Self-Development - Switching From Modelling to Animation

I've hit a brick wall with my work this morning. I had a sudden realisation that the work I'm producing is just that … work. This past week , I started to feel down with it and now dislike what I'm doing. Not only is the work to an O.K standard, but I've also thought about how producing a reel based around something I don't really enjoy will affect my third year plans. I know that if I stick with modelling, I will be doing it for other people's films next year instead of what I really want to do next year, which is to direct my own film.

I’ve started designing my characters and layout concepts as well as storyboarding in my spare time but because I've made this decision, to essentially start over again, so late in the term, I can't return to to it. I will, however, continue with pre-production for my third year film over the summer period after hand in.

Thinking towards the future, I started to think about a particularly important event; the animation degree show. This is a perfect opportunity to produce a piece of work that could possibly get me some freelance work / a small intern-ship as well as making contacts with people from the industry. 

I know producing a modelling demo reel would advertise something I am not. I don’t want to be a modeller. As I was doing the work, I felt constricted to the screen and felt none of my personality was going into the work. I want my work to say “James did that”, not “a modeller did that”. This thought kick started my new demo reel idea - animation. I don’t think of animation as work and it's something I really enjoy and truly love to learn more about and expand my skills with. 

I'm confident I can produce a reasonable amount of good quality work before the deadline.