In the 3D animation class, we started by building a gingerbread man in Maya. Although it was a simple model, it helped me familiarize myself with the interface and the fundamental modeling tools. However, when it came to rigging, I found it quite challenging. I had to follow the teacher’s procedure on the screen without understanding the steps involved. ince Maya is a paid software, there are fewer free resources available, making the learning curve longer. I learned that many people in the animation industry do not use the built-in rigging system in Maya but instead use add-ons that are also not free. This made me wonder how Maya became the industry standard animation software. One of my classmates suggested that the reason is gate-keeping, people in the industry do not want outsiders to easily steal their jobs. Although I found this theory amusing, it does have a point.
Apart from working with Maya, I also continued with my own Blender project. Since it had been a while since I last opened the file, I had to re-orient myself with the viewport. I started defining the model, adding details and vegetation, and even modeled a tree. Although it turned out pretty good, I was unsure if I would keep it since the other trees in the project were all super-realistic photo-scanned models I found online that were quite expensive. Despite my tree looking good, it was not as realistic as the rest of them.
In the 2D animation class, I began the body acting exercise by filming myself. I was not very good at acting, and the performance I had designed was too complicated to animate. The character I had chosen was from a classmate, and although he had an interesting drawing style, the model sheet he gave me did not help much. However, I was determined to improve my skills, and I fixed my animal walk cycle by watching a detailed and helpful tutorial on LinkedIn Learning. The teacher who created the tutorial had worked for Disney and his videos are all very helpful, I also found an old film of a goat running and considered doing a run cycle.
