Ryan Watkins, Animation, Junior, Graduation: Spring 2023

I’ve always had a passion for animation. When I was young I would often watch animated films and even attempted to make simple flip book animations. I never thought I would have the artistic skills to create animation. That was until I began practicing and improving my art skills. When I enrolled as an animation major at the University of Tampa I slowly improved my skills and techniques for animation. I found ways to include new elements I previously didn’t have in my animations along with the skills needed to design 3D models. I have so many professors I admire and have learned so much from at the University of Tampa. Professor Christian my 3D modeling and printing professor really inspired me to use my imagination to create models that I could be proud of. Professor Echeverry, my Creative Coding professor expects you to go the extra mile and put the extra effort into each project. He pushes me to be better than I am and strive for more from myself. Professor Goncalves, who I have had for several animation courses including 3D Animation is so talented and I hope to continue improving each class I have with him. As my abilities have improved my passion for pursuing animation as my ultimate goal has increased each year I complete.

I view my 3D modeling as my greatest strength. The skills I’ve picked up through my experience with Autodesk Maya have led to me being able to create more and more complex models. My most recent model of a train shows the use of adding geometry to a model to make it more detailed along with adding details using the boolean and combine tools. My ability to make unique 2D animations is another strength I have. I’ve been able to make walk cycles that are consistent and animating dialogue to match pre recorded audio for animations.

My greatest weakness is keeping consistency with animation quality. Most notably my 2D animation work needed to be consistent in quality throughout. I’ve worked on improving this by adding more frames to animation along with fixing inconsistencies along with looking over my work much more closely to keep the consistency of the quality good for each animation. Another weakness of mine is moving away from references when 3D modeling. I’ve worked to improve this problem by checking and going back to the original reference often to keep the model consistent.

The main goal I’ve set for myself upon graduation is to obtain a position at an animation studio. I feel my classes at the University of Tampa have given me an excellent base of general and specialized courses that are making me a well rounded student and person ready to enter the workforce. Seeing the enthusiasm and hard work my professors put in my classes inspires me to be the best person I can be. I recognize if you want to achieve your passion in life you must work hard and put everything you have in to each project you work on, and I plan to do exactly that in my career going forward. I’ve always wanted to achieve the impossible with art and I feel animation is where that can be done. I want to bring my skills to the world of studios and continue to push the medium forward.