My Animation Journey

I decided to start this blog to document my animation learning journey. I am a senior at SCAD Atlanta and in Spring 2019 I decided I wanted to hone in on character animation. Previously, I was pursuing character art, but after taking Acting for Animators, I fell in love with both acting and character animation. My journey has been hectic but immensely rewarding. To catch up on lost time, I'm doubling down and concurrently taking Animation Mentor (AM) classes alongside my SCAD curriculum. And to boot, I'm supplementing my required SCAD courses with additional SCAD animation classes.

Getting back to the basics with AM helped me develop a deeper understanding of the principles of animation. AM let me practice fine-tuning my ability to use the graph editor, which helped me understand how each curve relates to what I see in the viewport. I also took body mechanics classes which really helped me improve on weight and believability.

At SCAD, I have mostly taken character acting classes. Facial animation quickly become my favorite aspect of my job. I revel in inventing fun quirks that serve as psychological ground rules for my characters. It's the best feeling in the world when they start to feel like a real, live person. I know my relative success in facial animation is due to my focus on getting excellent video reference. On my off time, I am working on becoming a better actor so I can improve my video references.

I am intensely grateful to have found my calling and to have the privilege of time to pursue it. I am constantly striving to be better, and I am dedicated to spending my life honing my craft.