Digital Animation Course

I find the course took of to a slow start. It felt a lot more relaxed when compared to other courses. But thats not such a bad thing. I shear a flat with student on Film, Graphic Design, Advertising, Geography and Mining courses; they have all been bombarded with projects from the first week where as I have had a bit more freedom.

"...the course took of to a slow start. It felt a lot more relaxed when compared to other courses. But thats not such a bad thing."

But here is the catch. There always is one. We had Monday and Tuesday free but on Wednesday we relived our first lecture and first project from Andy Wyatt. The lecture was about the Principals of Animation. Timing, Weight and Squash & Stretch. Our assignment was to:

1) Animate a  football falling into frame and stopping.
2) Animate a bowling ball falling into the frame and stopping.

The deadline for this project is Tuesday 12th October at 11:59pm. This is because the work has to be uploaded to The Learning Space as well as our blogs. I am looking forward to this project as I have not really experimented much with 2D animation. This should be a challenge.

But that was just Wednesday. On Thursday we had Animation Theory & History with Ann Owen in the cinema. I enjoyed this lecture as it went into Representation & Semiology; a topic I have looked into when I was moving a graphic design direction last year. I find semiotics interesting and having a previous understanding of this will give me a head start.

"I find semiotics interesting and having a previous understanding of this will give me a head start."

Looking into stereotypes in animation will be interesting. I am already concerned about what I see on children's television. I understand that stereotypes are heavily relied on for children's cartoons as they are the most effective means of communicating to the audience what the characters are about. This is why they work so well. However these children's cartoons reinforce the stereotype resulting in generation after generation with slightly skewed perspective on gender roles, race, age etc. Animators, especially for children's television, must look into both the sociological and psychological implications of their work on their audience. I feel many animators underestimate the power that this medium gives them. We are shaping the minds of the future.

My biggest issue would have to race. I am African Caribbean, my father from Jamaica and my mother with Jamaican parents but british born like myself. I feel as though the representations of race as well as the lack of diversity, not just for the African Caribbean community but for other is an issue. this something I plan to challenge in my work.

"I feel many animators underestimate the power that this medium gives them. We are shaping the minds of the future."

Overall I am looking forward to three years of the Digital Animation course and i cant wait to get going. its going to be a great year.

-Omari McCarthy