Minor Reflective Statement

Minor has seen significant developments made to the ideas outlined and presented in Premise. These have mostly been through Maya, as formalised 3D assets and characters. I've reached the end of Minor with the majority of my narrative elements modelled and Textured. I now plan on rigging my characters, building sets, creating animation and testing render sequences before completing my short animation for the end of Major. 

I started Minor by polishing-up my premise storyboard and converting the sketches into an animatic. By scrapping and re-trying different shots and sequences, I slowly noticed improving narrative continuity. The more storyboards and animatics I made, the better my story became. 

A 3D Previsualisation naturally followed a completed animatic, where I used existing Moom models to act-out character movement. My Previz really finds its strength halfway through, likely because I got better at the workflow after having a few first play blasts under my belt. 

I then began modelling some assets, starting with the cabin and trees, then working down a long list of items like books, cups and plants. I worked from most to least ambitious/ significant, to ensure my initial motivation was used on the more important objects. I used the opposite method for characters; my thinking was that I'd need more practice for the more intricate characters and therefore left my main cast trio until last. I do believe this worked; my kami spirit characters got better with each new model and, after finishing all my characters, went back and fixed my first models using my new-found knowledge and practice. 

Along the way, I carried out Motion Path experiments and nCloth research, all helping to solidify the processes required to make my Premise Ideas a reality. Minor has been a positive and knowledgeable extension to premise, where I've tried to keep my initial ideas and Excitement ignited. I'm closing this Minor project and looking towards Major with the same enthusiasm that I started with all the way back in Premise. I strongly believe I've achieved the goals set out in my initial Outcome Proposal, giving me confidence in my project management skills. Having a fully finished 3D animation is a realistic goal for major thanks to the work I've achieved in Minor. 

The additional life drawing sessions have been very informative, and I've seen significant improvements in my portraiture over the weeks. I've been reminded of my love for sketching and  have tried to keep up practice in-between weekly sessions with Roy. I think life drawing has improved the anatomy of my humanoid character models throughout Minor. 

The other supplement classes, involving Mudbox, have also been enjoyable. Once getting down the programme's interface, I've found modelling in Mudbox to be very much like sculpting with real clay. Although discovered a little too late to implement into Minor, I see myself practicing and experimenting with Mudbox in my free time. 

In closing, Minor has been an independent, extensive and creatively freeing experience that's also given me time to reflect on what I want to do after this CAA degree. By keeping up practice in all areas of the animation pipeline, I've been able to reflect on the areas I enjoy most. These mostly involve drawing and sketching and less of the 3D work. I enjoy storyboarding and animatics so much, I've started  thinking about focusing this, or graphic novels, as a future career. Throughout this course, I've found that keeping an open mind has been extremely useful, and this is how I look towards major and to the future.