Friday, November 27, 2009

Being the Old Man, Appreciating What I Have


I am not as grateful as I should be. I am alive, I have millions of opportunities ahead of me that others would kill to have had. I am going to use them. I am going to get out of this nihilistic and apathetic funk and still caring about things. I shouldn't be despairing over the gloominess of my past, I should be out smiling at the bright sun in the sky. I should be out meeting girls, and so what I don't marry them, they are gifts from God, and I should cherish their presence and stop trying so hard to be a "spouse." I need to start drawing everything, learning everything, doing many more things, seeing many new sights, going to many new places, because this won't all be here forever, and there's no guarantee that I'll even be around tomorrow to live another day. I need to start loving things for their own sake and not just for how they benefit me personally--don't be like Walt Disney in that respect (thanks, Michael Barrier!).

I fancy that older people have a greater appreciation for life because their time is almost over. The little things matter to them. And if I should truly take in anything from the old timers, it's to live life to the fullest. At seventeen, I have already wasted enough time being introverted and defensive for fear of the pain and suffering life brings. For if I can't take suffering, joy and happiness are meaningless.

Thanks to the Rauch Bros. Animation for inspiring this epiphany.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Finally found this song - "Photograph" by Ringo Starr

I never knew who sang it or what the lyrics were, let alone that it was written by two former Beatles. But I loved the vocals and the melody. Finally, thanks to a lucky random find on Grooveshark's radio system, I found it, and it's a beautiful song! In fact, it's an almost perfect tribute to the two Quarrymen who have gone on. Thanks, Richard Starkey.

"Photograph" - Ringo Starr

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Finally getting animated!



Yesterday, I performed my first successful animation test with the Toon Boom Studio program at school.

It is a ball bouncing--that was the idea at least--and with nine actual drawings and sixteen total "cels" at 24 fps, it looks OK. It's a start. When I return to school, I'll import it onto my Youtube account--why not?--to save my progress as I do more tests. Hopefully each one is more sophisticated than the next.

In the mean time, under the indirect influence of Michael Barrier, I freely downloaded and read through Acting: the First Six Lessons by Richard Boleslavsky, the book utilized by the great Disney animator Bill Tytla. Now on a second read, I find the book absolutely fascinating, its lessons and advice building within me a much more performance-conscious mind as far as acting and writing goes. A particularly brilliant analogy of how art is like a tree has made the writing/filmmaking process a lot clearer. I can't wait to go through the book again, anymore than I can wait to start training, learning, and applying that knowledge to future animations. I've already gotten a first marginal success--though to be honest, the ball doesn't look like it's bouncing so much as being dragged up and down by some invisible force--now I need to busy if I want to make some kind of career out of animation when I leave college. In addition to many personal problems being resolved (I should really write about them), I am much more hopeful for the future.