I would sketch in the theme parks on days off to ground myself in an alternate realty through direct observation. As an intern I tended to work 10 hour or more each day. Any notion of work life balance is abandoned if you become an animator. Animation is all consuming and never feels quite finished.
The centaur run was driving me mad. How on earth do horses keep track of those four legs? In my scene the front legs were running faster that the hind legs causing the torso to stretch. I decided it wasn’t a mistake but a happy accident and I kept it.