I had this posted on the side of my animation desk years ago and just came across it again while cleaning my hard drive. I don’t know who came up with it originally, but it definitely speaks to my inner animator.
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AN-I-MA-TOR
- One that provides or imparts life, interest, spirit, or vitality.
- One, such as an artist or technician, who designs, develops, or produces an animated cartoon.
- One who has a keen eye for details, a fertile imagination, a borderline obsessive-compulsive desire to recreate motion, the ego of an actor but with a withering case of stage-fright, a truckload of toys and knick-knacks on their desk (often still in the box), Xeroxes from Illusion of Life tacked up on the walls and a copy of Preston Blair’s Cartoon Animation at close hand, a severe case of eyestrain, a propensity for looking at themselves in the mirror constantly, saying it’s for lipsync and not narcissim; a love for cartoons that did not end with the onset of puberty, the notion that no animated scene is ever finished, only abandoned; the opinion that motion capture is a tool of the devil, often films themselves flopping around like a fool and calls it “reference”, uses “research” and “supporting the industry” as excuses for seeing even the worst animated films, the ability to listen to the same voice track over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over without going completely insane, and the occasional moment where they wonder how they managed to get paid for doing something they really enjoy.
Lots of follow through and squashy-stretchy bits still missing—like when the hand passes in front of the chest so it doesn’t look like he’s shooting jellyfish out of his gloves. Still, not a bad start for one Sunday morning’s worth of drawing.
click to enlarge
I created this illustration over the course of this past week—took about 16 hours in all—as a gift for our IT Director who is leaving the company for another job. He’s been head of the department for many years and always referred to us as the “IT family”. As the department grew, we each acquired our IT family designation—some were accurate and some were just amusing. The department has shrunk considerably in the last few months, but we’re still quite a tight-knit group and, with our collective boss leaving, I felt it was important to have some memento to commemorate our time together.
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Gizmo at the park
This is Gizmo. While most people peg him as a lab puppy, we think he’s actually terrier/whippet mix based on his personality and his ground-eating sprinting abilities. Giz is a little over four years old and a dainty 22lbs, which puts him as being big enough to rough-house with in the park, but small enough to fit next to you on the couch. His favourite things are hunting squirrels, playing with his toys and finding some spot to curl up beside you when he’s all tuckered out.
And, perhaps strangest of all, Gizmo was adopted by my sister via the Petfinder.com website from a pet rescue organization many miles away from Vancouver.
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click to watch 11 Second club animatic - only first half completed
I admit that for a gal of the digital age, I can be stubbornly “old school” at times. I’ve grown up with pencils and paper and the first time I felt like a real animator was when I sat down at an animation desk. There was something about the glow of the light table and the slipping of paper over those pegs that made me feel connected to countless animators down through the decades. I was working as animators had back in the days of “Snow White” and Bugs Bunny.
Yet finding the space in an apartment for a full-sized animation desk is problematic and even the coffee table alternative I cobbled together last summer has its problems. While one is busily romanticizing about ye good old days of animation, one tends to forget about rough sketches awash in pencil smudges and eraser bits all over the floor.
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