With teaching coming to an end, this week gave me the opportunity to reflect on everything I had learned throughout the unit. Looking back at the first few assignments, I realised how much my approach to animation has changed. At the beginning of the year, I often focused on moving controls and trying to make things look right by instinct. Over time, through the various exercises in cinematography, acting, facial animation and creature locomotion, I started to appreciate the importance of observation, planning and understanding why things move the way they do. I also became much more comfortable with Maya, which initially felt intimidating coming from Blender. Although I still have a lot to learn, I no longer feel like I am fighting against the software.
One of the biggest lessons I took away from Ting’s classes was the importance of workflow. Throughout the year, I saw how breaking problems into smaller stages makes difficult tasks manageable. Whether it was approaching lip sync in layers, using reference to understand body mechanics, or separating a horse walk cycle into individual steps, I learned that animation is not something that should be tackled all at once. I also learned the value of feedback. Some of the most useful moments came not from lectures, but from conversations with Ting and watching her demonstrations. Seeing how she manipulated curves in the graph editor or approached a problem with confidence helped me understand that good animation is often about spacing and timing rather than constantly creating new poses.
Reflecting on the year as a whole, I think the unit has changed the way I think about animation. I have become less concerned with making things perfect immediately and more interested in understanding the process behind them. There were moments where I became lost, especially with my heavy object shot, but I now realise that starting over or stepping back is not necessarily failure. More than anything, the unit taught me patience. I leave the year with a greater appreciation for reference, planning and iteration, and with much more confidence in my ability to tackle unfamiliar problems. Although I still have a long way to go, I feel like I have developed a stronger foundation and a healthier mindset towards animation, which I believe will be far more valuable in the long run than any individual assignment.