Ok, so it’s out, I officially have no common sense whatsoever. I’m on top of my game, ahead in the homework division, not even doing especially bad in the financial department… and then three weeks ago, I bought a Game Cube. I vowed I never would do it, I truly didn’t think that I wanted such a thing… but I found a bargain… and I leapt upon that bargain with my teeth bared. At any rate, my roommate and I have played far too much Metroid Prime, and now I am what’s known as ‘behind’ in my work. That’s ok though, I’ll simply have to pull an all-nighter and I’ll be back in action. So while you all sit, glued to this site, waiting for that to happen I’ll take this time to mention that I’ve put up an animation in my gallery section. It’s a 10 second ‘cut-out’ animation that was done as a tribute to a certain awesome show, so if you like Clone High… (Of course you do) watch it. Breathe it… live it. Oh man… I need to stop playing video games…

Not a whole lot new in the land of me. Got some fish on Halloween, and have recently become reacquainted with video games. Oooooooh yeeeah… managed to last almost a full month without coming into contact with those vile things, now unfortunately I can’t help but close my eyes and once more envision myself as the saviour of the year 20XX, destroying evil robots with my Megabuster. Ok, well, it’s not *that* bad, but Megaman X5 *did* manage to eat up 5 hours of last evening. The Royal Winter Fair is in Toronto right now… that consumed the other half of yesterday. Drawing animals is… well… not half as good as watching Pixar’s The Incredibles. Alright, well judging by the total lack of coherent thought in the above news, I’m going to take off now, but I’ll also take this time to point out that I’ve added more to the gallery!

Imagine a brilliant white light above you, now relax as this light flows through your body… yeah… that?s right, that light is procrastination, baby! Well, I?m up to that again. We?ve got the tremendously awesome walk cycles due in two more days and I?m only marginally into the rough animation. Ah well, I?ll get it done in time, in fact, I?m going to go work in it in about… five minutes. I just thought that this site could use a little update in the gallery section, so here?s a whopping 4 photos, 3 figure drawings, and 2 pieces of fan art done over the past 2 months. Ok, so seeing as I?m trying to get back to work right now, I shouldn?t bother mentioning that I?m being a ninja for Halloween… and I also shouldn?t mention that I?m perilously close to buying a Game Cube for the sole purpose of having Smash Bros at my disposal… and I certainly won?t mention that I?ve been coerced into watching entirely too much Xena by my roommate today. Yes, that?s right… I shouldn?t mention this… I should go animate. Ninjas rock.

   Currently there is dispute through the animation industry that the trend of 3-D computer animation is a wrecking ball for the tradition of hand-drawn animation. At the same time, there is argument that the classical tradition of hand drawn animation simply has a charm about it that cannot be replicated through electronic medium. The reality however, is that the different styles of motion picture media exist because they all have their unique advantages and disadvantages which help to add personality, and thus animation to the entertainment experience. The medium is not the movie; whether a tale is told through drawings on paper, stop-motion, or 3-D software on a computer, it’s all about entertainment and thus it is important to keep in mind that the key feature of an animated film is the human aspect. While “Digital Animation” is commonly thought to be another term for “Computer Animation”, a better definition would be “animation that is performed with the fingers or the human touch”.

   For a film to work there has to be an effective story and characters that we can connect with; this does not only apply to movies, but also to books, video games, etc. Shrek did not just walk across screen and amaze viewers without the coaxing from the fingers of skilled animators, nor did Bambi and nor did Gumby. The audience must feel empathy toward characters, and must be enraptured by the plot to truly enjoy a film. Storyboard teams on successful films have been known to work on revisions of a plot for up to five years, a task which computers are not capable of performing on their own. As Kaj Pindal once put it, “Humans tell the story, computers are a technical process no more important than a projector, and should not steal the show. If the style of the animation steals the show, then the point has been missed.” This is why when thinking of digital animation, it is important that one not think of computers, but rather the thought and care that goes into producing a film.

