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My very professional one-on-one guidance

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I had originally hoped to provide a tutorial session for my peers to teach them 2D rigging and Animation, to bolster my direct community with skills that would help them find employment. However, as my work was pushed back due to medication shortages, by the time I had learned these skills and prepared a presentation, most of my cohort was absent.

As a result, the only attendee to my tutorial session was my classmate Marie Green. Making what I could from such a situation, I pushed forward, and had a one-on-one session with her that lasted a couple hours.

Hearing from her feedback following the session, it seems that the quality of my explanation was sound, and that she gleaned a good foundation of knowledge that will hopefully lead to experimentation in her own time.

If I was to do this again, I would probably have created a more scripted presentation, as I found myself skipping back and forth a bit as I forgot what I had and had not covered. Marie also made the good point that I should have had a physical guide sheet, as it would have helped the session run better, as well as given her something to take home to help retain the knowledge she’d gained. Perhaps I could also record a tutorial video to put online to spread the reach of this knowledge further.

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I'm proud of the progress I've made on this project.

I feel as though this Padlet could be better, but I'm very proud of my essay.

I also have a great animation to put on my portfolio and I can say on my CV that I can rig now!

My research into LMA was very interesting, and really opened my eyes as to how different art forms can still advise animation in a strange way.

I want to do more with rigging in the future. I actually quite enjoyed it. I want to make more complex rigs and understand how they work. Perhaps I can even specialise in it. Who knows.

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I think I did well

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I was inspired by multiple 2D rigged shows I have watched (and rewatched sections as inspiration for this project) such as the Lion Guard, Hilda and Bluey.

On rewatch I observed the movements, and there is a distinct style that differs from traditional animation. It is smoother and almost floaty thanks to the automated nature of rigged tweening.

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Whilst searching for useful tutorials to learn how to Rig on Toon Boom, I came across one of Harmony's official Websties: Toonboom Learn.

Here, I found a treasure trove of information. They have in depth guides on how to create Rigged animation with their software, all in a very helpful step by step guided layout.

I spent many hours going over some of their courses, and following their guide actively, with the software open and using their templates to help me.

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(Era Cycle)

Using what I'd learnt from my previous attempts, I remade the rig's design from scratch using a lineless style.

I was hoping to transfer the design from my drawing program into ToonBoom directly so I didn't have to retrace the design. I exported it as a psd. and drew the different parts of the rig on seperate layers so I could manipulate them all on their own and set up the rig that way.

However when Importing the design into ToonBoom I experienced some issues with this. The seperate pieces had imported successfully, but when it came to moving, changing their size, or rotating them using the animate tool or tranform tools, their "box" for doing so took the size of the original file instead of the individual piece.

As the rig depends on these pieces being manipulated using these tools in particular, I had to scrap this idea and remake all the pieces in program.

This was rather frustrating, as it meant I had wasted time neating everything up. But it was a learning experience about the way the program worked. It also gave me an opportunity to re-evaluate certain things about my design.

Without the lines the straps of the jumpsuit did not stand out well enough, so I had added a darker accent line around it. In retrospect, this would be difficult to rig, so in the process of remaking the rig's pieces, I made the whole strap this accent colour instead, which I think was a good executive decision.

I also made a similar choice with the front pieces of the hair design, and the little flick on top.

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A Youtube Video I found Particularly Helpful in Learning the Laban Energies/Efforts

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Whilst trying to put into Practice what I was learning, I was having difficulty physically portraying and even understanding what to do. I went on a dive online to find someone who was physically giving an example, and pulled up this video.

Bruce Cromer, the man in the video, presented the information in a very engaging manner that I found easy to understand, and was able to replicate myself.

I took some notes on each of the Energies to help remind myself of what they were.

Glide - Slow, Light, Direct - tai chi

Float - Slow, Light, Indirect - drunk

Press - Slow Heavy Direct - slow rising anger, firm slow movement

Wring - Slow Heavy Indirect overdramatic acting, grandma

Dab - Fast Light Direct - Focused One track mind

Flick - Fast Light Indirect - Hurried

Thrust - Fast Heavy Direct - Focused or even scared anger

Slash - Fast Heavy Indirect - Panicked, dangerous

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I also watched some panels and videos to give me inspiration for the design of my final rigged puppet. I was interested to know if there were any through lines.

