Jahiem's blog

Welcome ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Summer project task 1 – 3 paragraphs

19th July 2021 by Jahiem Walker | 0 comments

Why did I choose the Animation Arts pathway?

There are many reasons I chose this pathway. First and foremost, My dream is to one day pitch my own cartoon idea to a network and have it picked up, and I believe that taking this pathway is pushing me one step closer to making my dream into a reality. It’s something I’ve always wanted, but now I get to actually make decisions that push me closer toward becoming a cartoon producer, so I’ll take every opportunity that is presented to me. Secondly, although it may be a cliché answer, I really love everything about 2D animation; the research and planning, the developmental art and the process of seeing an animation gradually come to life as you work on it. Watching animations makes me happy, and I want to be able to create animations that will provide other people with happiness and entertainment; but wanting to be a good animator alone isn’t enough, so I need to practice and study animation so that I can get better at it, and I believe that this pathway will allow me to do this. On the more technical and artistic side of things, One of my other dreams is to develop a unique and identifiable animation style, as well as a unique art style; similarly to animators like James Baxter or Tim Burton, I want people to be able to look at my creations and say ‘This is definitely something that Jahiem made’. I want my work to have originality and a lot of my own character, and I feel that learning about 2D animation formally will allow me to learn certain rules as well as which of these rules I can break and bend to give my work a life of it’s own. Lastly, despite having done art generally for a long time, I feel like I haven’t experimented much outside of my comfort zone; I know that this pathway is one that allows a lot of creative freedom and opportunities to experiment, so I think I’ll be able to challenge myself well.

What inspires me within the animation community?

I’m inspired by things both in finished pieces and things that happen behind the scenes when it comes to animation. For finished pieces, I love seeing pieces that are created with a lot of ambition, whether it’s by a studio or a small team/independent animators on YouTube or other social media platforms. I admire people’s ability to tell a story, set a tone or evoke an emotion though animation alone, even when there aren’t many words. I admire how animators are able to make small choices in things like light, colour and sound that have a big impact on the viewer. From a storytelling perspective, these are some animations that I really love;

This animation has no dialogue, but everything is considered so well that you understand what’s going on and certain emotions are evoked at certain parts of the short film. The art style, colours and music give it a kid’s film kind of vibe, showing that the animator/s know their target audience and what works for them. The expressions are also always kind of exaggerated and silly, which gives the animation a playful atmosphere throughout. It’s short, but it manages to tell a whole story without any parts feeling rushed as it’s all timed so well. I want to be able to set atmospheres and moods well in my animations like this person has, even if I’m presented with restrictions like a short time to work on the animation and no speaking.
Stylistically, this animation is similar to the last one, but they use the art style to their advantage in a different way; the disconnect between the overall mood and the cutesy art style add a lot to the film. There’s also always a sense of unease, the viewer is always anticipating something dark because of decisions that were made for this animation such as the black and white colour palettes and subtle hints at the dark ending. This animation also makes me feel good about my own art style; I really enjoy drawing cartoony and cute characters, but sometimes I fear my work won’t be taken seriously because of it. This piece managed to tell a dark story through a cartoony style, which shows me that style isn’t so important when it comes to an animation, it’s about what you do with the style and how you can bend your disadvantages into advantages.

To give a less formal answer, I’m really into fast paced, action animations with a lot of fighting and movement. I just love seeing characters use powers and fight, it makes me feel energized. Animations like these are a big part of why I’d also like to be an animator;

This is an opening by the Japanese studio Trigger for the game Shantae 5. It’s so cool to me for a number of reasons; firstly, it has the typical ‘studio trigger’ vibe. Trigger are known for fast paced action sequences, a lot of movement and really expressive characters. The animation happens so quickly that it feels energetic and very lively, but if you slow it down, you can see that a lot of small decisions were made to give the animation it’s fast paced appearance; there are a lot of smear frames and times where it seems like they drew less frames, adding to the rapid and quick look of the finished animation. I also feel that colours were considered well here, everything is very bright and bold which compliments the quick animation. I want to be able to create things as cool as this, as well as things that are identifiable as my pieces of work. I admire how trigger has developed their own style of animation, and I want this for myself.
This is a fan made opening for the nickelodeon series Avatar the last air bender. I love how the animator has been able to capture the vibe of the series and each character so well despite these being existing characters and not original ones. I also love how bright and optimistic it feels; it makes me feel excited and like I can jump up and touch the sky, or fly like a bird. I’d like to be able to create cool animations like this for my own cartoon ideas, and set the tone for the series as well as this animator has.

Lastly, as for the behind the scenes aspects of animation, I especially love pre production. I really love seeing ideas flesh out and develop, and I find it super interesting to see how things change as you develop them. My own cartoon ideas have changed a lot through the years, and I just love to see how character designs, backgrounds, settings and the characters themselves develop overtime. As an example, I’ll link the original pitch bible for Adventure Time; https://www.scribd.com/document/3122798/Adventure-Time-series-presentation#from_embed I love working on ideas and helping them to develop into what they end up as, and animation allows me to do this with practically every project I work on.

What do I hope to gain from this pathway?

I hope I’m able to create some artwork that I’m proud of and want to show off a lot, first and foremost. I want to challenge myself a lot and produce pieces of art that are on the next level and better than my last pieces of work; I want to constantly better myself. I also hope I’m able to feel like a more complete and confident artist and animator by the end of this pathway; I want to have more confidence in my abilities to make decisions and create things. I feel like I second guess and doubt myself a lot when it comes to animation; I have a kind of fixed mindset with things in general, with thoughts like ‘I can’t do it so I won’t attempt it, I should just stick to what I’m good at’. I want to become more of a risk taker; even if things don’t turn out the way I’d like them to, I want to be able to say that I tried an be proud of myself for it. Overall I hope to gain confidence and more refined skills through this pathway.

Rock Lee Kicks Sasuke's Ass | I'm Far From Perfect (Naruto!Various x Reader)
(sorry for writing so much, I ended up going way over a paragraph for each point. Here’s a rock lee for if you actually get to the end of this)

Leave a Reply

Required fields are marked *.


Skip to toolbar