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This post shares its title with one of the modules on my Film and VFX course. While I am familiar with other aspects of my course such as script writing, cinematography and video editing, I have absolutely no experience in developing 3D computer animations. Therefore this module is quite daunting to me.
When I was very young I used to make stop motion animations using Lego, so I know the basic principles of animation.
The majority of my animations have been lost on a corrupted hard drive - which admittedly saves me the embarrassment of seeing my poorly animated and poorly voiced juvenile work. However there are a couple of my short animation tests on YouTube. As I got older I became more interested in making live action films. In reflection, this is most likely due to the comparatively inordinate amount of time animations take to create compared to films.
So when I was told in my 3D animation class that singular objects would take around four to five hours to make - yes, that's not including animating them - I had vivid flashbacks of me animating Lego in my blacked out bedroom for several hours at a time, only to produce around 20 seconds of animation.
My fears worsened when we opened Autodesk Maya, the software used to create 3D animations. Staring at Maya's interface I had the same feeling as the first time I opened Adobe After Effects - I was completely lost.
"Perhaps this isn't for me." I thought, "Maybe I should switch to the Film and TV course." Of course, it didn't help that I was nursing a hard hangover from my previous night in Leeds. Despite my apprehension, I pushed on and began to explore Maya.
Unfortunately, I didn't get very far but when class was over I decided to do more research at home. I have found that YouTube tutorials are by far the most useful material to help me understand how to use the software.
I now feel like I have found my footing with Maya, however I know that I am only at the beginning of a very long journey.
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