Procrastination

People must be sick of me prattling on about work, getting on with it, being productive and so on. I promise to give it a rest after this post and get on with some more specific animation tips and such. This post about procrastination from Zen Habits is great, and reminded me of some of my old students.

Looking at the animation students from the outside in now instead of from within the eduction biz, I think the first point on the list is by far the most important. In fact I think this question brings more people to animation study than the actual animating..... Do I "really, really, really want to do it."

It makes animation education complicated, some students are raring to go while others are still just window shopping. I'm always wary of seeing animation as somehow special, perhaps its the same with all education. But I know this for sure, you can't become a competent professional animator on a whim, you must be committed. If you don't find an answer to this question you may get allotted one by default, because in many cases the window shopping can cost you the time you need to make the journey from fan to contributor.

Anyway, if you are sure being an animator is what you want and have been finding it difficult to get moving, I hope this article helps :)

5 comments:

TJ Phan said...

Interesting list about procrastination actually. #9 seems to resonate with me at the moment. I just might have to print out this list and post it on my wall:)

Ian said...

Hi TJ

Yeah, nine is a particularly good one for animating. Especially in games I've dicovered of late, where there are deadlines for having all the bits in place before they are 100% complete. If you can work rough and just get something down with the intention of coming back to improve it later it makes a huge difference.

Thanks so much for dropping by :)

Frank said...

Points 3 & 4 seem written for me.

Thanks Ian for posting this.

I'm planning quite a few classes at the moment and we're into animating now (having herded the animators the 'modelling' elements & criteria - I bet you didn't want to hear those terms again).

What I find in planning the class exercises is I get to animate as well. I usually do the exercise at least 3 times before putting it together as a video tute or a written task sheet.

The ARC is a great escape, but I have to stop procrastinating now :)

Frank said...

herded the animators through

Terry said...

That's fantastic Ian. I'm going to print and pin on the classroom walls.