When it comes to art, I love it all. Well… all except 2D animation. I really have a ton of respect for those who can survive hour after hour of drawing the same thing… only slightly different… for a living. Seriously, 2D animation has to be one of the most tedius tasks a person can ever undertake.

Lets break down exactly what is needed for 2D animation to occur:

1. In animation, there are 30 frames per second
2. In 2D animation we animate on twos. This means that we’re actually only working with 15 frames per second.
3. That’s 15 Drawings for every second of animation.
4. The average cartoon show is 15-20 minuets long (once you cut out commercials)
5. That’s 13,500-18,000 drawings for your average cartoon show.
6. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (the first animated full-length English color film) is 83 minuets long
7. Thats 74,700 drawings. To save time these guys actually traced stills from video of actual people. That’s why the movement and proportions look to realistic.

This brings me to my conclusion. Based on the experience I have had with making short 3-5 second animations, and judging by the amount of work needed to produce such things, I have decided that EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY 2D ANIMATOR IS INSANE! Yep, they’re all crazy, every last one of them. I’m actually so certain of this that I would bet that every last 2D animator would agree with me completely. These people must really like punishment… not that this fact makes them crazy, but rather that it doesn’t help things at all. These facts are backed up by pretty much everyone in the same art program as I. It’s fairly unanimous, not everyone thinks it’s evil (although most do), but we can all agree that it sucks your soul out through your finger tips. This is likely the cause of the severe cramping that results from drawing thousands of pictures of the same thing over and over and over and over again.

Just keep in mind, next time you’re watching a cartoon that it was created by a bunch of raving loonies.

Type to you later,
~Nathaniel

Yep, I’m going to rant about death now. Humanity seems to have quite the obsession with death. It always has and I suppose it always will. The finality and certainty of its occurrence coupled with the uncertainty of its outcome has lead quite a few to obsess over it, develop their own theories, and almost always fear it. My opinion of death is a simple one, I don’t care for it. I try to not concern myself too much with death for the simple fact that I know it will come eventually, I will not be ready, it will not be fair, but it will happen all the same. In short, although we should prepare for our deaths (wills, no-resuscitation permission, etc…) death should be dealt with when it comes.

My mother taught me a very important lesson about mortality when I was about seven years old. One of our dogs had just recently had puppies. One of the puppies had a larger head and smaller body than the rest and just generally didn’t act the same as the others. It died after being alive for only three days. I was a curious child and I wanted to know. So I asked my mother “Why did that puppy die?” She told me that she had seen the same thing before (she worked at an animal care clinic as a veterinary technician), the puppy had water on the brain.” I knew that couldn’t be too good and I accepted this as a reason for the puppy’s death. A few days later another puppy died, but this one had appeared to be perfectly healthy before. When I asked about this one my mother simply said “Sometimes… puppies just die.” This one phrase pretty much sums up my view on death. I learned in that instance that death can come at any time, to anyone, it is never fair, and rarely makes sense, and you will never be ready for it. I credit this conversation with my being able to handle my own mother’s death when I was nineteen. I cried, I was very upset, but I got to the point to where I could function again very quickly. I did not dwell on her death or ask questions like “why her?” because I already knew that there are no answers.

I honestly believe that excessive mourning is selfish. We mourn because we will no longer enjoy the person’s presence. We do not mourn what they lost, but rather what we lost. Soon after a death, this is expected. It is important to have a small degree of selfishness in order to survive. However, one day, we will be visited by death, and it is best not to spend our time suffering over the inevitable. In short, focus on life, not death. Don’t focus on your own death, or the deaths of those around you. Focus on your life, the lives of those around you, and the lives of those we’ve lost. Life is what is important, death is only a small part of it.

I will end this post with one of my own quotes:
“Fear not death. Fear that you never truly lived.”

~Nathaniel

Also, in celebration of our mortality, and in memory of my departed mother, I am now selling Dead Puppies Merchandise.

I’m going to start off this blog with an article on offense. Much of what I say can be considered by some to be offensive. That’s why I figured I’d start off with a bang and let people know what I think of that. The truth of the matter is that people are far too easily offended now-a-days. It’s ridiculous. Read the rest of this entry »