05 October 2007

Whyanimation Inc.



In my humble opinion; an animator, at least a good one should have a very good eye for not only catching strong poses but also is able to capture movement (whether it is lively seen or is video reference) and do its analysis instantly in his mind. He must be creative, innovative, collaborative, flexible and most important of all dedicated to continuous improvement. In some people’s opinion in Turkey, these qualities are crap, animation or cartoons are nothing to be taken serious or a real business, it is childish, immature but we know these ignorant and “home of fixed idea” people, don’t we? and who cares about them? And for some people, to achieve these in a really all-time working environment and stay positive and healthy are very hard things to accomplish.

So, why one chooses animation? What is his/her driving force, motivation?

From the animator’s perspective of view, these qualities are not obstacles that need to be gained to reach the top; instead they see them as processes of their evolution, they gain them instinctually and as not duties or like but as parts of their lifestyle, enjoyment and enlightenment. And in the end, there is the biggest reward. Creating something from nothing, giving life, character, emotions to the dead material whether it is bits (0,1), lead on paper or bunch of photographs. For me, what equally attractive is telling stories right out of your imaginary world through animation. And animation is such a suitable medium for that. You don’t need fancy equipment, good actors asking for great deal of money or environment to be built. In most of the situations, a piece paper, a computer will be enough. You can have actors with limitless acting and movement capabilities and have environments only restricted by your imagination. So, may this force be with you my animator friends and be sure to use it for the da errr light side!

Meanwhile, my animationmentor experience is officially began and I tell you man:) though only 4 days have passed, it has been quite out of ordinary and fabulous. I met my mentor, James Chiang who looks like a friendly and skillful guy. I look forward to working with him. Other things like tools, videos, people and interactivity were great too. I looked my classmates’ previous work and wow! some of them have a skill level in modeling, animation or graphics such that they can be considered as second mentors to me.

Enough snack talking and let’s get to the business then. I have read class 1 syllabus and decided to draw poses and pose stu (an am rig) according to them, in order to show emotions that are not given in assignments. First emotion is FRIGHTENED. One advice though: do not ever use a ballpoint pen(like me) for sketching.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey check out who's feeling better!

Nice post and the great attitude...only animators understand animators :)

Looking forward to some of your "other" stu poses.

Francisco Javier Loredo said...

Hey whats up buddy!

Great post and very inspiring! Thats good that you already started sketching and posing "Stu". Some practice before next class wont hurt! I hope you're feeling better by thay way!

Talk to you later!

Toby Cochran said...

Whats up man!

Nice pose !! I will leave a msg over in the site!!