LET'S GET STARTED SHALL WE?

 

Hello, my name is Kierra Amaral! I'm a Studio Art major with a focus on animation. Most of my work involves digitally painting characters and the worlds that they live within, as way to share my imagination with other people. My fascination with characters stems mainly from observing people and their unique personalities. I am inspired by popular animated films created by studios such as Pixar and DreamWorks, and the works of professional animators / artists like Tim Burton, Don Bluth, and Tiago Hoisel.

I would describe my art style as cartoony and colorful, and it can range from the design of anthropomorphic creatures and quirky humans to the environment they live within. When I create a scene, I want others to feel like they are in a different environment, like they just stepped into an animated movie’s universe and are getting a glimpse at the characters living their lives. 

So far I have only done 2d Puppet Tool animations through Adobe After Effects. I have been trying to draw the divided ball and planes of the head to get a better idea on how different angles work when animating, but I feel like this class is going to really help me to where I am more comfortable with that! I'm really excited to be taking this computer animation class as I think it will give me a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes in animation. One thing I am interested in learning from this class is how to animate hair. If it's done correctly, it really can add that extra oomph to a character! Two characters (in traditional animation) that always remind me of this are Thumbelina and Ariel. I can only imagine how much effort went into making the hair flow so nicely and dramatically. 

p.s. I also can't wait till we start animating bags of flour!