How DO you set keys so that they won't jump on you later? I select my controls, set a key, go to another frame, adjust to a new key pose, set it, return to look at first frame, and lo and behold, it's all messed up. Boo! All the hours of homework are cutting into my sleep time. Leisure time went missing a long while ago.

Plus we're learning the intricacies of human movement, plus the necessity of caricature/good animation. A character can't just stand, he has to have a clear line of action. A normally bilateral movement, such as clapping, looks boring head on, so we tilt the camera angle. Movements are followed by reactions, but they are preceded by anticipation. A body doesn't turn all at once: a sequence might be the eyes first, followed by the head, then the shoulders, then the hips and finally the feet. But it has to be all so smooth that you think you only see one major movement, not a sequence of smaller ones.

And my instructor gets on my case about feet, which he says do not bend the way I think. I know they bend the way I think, as in martial arts your feet have to be flexible indeed. Probably most sports demand flexible ankles. But I must adjust my characters' feet to dork feet. Ok, ok.

The butt-kicking is helping us feel more professional, though, perhaps. One doesn't demand great things of the hopeless and untalented.