We do not need to be able to draw well to create a good 2D animation. 2D is quite simple to draw because it does not require much details of an object. It is just drawing the surface of an object.
2) Do you need to be able to draw well to create good 3D animation? Explain your view.
We do not need to be able to draw well to create good 3D animation but we need to be able to visualize the dimension of depth, width and height of the object or character. When we know how to see the object from a perspective view, we can see the detailed parts such as how tall or short is the object, how thin or thick is the object, etc. From there, we can draw out the proportionate shape of it.
3) What do you think would separate a piece of poor animation from a piece of good animation? In other words, how would you go about deciding if a piece of animation is good or bad?
I think one of the things that separates a poor animation from a good animation would be the lacking of principles of animation. An example for a poor animation would be like a character walking aimlessly without any expressions, and no different types of actions to impress the audience. An example of a good animation is a character exaggerating their actions at a specific time. For instance, the character receives a huge present from someone. When he/she sees the present, they expressions would be excited, eyes and mouth opened wide, etc. These little details will affect the audience as it tells them how to react.
4) In 2D animation, you need to be very aware of timing at a frame by frame level, using timing charts and other techniques - but for 3D animation, this is handled using the graph editor, which is more concerned with manipulating rates of change over time.
Does this affect how you approach your animation work? Explain.
It does not affect how I approach my animation work. Both 2D and 3D animation require us to take note of the timing. It does not matter which method is better to use. For 2D, we use techniques like key frames to take note of the timing for animation. For 3D, we use the graph editor to take note of the timing by adjusting the gradient or points of the graph.
5) Give a brief critique of Maya as an animation tool. Don't just say Maya makes animation difficult, or easy, or that you need to learn a lot of stuff to use Maya - explain what Maya does well and not so well in terms of creating animation.
Overall, I find that Maya can do animation similarly to Flash. We can use Maya to create effects of an object, control the animation timing, 3D textures and shadings, etc. We can also use polygons to create a character and position them at the right place by using the 4 different panels.
