It's actually happening.

It's here. I did it. It's going to be over.

Graduation is in three days. :]

I didn't think this time would ever come. I've been anxiously waiting it's arrival for four years now, ogling at my dream dangling in front of my face. I faced an obsticle that was College, the only thing separating me from that aspiration of being a character animator.

Now I can truly call myself one. I am a character animator!

I know that college wont be my only feat that I'll have to pass in the upcoming years. In fact, I'm prepared for the worst. However, after these past couple years I've shown myself that this was not a spontaneous quest, and that my dream could easily be tangible.

I have to remember, though, that these things will not come to me. They will not pan themselves out in front of me, hand me a life plan and let me be. There will be disappointing moments, there will be moments of doubt, of pain, of sleepless nights, but I just have to tell myself that I am doing something that many people admire. It is a privilege, and as my family always taught my siblings and I as we were growing up: Privileges can be taken away.

Anyways, here's a demo reel! Take a look! If you have any comments, please, leave it down below. :)

Up and running!

After much hassle, I now have my website up! It turned out pretty cool, though it is still being worked on a little bit. New stuff to come soon! In the meantime, check out my website!
Kayli Edwards Portfolio Website!

New website design!

I've gone through so many designs, but I think I like this best! I'm eventually going to model and animate that lil raccoon guy down there, but that's something for summer break. :)
I would love advice on this, for it's still a work in progress! Sorry for the low quality preview! click it and you can see it full sized.

-Kayli

Independent Study, with focus on animation principals

This term was definitely an productive one. I learned a lot both in terms of animation and my work flow. I was pumping each of these out in week intervals. Most of them aren't polished pieces, and some turned out better than others, though I'm otherwise very happy with the progress I've made. These are in order of how I did them, with the Stretch and Squash week being my favorite, (and most finished!), out of all of them.

I worked diligently on these, often slaving away into the wee hours of the morning, so any feedback is appreciated!

Thanks for looking! :)
-Kayli

Progress!

I created a Vimeo account! Here's links to my most recent animation exercises:
Line and Silhouette

Squash and Stretch

Doodle I did during class

I want to color it!

Line and Silhouette practice - keys only

This term has been a busy one. I was really intending on posting my weekly animating assignments but I don't feel like they are worth sharing. They definitely didn't turn out as well as I thought they would, though I was rusty from a term without animating anything so that could be why I was having such a hard time.

This week is different, however! I feel much more satisfactory about this week's assignment, in which I was supposed to animate a criminal escaping from jail. The assignment only called for the keys, though I finished so early (it's due on thursday) that I feel like I could polish this up in that amount of time.



Maybe I'll post those others, if not for something to be proud of, then simply for reference of how -not- to go about animating... we'll see.

New term with renewed focus!

I've sort of had an epiphany of sorts over the break. I'm going to be graduating in the fall and I really, honestly, have nothing to show for it. That may be me being hard on myself, because if you were to look in my hard drive you would see animations that are on their way to being polished, but they just sit there because I feel like it would be more work to go back and try to fix what I've learned from doing them rather than just starting over.

So that's what I'm doing. Not all the way, but in a sense.

I'm in a couple classes (the other two are required general education classes), that if I try really hard to get the most out of them it will, without a doubt, push me along to a budding animator.

During the break before this term started I read a couple articles on non-verbal body language, and I'm half-way through an actual book on that subject right now. I'm definitely seeing the opportunity to use some of this knowledge in my acting choices for future characters.

I've also acquired my own copy of the Animator's Survival Guide Book! Finally, geez. I'm a hundred pages into that and I just received it yesterday. My goal is to finish it this term, along with that body language book.

Why? Not only because reading those will give me a stronger background on which to animate upon, but also because one of the classes that I'm taking I will be doing work that should, in theory, be good enough to put on my reel.

...I just felt my nerves tense up just writing that sentence! I have such a fear of growing up and of failure with trying to make something of myself that I've let it get to me up until this point. I've let my brain create excuses along the line of 'oh, I have more time to finish this and get better. I'll get to this the next time around'. I now see that having that attitude hasn't gotten me anywhere. I've watched peers that I've gone through college with surpass me in skill... and it's a horrible feeling. And now is the time to change that.


But it's not only that; I have something else that is holding me back socially.
The thought of networking -- making conversation (small talk! aaah....) with people who I know nothing about and then KEEPING the contacts open and alive for the remainder of my career?

With my social anxiety, talking to my peers and maintaining a relationship is hard enough, let alone someone in the industry.

I'm hoping that all this will change over the course of the term. I'll be posting my progress with more regularity than what I have been, now that I am actually focusing on improving myself. I will become an active part of the 11 Second Club and read up on as many animation blogs, journals, techniques, and anything else that I can find in relation to animation in order to better myself. I cannot be the shut in that I have become, focusing on myself negatively. I've seen myself do good things without knowing anything about animation, so with this added background I should do just fine.