention. Hearing this reminded me of the feedback I had received earlier in the term about facial transitions and camera movement, where she had similarly stressed the importance of clear choices rather than letting everything drift evenly.

Reflecting on the week, I realised that subtle motion and strong posing are two sides of the same coin. The idle breathing exercise showed how small overlapping movements can bring life to a character, while the dialogue feedback reminded me that those movements still need structure and contrast. I have a tendency to animate things too evenly, perhaps because I am afraid of making poses too extreme. However, the more feedback I receive, the more I realise that animation often benefits from committing to strong ideas rather than trying to make everything smooth. Going forward, I want to push my poses further and trust that sharp accents and clear timing will make the performance feel more believable rather than less.

Coming back from the Easter break, this week’s lecture focused on dialogue shots and lip sync. Ting broke the process down into three stages: blocking, blocking plus and polishing, explaining that facial animation should be approached just like body animation, gradually adding complexity rather than trying to solve everything at once. She also gave practical advice on lip sync, encouraging us to think about sounds rather than words and to start with broad jaw movements before adding phonemes and subtle details. One idea that stood out to me was her emphasis on simplifying the process and treating the initial pass almost like a “muppet mouth” before worrying about perfect mouth shapes. This made the task feel much less intimidating.

Alongside the lecture, we were given self-study resources focusing on overlap and drag, which would feed into Friday’s workshop. Unfortunately, I arrived late to Friday’s class due to an appointment I had to attend. By the time I got there, Ting had already ended the workshop, which involved animating a sea monster swimming through the ocean to practice overlapping action. Although I missed part of the session, I was happy that I still had enough time to attempt the exercise. My result was far from my best work, but it was interesting to think about how different parts of the body should follow each other with slight delays rather than moving simultaneously. Even though I would have liked more time, I was glad I could at least take part in the exercise before the class ended.

Looking back, the two sessions shared a similar theme. Whether working on lip sync or overlapping action, both required me to think less about individual poses and more about relationships between movements. Mouth shapes blend into one another just as different sections of a creature’s body overlap and follow each other. It reminded me that animation is often about creating connections rather than isolated actions. Missing part of the workshop was frustrating, but it also taught me not to be discouraged when things do not go perfectly. Even small amounts of practice can reveal useful ideas, and I left the week with a much clearer understanding of how to approach dialogue and secondary motion.

This week, Ting’s lecture focused on acting and subtext, exploring the idea that what a character says is often different from what they actually mean. She emphasized the importance of “show, don’t tell” and how great acting comes from understanding the thoughts and intentions beneath the dialogue. We looked at examples from animation and discussed how body language and acting choices can communicate meaning without explicitly stating it. Ting also introduced us to the 11 Second Club, a long-running animation challenge where animators create their own interpretations of the same 11-second audio clip. I found it fascinating how the exact same line could result in completely different performances depending on the animator’s choices and the subtext they wanted to convey. This became the basis for our first assignment after the Easter break. Although we were not expected to begin animating immediately, Ting encouraged us to spend the break thinking about the hidden meaning behind our chosen dialogue and how we wanted to communicate it through acting rather than simply illustrating the words.

Alongside this, we were given another assignment based on the previous week’s industry talk. The task was to interview a professional artist we admired, with the aim of practicing professionalism while also gaining insight into the realities of the industry. I was fortunate enough to interview freelance 3D artist and animator Ali Tomineek, whose work I have admired for years, especially through Instagram. I was surprised by how generous he was with his time and how openly he shared his journey. He spoke about transitioning from video editing into animation, building an audience online and choosing the freelance route because of the creative freedom it offered. One thing that stood out to me was his emphasis on passion and experimentation. He described learning animation as similar to learning how to swim: you can only truly learn by jumping in and doing it. Hearing about the realities of freelancing and his ability to maintain a distinctive artistic voice made me think differently about the many paths available in the industry.

Over the break, I also revisited my “Heavy Object / Change of Mind” shot. Taking Ting’s earlier advice to start again, I approached the assignment with a completely different mindset. I switched to using the Bony rig, which made it easier to separate the body into sections and animate them in passes. Instead of trying to animate everything at once, I focused on the hips first, then the back, arms and other body parts. I also changed my workflow by making sure that different controls shared the same keyframes. Previously, I had a tendency to key things inconsistently, which often left me lost when making adjustments. Keeping controls aligned made the animation process much smoother and easier to manage. Although starting over initially felt like admitting defeat, it ultimately resulted in a much stronger shot and taught me the importance of having a workflow that is both organized and flexible.

Looking back, this week tied together many of the themes we have explored throughout the term. Whether through acting, career advice or body mechanics, the common thread seems to be intentionality. Strong performances come from understanding what a character is thinking, successful careers come from being deliberate about the kind of artist you want to become, and effective animation workflows come from making clear decisions rather than working chaotically. It felt like a fitting way to conclude the term before moving into more dialogue-focused work after the break.