Beneficial and Bolstering

I stopped by Ryan Woodward's office this Tuesday. (He's one of the directors of the BYU animation department.) The first thing I did after getting my rejection letter was email him, asking him when I could meet with him and go over my portfolio and get some pointers. He responded by saying he'd have his schedule posted outside his door the second week of the semester, and we'd go from there.

Well, I went to his door, and there was no schedule. I went to the visual arts department office and got his office hours, and found out he had open time to talk with students on Tuesdays from 12pm - 2pm. So I lugged my 18"x24" figure drawings and my sketchbook to the 5th floor of the HFAC.

When I knocked, he opened up and I could see that he was busy. I told him the whole story about how I wanted to meet with him and reminded him about my email, and he told me "You know, we have 90 pre-animation students at this school, and 70 who are in the program, we just don't have time to meet with all of them." What? Is he turning me away? But I didn't just turn around in humble defeat. I asked some more questions, when he realized that I was serious. He said, "Well, you came all this way, and got all dressed up" (I was wearing a shirt and tie for work that afternoon) "...let me see what you've got.

>Yes!<

He gave me some really good advice. He pointed out the things in my sketchbook that he liked, and told me that I basically need a sketchbook full of that stuff. He also told me about a couple of classes to take in the winter, a Drawing for Animators class and another Figure Drawing class that would focus more on gesture drawings.

So, not all hope is lost. That conversation got me more excited for April. The sun has not set on my animation chances yet!

I do think that I'll go ahead with some of my plan B stuff anyway. I think I'm going to double minor in Spanish and communications. I was doing the research...minoring in something is so easy! I only have two more classes to get the Spanish minor. Might as well minor in something else.