Another reason I chose this course is my passion for animations. For example, when the Incredibles came out, of course everyone was excited but I was obsessed to an unhealthy extent. I spent the following month watching the Incredibles every single day, multiple times per day. I would ignore my teachers in class and instead, illustrate each character with refined detail from what I could remember of them. While most kids didn't really know why they liked the movie, I knew it was because of how the hair was animated to look like it had weight and shimmer, how the super-suits had a texture you could not only see but feel, how their lips, eyes and bodies moved. I obsessed over these little details for pretty much any animation that caught my eye.
I want to move people with my work. I want create something that communicated a message and maybe impacts it's audience in a positive way. I know that I can do this through illustration but there is a world of creativity in Animation and I want to explore and conquer it. Besides this, I want to broaden my skill set by adding the ability to animate. Not only to animate, but to animate very well. I realize that just because I spent my entire life drawing doesn't mean I can easily achieve this. I constantly run into holes where I realize that I am unable to draw a certain pose without a specific reference or maybe at all. To quote an unknown genius, 'All Animators can be Illustrators, but not all Illustrators can be Animators.' I find this to be incredibly true for myself and I want to get to a point where I can excel at Design, Illustration and Animation.
But this is just speaking of technical skill. Something else I hope to gain is a wide breadth of knowledge about animators as well as their techniques from the past and present days. I want to get caught up and immersed in the Animation industry, become aware of the trends and styles and gain information and inspiration from it all.
Throughout the three years I will be studying on this course, I would like to hone my drawing skills and really polish them. I would like to excel at character design and gain a much wider understanding of anatomy of objects as well as humans and animals. I would also like to learn to identify, replicate and perhaps even exaggerate movements from humans and animals. Besides these things, I want to grow into a more organized version of myself. One of my goals is to improve my time management skills so I can become a lot more efficient in my tasks and perhaps even take on more opportunities.
I definitely believe I have valuable skills that will carry me through the degree course. I am very quick at working, especially drawing. I have been drawing my entire life and have that skill relatively refined, although I will always continue to improve myself. I am very passionate and can often think of creative material through brainstorming. I like to share ideas and inspiration and I love collaboration with other creatives. I used to be disorganized but I have gotten the hang of it through my Foundation course last year and am relatively good at keeping on track.
There are certain things that I would like to improve on over the next three years. The biggest one would be initiative. I would like to get in the habit of 'sniffing' out information and opportunities instead of waiting for them to be handed to me. This is something I have struggled with and am constantly working on improving. Another aspect of myself I would like to see change is my time management. I do a lot of planning-ahead and scheduling but due to an overestimation of my own abilities, I end up simply overwhelmed and unable to complete anything because I cannot decide where to begin. Which brings me to my next point: priorities. I tend to put too much of my time into things that should be finished quickly and not enough time into the things that should be at the top of my priority list. In fact, when I make a priority list, usually several things tie for first on the list. After consulting some of my friends who are experts at time management, I have a solution and that is scheduling my time for very specific things. First, I estimate the time it will take me to complete a task, then I schedule time with that task as if they were a client. This way, everything on the priority list gets its own slot of attention.
In terms of progress tracking and evaluation, much like last year, I keep a diary. This beautiful yolk yellow mole skin notebook is my entire life. In it, I create a weekly calendar in which I mark certain responsibilities with different colored pens. Every morning, I write a to-do list and every evening I reflect on my work to see what further changes need to be made. I am hoping to document my progress through this notebook and hopefully look back and see significant changes. Through constant reflection and self evaluation, growth is inevitable.
Another very valuable tool for evaluating progression is blogging. Through my three student blogs, I am forced to constantly analyze myself as well as the work I am producing. I am also forced to look at other artists and their work with a critical eye. Observing and criticizing is one thing but being able to communicate my opinions in a clear and concise manner is definitely a learned skill for me. Through blogging, I will have constant practice in communicating clearly and in a professional manner.
These next three years are an incredible opportunity to grow, create and make connections. I am absolutely thrilled to absorb and progress and I cannot wait to see the person I will become at the end of this course!
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