Book haters
Dear Readers,
I'm currently enrolled at AnimationMentor.com and I can only say one thing about this school: it's brilliant.
In the past, I have had the opportunity to study through several distance eduction universities, schools and organizations, and Animation Mentor is by far the best distance learning organization I've been enrolled in. Talking about the school would need several posts, so, for this one, I'll just focus on one tiny detail of what I've seen in the profiles of my fellow students.
In our student profile (in the private area of the school's website), we introduce ourselves by giving a little biographical info, our favorite movies, books, music, etc. As there are many people from many places around the world studying at the school, the list of favorites is quite diverse. One recurrent sentence that comes up in the "Favorite Books" though is "I don't like reading". The only books systematically listed are usually "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
" (by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston) and "The Animator's Survival Kit
" (by Richard Williams, of Who Framed Roger Rabbit
fame among others) which are sort of the Bibles of animators as they contain all the principles necessary to create a quality character animation performance.
"I don't like reading". In itself, to me, this is the scariest sentence one can live to hear. What puzzles me though is that while Animation is a visual art, I think there is no way one could refine this craft by only watching movies for instance. Being the case that Animation is a multidisciplinary craft, I think reading literature is crucial in developing some of the subtler nuances of a character. Animating a robot? You'd better know about science and mechanics I guess. Animating a quadruped? I guess an Anatomy book will be very useful. Animating a human being? Well.. that human being really needs a background story to define and root its peculiarities and/or quirks, mannerisms, etc.
It's not that I'm trying to make a point here. It's just that I'm scared to death by the sentence "I don't like reading (books)" because ever since I can remember I've only be certain of one thing: I am aware of my ignorance and I'm slowly trying to limit the damages of my innate ignorance with the most efficient of tools: books!
Anyway, I'm going back to my reading now.. er... sorry, fighting ignorance.
Cheers,
Charles
I'm currently enrolled at AnimationMentor.com and I can only say one thing about this school: it's brilliant.
In the past, I have had the opportunity to study through several distance eduction universities, schools and organizations, and Animation Mentor is by far the best distance learning organization I've been enrolled in. Talking about the school would need several posts, so, for this one, I'll just focus on one tiny detail of what I've seen in the profiles of my fellow students.
In our student profile (in the private area of the school's website), we introduce ourselves by giving a little biographical info, our favorite movies, books, music, etc. As there are many people from many places around the world studying at the school, the list of favorites is quite diverse. One recurrent sentence that comes up in the "Favorite Books" though is "I don't like reading". The only books systematically listed are usually "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
" (by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston) and "The Animator's Survival Kit" (by Richard Williams, of Who Framed Roger Rabbit fame among others) which are sort of the Bibles of animators as they contain all the principles necessary to create a quality character animation performance. "I don't like reading". In itself, to me, this is the scariest sentence one can live to hear. What puzzles me though is that while Animation is a visual art, I think there is no way one could refine this craft by only watching movies for instance. Being the case that Animation is a multidisciplinary craft, I think reading literature is crucial in developing some of the subtler nuances of a character. Animating a robot? You'd better know about science and mechanics I guess. Animating a quadruped? I guess an Anatomy book will be very useful. Animating a human being? Well.. that human being really needs a background story to define and root its peculiarities and/or quirks, mannerisms, etc.
It's not that I'm trying to make a point here. It's just that I'm scared to death by the sentence "I don't like reading (books)" because ever since I can remember I've only be certain of one thing: I am aware of my ignorance and I'm slowly trying to limit the damages of my innate ignorance with the most efficient of tools: books!
Anyway, I'm going back to my reading now.. er... sorry, fighting ignorance.
Cheers,
Charles
Labels: Musings
posted by Polymathe Ltd. @ 7:14 PM
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