My name is Dana and I'm currently 18 and like long walks on the beach under the moonlight.
Not so much.
I'm an art student and currently applying to SVA, Pratt, and RISD for animation although I already know that I will probably end up at School of Visual Arts in NYC. It's not that I don't think I can get into RISD (I actually have a damn good chance) it's just the fact that I believe that I will learn shit loads more in the city rather than goddamn Providence Rhode Island where my family is all but 20 minutes away. And I'm only applying to Pratt to show my mother that I'm interested in more than two schools.
As a wannabe animator I've been following John K's blog pretty closely. Pretty fucking inspiring to say in the least. His posts were the main reason I signed up for an account so I could put my two cents in and see how I stand against the big boys.
One of these days I'll start posting my sketches up here. But right now I'm going through this whole identity journey to figure out what I was what I am and where I'm going to end up. Sounds like a crack load of bullshit and it probably is. But I think everyone goes through something similar at least once.
I have a problem with all artistic communities. The fav system, the pageview competitions, anime rip-offs. Christ, people. I've been a part of the DeviantArt community since I was about... 12 under the name of crouching-kitty. So- 6 years. I slowly went from getting maybe 15 pageviews a day to 5,000 a day after I created a simple and crude dress-up game while playing around with Flash MX. My popularity continued for the next year and a half as I posted more and more uncreative, flat, unappealing crap aimed at little 13 year olds with brain tumors and an obsession for "cute" things.
Just thinking about how that was only some 3 years ago makes me somehwhat ashamed of myself. I still make the occasional dress-up game today but I'm being paid for them and they are specifically directed towards kids. I'm okay with that. For now.
I don't know where the turning point was or when I seriously started to look at all the shit I've accomplished but I slowly began to move away from DeviantArt. The constant Naruto fanart, the lack of individuality between styles; it bored me. I began looking at SheezyArt.
Let me tell you about SheezyArt, this is where all the dA failures go after they get depressed that they're not getting enough pageviews and maybe I'll have better luck here because everyone generally sucks worse than I do.
This was found in the "Exceptional" section of the site. Great googley moogley.
There are maybe 1 or 2 decent, dedicated artists on that website who haven't already given their soul to the Wapanese of America. I don't visit that site too often. I look at ConceptArt.
In my eyes, ConceptArt has always been the pinnacle of artistic creation and community. Oh how I dreamt about being able to proudly show my sketchbook on their forums! The elite of art communities, the magic of it all.
Same bullshit, higher quality of work.
To be honest, I really like CA. I really do. And I appreciate all the comments and critiques I've received that help me with each image I create. The issue I see, once again, is a molding of styles. A general genre that is accepted and encouraged without thought. And that is, the development of videogames and the design of characters. It's like being stuck in a room with a bunch of people who love a certain movie but you only found it "all right". Sure, they have an animation-specific forum where artists gather to post their demo reels and see what other people are up to but the subject isn't approached with half the zest as gaming and design.
I was disappointed. The animators and animation students I talked with over a few subjects ranging from colleges to jobs to the rise and decline of the industry all seemed very cynical and depressing. Short-sighted loners who saw benefit only in getting well-paid, shallow jobs whilst sitting in front of their monitors complaining about the decline of animation, a problem which they were contributing to!
These people, all their demoreels were the same. Pointless pseudo-anime style sci-fi fight scenes with flippy jumps and explosions where somehow everyone was not blown to pieces. No developed character designs, few interesting shorts, etc.
I show up with my ambitions and I'm scoffed at. One person out of about twenty sympathized with me. I want to help bring the animation industry back on it's feet. I'm no expert in this field, though I hope to be in years to come, but I do know that right now the majority of cartoons and film are shit. And it's bothering the hell out of me.
In the few years since my "Dress the Kitty" behemoth I like to think I've improved.
I've still got a whiles to go until I get what I want but, hey, whatever. I've got nothing better to do. I apologize for going everywhere in my first post. This was just supposed to be an introduction but I ended up spilling everything that's been built up in my chest. Gotta sign up for that precollage animation class at SVA this spring term...
As a wannabe animator I've been following John K's blog pretty closely. Pretty fucking inspiring to say in the least. His posts were the main reason I signed up for an account so I could put my two cents in and see how I stand against the big boys.
One of these days I'll start posting my sketches up here. But right now I'm going through this whole identity journey to figure out what I was what I am and where I'm going to end up. Sounds like a crack load of bullshit and it probably is. But I think everyone goes through something similar at least once.
I have a problem with all artistic communities. The fav system, the pageview competitions, anime rip-offs. Christ, people. I've been a part of the DeviantArt community since I was about... 12 under the name of crouching-kitty. So- 6 years. I slowly went from getting maybe 15 pageviews a day to 5,000 a day after I created a simple and crude dress-up game while playing around with Flash MX. My popularity continued for the next year and a half as I posted more and more uncreative, flat, unappealing crap aimed at little 13 year olds with brain tumors and an obsession for "cute" things.
Just thinking about how that was only some 3 years ago makes me somehwhat ashamed of myself. I still make the occasional dress-up game today but I'm being paid for them and they are specifically directed towards kids. I'm okay with that. For now.
I don't know where the turning point was or when I seriously started to look at all the shit I've accomplished but I slowly began to move away from DeviantArt. The constant Naruto fanart, the lack of individuality between styles; it bored me. I began looking at SheezyArt.
Let me tell you about SheezyArt, this is where all the dA failures go after they get depressed that they're not getting enough pageviews and maybe I'll have better luck here because everyone generally sucks worse than I do.
This was found in the "Exceptional" section of the site. Great googley moogley.
There are maybe 1 or 2 decent, dedicated artists on that website who haven't already given their soul to the Wapanese of America. I don't visit that site too often. I look at ConceptArt.
In my eyes, ConceptArt has always been the pinnacle of artistic creation and community. Oh how I dreamt about being able to proudly show my sketchbook on their forums! The elite of art communities, the magic of it all.
Same bullshit, higher quality of work.
To be honest, I really like CA. I really do. And I appreciate all the comments and critiques I've received that help me with each image I create. The issue I see, once again, is a molding of styles. A general genre that is accepted and encouraged without thought. And that is, the development of videogames and the design of characters. It's like being stuck in a room with a bunch of people who love a certain movie but you only found it "all right". Sure, they have an animation-specific forum where artists gather to post their demo reels and see what other people are up to but the subject isn't approached with half the zest as gaming and design.
I was disappointed. The animators and animation students I talked with over a few subjects ranging from colleges to jobs to the rise and decline of the industry all seemed very cynical and depressing. Short-sighted loners who saw benefit only in getting well-paid, shallow jobs whilst sitting in front of their monitors complaining about the decline of animation, a problem which they were contributing to!
These people, all their demoreels were the same. Pointless pseudo-anime style sci-fi fight scenes with flippy jumps and explosions where somehow everyone was not blown to pieces. No developed character designs, few interesting shorts, etc.
I show up with my ambitions and I'm scoffed at. One person out of about twenty sympathized with me. I want to help bring the animation industry back on it's feet. I'm no expert in this field, though I hope to be in years to come, but I do know that right now the majority of cartoons and film are shit. And it's bothering the hell out of me.
In the few years since my "Dress the Kitty" behemoth I like to think I've improved.
I've still got a whiles to go until I get what I want but, hey, whatever. I've got nothing better to do. I apologize for going everywhere in my first post. This was just supposed to be an introduction but I ended up spilling everything that's been built up in my chest. Gotta sign up for that precollage animation class at SVA this spring term...
