Minor - Reflective Statement

For my minor project submission I am generally happy with what I have achieved. Mostly I am happy with how much more comfortable I feel working within maya. I am disappointed that I was unable to complete both characters for the animation, but this was due to running into issues and problems while creating the first character. Even though these issues meant I could not finish the second character in time, they have allowed me to refine my character creation skills in maya. I have learnt simple tricks and processes within the character creation pipeline that I believe will allow me to create my second character in under half of the time it did to create my first.
With the overall look and feel of the character I am very happy as he fits the style of animation I was aiming for perfectly. The use of the 2d facial rig worked very well with my character and I am happy I made the decision to build 3d eyes which can give the character more emotion, by being able to move the eye lids.
For the individual processes of character creation pipeline, i.e modelling, UV'ing, rigging etc. I found that at the start of this project my strongest aspect of this was the character modelling. But after working on the character and the amount of time I spent rigging and skinning as well as adding controls, I feel as if it has almost made me a stronger artist in these aspects.
I have tried to put in extra effort this project as well, experimenting with different types of rigs and controls, working to find which on will be best suited for my character. An example of this is I experimented with an IK/FK rig, creating this on it own to see how it works and how I could apply it to my character. From doing this I noted several issues I encountered along the process and came to the conclusion that I was better off sticking to the arm rig that I know, to save time and allow me to complete the character in time.
With the pre viz I feel as if I am happy with the majority of my shot selection, but I still need to do some editing to get the timings better to fit with the pace of the animation, but still to show what is needed to be shown on screen.
The area in which I felt I struggled the most was the 2d drawing side and the initial character development. I knew how I wanted my characters and world to look, but I find it very difficult to portray these through concept art and drawings as I have much more of a 3d mindset. I have thought about this issue a lot and although I have tried to work on my drawings, the rate of improvement is at a slow pace. An option that I am considering for pieces of concept art, that will be needed in the next project, is that I could collaborate with an artist, giving them initial sketches and referencing to explain how I want the piece to look, then work very closely with them throughout to ensure I would have a much more accurate and professional looking piece of concept art.
Overall I was happy with my minor project submission and I feel as if I am in a good place going into the major project, as a lot of this project will take place in maya and be a lot more actual production and use of the software, rather then just the pre production of the animation, which was majority of the minor project.