There were no clear answers but I did notice a pattern.

Rigged animation tends to be ine-less, minimise lines, or use coloured lines. I suspect this is because it can hide issues with distortion in the linework.

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Tracing the new design and adding deformers to the rig

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Creating the final rig (Screen recording)

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Creating the final rig (Screen recording)

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A very basic animation I did to test the rig

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Having finished the rig, I quickly created a little wave to see if the rig worked as expected.

It did, which was relieving.

I took mental note of how different it felt from animating traditionally. It was certainly a different skillset, but with many overlapping sectors of knowledge. You just have to apply it differently.

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To firstly establish how to effectively build a rig in toon boom without using premade pieces that I had been learning with prior.

To secondly create a design that was effective for a simple rigged animation.

To thirdly understand 2D rigged animation in comparison to 2D drawn animation, and what differs in terms of the skillset.

And Finally to create animation that utilises the knowledge I'd gained from Laban's Movement Analysis.

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A video by Complete Animaiton breaking down Disney's animation on the Lion Guard

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[The Lion Guard] An In-Depth Look at the Animation of The Lion Guard

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A video by Stylus Rumble breaking down Mercury Filmwork's animation on Hilda

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A behind the scenes video on how Bluey was made

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Sketch-Based Skeleton-Driven 2D Animation ans Motion Capture (Article)

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Sketch-Based Skeleton-Driven 2D Animation ans Motion Capture (Article)

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Video-Driven 2D Character Animation (Article)

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Video-Driven 2D Character Animation (Article)

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"Riggers are the glue that hold a production together," according to animation and rigging tutor, Adam Oliver. "They stick all the design bits together and bring them together for animation."

In this masterclass on 2D rigging, animation industry professionals explain what rigging is, how to develop the skills needed to be a rigger and how to get a job in animation.
The panelists
Chris Carter (head of 2D animation pipeline, Blue Zoo Animation Studio)
Julia Young (rigger, SellOutAnimation)
Tim Frost (lecturer of animation, Falmouth University)
Niki Kehoe (assistant director, Dog Ears)
Adam Oliver (animation and rigging tutor, Adam's Animation Academy)

Questions they answer and the points covered include:

0:00 - Introduction

3:24 - How did you [the panelist] get to where you are right now?

8:25 - What is rigging?

18:22 - What to expect on an Adam's Animation Academy training course

22:16 - What drew you to the role of rigging?

27:07 - How does Tim's day differ in a different studio?

33:01 - How does the process of rigging differ when working in a bigger team?

36:35 - How has the animation industry changed in the last 10 years?

40:19 - How has educational content and 2D and 3D integration changed?

45:12 - Flash and Adobe Animate

49:49 - What are the best ways to learn how to rig?

51:43 - If you saw a job advert for a rigger on a specific software, what would your internal barometer be for if you can apply for it?

53:42 - Where to look for jobs?

55:30 - What qualities lead to a good rigger and what type of a rigger do you like to work with?

59:33 - What are good entry-level jobs for a rigger?

1:03:55 - What kind of computer tablet do you need to do this from home?

1:04:33 - Can Toon Boom Animation be combined with TVPaint Animation in terms of workflow, and, if so, how would the pipeline benefit?

1:05:38 - If you have 2D experience with Adobe After Effects already, can you still be hired in a studio using Toon Boom?

1:06:34 - Which version of Toon Boom is best for what purposes?

1:06:57 - How different is CelAction from Toon Boom?

1:11:38 - For entry CelAction riggers, what are the most important skills to showcase in a reel?

1:13:29 - Does anyone know if there'll be any training course for CelAction?

1:14:25 - How long does it take to fully rig a character with a complete turnaround?

1:15:43 - Can you rig visual effects like fire, lightning etc. or would it look too mechanical?

1:16:24 - Is cell shading a 2D/3D combo?

1:17:15 - For those who are still new and exploring which department they'd like to work in, what kind of personality/interest should one have to work as a rigger and not an animator?

