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.