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!