Ahhhh I'm not making much sense right now. You just caught me at the tail end of 2 days of AMAAAAAZING lectures of story and animation at the Pixar Masterclass in Chicago! If you can shell out the money for tuition (and airfare if necessary) it will change how you tell and think about storytelling, acting, and human behavior. Pretty lofty words for a 2 day lecture, but seriously. Four years of schooling packed into an 8 hour day each. It was intense. It was gold!
I "whipped" up and revamped a few character studies the past few days in preparation for the class. They seem so weak and BLAH now, after all that we covered, that I just want to trash them and apply everything that I've learned. Well ok that's too drastic; there are some salvageable bits in them. But a TON to improve! And there's no better feeling in the world than to have fresh eyes and actually know what you need to fix! That you've got a road map as a guide to communicating better (through art anyway, words are still derpy) instead of just fluffy artsy fartsy "It's your art maannnnnn, create and you'll find your way!". It wasn't just philosophy and theories, the Pixar artists gave you tools to strengthen your own style and ways of working.
Mmmmm my love for animation has been rekindled. It's pretty daunting to dust off the pencil and light table and tackle animating again, but the itch is driving me up the wall! I've gotta do SOMEthing, even a crappy walk cycle or a bouncing ball. I think I'll take on the witch girl and go from there...
