... how did you start?
I know that this must be a question that most probably as appeared on this forum before, but hey, I've only started participating in it since the start of this month, though I've been a big fan of the AWN website for years!
So, again, how did you guys and galls start in this great art that is animation?
What were your very first experiences?
what made you want to be an animator? Did you just parachute into it or (like me) you always wanted to make those little funny character on tv move, ever since you were a tiny speck of a person?
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"check it out, you know it makes sense!" http://miaumau.blogspot.com/
I'm still in highschool but I am doing a little bit of animation. I started doing a short in 2003 and then I just continued doing them. There all at my website (see my signature).
The first clue was that all I ever seemed to watch on TV was cartoons. That's still pretty much the case. The first time I was keyed on (guess thats a little animation humor there) to 3d animation was an article in a 1994 National Geographic on Computer Graphics. I've always been a big computer nerd and I had been drawing flipbooks since I was old enough to hold a crayon, so it just called to me. Ever since that article I have never thought of another career.
Did my undergrad in studio art focusing in graphic design with a minor in computer science, and about to finish my masters degree in Animation.
oops, I forgot to tell my own story!
Just like everyone else I was hooked on cartoon ever since I remember myself as myself. I was really lucky just like every kid in Portugal to be blessed with the show by the great Vasco Granja, so not only we had the best shorts from the U.S but also from Japan, Canada, Europe and Eastern Europe, Latin America, China, India, etc, etc... Basically from everywhere!
When I was 14, my art teacher (and now a great friend) took a bunch of us to his house gave us a lump of plasticine, some insides of a washing machine (as a set), video camera and told us to animate. After 3 hours and a half we had 10 seconds, everyone else was disappointed with it except for me, I was hooked! I could animate!!! well... You know what I mean... Think of the way that you felt when you got to see your first animation!
From then on I didn't stop animating...
When I got my first job as an animator, my mum said to me "I glad to see that you've finally put all those hours of watching tv to use!"
"check it out, you know it makes sense!" http://miaumau.blogspot.com/
Ahh, a long story, but I'll make it short...
I realized I had something going on in 2nd grade, when I won a "Scholastic Books, book cover Illustration" contest.
There was a kid in my class named Daniel that floored me with his cartoons, and when I beat him in the competition, I not only couldn't believe it, but being able to win over him told me that I had to have some kind of talent.
I continued drawing cartoons my entire life, but in my head, wanted to follow my family's footsteps in the Fine Arts. So, I studied Fine Arts in College. My professors told me that I had a very "Illustrator" type approach, which didn't only baffle me, but frustrate the heck out of me. I couldn't see it in my work, and it ticked me off that people kept saying it. My mother, who was also a fine Artist would say the same thing, but I just couldn't see it.
How I spoke, and the type of humor that I had, and the type of friends that I had were all clueing me that I was really a cartoon animator, but it wasn't until I sat back one day doodling cartoons, wondering why I kept getting the same annoying critiques about my work, that it hit me.
I realized I was a cartoonist. I realized that although I could draw acceptable looking life drawings and paintings and sculptures, cartoons were where I shined as an artist. That's where I expressed myself. That's where I could draw something that made myself and other feel something.That was the answer to my dilemma.
The moment I realized that, I realized the path I needed to take, and everything in my life, family, friends, girlfriends, made more sense as well. Why I was always attracted to Pin-up looking girls, and not hippy's made alot more sense.
Then I got screwed by a pin-up girl looking ex, and realized I would walk the path of the hippy girl. Damn...she really....arrgh! never mind.
I'm getting too personal here aren't I? oh well.
Adam
I want to be an animator so I can entertain and outright disgust the viewer all in the same moment. weeee moving pictures!
cool
Im in college, working my way into the animation department there, but i started to draw in 6th grade. Got interested in gaming like most people out there, My brother was also into gaming and we still both are, he majored and got his Degree in Computer Science so now we make games on the side, me doing graphics, although its a hobby and we always overcomplicate things and never get a game out. But Game development and Seeing Toy Story helped me decide what i wanted to do in life, and there is no way i'll fill out a "TPS Report" for the rest of my life! hehe. College gave me a bigger scope on animation and I love alot of cartoons, Tex Avery for example. I love art and alot of tradional art, I always have, so im working to get a degree in art some form that enterteins people for 15-2+ hrs which is the best way at it! Hopefully i'll be in there like most of the people on here. ^_^ Animators Rock!
When I was born. The first thing out was my right arm, I was holding a pencil.
The Brothers McLeod
[SIZE=2]brothersmcleod.co.uk[/SIZE]