In these times of self isolation, it leaves us with a lot of time on our hands. Some may struggle to work on their projects, but luckily, animation doesn’t require interaction with others, or even the need to leave the house. Since the last post, I have practiced my in-depth a lot. I have used the internet to find many tips and tricks on how to improve in animation, because like all of us, I have been unable to meet with my mentor. However, I have used this time to practice a lot, as I don’t have much experience in animation, nor skills in drawing. However, I feel I have improved a lot. Currently in animation, I am practicing making characters walk.

(Click on it to watch)

I would like to keep on improving this, and also adding objects into animations. I would also like to animate with more complex characters (if I can), and definitely improve my drawings. As for my mentor; we have been staying in touch over email, where he has been giving me many pointers, and he has been sharing resources with me too, so I can continue to improve.

Questions for post #4

1.What has been my most difficult mentoring challenge so far? Why?

Currently, my most difficult mentoring challenge is our time restrictions and being able to meet with each other. Meetings have been cancelled or shortened because of both COVID-19 and time restrictions on both sides. Currently, we are trying to overcome this by using email, and Simon has suggested video-calls as well. We will continue to fight this challenge, so Simon can continue to mentor me, but sometimes there are just other priorities.

2.What is working well? Why?

Something that is working very well, is the improvement I am seeing in myself. I remember a few weeks ago, when I could barely animate a stick figure walking, and now I am animating 2D characters, and I can even tell that the character is walking. I will continue to develop this skill. One of my other priorities is to improve me overall drawing, because to animate you need to somewhat know how to draw too.

3.What could be working better? How can you make sure this happens?

Something that I need to work on is self motivation. I get bored of tasks and ideas really easily, and although that has not happened yet for animation, I feel that sometimes I just do not have the urge to practice it. Something that I feel I can do to make myself more motivated is to set small goals and big goals for myself. For example, my goal for next Sunday, is to have created an animation about an object. A way that can perhaps stop me from getting bored, is to just practice animation or drawing a bit each day, rather than a lot at once.

I feel like things have been moving along well so far for my in-depth project. Since I last posted, I have had another meeting with my mentor and Brian, who I am working with for my project. Something that went well during our meeting session was that our mentor, Simon, was very good at teaching us. We jumped into learning the principles of animation, and after that he showed us some videos and books he had about animation. One of the most interesting things that he showed us in a book was some exaggerated classic, cartoon animation cycles. For example, walk, run, jump, shuffle, sneak, and some other cycles that I could base some of my animations off of to make my job a bit easier when I need to make a character do some of those actions.I found this interesting, because it could be useful for myself. Something else that went well was that Brian and I could see a few different items and devices that could help you animate. Our meeting ran well and efficiently, and I believe there was no time wasted.

Brian, Simon, and I communicated mostly over email. When Brian and I had questions, we usually addressed them in the meeting sessions, but a lot of the time we used email, so we would not have to wait all the way until the meeting to have our question answered. The challenge with emailing, especially when trying to schedule the next meeting, was that responses sometimes needed to be waited awhile for. For example, for our last meeting, Brian and I confirmed our meeting quite late, which could have led to some confusions. However, emailing was quite an efficient way to show off our work when we were not face to face, and for Simon do give us some tips, and/or send us videos, so we can learn from his outside of meetings too. Also, for the meeting, we did not specify a time that the meeting would end, which also led to some confusion. Overall, there was not to many challenges with our communication.

Although Simon is a great mentor, we had a few learning challenges, due to lack of being prepared on my part. For example, Simon sometimes emails us videos and such over email, so we can already know lots when we come to our meeting. However, one time I didn’t watch a video, so when Simon was talking about this topic, I was a bit confused. Simon then had to go over the lesson that was in the video he sent us (it was about the principles of animation) because I had not reviewed it ahead of time. This was a learning challenge that was my fault.

So far in my in-depth process, I have learned a lot. From Simon, I learned about the principles of animation. These consist of staging, timing, anticipation, squash and stretch, slow in and slow out, straight ahead and pose to pose, overlapping action, arc, secondary action, exaggeration, appeal, and I think there was another one mentioned either by Simon, or on a website called solid drawing. I also learned about different animation techniques, and other lessons as well. I have drawn a few pictures. I am not very good at drawing, but they are pictures that I was okay with, based off what I was drawing when I first started.

Overall, I am happy with my progress so far, and I hope to start animating next.

Its been a few weeks since in-depth has started, and I am finally starting to get settled into the routine of practicing my chosen skill, meeting and emailing with my mentor, and doing all other things associated with the in-depth project.

So far I have only met with my mentor once, but I have already learned a lot about my mentor. My mentor, Simon Piniel, is the owner of a business called spin animation. He has animated for many years and has a vast experience of learning his own animations skills. Simon jump started his interest in animation at an Animation Film course with Rolf Bächler at ZhdK, Zürich in 1996. This was a 2-3 month period where he created his first animated movie, “Tony” and learned about animation theories and did some animation exercises. This process was very rewarding for Simon, and is what made him fall in love with the concept of animation. Another place Simon gained his animation experience was work  at Tallinn Film, Estonia in 1997. Here he animated a few scenes from a short movie called “Night of the Carrots”. This experience was mostly about learning the studio processes and also gaining a more international view on animation. One of Simon’s favorite place where he gained his experience was at a student exchange at ECIAD, in Vancouver in 1998/1999. Here he was finally among real other animation students and he really learned a lot doing this. This experience was something Simon really enjoyed. One more place Simon got his large experience in animation was at another job at a Position as Storyboard Artist at AKA Cartoons Inc in Vancouver from 2004 to 2007. Here, he gained a lot of experience in cartoon animation. This experience was intimating for Simon, but he learned a lot from his talented co-workers. These were just a few foundations where Simon gained his animation experience, as every thing he learned and every time he practiced animation, made him become a better animator.

I have already learned a lot from Simon Piniel. He has taught me about some basic principles of animation, and has also helped me decide which route of animation I want to go down. I chose to do digital 2D animation, and he taught me that we animate in 2’s, so basically at 12 or 24 frames per seconds. He also taught me about storyboards of animation, and how to make someone look like they are doing some motion fast. This was all in just the first meeting, so I cant wait to learn even more.

Behind the scenes of our meeting, I have learned some facilitation strategies. I realize when I think back to our meeting, how Simon facilitated, rather than taught Brian and I at our meeting (Brian and I have the same mentor). Instead of teaching Brian and I, Simon directed conversation and gave us tips and pointers. Perhaps I could facilitate meeting like that as well if I ever mentor someone.

Overall, in-depth has been a great experience so far and I cant wait to continue.