1:18:32 - What advice would you give to someone trying to get a junior role rigging in Toon Boom Harmony?

About the speakers
Chris Carter is the head of 2D animation pipeline at Blue Zoo Animation Studio. Chris mainly uses the software Harmony and Adobe Creative Suite. Chris has previously worked as an animator, a rigger and a pipeline director.

Julia Young is a rigger at SellOutAnimation who works in TV and educational content. Julia mainly uses the software CelAction and Adobe Creative Suite. Julia has previously worked as an animator, a designer and a layout artist. Julia has worked on such shows as Aliens Love Underpants, Mr. Bean, Simon's Cat, Love Monster and Winnie and Wilbur.

Tim Frost is a lecturer of animation at Falmouth University, where he teaches rigging for the software, CelAction. Tim is co-creating a preschool app for The Usborne Foundation. Tim has worked on such shows as Peppa Pig, Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom and Hey Duggee.

Niki Kehoe is an assistant director at Dog Ears, where they are working on a 2D series coproduction with Cartoon Saloon. Niki mainly uses the software Harmony and Adobe Creative Suite. Niki has previously worked as an animator, a rigger, a generalist, a 2D department supervisor and a pipeline director. Niki has worked on such shows as Deadendia, It's Pony, Transformers: Rescuebots Academy, Littlest Pet Shop and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. Niki is part of Animated Women UK.

Adam Oliver is an animation and rigging tutor, at Adam's Animation Academy. Adam mainly uses the software Harmony and Adobe Creative Suite. Adam is a freelance consultant working on Toon Boom Harmony projects. Adam has previously worked as an animator, a storyboard artist, a rigger, a character designer, a clean-up artist and an illustrator.
About the event
This is a recording of an online event that took place on 24 March 2021. It was introduced by Abigail Addison, ScreenSkills animation production liaison executive, and supported by the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund with contributions from UK animation productions.
Further information
Check out the Animation/VFX/Game Industry Job Postings Google Sheet by Chris Mayne.
Further careers information
Read our job profile on being a rigger in animation. Learn how to build an animation portfolio. Check out all our animation job profiles.

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2D animation rigging - and introduction by Chris Carter, Julia Young, Tim Frost, Niki Kehoe and Adam Oliver

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Chris Carter (head of 2D animation pipeline, Blue Zoo Animation Studio), Julia Young (rigger, SellOutAnimation), Tim Frost (lecturer of animation, Falmouth University), Niki Kehoe (assistant director, Dog Ears), Adam Oliver (animation and rigging tutor, Adam's Animation Academy) talk about rigging in animation

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The Only Guide You'll Ever Need to Learn That Make 2D Rigging Clear to You (Article)

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The Only Guide You'll Ever Need to Learn That Make 2D Rigging Clear to You (Article)

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The Only Guide to Make 2D Rigging Clear to You

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Learn more about 2D Rigging in this guide — which will tell you all that you need to know.

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Rig Show & Tell with Camila Barbizan Kressin

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2d Animation and Toon Boom Harmony Tutorials. Harmony Premium is the version of the software shown in these videos.

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Designing Characters for Rigging in After Effects

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A guide sheet made for my group to teach them how to organise layers in toon boom

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LMA (Laban Movement Analysis) is a technique founded by Laban to break down how a person can express themes or emotions through movement, and to get dancers/actors to think and use this understanding to further their performance.

It is broken down into 4 different sectors:

Body

Effort

Shape

Space

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I branched out into Toon Boom on my other module as well, and taught my team members how to use multiple aspects of the node view, nodes and sfx tools.

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(Era Cycle)

In my project proposal originally I had wanted to create a "5 second animation". After studying Laban I had the idea to do a couple shorter animations of a character waving focusing on the different Efforts.

However, after starting to learn the rigging software I realised it would be a rather substantial workload that wasn't realistic to my level of ability with rigging, and didn't fit my production schedule.

It was a lot more realistic to create one animation of a wave using my understanding of Laban. So that was what I endevoured to do.

