We had various classes over the course of the past two terms that covered a scope of practical skills as well as animation, film and art theory. These classes were incredibly useful overall for helping to widen my understanding of both the processes of animation but also the industry as a whole.
Having not come from an animation, but a theatre background, having the dichotomy between the animation classes, something wildly new and unfamiliar to me, and the acting classes, which had been the basic format of all of my previous education and career was very interesting.
It was especially interesting coming into acting and performance classes but having to frame it with a new lens. I had done most of the exercises before but solely from the perspective of creating live performance for stage and so to take skills I already had studied but apply them in a different way for a different end result was an enjoyable challenge. I do think my theatre background and familiarity with a rehearsal room environment and willingness to make a fool of myself did help in these classes. My understanding of body performance and how to communicate using my body did also help to grasp the concepts of body performance in animation quite quickly, however I have found there is a huge difference in understanding the concepts and being able to apply it to your own body and then being able to translate that onto to paper.
All of the classes were invaluable and it would be really difficult to choose which i enjoyed the most. Classes with external speakers such as Robert Bradbrook and Sue Tong were really fascinating to learn about the world of animation outside of the context of the course, the skills classes such as Clean up with Duane and Saffron and Story boarding with Bianca were great for helping me develop my own tool kit and understanding what skills I needed to hone or perfect in order to be able to work professionally and the theoretical classes with Laura-Beth were wonderful for understanding the greater landscape in the animation industry.
As some one who works best with in person practice based classes, these have been really enriching classes that have helped me to understand my own burgeoning practice in a safe environment that really promotes self improvement and critical approaches to my work.