Books, books, glorious books

Huzzah! Finally my Illusion of Life and Animator's Survival Kit have arrived. I was shocked to discover that the package weighed about 700 lbs, and even more shocked to discover that there was nothing inside but the two books! They are both extremely hefty, and from what I've seen so far, full of goodness. In my opinion they are quite the bargain, so if you don't have them, get them! The Illusion of Life seems especially fantastic, and I think that many non-animators would even enjoy it.

I have only made a small dent in the IoL so far, but I did come across a quote that I really identified with, from none other than Walt himself:

I am interested in entertaining people, in bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others, rather than being concerned with 'expressing' myself with obscure creative impressions.

I think that quote captures the essence of one reason I find animation so attractive. I find that other visual art forms are often more self-centered, and although they are often designed to be seen by an audience, they are not necessarily created FOR an audience. I think bringing happiness to others is an important part of life, and as result I find the prospect of animating more fulfilling than simply creating art. I love art, but am more interested in pursuing it as a personal hobby, rather than as a career.

Originally I was going to university to get a joint major in computer science and visual art with the hopes of preparing myself for animation school. I dropped out after two years, largely because I found the arts side to be too focused on the personal with little actual teaching. Personally I would rather be taught technical skills (at least for the first couple years) so I could have a larger skill-set to pull from when I chose to be creative, but instead from the get-go it didn't matter what we created, it just mattered how we explained it. I found that I often was creating my assignments based on what would seem "deep" and get me a good mark, and rarely challenged myself since the pursuit of technical skill seemed almost frowned upon in many cases. I know that not all art schools are like this, but in my case I found it to be mostly fluff, and once I realized that I was becoming a worse artist, not to mention disenchanted with the art world in general, I had to quit. I know a Bachelor's degree looks nice on a resume, but I want to be an animator, and I don't want to waste time on anything that isn't bringing me towards that goal.

Anyways, enough babbling for now. This blog isn't supposed to be so stodgy, and I have books to read!

Yay WebRing

My wish was granted and I am now officially in the AM WebRing. I still doubt anyone will read this, but that's ok :D

I'm in!!

Woot! I'm accepted! Part of me is terrified even though it's still 3 months away, but for the most part I'm just excited. I guess they must've really put the burners on and gotten to work on that pile of apps since it only took a week to hear back. One of the admissions officers posted on the AM CGTalk thread too, which I thought was kinda nice.

So now I feel like I really need to get down to work and prepare myself! The Illusion of Life and Animator's Survival Kit should be arriving any day, so I can start reading those, but I feel like I need to be sketching like mad, learning maya, and coming up with brilliant short film ideas! I want to make the most out of this program, and as a result I'm having ridiculous expectations of myself and it's making me nervous.

On a side note, now that I'm officially accepted I hope the AM Webring Master (or whatever he's called) accepts me too! Hopefully he isn't dead or something because my blog should've been reviewed by now and I really want to get this thing going so I can start meeting other AM people. The sad truth is that no one is reading this right now. QQ

Admissions Wait...noooooooo

Word on the street is that the AM admissions staff are quite behind, and certain people have been waiting 3 months to hear back!! I certainly hope I don't have to wait that long, especially since the course will be starting by then :P

It would be nice if they would send out a generic email to everyone and let us know what's going on (instead of having to find out through forums) but I guess I'll just call in 2-3 weeks when I'm supposed to have heard back.

The worst part is the suspense! All of us prospective students are dying to go, and the wait is killing us!

Kwoon - I lived on the Moon

I'm sure a lot of people have already seen this music video animated by Yannick Puig, but I only discovered it a few weeks ago and absolutely love it! I find it inspiring not so much from an animation perspective, but just in terms of sheer creativity.

binzer-binz the blogging blogger blogs a blog!

I finished applying for Animation Mentor today, and in honor of my great achievement I am starting a blog! I realize that merely applying probably doesn't SEEM like that great of an achievement, but in my case I felt that it was necessary to spend several weeks researching, googling every person in the showcase reels, perusing hundred of blogs, posting on forums, and harassing current students (thank-you current students, I love you!).

To be honest, I hate blogs. Well actually, no, that's a lie. I love blogs when it's other people who are writing them, especially when they are Animation Mentor blogs that ease my illogical fears of becoming a jobless, in-debt loser. However, I hold no delusions about myself in this matter, and know full well that I will be terrible at keeping up this blog. I wish it wasn't true, but my track record isn't the best when it comes to these things.

Anyways, despite my horrendous blogging ability, I plan to try my best to document my Animation Mentor journey for anyone out there who is interested. Personally I found reading AM blogs to be very helpful and inspiring while making my decision to apply, so hopefully some day my blog can help someone too (assuming I ever make a post beyond this one).

The term I applied for starts in October, so I have a few months to go, but it's hopefully only a couple weeks until I find out if I'm in or not. Until then I plan to draw stick-men and play around in Maya PLE. Fingers crossed that I get in!