Here is my latest test shot called “Eat”.  It has been a long time since my last personal test.  I highly recommend it.   I think it’s a great opportunity for growth and experimentation.  I try to approach each shot with a goal in mind.  My goal might be to improve on a principle of animation like timing.   For this shot, my goal was entertainment value.   Hopefully you watch it and laugh (I’ll even take a smile).   

My favorite lecture while attending AnimationMentor has to be Doug Sweetland’s talk on “Entertainment”.  He didn’t sit and animate (not that I didn’t love those lectures too!), he spent the majority of the time just talking about how important it is to make your work entertaining.  I can’t sit here and type out all my notes, but watching that lecture literally changed my entire perspective on animating.  My new approach is to focus on entertainment and then work to make sure everything else supports it.  With each new shot, I hope you can see improvement in my work.  This is a never ending journey to get good at this craft.  Hope you enjoy and forgive the bad lighting/rendering!