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Communities and Sources for 2D Rigged Animation

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Communities and Sources for 2D Rigged Animation

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Industry Softwares for 2D Rigged animation

Toon Boom Harmony

CelAction2D

Adobe After Effects

Blender

Online guide:
https://www.screenskills.com/information-and-resources/masterclass/an-introduction-to-2d-animation-rigging/
http://learn.toonboom.com/courses/rigging-1
https://www.youtube.com/c/mattwattsartchannel/featured

Ebook source
https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/animation-with-scripting/9780321624604/ch02.html

People
Andy Wyatt - Toon Boom Associate (met at Animex and encouraged use of Rigging)

Journal Research
https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1049/cje.2021.07.016
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/13990/1/PhD_thesis%28Junjun_Pan%29.pdf

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Building the fInal rig and beginning the animation

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Building the final Rig (Screen recording)

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Building the final Rig (Screen recording)

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This screen recording

Screen Recording 2024-07-19 at 3.14.42 PM.mov

was actually too big to export for my little laptop.

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Title - Concise, clear, reflective of the main theme

Introduction (Background) - Talking about the field chosen, gaps in my knowledge, and why I picked it to study

Research Question/Problem - Clear statement of what Research will address and why it is relevant

Objectives - Reasonably achievable goals

Literature Review - Find relevant literature, identify key theories, concepts, studies, etc.

Methodolgy (Research Design) - Specify how I will research this topic and why I've chosen these methods.

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After doing my initial Research on Laban and 2D Rigging I created my Project Proposal, which was approved by my Lecturer.

My main goals were as follows:

I wanted to learn Toon Boom Harmony's Rigging Software, and potentially dip my toes into other software if available.

I wanted to research the Laban Technique and create something that would supplement my work, and further my skills for creating videographic reference for aniamation.

I wanted to create an artefact: a small 2D rigged animation, inspired by Video Reference made utilising the Laban Technique.

I chose initially chose Gibbs as my reflective Model, as it broke things into many pieces, which I thought I would prefer. However I would go on to change my mind, as in practice, I found myself automatically analysing myself in much more active and simple manner. It felt like a drag and unneccessary to go all the way back over my thoughts to try and adhere to a certain Model, so I refocused onto the Era Cycle, which fit my thought processes a lot more.

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A guide created with the Class to advise how to built the Presentation

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This is quite simply about how the body moves, the connections within the body and its anatomical structure, and how movement flows around the body itself.

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There are 8 efforts, eachis a category of a manner of movement. These characteristics were defined by Laban into motion factors of space (direct or indirect), time (fast or slow), weight (heavy or light) and flow (bound or free).

The appropriate configurations are listed above.

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Most reliable

Peer Reviewed Articles

Books by Experts (Both academically and Not academically)

Official Publications

Midground

Newspapers

Bibliographies

Websites

Unreliable

Magazines

Outdated Forums

Social Media Chat groups

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This covers how the body changes its shape in relation to its environment/other people (carving and directional), itself (shape flow), how your body alters its form and why. The subcategories include:

I didn't study this one as much as it relates more to do with multiple subjects.

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The final category, ‘Space’ focuses on how a person can fill the space around them in a harmonious manner, using concepts such as the Kinesphere (the physical space around you and how it is used) and Spatial Intention (the way different directions are used).

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1 is zoom out 2 is zoom in who'd have thunk

shift m recentres the position of the view

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Useful Website that explains LMA in a concise and educative way

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Ruben Von Laban was a Hungarian dance theorist that developed a method in which movement is determined by a number of characteristics and stimulating thought derived from movement.

He was born to an aristocratic family in Hungary, his father being Hungarian and his mother French. He had a traditional lineage with his father being a field marshal in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and thus went to a military academy. This ultimately didn't last long, and Laban went to study architecture in Paris. Ecole Des Beaux Arts was where he enrolled, and Laban quickly became infatuated by the body and how it interacts with the space surrounding it. At the age of 30, Laban moved to Munich where he underwent work in expressional dance, or Ausdruckstanz in German. From there he moved to founding his own training centres in Zurich, focussing on choreography and dance. This spawned numerous facilities across Europe including France and Italy.

