Researching Note No. 1

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/212003/game_animation_bootcamp_an_expert_.php

While reading this article I noticed quite an interesting quote within a quote:

"Most importantly, go out and be active! Do stuff! You don’t have to run a triathlon or learn Krav Maga, but you need to have experiences to draw from when you are creating something. Go to a firing range, go running, go lift weights, go swimming, go for a walk, whatever. As Brad Bird said, “You can’t create the Illusion of Life if you don’t have one.”"

"You can't create the Illusion of Life if you don't have one." - Meaning you can't create an accurate animation of a person performing an action unless you have done it yourself.
This reminded me of when I was working on my first animation assignment, I was using visual reference material in the form of videos of people shooting a basketball, walking or kicking. The quote made me think about if I had created my own reference material, I could have looked at myself moving and remembered how it felt, where my weight was and how it shifted. This could have given me a far better understanding and made my animation easier to create.

Thinking about this I thought about facial animation, my second animation assignment involved some minor facial animation and I remember pulling the faces I was trying to create as I was making them, making them far easier to recreate. So obviously the quote and the quote within holds some truth and I'm excited to put the theory into practice, even if it involves me publicly kicking the air in order to get the required information to get the animation right and having a few people staring at me in confusion... I feel like that would give me a far better idea that just simply watching someone else perform an action.

Quote taken from:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/212003/game_animation_bootcamp_an_expert_.php

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Said by Tim Borrelli quoting Brad Bird.