This week I continued refining my advanced animation shot and presented another pass to Ting. She felt that the changes I had made to the chest and cog were a big improvement and that the body was beginning to feel much more alive. Her main note this time was that the shoulders and neck still felt too rigid. She encouraged me to offset them slightly so that the upper body would appear more relaxed and natural. I found it interesting how such small details can make a big difference to the overall feel of a performance.
We also had a workshop introducing AnimBot. Ting gave us a walkthrough of many of its features and explained how professional animators use it to speed up their workflow and automate repetitive tasks. It was interesting to see how much time it could save, particularly when dealing with breakdowns, spacing and pose manipulation. To demonstrate its usefulness, Ting gave us a quick exercise involving a Mario-style piranha plant attack. The task was designed in such a way that completing it without AnimBot would have been considerably more difficult and time-consuming.
Unfortunately, because of issues with my operating system, I was unable to get AnimBot installed. I spent a large portion of the session trying to troubleshoot the problem and, if I am honest, I became quite frustrated. At one point I almost gave up on the workshop altogether because I felt like I had already fallen behind everyone else. Eventually, I decided that rather than spending the entire class fighting with the software, I would simply attempt the exercise without AnimBot. Although it was slower and probably not as efficient, I was glad I made that decision. Looking back, the experience reminded me that while tools can greatly improve a workflow, they should not become barriers to learning. It also reinforced something I have learned repeatedly throughout the year: when things do not go according to plan, it is often better to adapt and keep moving rather than wait for perfect conditions.