   Perhaps the animation industry would be better off to adopt the term “Digital Animation” into its regime. Pixar’s Finding Nemo was an immense success and was fully animated on computers, however despite Michael Eisner’s claims that “2-D is Dead” much of Disney’s upcoming 3-D feature Mickey’s PhilharMagic, had to be reanimated by hand on paper and then transferred to computers(Evidence). At the same time, Spirited Away won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was fully animated in the classical manner. “This should help to illustrate the fact that people are most satisfied after a film if it has entertained them. Entertainment and communication is the point of animation, not fighting over whether 2-D or 3-D animation will earn more money”(Pindal). Animation must maintain a good sense of story, and acting to succeed. Studios, and animators alike, need to realize that with animated movies, it is not all just about technical proficiency, and that no one medium is better than the other. As long as people think of computers when hearing the term “Digital Animation” they are becoming focused on the medium and forgetting that there should also be a message. Remember that “Digital Animation” is not “Computer Animation” but rather animation which has been touched by the human hand.

So that demon which has plagued me off and on through out my life has run amok again, but it’s time to put an end to my short attention span! The first month back in school has been enough to bring me back to reality once more. Having had a nice little vacation of Battletoads, and Super Metroid, I’ve determined that perhaps doing my homework, and studying *is* in fact the best course of action as far as keeping on top of my schoolwork is concerned. That being said… I still hope to beat Battletoads before Christmas, and am seriously considering the greatness of buying a game cube. This of course will happen *after* I am once more caught up and basking in the glory of A’s again however. At any rate, I’m actually procrastinating once more, as I only came to the computer lab to do a little research on walk cycles for my upcoming animation assignment. Just thought I’d do an update here however. I still have nothing that I deem worthy of adding to this here web space, but hopefully there shall be some new eye candy in the upcoming weeks. For those who have never been to an animation festival, I would like to add, that I went to one a couple weeks ago in Ottawa. It was most splendid; definitely an event that any aspiring artist should check out. Now however, I need to do that research I came here to do, and then prepare for departure! Next stop, Waterloo!

Awesomeness… so it didn’t *really* take me this much time to figure out that I am able to update my site from the computer labs at the college, but it did take me until now to find some time to do anything. Ok, well… so just a brief update for now, and I’ll do my best to do some sort of an update after the weekend. I’ve got pictures to show, but my great and wonderful skills as a ninja have allowed me to drop my portable harddrive and almost all files were lost, so I’ll have to get another chance to scan them before they shall ever make their appearance into the digital realm again. I’ve got glorious homework that needs to be done though, so that scanning time will have to wait until that work is out of the way. The International Film Festival in Ottawa takes place next weekend, and it will be the first one I visit, so I’m looking forward to that with mighty anticipation. But enough on that subject… I’m going to go eat… and draw… and sleep…

   Needless to say that after watching an 11 year old warrior-savage, the primordial urges that I’ve been having ever since my eyes first beheld the awesomeness that was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, have surfaced yet again. Now granted when I flex, a chasm is formed in the universe from the sudden surge of greatness… and I suddenly gather so much more dust that I gain weight, but until watching this I don’t know that I’ve ever seriously considered the options that I would suddenly have if a pre-pubescent kid tried to kick yesterday’s lunch out of me. My solution? Hope that I can out-run him… maybe play dead? Perhaps I too should take up the art of screaming while spinning a broom handle around. Last time I tried that, I shattered the lightbulb on the ceiling of my parent’s basement, but I’m older now, and clearly that means that I’m prepared to be a lean, mean broom-handle-swinging machine. Plus, it’s gotta be more healthy than… you know… not spinning a stick and screaming. Ok, it’s true… I’m just afraid that if I didn’t have the broom handle, people might confuse me for the lead singer of a successful death metal band (yeah…. we’ll pretend it’s not an oxy-moron).

I sit here listening to A Change of Seasons by Dream Theater as I write this, and I gotta say, that while this is the first message I bring to the world on my new site… while it’s good to finally have this little niche of mine own out in cyberspace… I can’t stop thinking about how unbelievably good it’ll feel to stomp those little rodent-beast-Ewoks in an AT-ST. In case anyone’s not with me, Starwars Battlefront is coming out in September, and while it looks like it may not be particularly balanced… somewhat reminding me of Battlefield Special Weapons… Battlefield 1942 was such a great game, that very idea of it involving TIE Fighters still sends insatiable tingles up my spine… or maybe that tingling is from falling down the stairs 4 days ago…. Either way, my point ladies and gentleman, is that I now have a website, and that = wicked awesome. Spiels in the future may or may not make sense, but for now… I’ve spent the past week on the computer… and I think I’ve earned myself a nice game of Megaman. God Bless the Megaman Collection for PS2!