When you get a slow day

It's odd that I'm posting so often, but just last week I ran into one of those slow days and this time I overcame it. Usually when I'm not feeling the shot or not sure what I am doing, I mess around ALL day and end up scrapping everything I did. But last friday...

I swapped the shot for 3 simpler shots. Easy as that.

My shot was 182 frames of one character piggy backing another and jogging. At 4pm, I decided to swap it for three 80 frame single character talking shots. By 8pm, it was done.

In tv, getting your quota done is number one priority. When you are stuck, it's a huge hit to your workload. Usually what I do is aim for a higher number of frames per day and factor in a slow day just incase. I think I will keep up with the extra frames per day (you never know when you need extra time), but next time, remember this. Swap it out!

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Add on: I also discovered that I could also spend the time setting up shots. Put the characters in layers, make sure I have everything I need, and pose the first pose based on the storyboards. This way, the next time I open it, it is all ready to go with a more inspiring start pose (cos you know the default layout pose is always super uninspiring and annoying to look at hahaha).

btw, the piggy back shot is now complete, I opened it on Wednesday and finished it a few hours later. I realise that, oh, by doing the start pose and just one other pose... I had all the ground work to quickly block it out. Quite a productive way to do things :)

My journey

This is more a post for me to read in the future than anything else, but I think it's quite important to remember how I got to where I am today. If anything, it'll help me remember what I have learnt over the years and things I should not forget.

2006-2007 Animalia
Basic acting
Quadruped animation (how to straight ahead animate a creature doing complex action)
Blocking in spline. Result of straight ahead animation.
Auto tangent and it's uses
Time management

2008 Zeke's Pad
Pose to pose animation, the workflow of doing a blocking pass and a spline/finishing pass
Cartoony posing and zippy action
Smear frames
Consistancy facial posing by using the pose library and making it my own

2009 Erky Perky
More care in posing, braver and using the rig to sweeten up the pose
Tighter lip sync
Using the top jaw control to animate lip sync
Crazy breakdown and inbetween (arcs)
Manually copying other people's poses in order to learn how they pose their characters so successfully (obviously I only picked the director's favourite shots)

2009 - 2010 Animation Mentor
I learnt the basics of everything in animation mentor, everything I was missing became clear.
Developed a workflow
Discovered detail and polish
Acting confidence
'movement in reality is not clean' sometimes it's better to break an arc in order to add energy

2010 Lil Larikkins
Weight shift, finger movement, feet repositioning. The details that breathes life into a character
Lead and follow
Really focus on posing (thanks to developing character sheets for the show)

2010 - 2011 Penguins of Madagascar
Follow storyboards and build on the strong foundation it provided (focusing on energy, strength and effort)
Blocking in all breakdowns, secondary action and moving holds
The importance of looking at a shot in it's entirety, taking a step back
The power of polish, really pushed everything to the limit on selected favourite shots

So... this is where I am right now. There is still a loooong way to go to even become good enough to be called a true senior animator in TV, but at least I'm heading in that direction. What I would love to discover next is:
*the way to successfully act within a pose, and make it look less pose to pose
*break away from simple actions like headshakes and explore other ways of moving to a new pose
*really push for great facial expressions