A Little Advice For Aspiring Animation Folks. I Wrote This Response To An Email, But I Thought Id Share

 A little advice for aspiring animation folks. I wrote this response to an email, but I thought I’d share here. Hopefully someone finds this helpful!

Absolutely focus on a specific area. Choose a MAIN skill, whether that’s storyboarding, animation, BG design, Vis Dev, etc. Having secondary and tertiary skills is a plus, but you should have a primary skill that is your most honed weapon. Being versed in other areas should inform your primary skill.

Make consistently good work, and post it everywhere online. Get visible. It’s hard because we live in a world saturated with creators of one kind or another, but you have to put your stuff out there. Also, when you’re ready, reach out to studios as well. Many of them have open submission periods now and again when they’re looking for new talent. Go to events and conventions to meet people in person if you can. Meeting someone in person always has greater impact than an email.

Personal projects are KEY. Working on something you’re invested in makes all the difference, because it will push you in the direction YOU want to go. Also, it will have your thumbprints all over it–personal projects are special because they show potential employers the unique perspective that you have to bring to the table. Lots of portfolios are full of school assignments, but a personal assignment will always stand out.

Keep an eye on your peers. Look at work that is aspirational to you–and measure your own work against it. Are you competing legitimately? Look at the work of others and get ideas about how you’d like to improve your own work. Be specific rather than general. Think “I’d like to make work with fantastic movement like (PICK AN ARTIST)” rather than “my work isn’t as good as (PICK AN ARTIST).” The more specific you are, the easier it is for you to blaze a path forward. The less specific you are, the easier it is to feel stuck and depressed.

Remember that you are not the work you create. You are a person with intrinsic value as a human. So often we get caught up in our work, and it becomes so preeminent in our minds that we begin to associate our own personal worth with what others think of the drawings we make. Being an artist is fun and rewarding, but don’t get so caught up in the pursuit of your goals that you forget everything else that’s wonderful about life.

Good luck as you move forward!!

15 Oct ‘15, Thursday

I saw my shrink yesterday evening. It was a pleasant session, and triggering 
at certain topics so we decided to paint & talk. 🎨

key message: see hope even through the grey cloud.

05 Nov ‘15, Thursday

another paint & talk session w/my shrink this evening. 🎨

It was honestly the most greatest session I’ve had in 5 years going in and
 out of different rooms and talking to different stupid people until I 
found the right one last year.

phrase of the day: keep looking at the moon.

basically, seeing beauty in every lil thing in life.

Somebody told me to view the 
moon one night. I thought it was absurd. That idea. But then I looked at it.

It was profound. 💫

so my lil beans keeping seeking & looking at the moon. 🌚

Hey Ross, I'm currently 15, a Junior in high school, and love to animate. I don't think going to an art institute/university is the right move though when I get out of HS - financially or for many other reasons. Community College is a huge possibility though, as it's less expensive and would still teach me more things about animation all together. For the most part, I believe animation can be a self-taught experience, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

That’s great dude.  Don’t feel like you HAVE to go get an education in animation to succeed.  I tried it, but it wasn’t for me.  I found I wasn’t really learning enough compared to what I learnt just fiddling and making mistakes by myself.  I mean look at Arin, he didn’t even finish high school yet he taught himself  to be an animator.  Some people learn better being pushed by an education system, some are better left to figure things out for themselves.  If think you’re better going it alone then GREAT!  You’re an autodidact!

Here’s some stuff I’d recommend you focus on while getting started: 

Learn Flash or Toon Boom.  

Maya/3DS Max/Zbrush if you’re interested in 3D (I have a minor background with it)

Study life drawing and human anatomy.  Try this if you’re at a loss for material: http://www.posemaniacs.com/

Keep an organized folder of art reference (find it by following art tutorial blogs or your favorite artists).  I have gigabytes of reference in my folders.

Get your head around cinematography.  Watch legendary films and figure out what makes the shots great.  One exercise is to take your favorite shots and make silhouette thumbnails of how things are placed, helps you  break it down in your head.

Composition!  It’s crazy and even those who get it sometimes don’t get it.. but just look it up online to get your head around it.  It’s all about placement and arrangement of shit.

MAKE FRIENDS!  Talk to other artists like yourself who are starting out.  I met Arin online through Newgrounds when I was 16/17 and we’ve been friends ever since.  It’s important to have like minded friends!

Keep a sketchbook, draw all the time.  If you prefer doing it digitally then that’s fine, but keeping a sketchbook is a magical thing.  Also helps with your line confidence, at least I think so.

If you want to develop your own stories to go along with your animations, consider the following books: Screenwriting 101 (I LOVE this book, really great read AND it’s written by someone pretending to be The Hulk), On Writing: A memoir of the Craft (Stephen King!  Haven’t read this one yet but friends recommend it) and also Save the Cat! (this one is more so about selling scripts and writing to a formula, don’t take it as gospel.. But it’s interesting).

Voice act! Shit man, just get a decent microphone when you can.  Make goofy voices, do imitations.  Get silly!  Lots of animators have at least some experience doing voice acting!

WATCH STUFF.  Seriously, I can not stress this enough.  Everything is derivative from other works and that’s okay.  Inspiration comes from everywhere and anything.  My late friend Monty also preached this, he even proudly told me some of his early influence for RWBY such as Black Rock Shooter.  Finding influence breeds passion.  You’re not slacking off watching cartoons, you’re researching.

ANIMATE! Do it however you can!  Stop motion lego, flipping paper.. I don’t care.  Just do it. Whatever you learn, It all translates across any version of the medium.

ANIMATORS SURVIVAL KIT.  This book is a must and most animation schools highly recommend it.  It was written by Richard Williams the director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (among other things).  If you’re not big on reading, then you’re in luck because it’s MOSTLY pretty pictures.  http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284

Lastly but not least.. Just don’t stop.  The people you see online and on TV right now, they’re not kicking ass because of some god given talent.  They’re there because they didn’t stop.  They persevered through it all and kept going, no matter what anyone else told them. 

Good luck!

putting this up, since my website project for university is finished and I don’t have to put it on the web anymore.

a very, very basic image guide on how your portfolio should be presented or appear, whether you’re in fine arts, graphic design or illustration, illustrated by yours truly

please do NOT remove the commentary while reblogging, do not reupload anywhere else.

Samurai Jack: Season 5 Behind the Scenes

1. Ah Fai was a chief animator for McDull’s animated features. He’s super cool. Ultimate senpai. 

2. Previous post on breakdowns right here 

Some thoughts on acceleration and force

I presented this in the order of how I slowly understood the trick of delivering force - first an abstract concept of impact taught by Ah Fai, then a more complicated discovery on the acceleration pattern, last back to a more abstract concept of breakdowns. 

Like I’ve previously stressed, 2D animation is everything but one single approach. There’s no one rule that rules them all, but interchangeable ideas with math, or physics, or music, etc. There’s no “perfect” animation either, but what is perceived as organic and dynamic. E.g., using the Fibonacci numbers to animate didn’t bring me a perfect animation! On the other hand, a tiny change in the pattern could already make the feeling of force so much more powerful. 

Not so much of a tutorial than a personal experience. I hope you find this interesting hahaha