Animation End of Year Reflection 2017

One valuable takeaway I learned from Technology was using how to make a video and animated picture in After Effects, along with making realistic Special Effects. I also learned a lot of 3D modeling in Maya, which I found to be incredibly fun. I absolutely love modeling things in Maya, we made a wooden toy a while back and that was a lot of fun, even though animating it was hard and Mr. Netterville had to help me several times.

I didn't really learn much of Collaboration in my year here, other than that my neighbor (plus best friend) needed help a lot, because she wouldn't pay attention in class. So, I had to constantly help her and then my teacher told me not to help her anymore because I was doing it wrong :(. Other than helping my neighbors, I didn't do much collaborating in this class, nor did I learn about it.

Communication really took up a lot of my time. I was in constant contact with my teacher if I didn't understand my project, or I was trying to do too much at once and couldn't figure out what I was doing. I also was asking my neighbors for help, the ones that actually knew what they were doing, and just overall stayed in contact with people I knew could help me.

Project Management was a bit of a struggle in the beginning of the year because I really didn't understand the concept of animation yet. This caused me to stay after school almost constantly because I needed to finish my projects or even start on them. Though, over time, I did start to understand the terms that my teacher used and I asked him for help more, which really sped up my understanding of animation. Therefore, Project Management for me became easier to manage.

I really didn't really learn much about Leadership other than that I need to be the boss of my own projects and do what I want while still taking others' opinions into consideration. Usually, I would just try to do what everyone wanted, but I wouldn't do what I want. Though, now I feel like I've maybe grown a bit and taken others' into consideration but still making my project the way I wanted it to be.

I feel like my greatest strength in animation is asking for help when I need it. My projects aren't really the best, but I'm always asking my teacher on what I can do to make them better and asking my neighbors what they think about the project. I would like to work on it though because I would like to look at my project and know what I need to change or make better, instead of asking other people.

I believe my greatest weakness is not really understanding the different typed of programs that we used. At first, it was really hard to switch from After Effects to Maya and then back to After Effects. It was hard, and I really didn't like it. Though, I learned to just accept that that's what we have to do and I can't change it, so I might as well just suck it up and try to learn the different shortcuts and such.

I really want to download Maya on on my laptop at home because I absolutely love 3D modeling. It is just so much fun for me to spend my time just making something look realistic. I also will probably take away how to use After Effects to make a wicked explosion, since I am going into Video Entertainment next year, I will probably have an explosion or two.

I think I would probably change how I overreacted to some projects, such as the Story Animation project. Because I really overwhelmed myself and I had several panic attacks and I couldn't finish the project. So, I think I would try to change that.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class. I learned a lot and Mr. Netterville was a great teacher; I honestly think I will remember this class for the rest of my life, I've had so much fun in this class. I believe that my favorite memory will be when he took my skull prop and held it in his hand like Hamlet.