Final Blog - Animation

Over the past year in animation, I have learned many things from the five guarantees of e-Comm. For Technology, I have learned that no matter what you try to do, the computer will almost never work exactly the way you want it to. files will disappear, things will delete, and things will be laggy and slow. This is an important thing to know because then you can try to prevent some of those things from happening. To try and prevent losing your files, you can keep multiple copies of one project in different places. I have also learned that while collaborating for a project, it can be really hard to efficiently work together. During our final project, we had to film multiple things at different times, and we ended up forgetting a few shots. It took a little while to decide if they were important enough to go and shoot. For communication, I have learned that is is hard to always be on the same page. There were times when my group had to film, but not everyone knew where and when it was happening. One thing I have learned about project management it that it can be tough to stay on task, and this year I could have done a lot better with that. Lastly, I have learned that sometimes you have to step up and be a “leader” when someone needs help, even when you really do not want to. I really struggled with this during the start of our Maya projects because I was one of the first people done and I was also one of the only people who knew what I was doing. 

I have improved a lot in the past year. Last year I could barely animate a bouncing ball, and now I can kind of animate multiple bouncing balls. I have really improved with animations by making them smoother, and seem more realistic (with the exception of my walk cycle). Of all the things I need to work on the most, time management is the biggest one. I have really struggled with keeping myself on task. I can improve on this by talking to my friends less and doing some work at home.

I am going to take these skills that I have learned and use them next year, even though I am taking web instead of animation. I have learned many things that would be of good use in web, such as saving projects in multiple locations, good color schemes, and how to manage my time wisely.

If I could have changed anything about this year, I would change how I managed my time. I feel like I could have gotten a lot more out of e-Comm if I actually did all of my work. I will definitely work harder next year. I would also do all my blogs for all of my projects. I would have had a better experience if I had not gotten frustrated when things went wrong.

In conclusion, this year has really helped me understand what I should do, and how I should help myself grow and get better. This class has helped me build relationships that I would not have had otherwise, and I am really thankful for that.