In 1930, he became the director of Allied State Theatres in Germany, before finally moving to the role as director of the Deutsche Tanzbühne. This was handed to him by Joseph Goebbels and he led the exploration of dance in Germany from this role. This ended in 1936 as one of his pieces wasn't found to be in line with furthering the Nazi agenda.

Publishing various works on how movement can be utilised in performance, Laban has become a staple for all drama schools and their exploration in how to challenge an actor to find a character.

Technique

Also known as Laban Movement Analysis, the aim of the study is to break down how movement can be expressed into it's simplest forms, allowing a performer to call upon them and experiment in a thorough manner. The movement can be said to be drawn from physiological, emotional and psychological aspect as to how a person can move. The underlying theme is transparency and ease of access for the mannerisms an actor can make onstage but is also used across multiple disciplines for a variety of uses.

Movement is generally divided into 4 separate categories; these are:

1. Body

The body section involves mainly physiological aspects of how bodies are formed and move; whether independently or with the aid of other parts. This section could perhaps include how movement is initiated in the body, whether it's derived from the shoulder but involves the whole arm. Understanding how the body moves and breaking the mechanics down into their simplest forms can aid a performer in garnering what they're capable and pushing themselves to the limit of what can be expected from them.

2. Effort

The inner intention of movement might be described as psychological, but it can make a huge difference for the movement delivered. An angry person wouldn't punch someone softly for instance, they've been pushed over the edge and snapped. Understanding why someone moves the way they do internally can help an actor physicalise themselves in a way that suits their role on stage.

There are Dynamic factors to take into consideration:

Space - This could be directly moving through space to a spot, or indirectly meandering to its destination.

Weight - Strong movements show defined actions, or soft movements show limited determinations

Time - Sudden movements indicate reflexes designed for the purpose, or Sustained movements imply uncertainty/careful actions

Flow - Bound movements create the idea that somebody is tied to a specific thought, or Free movements indicate a carefree attitude.

These are just some examples to correlate why you might want to use different levels of effort.

3. Shape

The way the body changes during movement is described as Shape and, like most of Laban's method, this section has a sub-category as well.

All of these factors are linked and can easily drift to defining multiple movements.

4. Space

Laban was particularly fond of using space in an effective way. He saw the use of space as something which could be "harmonious", like music. Laban wanted chorus' to steal the show and synchronised movements with subtle influences of abstract personalisation's could be highly effective in his eyes.

Two key aspects to look at are:

Laban, along with other techniques such as Chekhov's, are taught across drama schools throughout the world and his techniques are synonymous with performance in general. He was notably ambitious enough to record his findings and drama has benefitted because of it.

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Who was Ruben Von Laban?Ruben Von Laban was a Hungarian dance theorist that developed a method in which movement is determined by a number of characteristics and stimulating thought derived from movement. He was born to an aristocratic family in Hungary, his father being Hungarian and his mother French.

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A guide to the technique and how it can help actors (or me in my videographic Reference)

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Ultimate Guide To Using Laban Technique For Actors

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Character physicality is a crucial aspect of acting that brings depth and authenticity to performances. Laban technique is a great way of approaching this acting tool. As an actor, the way you move and use your body can communicate volumes about your character’s personality, emotions, and intentions. It is through physicality that actors can truly…

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A brief overview of Laban Movement Analysis (Article)

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A brief overview of Laban Movement Analysis (Article)

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A overview worksheet that goes into high levels of detail - The symbols were a bit tricky to understand and I deemed such a level of depth wasn't neccessary for animation.

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I watched many of Alexandra Beller's videos to help me understand how the different sections of LMA were put into practice

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These videos each look at one small element of Laban Movement Analysis through the eyes of CMA Alexandra Beller and her company, Alexandra Beller/Dances.

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A playlist of Actors going through the Laban Efforts - It was rather helpful to see the efforts being portrayed in detail 

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Dark Horse Theatre UK (Youtube Playlist)

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Dark Horse Theatre UK (Youtube Playlist)

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Using the recordings of myself in the studio as inspiration, I created a design that was a little version of myself to start rigging with.

I added elements such as front hair pieces and sleeves to add some secondary animation that I felt would be interesting to integrate into the rig.

