I had the amazing opportunity to take Michal Makarewicz's the Animation Collaborative class on Learn to Layer. Ever since I saw his live demo at Lightbox and CTN 2022, I was blown away by the "layered" method of animating. Pose-to-pose had been my main workflow because it made sense to me. So when I saw how Michal animates in his layered manner, straight into spline, control by control, and how organic and fast he can get a 'blocking' shot (oh, did I mention everything's in SPLINE!?!), I knew I had to at least try and learn this sorcery! It was such a pleasure taking that class, I definitely learned a ton and am more comfortable using the layered method, which intimidated the heck out of me at first. 

This shot was animated with the layered workflow, and I was really lucky to receive and implement notes from Michal himself. While it's still far from the level of polish that I'd like it to be, I'm very happy with how it turns out, especially since I got to learn a new workflow along the way! Here's a glimpse at one of my early blocking pass: