In Honor of the Olympics

I was introduced to this video. It’s hilarious, just brimming with really great physical comedy. And it’s amazing just how natural it looks, but it’s obvious just how much gymnastic skill went into creating and pulling off this routine. Like Chaplin, or Keaton, to really make something like this sing you’ve got to have the technique down pat, and then you can add the flavor. It’s an oft-repeated trope, and I’m not looking up any references here, but I do remember reading that Chaplin would have his performances so well rehearsed and clear in his mind, that he could do them backwards.

It’s a great reminder to me, now the I’m just passing the halfway point of my first term at AM, that animation is the same way. Being back in school and doing the fundamentals, it’s easy to lose sight of the final goal, which is to become a great animator. The assignments are supposed to be just exercises, and I do think sometimes I’m trying a bit too hard to make them into more. So far, I don’t think my training’s suffered for it, but I can see how it might become a problem. I’m hoping I can ride that thin rail between adding a dash of creativity, giving my assignments a bit of conceptual and visual appeal, and losing so much time and effort to all those non-essential elements. I’ll be uploading the assignments I’ve done so far soon. Really.

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