About two weeks to the end of May, I decided to “try” to do the AnimChallenge which was a short six seconds of Blizzard-like highlight intro animation video. The free rig was provided by Agora. Rigged by the great Kiel Figgins. The model of Symmetro was created by Tim Oliver Haag.
I thought it would be interesting to create a grappling component to add into the rig. However, I did not do a good job with the rope rig, I didn’t have time to experiment either so I used it anyway.
Creating art and animation after work hours can be tough and exhausting at times. I think that no matter what stage your own exploration or learning projects are, they are still relevant and are important to your growth. Although the risk of putting your work out in the world whether if they are finish yet or not can be negative because they can be seen by potential employers who may not have time to read your explanation of stage they’re in. Also continuously posting work in progress can be as negative as well if you never post finished polish work. At least these are what’s going on in my mind when I decide to post something online.
I recently looking into the working file of this animation again with the goal of continuing to work on it as it has some potential, it could go into my personal demo reel. I saw so many issues made in May. In particular, the spine was quite stiff and poses were not so great. Overall things were moving too fast. I need to break it up further. Previously I tried to squeeze everything into 6 seconds which was part of the challenge but if one can not understand what’s going on, it would not be a good video regardless.
I was happy to see all of these issues, it meant that I grew since May. My skills had leveled up. That old yearning and wishing to have more time in a day, more energy to work on my animation skills comes again and again. Animation sure is tough. It is a marathon after all. It is so satisfying when you get a bit more stamina, a bit more knowledge, and a bit more skillful each time I do an animation project whether for fun or for work.