Overall, Unit 1 is a fruitful learning experience for me. I was so packed by thoughts that whether my works are “good” enough; but it turns out I can just enjoy the process of making it. It feels so good to try out different styles and method during this section.

I try to combine the same landscape with different color templet to create different atmospheres in this practice.Although it’s still rough, i find out it’s very efficient to explore idea by mini color script before going to the actual production.

I leant a lot during the unit 1 practices: thanks to the animation theory lectures, I got a chance to fill out some missing parts in animation principles. Drawing pose to pose is very reliable in most of situation, and timing can make a huge difference in movement. I also find out I was focus too much on realistic accuracy (in a term of anatomy), so I loose the charm of movement sometimes. After all, those exaggeration is what 2D animation is about; I will keep explore different styles in my personal works.

It’s amazing to find out how much I enjoy exploring different ideas and pre-production design. I did more drawings on hands & facial expressions,.

The introduction about working as a character artists is super useful, apparently people are focusing on expressive art style, but communicating with your costumer and leading them to several limited options are important to independent artists, too.

The stop motion pathway inspire me to use different materials in my work; I was so sticked to digital before and almost forget there’s a lot materials I can try. The puppet making process (from sketch to skeleton then fabric) is amazing. It’s so interesting that it shares the same process as 3D model making.

For the papercut animation, I made some storyboard sketches & use wallpaper design as background. I’m so glad that it turns out nicely. Black & white images are way more expressive than I thought. It led to my ideas about choose visual development & story board artist as a professional pathway.