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A screenshot of the design as I put down the lineart into ToonBoom

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A screen recording where I begin to set up the node view and create sections based on my sketch

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A screen recording of myself creating the lineart and setting up the rig

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Finishing lineart, adding colour, and creating substitutions 

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(Era cycle)

This first attempt is clearly very stiff. The rig itself had many flaws, but I was still very excited to see my abilities coming along. I was happy with my inclusion of substitions of the mouth, eyes and eyebrows.

I needed to seperate out the legs and arms for bone deformer implementation and improve the design in several ways. I didn't like how the sleeves looked, the legs looks awkward going into the t-shirt and I wanted to smooth out other facets elements of the design.

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I implemented multiple of my reflections to the next design. I also reminded myself to avoud the pitfall of obvious links. A common way to fix this is by using the ellipse tool to create a perfect circle, and draw a dot at the centre marked by the program. Then, integrate that circle into the connection point of both the drawn parts. They will then align perfectly when rotated with the pivot point placed at the dot.

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Creating the new pieces, organising the node view and adding deformers for the second iteration

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Editing, adding subsitutions, and attempting to fix issues with the second iteration of the rig.

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(Era Cycle)

This iteration was a big improvement. The overall look and feel of the animation is very solid. I liked this design, but the major issue was the auto patch error that wouldn't allow me to place the arms over the chest without strang clipping. No matter how many attempts I made to fix this I just couldn't figure it out.

I decided the easiest way to solve this issue was to make the next and final iteration lineless.

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Jean Newlove and John Dalby - Nick Hern Books (2004)

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Valerie Preston-Dunlop - Dance Books Ltd. (2013)

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Rudolf Laban; Lisa Ulmann - Dance Books Ltd. Alton (2011)

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Mastering Movement : The Life and Work of Rudolf Laban (Book)

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Mastering Movement : The Life and Work of Rudolf Laban (Book)

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John Hodgson - Meuthen (2001)

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A Folder Containing Photos of Books and their contents I read to further my understanding of Laban

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To better aid my learning I took photographs of important sections of text that would help evidence my learning for my report, or helped my understanding of Laban and his techniques.

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[ ] substitution drawings

to reorder drawing subs, select drawing with transform and go to drawing on the top menu and rename drawing

If you want to add prefix such as s for side or f for front, rename drawing with prefix

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A Poster made with my group talking about Critical Thinking and Associated terms

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In our earlier studio sessions, we delved into understanding Critical Thought to prepare us for our experimentation in whichever field we chose.

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Driscoll’s model - Driscoll (Mid 1990s)

What? > So What? > Now What?

(Describe the situation in context) (What did we learn) (What action to take next based on infromation)

Era Cycle - Jasper (2013)

Experience > Reflect > Action

(Negative or positive Experience) (How we feel about that Experience) (What to do next using that information)

Atkinson + Murphy - (1993)

Awareness > Describe > Analyse > Evaluate > Identify

(Understanding of the situation) (Outlining in detail) (Cross-countering previous assumptions) (Deciding if the knowledge obtained is valuable) (Utilise insights for future situations)

Kolb's Model - Kolb (1984)

Concrete Experience > Reflective Observation > Abstract conceptualisation > Active Experimentation

(Start with an experience) (Reflecting and noting new things) (Develop new ideas) (Apply ideas to different situations)

Schön model - Schön (1991)

Reflection in action (At the time the event is happening)

Reflection on action (After the event)

Gibb's Reflective cycle - Gibbs (1988)

Description > Feelings > Evaluation > Analysis > Conclusion > Action Plan

(Outline experience) (Focus on Feelings regarding experience) (Was it good or bad) (Make sense of it) (What could have been done to reach a different outcome) (What to do next)

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How can I use LMA to advise and inspire 2D Rigged Animation?

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How can I use LMA to advise and inspire 2D Rigged Animation?

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After running the idea past my Lecturer; Lesley-Anne, she reccomended I combine the technique of 2D rigging with an acting technique known as LMA to further develop my research and give me a wider pool of things to explore.

I created this question as my point of study as a result.

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I knew right away when starting this module I wanted to delve into the world of 2D Rigging. I had been told by many professionals at Animex, and again by lecturers, that 2D rigging was a valuable and desirable skill in the industry.

