One of my creative goals for 2023 is to complete all the online animation classes I've signed up for over the past few years. (There's not enough time to do all the assignments, so I may just watch the videos for some courses and take notes).
I've allowed myself to sign up for one final new course: 2D Animation: Walk Cycle & Character Movement over at Animation Mentor. This workshop is six weeks (mid-February to the end of March) and is taught by Jay Jackson who worked as a traditional animator at the Disney Studio in the '80s and '90s, and at many other studios over the years. Mr. Jackson will be providing feedback via video critiques and then the class meets over live video once a week. I'm really excited to learn from a real animator, after mostly teaching myself using books and online classes. This workshop is a big investment for me, but I hope it'll help push my animation skills up to the next level!
The Animation Mentor online learning platform is super impressive, with lots of ways to interact with other students' and their work (most of them are studying 3D computer animation). Each student has their own profile page, where you are allowed to link to a demo reel, so I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to create my first one!
Demo reels are like a portfolio of recent work for animators looking for work. I'm not actually looking to get hired right now, but it was fun editing together a single video that collected a bunch of what I've learned so far. It's like a snapshot of where my skills were before this last big year of classes.
Starting next year I hope to continue my learning by doing! I'm (slowly) working on an idea for an animated short, which I hope to finish before I turn 50. Wish me luck!
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