I'm starting my first semester in 2D Animation at Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD) and am branding to animating. I'm basically a baby animator trying to figure out everything for the first time. I took a 4D class in my foundation year but, that was basically it. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous and excited to get started at the same time.

The first assignment in my Animation I class was the classic bouncing ball animation. We were starting where animation started: with drawings. The specifics of the assignment were to draw a bouncing ball frame by frame using white paper, pencils, light boxes, and a stop motion camera. After three bounces, we then needed to add something unexpected! We weren't restricted and had free reign over what that unexpected something would be. I was originally going to do something with cats, because drawing cats has kinda become my thing. However, I knew that would be expected of me, so I deciced to do something a little more unexpected that I knew no one else would do: abstraction! I used to always do abstract style paintings, so I figured, "hey let's try doing it in an animation!" I also knew my teacher would play the video on loop when we did our critique in class, so I took that into consideration when I was creating my unexpected bouncing ball ending. My ball successfully bounced three times. Then, I made the ball fill with black, shrink to the size of a mere dot, burst into color, and quickly reduce back to a black and white ball in the same position that it started in.

I was so happy and felt so accomplished when I played back my bouncy ball. I was even happier when both my teacher and my classmates liked my bouncing ball and abstract ending in a perfect loop — minus some one or two negative critiques from the teacher, but that's to be expected since everything has room for improvements. Not bad for my first hand-drawn animation project though, right?! At least that's how I felt about it.

I can't wait to dive into the next project now! If you were looking for some advice, I would say, don't be afraid to try something new. I went from an abstract fine art painter that was fully comfortable and confident in my skills to animation that I knew nothing about with no skills what-so-ever. It's definitely a challenge. However, it gets easier every day with practice and a good teacher who doesn't mind answering a million different questions. I'm excited to see what opportunities my future will hold for me. Plus, I'm having fun learning new things! At the end of the day, I'm tired out, but I'm also happy with the choices I've made.