Retrospective
Looking back…
I began this blog as a school project, and I was told that I could write on any subject I wanted. I chose animation because it’s something that I enjoy. I think that there is serious skill and artistry present in the industry that often goes underappreciated. I wanted to show people something that I liked.
I’ve been contributing to this blog over the whole summer, and now summer is coming to an end. I’d like to look back at the blog to see what I like, what is lacking, what I’ve learned, and what I long for.
What do I like?
Overall I am proud of what I’ve made. When I decided on what specific articles to create, I tried to challenge myself. I deliberately chose things that I thought might take a lot of time and research. I didn’t let myself take the path of least resistance, because I hoped that I could push myself to work harder. I believe that I have.
I like each of my class assignments, but I’m particularly happy with two of them: the article about the multiplane camera, and the audio post about The Lion King. The multiplane camera article took me the longest to create because of all the research that I had to do. I’m happy about the way I was able to integrate images and video to help demonstrate my points. Animation is a visual medium, so having visual examples is vital. I’m also proud of my audio post. I’m self conscious of my voice so I was nervous going in, but I think that I did a good job presenting an interesting fact.
What is lacking?
There are only a few things that didn’t quite come together. While I think that my blog looks nice, there were a few limitations to the customization that bothered me. At the beginning of my class I was told to chose either WordPress and Medium to host my blog. I chose Medium primarily for it’s ease of use. Medium is a great site, but it lacks some of the flexibility of WordPress. The look and layout of my blog isn’t exactly how I’d like it to be .My gripe is minor, but I would have liked to customize my blog just a bit more.
The only other thing that my blog lacks is completely my fault. At the time of this post, many of my posts about the 12 principles of animation are incomplete. Since these post make up a significant portion of content on my blog, this is an area in which my blog is lacking.
What did I learn?
Even though animation is a topic that I knew a lot about, I still learned new things about it. To add to this blog I had to do research and figure out which topics to write about. I specifically chose to write about the 12 principles of animation because they are something that I thought I should learn more about. I believe that I’ve done this.
Outside of this, I’ve also learned some practical knowledge about technology. I learned how to build a blog, how to write on the internet, how to record audio, how to edit video, and how to handle different types of media. This project has taught me skills that will greatly help me down the line.
What do I long for?
Now I must ask myself what I long to do. What must be finished before I can call it a day? The only thing I need to finish is the aforementioned posts on the 12 principles. I will finish these and review the blog a final time to fix any issues. After this revision I’ll be happy with my finished blog. I hope ya’ll enjoy it!
