Alan Seidl Reflection

One of the main things I set out to learn especially in the second semester was to draw. Drawing is a crucial skill for animation even in 3D as backgrounds and textures still need to been drawn. I also learned a little about 3D like how to make environments and more complex polygons. These two skills allowed me to craft the Loon, which took third place in eimagine. Drawing as also allowed me to become more confident in my sketches.

I learned to drawn from online videos. It was along struggle to get any of my pictures to look even somewhat presentable. The third quarter was mainly spent learning the ends and outs like shading, depth and outlining. To get a feel for how hard it is to start getting drawings to look good I spent and entire week only drawing basic shapes and lines getting the spacing and proportions down. On the 3D side I didn’t learn anything completely new but I improved the things I did know mostly texturing since my texturing in other projects had look spotty at best.

The drawing is important because all animation has drawing in some way. 2D is clear since everything needs to be drawn, but for 3D it’s a little less clear. For 3D the drawing could either come into play with the background or with the textures. Unlike in the classroom Google images are frown upon in the real world so they all must be drawn or painted. For my improvements in 3D the payoff is clear with faster times and better models. For instance, I am in the process of making a great sword to honor my great friend Tyler. It is a hard project since the sword has many parts that each need to be create for the vertexes to work, and while it is not done I will not give up because my friend deserves the best.

I have many strengths like modeling and creating unique environments, but I still have a lot to learn. One of the things I really need to get better with is my drawing. While I have gotten pretty good at drawing charters I can’t drawn environments at all also I haven’t even touched colors yet. The other issue I run into often is vertexes overlapping and while I know there has to be a easier way to fix this problem I have no idea what to look for to fix it. The other is while my texturing has gotten better it is still underdeveloped and needs a lot of work to improve.

I plan to use what learn as profile martial as a lot of animation schools or art schools require some drawing to apply. Foe example my college od choice is Ringling college of art and design in Florida. They require a complex profile full of animation a drawing to even be considered. I will also use what I learned go make more projects which I will be able to make at a faster pace. The main reason however is to build off it to learn even more complex animation skills, which I will be able to use to impress my peers, and most importantly to honor Tyler.

If there was one thing I could change is that that wish I put more effort in my Loon. By the time eimagine rolled around the Loon had been setting forgotten for a while and when I decide to use it I was already in the mist of practicing drawing, so I didn’t do to much to round out the edges. If I could go back I would have tried a little harder and then it maybe could have won. Although maybe it wouldn’t have been a good idea since I would have sacrificed drawing practice that is something I really needed. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.

Do I feel that I made the best out of my year of animation? Probably not. There will always been times where I could of fixed things or worked a little harder, but I do feel like everything I did was worth it and I’m proud of what I accomplished, and I hope next year I will be able to make even better animation with a faster pace of work.