Interview with a very accomplished animator

This article was very fascinating to read this week. The animator Nicole Herr has been working in the animation business for quite some time with her most recent work being Guardians of the Galaxy and Game of Thrones. In this article, Nicole was asked various questions on her career. The first being

How long have you been a professional animator?
Here she explains that she has been working sense 1998 on the film Sphere. But her career really picked up when she saw The Little Mermaid for the first time, and knew she wanted to be an animator.

What was your favorite shot that you've worked on and why?
She explains how on the movie Fantasia she restored the original footage, in Sphere she got to animate for the first time, on Stuart Little 2 got to do character animation for the first time, got to animate a baby dragon on Suckerpunch and got to animate Groot and Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy. But she said that her favorite shot to animate was in Legend of the Guardians, where she got to animate an owls parents feeling proud of their son.

What's the difference between Character Animation and Realistic Animation?
Here she explains that for Character animation she mostly video tapes herself or other reference to get a feel for the pacing of the character. But for realistic animation she studies animals and trys to learn how they move.

What is your workflow for animating a creature shot?
She explains here that you must understand what your character can do and find out exactly what you want to see without even starting the basic animation.

How much time are you allowed to take to work on a shot?
She explains that it can be 40 hours or weeks depending on the length and production of the shot.

What was your experience like animating the dragon for the Game of Thrones Time Warner Commercial?
She says that it was very fun to work on as the rig was very well thought out and client was very supportive of them.

What references do you use when animating a dragon?
She explains that it depends on the type of dragon and it could range from humming bird to eagle to a bat.

What is the most common mistake you see students do?
She says here that most mistakes are
. over complicating their shots 
. forget they're animating characters
. not studying video reference
. not moving they're own bodies to study movement
. lack of weight
. using the wrong animal for reference
.  Not asking for help

To fix this she says..
Understand what you're animating, understand the mechanics of the actions, ask for peoples opinions, remember that animation is a team sport.

And then she says that all shots are dream shots yadda yadda yadda, dear god this blog post is waaay to long. I thought this article was very cool and helpful for young or starting animators who want to know how to improve their work.