Approaching Crunch Time

Round 2 of "J.J. Tries To Get Into The BYU Animation Program" is looking promising. I feel like I'm more ready, and even more serious about it than I was in April. It's like I'm doing it for real this time. It excites me more than it racks my nerves. (I just hope that all means something.)

My sketchbook now shows great improvement. Since April I've been virtually 100% exclusive in only drawing from real life, from what surrounds me. There was a bit of a critical/self-realization phase, something akin to asking myself at every turn in a Chandler Bing voice, "Do I even know how to draw?" I didn't let that self-deprecation last for long (as it easily and usually does). Instead I just entered another realm of drawing.

I no longer doodled characters that only exist in my mind, or laid down a haphazard array of lines that somehow met the non-premeditated goal of becoming something recognizable. I paid more attention to the forms, lines and shapes in reality. It was like bringing to light something I had always known. I mean, I always knew that Popeye's arms were anatomically backwards. I always had an idea of what the human body looks like. I guess it's just that most of my life, I skipped the academics and went straight for the cartoons. Since working on my animation portfolio more since April, I've taken a step back to actually study drawing. I guess having drawn since I was born has its backfire potential.

Figure drawings are mostly the best of times as opposed to the worst of times. Sometimes I wonder how some of my drawings ended up so bad. But usually the more academic training, forcing myself to slow down and to not finish a drawing as fast as humanly possible, and better tools and equipment have already caused a drastic turnaround in my figure drawing collection. By the time I apply to the animation program in August, I should have all new, more professional drawings that will at least be decent and respectable.

The actual animations that I made in my Introduction to Animation class won't undergo any changes. Not that they're perfect, but they do illustrate the animation techniques that I learned and they are well-done. Plus, I don't have the same access to the animation lab anymore. (Hey, I wonder if I can put those cartoons on this blog...)

The written portion of my portfolio - wherein I describe myself and my animation goals, give five story ideas, and list ten of my recent media influences - is almost updated. When I applied in April, I didn't have much as far as media influences go because I had only been back from my mission for four months. But since April I've been able to read other books besides The Book of Mormon, instead of my top ten list consisting almost entirely of movies.

Here is the current top 10 (in no particular order):
1. Wall-E
2. Ratatouille
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
4. The Odyssey
5. The Star Wars movies
6. Vertigo
7. National Treasure and National Treasure II
8. The Lord of the Rings movies
9. Walter Rane paintings
10. The Book of Mormon

And I'm giving my story ideas list a makeover. In my list back in April, I was really struggling to come up with stuff. Example: one of my five ideas was a Catcher in the Rye movie, which would be a dream of mine, but a) probably not a good candidate for an animated film, and b) I am most certainly not the first person to come up with the idea (there is most likely already a Hollywood team that is ready to pounce on the film rights once J.D. Salinger is gone). I've got a couple simpler ideas instead. I'm still trying to think of a fifth story idea...so far I'm brainstorming something Argentine.

Wow, I didn't know I had so much to say. Any of you who aren't really in the know when it comes to animation or drawing, I probably just gave you a bunch of unnecessary details. And for any of you who are into animation or drawing, I probably just bored you to tears and elicited under-the-breath comments of "Pfft...amateur."

Anyway, borrowing from Disney's Robin Hood, it's July 18th, and all's well.