The second part of my learning process is that I understood that the technique and skill used are not the only things that I need. Since the start of the year, this fact changed the way I work and design my projects.
As a student in animation, focusing on the technical aspect is not the most important thing. Learning new software, tricks and techniques should not always prime over research or documentation. I have learned that inspiration, stories, characters, words, are as important as the methodology adopted. The most successful animators were driven by inspiration, by the belief that adults can also be entertained by animation. I believe that animation can be a medium that has impact on the whole society and would certainly help transmit the artist’s message to it.
Earlier in my blog, I gave an example of how John Lasseter was inspired by the work of the Japanese animator Miyazaki and his influence not only on children, but also the adults in the society. I have learned that a good animator also needs to have an eye for acting, for facial expression, for different tones to give life and emotions to characters they create.
Two key points I stressed on:
- My characters should be alive
- They should convey an emotion, an experience.
The biggest challenge in animation is to give life to an object, or create a character and make it convey emotion and move like a human being, animal or elements of nature. Such work necessitates an understanding and study of life around us.
While working on my final project, I exposed myself to the principles of animation and their application in movies, specially the earliest short movies created by Pixar (Luxo Jr., The adventures of Andre and Wally B., and many others). I had developed a critical eye and would analyze other artists’ animation to evaluate it and get ideas for my own animation. This naturally led me to find inspiration in others and apply those principles in my own work.
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