u/aHecc

Feedback appreciated, the blendshapes are pretty light on this since I was learning them for the first time, so that'll be something I definitely expand on for my next project.

(Model is not mine, I tried my best with the animation)

All three of the duplicate meshes have the same eye/jaw position, and I checked the input order and swapping the three around doesn't seem to affect anything.

ive found a few dozen of these in total in my house in the past few weeks

I sure have been drawing a lot of machines recently

I took up drawing when I had a summer of free time and not really any hobbies other than gaming to spend it on. I wasn't really expecting anything out of it, but I ended up loving it, and I'm really happy with the progress I've made since.

Timeline per image:

1. June 2023 - My first drawing after deciding late one night that I wanted to try to draw. Done on my phone in Samsung PenUp, a "drawing program" that I hope none of you ever have to use.

2. July 2023 - An early attempt at designing my own character.

3. August 2023 - The first drawing I was proud of.

4. October 2023 - The highlight of my phone drawing era, and my first time trying a lineless art style, which I would eventually revisit (and is now my preferred style for rendered pieces). I got a screenless drawing tablet for my computer soon after this.

5. December 2023 - I include this one to show that sometimes there are stretches of time where you don't progress nearly as much, or even regress. Progress is about raising your average level, not beating your best work constantly. This is (mostly) otherwise a series of my successes, and don't tell the whole story.

6. January 2024 - The largest piece I'd made at the time.

7. May 2024 - A piece that I liked the composition of, but felt that I couldn't yet pull off properly. My redraw of this is later in the series.

8. August 2024 - This was my favorite drawing by far I had made at the time, and it's probably still my most ambitious. I attempted to copy a style for the first time here, and I even went so far as to do a test render to make sure I would be able to attempt something this detailed. As such, this drawing took me the ENTIRE month of August to complete, and it was literally the only thing I worked on during this time. Still likely the most hours I've put into one drawing.

9. January 2025 - My favorite single character rendering at the time. By this point, lineless was my go-to style. I had gotten a stand-alone drawing tablet for Christmas, and this was my first big success using it.

10. May 2025 - My first successful attempt at designing my own character in a long time. I include this one because it was around this time that I started really improving my subjective success rate for my own drawings.

11. June 2025 - I was focusing on poses at this time, and this piece was a test to see if I could draw multiple characters in a row with no pose reference without them looking awkward.

12. August 2025 - The first in a line of shoulder-up lineless pieces which would become one of my favorite things to draw.

13. January 2026 - Starting from this piece, I learned that I love using cube brushes instead of the basic hard round brush, and I start drawing everything with one.

14. May 2026 - Redraw of piece 7 two years later to show myself my own progress.

15. May 2026 - A piece where I really tried to focus on composition. I think there are both successes and failures in this one, but the rendering style paved the way for my next drawing.

16. June 2026 - My most recent big rendered drawing.

17. June 2026 - This is my most recent drawing. As much as I love being able to do the rendered drawings, I think my favorite thing about learning to draw is that if I have an idea, I can just make it now.

A lot of text, I know, but I think that it's important to show that progress takes time and a lot of practice, and I'm happy to answer any questions about mine if there are some.

Haven't added the extra info yet, but Animation/Rigs/Modeling done by me, texturing also except for the table and background in the first clip.

I also specifically wanted to ask if I should cut the first couple clips a bit shorter, not sure if the ease out is lasting too long.

A few notes:

This was for a college project, and everything was done by me, so I'm looking for advice in any of modeling, rigging, and animation. I've been learning 3D for almost a year, so I'm sure there's a ton of stuff I haven't even heard of yet that can help.

Animation was done mostly chronologically, and I'm aware that some of the animation and especially scene transitions early on are pretty bad, the latter half is closer to my current skill level.

Not that it matters much for this critique, but the story doesn't make much sense with just this section as I had to cut the exposition and resolution for time.

Models were made in blender, rigging and animation done in Maya.

Thanks!

First is 2026, second is 2024, ~3 years into my art journey vs ~1 year.