As I was permitted to observe one of animation and film class- Animation 2D (storyboard SOFA 627) in RIT last week, I am going to talk about my experience and reflection about this class.
The content of this class is about giving peer feedback to each other’s Animation storyboard which is an 1:00-2:30 long animatic with key frames, background music, and dialogue. According to Wikipedia,”A storyboard is a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence.” and it is also called “Animatic”.
Before the class begin, each student of this class should submit their assignments to the professor and then the professor was going to exhibit their video projects one by one during the class via the slide. In the beginning of the class, the professor encouraged the students to be the first one to show the video. Some students raised their hands almost at the same time so the professor had to choose the one who was the exactly first. A girl with purple hair demonstrated her video first and I felt that she is confident with her works because she has very excellent drawings and a clearly structure of storytelling. After the presentation of each person, other students were all actively to give their comments or suggestions. The professor critiqued to the student later that based on his professional perspective as well as his mature experience. The student, who was given suggestions, had positive respond to the professor and other students by answering their questions in patience. The whole class interacted with each other every effectively which established a kind of easy and interesting atmosphere of study. In the end, the professor concluded the performance of the students and let them develop their animation story in further and deeper way.
Throughout the whole class, I can see every student fully prepared his or her work and they cared about each other, support each other as well as inspired each other to better their works. The quality of their works were amazing which reflected their positive attitude and enthusiasm on the assignments from the professor. Besides the behavior of the students, the professor gave a very professional and humorous lecture to the students by encouraging the students to interact with each other and inspire them to be creative base on the professional animation principles.
I think the most difficult part for me is to create a clearly storytelling in a professional and effective method because, as far as I know, animation is one of the most complicated major which needs the students not only have the good drawings but has the ability to organize a story through logic and aesthetic angle. I think I should to accumulate the basic animation fundamentals as much as I can to prepare my major study well. One thing I feel happy is that I was able to understand 90 percent of what did the professor said during the class which was much better than I expected. I believe that with great efforts and strong passion, I will be better everyday and finally be qualified to take major study. I am looking forward to that day.
VISUAL FANTASY 