OUAN502 - PPP2: Area of Improvement

OUAN502 - Area of Improvement:

As we discussed in PPP2, we were to identify an area of which we would like to improve. I personally have a few ideas of areas of which I could improve and do some research into over the next six months. I have thought long and hard about which would benefit me the most as an animator and as someone with a possibility of going into the industry.

Some of the initial thoughts I had revolved around 3D modelling and how I wish to learn how to construct backgrounds, scenery and realms of which can be interacted with using other software. Maya however is something we'll be learning in another module so not only would this seem to be a waste of an opportunity to learn something completely unrelated as part of my practice, but we'll get all the support we need from our tutor who is experienced with 3D modelling so therefore would be capable of helping us should there be anything related to Maya we wish to learn in our free time. There are also thousands of free tutorials regarding Maya, 3ds Max, and Blender etc. etc...

Other than 3D modelling, character design and Unity were other possible options. Character design was the real intention of me getting into animation in the first place, so that could always be helpful. Unity would allow me to fulfil the game design route I wish to explore. Coming from a fine art background however, character design could be something I could learn upon in my own time, whereas Unity is lengthy process so might be a good idea to learn this along with the 3D modelling as that will allow me to create an interactive environment and so forth.

I also recently had a big burst of interest in stop-motion animation. Seeing as I have not found "my calling" yet, as in something to be proud of (a natural skill in animation that IS creative-based and not just production and social skill related), I really want to give this a go as I might surprise myself and find out it's a strong point for me. Despite trying a little bit of stop-motion last year for an ident, it wasn't very well thought out and felt a bit rushed due to the pressure of other modules. Besides, I used very flat pieces of card to create that which didn't give me much to work with to begin with. Hopefully I'll have a steep learning curve this year in terms of actual animation.