Thanks alot for doing this Shaw, i've really been enjoying your long answers. 
Here's a few questions i came up with!
- Do you feel like your older animations never match up to the ones you've done recently? Is it always that the newest stuff is the best or just a matter of some elements "klicking" when you get a good animation done?
- When was the first time you saw/realized that you've improved and how did you see that?
- I'm a beginner in animation and find myself struggling with long animations (should i really be doing these?), with no camera cuts. How do you manage with longer shots? I refine a small bit of animation at a time, is it a bad way to go?
- How much do you improvise during the animating, could you give an example perhaps? 
Ok, that's all ninja master. 
Pauli? Like Paulie Walnuts?
!!! THat's a cool name!!!
Okay, sorry... I'm a rabid Sopranos fan... Back to the questions!
1) Do you feel like your older animations never match up to the ones you've done recently? Is it always that the newest stuff is the best or just a matter of some elements "klicking" when you get a good animation done?
Ideally, we should all be striving towards the goal of each shot being better than the one you just finished. Of course, this doesn't always work out, but it's certainly a worthy thing to be reaching for every time!!
Generally though, I tend to look back on any animation I did more than a couple years ago and pretty much cringe. Which, to me, is a healthy sign. Sure, I think some of the older stuff I did is still okay or fun or whatever, but it isn't like I can't list 10 things about it I wish I had done differently.
If you look at something you did 5 years ago and really still can't think of any way you would change it, to me that's a big sign that you've stopped learning, you've plateaued. To me, what's the point, then? There's so much to learn about animation, why ever stop? Why ever get an ego to the point where you feel like you have nothing more to learn?
I know a few animators like that, by the way. And their work suffers because of it.
I knew a guy once who said, "The day you think you know everything there is to know about something is the day that you're a failure."
2) When was the first time you saw/realized that you've improved and how did you see that?
Hmmmmm. When I was working on Star Wars 1, I looked back at my demo reel and was completely embarassed by it. I had already learned so much just in my first year at ILM that the majority of the stuff on my reel truly embarassed me. At first, it made me feel like I didn't belong at ILM, or that I was going to be "found out" and any minute Rob Coleman or whoever would walk into our office and say, "Sorry, Shawn. Turns out we made a big mistake." and my dream would be smashed and I'd be let go. I mean, I was surrounded by animation veterans, or people from CAL-Arts and SHeridan, and a lot of times I felt like "what the hell am I doing here?"
But I realized two things: First, if I thought my reel sucked, that must mean that I'm better than I was a year earlier when I had sent it in. And second, so what if all these guys knew more about animation than me? What better learning opportunity could I ever find then THAT!? So boom - I turned it into a full-fledged ask-a-thon, where I'd ask people for feedback, ideas, tips, help, critique, etc., ALL THE TIME!!! I'm still a lot like that, and I'm still learning like crazy!
A lot of times, it's all about checking your ego at the door and just being open to learning, open to criticism. Don't be afraid to show your work to people. Don't feel like they are going to look down at you or laugh behind your back that you aren't half the animator they are. Those are all stupid fears in your head. People don't do that. Animators tend to be pretty helpful people, generally eager to pass on knowledge and help out the newer folks. At least, people at ILM have been that way, so maybe I was just really lucky... (you guys are lucky too - CG-CHAR seems to be a great format for this type of exchange).
What people *DO* do, is gossip, of course. Sure, I'll hear some snickers about this animator or that scene or whatever, but you know what? It's NEVER EVER at the people who are eager to learn, who are actively seeking help and soaking up the tips from those around them like a gigantic sponge. The snickers are aimed at the egomaniacs who think they know it all but don't, or the people too full of themselves to "lower" themselves to a level where they could feel okay about asking people around them for feedback.
Once again, it's all about attitude.
3)- I'm a beginner in animation and find myself struggling with long animations (should i really be doing these?), with no camera cuts. How do you manage with longer shots? I refine a small bit of animation at a time, is it a bad way to go?
To be honest, I'd say that no, you definitely shouldn't be doing these, especially as a beginner. No way. I'm not sure what you mean by "long" but to me, more than 100 frames is pretty long for a beginner to be doing a test. I'd say 100-120 frames should be PLENTY to practice mechanics and basics, which is DEFINITELY what you should be focusing 100% of your time on.
As far as refining, if you do your planning properly (reference, thumbs, acting it out, studying it, figuring out your overlap, arcs, paths ahead of time), your "refining" shouldn't be too much trouble. But yeah, once you do get into that final polishing mode, I do a "piece" at a time. I'll often grab one wrist controller and go through the whole scene checking it's arcs and overlap and polish up that one wrist, then move to the other wrist, and so forth.
- How much do you improvise during the animating, could you give an example perhaps?
Very little. Maybe in tiny ways. A head nod where I hadn't planned one, or an eye dart where I hadn't planned one. Maybe (MAYBE) even a gesture where I hadn't planned one, but beyond that I'll probably be going "off my planning" to the point where I should be re-planning the scene so it remains cohesive and strong.
Yeah, once you're in a production environment (especially for you games/TV guys) it can become almost impossible to say, "well, I think I need some different gestures here, and he should walk out screen left instead of screen right" and then go back, re-flim, re-thumbnail, and re-plan the scene. Sometimes time-constraints prevent this, and that's when you're kind of hosed and you need to just do the best you can to make the changes as solid as you can at the time.
But for you students doing tests on your own - holy cow. Don't do any major improvising once you're in front of the computer -- what a gigantic waste of time. Even if you get your new idea crammed into the scene, you're going to spend a ton of time making it TRULY work and fit in, you're going to spend weeks tyring to really make it look polished and feel right... You'll save a TON of time, but re-fliming your reference, keeping what you can from your previous version of the animation, dumping the rest, and re-posing that new section from scratch.
Remember, the more you plan ahead, the faster your scene will get done and the better it will look. That's 100% true, as far as I'm concerned.
And you know what? I see it at ILM all the time, in my own work and in others. The people who tend to plan their work are the best animators in the company. Without a doubt. And the shots I've done lazy planning for? Well, they aren't ever going onto my demo reel, I can tell you that much...
shawn