I was keen to add it to my skillset, as although the tools were there at my fingertips, the course didn't touch much upon it at all, and I didn't know where to start.

This module was a good opportunity to get stuck in and make something I could put on my Portfolio and CV to make me stand out.

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I found quite quickly that there were not many "Reliable Research Resources" for 2D rigged animation as a whole.

2D rigged animation is seemingly a much more recent and untapped field of study, which I suppose makes it interesting to investigate and meant I was contributing to my community as a result, however it made things difficult to find things to reference or find interesting pools of research within the boundaries of 2D rigging as a whole.

On the other hand, Laban and his movements had been discussed in depth by a multitude of sources. I found books in the library and spent multiple hours reading chapters that I felt were most relevant for me and took note of important quotes or information I could use.

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How I have recorded my research in this Blog

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How I have recorded my research in this Blog

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(Using the Era Cycle to analyse my own way of working)

My method of research is very active. I find I prefer to put things into action straight away as to "Not break my workflow", and as a result I often forget that with these types of Project I forget to take down my findings in the moment. As a result, I end up with a few confusing notes made in the moment, the final product of my findings (if there was one), and little else.

Although I know in my mind I have advanced my learning, I have little proof as such.

This can be frustrating, as if I slow myself down to take notes, I lose the willpower to work and end up progressing far too slowly to be efficient. But if I continue to research and immediately act upon my learning without stopping to record these processes, I lose out on important evidence, and may lose opportunities to sit and reflect on my work.

Working with my ADHD (which changes the way I work in comparison to neurotypical people) is something I have been trying to tackle since I was diagnosed almost 2 years ago now.

With the medication shortages that occurred this year, I suffered greatly during this project; having to prioritise my group module, as other people were depending on me to complete work.

Facing this, I got an extension, which unfortunately spoiled my overall plan for work I had devised at the beginning of this project.

However, I devised a back up plan to help me complete this project.

In order to balance my way of working, but still get a record of my thinking, I decided to do research in chunks. At the end of each chunk when I had achieved a new level of understanding/ created something new, I would collate the resources I used to help me learn whatever I had focused on. Then, I would write a general summary of the important sections I learned from the research, and use my reflective cycle to analyse the use of it.

All in all it is not particularly chronological, and perhaps I still lose out on some detail, but it was most helpful to as an aid to my learning overall. By creating waypoints of my learning, I still kept my workflow, but also gave me moments to step back and think over my working to solidify my understanding and analyse how it would help me going forward.

The layout has also helped to guide the writing of my Report.

I made an effort to use the Era Cycle when surmising my research chunks, so I could use what I learned going ahead. Where I have done this I have marked them with: (Era Cycle)

I focused more upon this in my final report.

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Final Artefact - An Overzealous Greeting (Animation)

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Final Artefact - An Overzealous Greeting (Animation)

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I am proud of this final animation. I feel it condenses my understanding of rigging very well. LMA not so much.

However, I was satisfied with my progress and the scope of my project had been completed. Pushing myself to create more could have lead to me burning out, so I finished up.

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(Era Cycle)

I started out the animation by blocking out the main poses of the animation. I was still navigating the feeling of animating with Rigging software so I started with basic pose to pose to understand how everything would pan out.

However this resulted in me being very tentative. I was struggling to integrate my animation principles whilst also working with the new tools. As a result my intial blocking was very meek. It lacked expressive movement.

I decided to scrap this blocking and start again. With more understanding of the rig itself, I was more confident, and knew to push the poses more.

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Final Artefact - Second Pass (Animation)

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Final Artefact - Second Pass (Animation)

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(Era cycle)

This time the blocking felt a lot more similar to the poses I would create for a traditionally drawn animation. I was trying to integrate LMA but I feel I started to lose out on that understanding around here in the steps of the process.

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This was before I added final touches and extra hair movements. I added an extra little "steady" reaction as the effort of the wave would push the character over balance.

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An explantion of the Era Cycle by the Website Crowjack

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Creating the final rig (Screen recording)

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Creating the final rig (Screen recording)