Quarter 2 Project Plans

I sketch my ideas for animations in my sketchbook and many of the ideas that come to me are for 2D animations.  I have decided to make that my main focus for this quarter. However, I am also very open to 3D animations as they come more naturally to me since drawing is not my strongest area.  Nevertheless, for this project I picked up a drawing I made a year ago and tested it out in Photoshop to see how it looked. I have fallen in love with my little monster and I am looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish. The sketches below show the four main frame stages of this animation. I am going to start adding as many frames as I can in-between these stages to make the animation look smooth and fluid. I plan to animate the tail moving as he moves towards his food and perhaps adding some squash and stretch when he jumps. In the end it will probably look something like this:
-standing at neutral     -sees the cookie flower      -anticipates a jump     -jumps through the air and lands next to the flower     -anticipates a large bite     -chows down on the flower and ends with some chewing

Some photos of the concept art for the main four frames of the animation.

I am mostly inspired by Disney movies but there are short films that I have found on YouTube that I am also aspiring to be. Here is a link to my YouTube animation/special effects inspiration playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2BGhdsJ6Xqnmjpk3w0eluf1p8hxf5A7U 

Overall this year I want to gain experience in all forms of animation, particularly 3D because rigging fascinates me but also working on making my 2D animations appear more smooth and flowing. I want to also experiment with stop-motion to see if that could be something to pursue in a future project. Finally, I hope to receive an opportunity to experience the mechanisms and methods to motion-capture because that is also very intriguing to me.