Reflection

This course has taught me many things about animation including the history of animation, seven principles of animation, various animation rules, and the process of animation.

Learning about the history of animation was very interesting. I particularly enjoyed learning about all the different early animation tools like kineographs and zoetropes that were used around the world.

Learning about all the principles of animation was very useful. Many of them seem obvious or like common sense once you know them but might not be something you would actually think of on your own. Learning about the different principles through the lectures and critiques in class was very helpful. I learned a lot about animation by studying these principles.

We read a lot of papers that gave tips and rules to animations that were very informative. Many of the readings gave very practical advice that I am glad to have learned. Again a lot of the tips seem really obvious but I might never have thought of them on my own. Things like a person's hips moving in a circle during a walk cycle, for example, could be easily overlooked but having reading about things like that forces you to think about and consider what you’re animating.

I also learned a lot about the process of animation and the steps that you take in animating a project in both general and also the specific process followed at production companies like Pixar. I think this knowledge will be very useful in helping me to streamline my work and be as efficient as possible as well as letting me get a sense of what working for a company might be like.