A post-AM self-evaluation

In the final week of Animation Mentor I got a very nice review from Bret on all my work during the 18 months. All my mentors, as well as Bret, has told me that my understanding of weight and physics are pretty good, which is really nice to hear :) Most of them has also told me that the gestures could be stronger, like more specific and clearer....more personality. This is invaluable info, cause then I know what to focus on.

Thinking about that I had no real character animation experience before AM, I should probably feel pretty good about how far I've come, and I do, but there's tons of things that I need to work on. I think thats a good place to be though - I'm kinda happy, but I wanna get better!

Of course animation is a lifetime learning experience and there's so many areas that I want to dive into, improve and learn more about. But for now, I've defined two main areas that I'm gonna focus on improving in the near future. Entertainment-value (stronger poses, snappier timing, more personality in the poses etc) and timing/spacing (beating swimmy motion, even spacing etc). It's obvious that it's better to push too far and then take it a little bit back, instead of going little by little. But I'm afraid to push it too far, so thats something to focus on as well. As Greg Kyle told me, already in Class 1 - "looking ok...just go a little bit more crazy". I'm gonna try!

Thoughts into action - off to study some Chuck Jones stuff :)