So, animation has to be by far the funnest profession anyone could ever choose. But ultimately at the end of the day that fun comes from a natural love towards what animators do and we may in fact be a truly under appreciated lot. The truth about animators is that we rarely sleep (at least the serious ones don't). One of my mentors in animation once told me that the ones who truly love it are the ones up at 4 am and when asked what they are doing, they simply respond working on my animation. It's quite true. One of the many inspirations I have is John Lasseter who everyone should know (animator or not) once slept under his desk for an hour each night while working on a project for Disney. The story goes that his car didn't leave the lot for 2 weeks. This is the dedication great animators have for what they do. As much fun as it is, there is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved. It takes extreme patience, lots of sleepless nights, and you HAVE to love it. There are times when we animators want to pull our hair out because we just can't get that arm to go in the right place or that hand to slap down the right way but we keep at it until we get it right. And there will always be someone higher up in the pipeline that will want you to change what you have done and redo days of work. This is in short the life of the animator, and I for one would not want it any other way. So if anyone out there should stumble across this, take a good long look at this photo and see what goes into being a computer animator. This is the graph editor and what computer animation really looks like. All those movements, walks, talks, jumps, bounces, this is it right here.
We do this because we love it, but what we do also gives everyone else joy and happiness. We are the unsung heroes. We are the ones behind the scenes creating the magic. So, the next time anyone out there sits down to watch an animated short or feature, take the time out to appreciate all the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears that goes into those films you love.
John Lasseter is like my animation spirit guide. He is my mentor in my dreams and always pops up when I need to be reminded if I'm meant to be doing what I'm doing. I wish animators didn't HAVE to sleep under their desks to get a project done by a time-line, but again, when you love it, it isn't work. Animators are seriously under-appreciated I think, but artists always have because they do what they do for the love of it. I love it!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could have said it better myself. It is certainly the best and most fun thing in the world and I love it as well!!! It's the greatest thing especially when you finally see all your work come to life. Same with me about John Lasseter. Each time I hear him speak about anything, I always feel this great bit of inspiration. He is truly a genius
ReplyDeleteI admit that I actually love this picture of the graph editor and all those curves. I look at think, wow, I did that!! :-)
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