Students – Analog Artist Digital World

On rare occasions, I get to Full Sail early because I’m coming from an event I sketched and it makes no sense to go home only to immediately turn around to drive to the university. This student lounge is right outside the 2D Animation studio where I work. Though I have a laptop computer, I’m not tempted to crack it open. I would rather crack open a sketchbook to observe all the students staring at computer screens. There is some interaction as several students show each other a modeling project or a computer animation they are working on, but some students are just zoning out by watching U-Tube videos or checking their Facebook status. Perhaps this is the future, everyone interconnected but staring at screens.

The wall in the background is covered in framed DVD cases. These are apparently films that graduates had worked on. I was talking to a doctor the other day, whose son had attended Full Sail. He asked if the school motto was still that every student who graduates in the two year accelerated program is guaranteed a job in the industry. I had never heard this before, but it seems impossible with huge visual effects houses like Rhythm and Hues going bankrupt and every movie studio wanting more for less.

There is a certain nostalgia seeing a new group of students each month in the 2DA Full Sail classroom. By the end of the first day it is possible to sense which students have the drive to excel. Most of my time is spend helping students navigate how to use the computer software to shoot the drawings they produce at their animation desks. For some students there is a legitimate glee that comes from seeing their drawings move for the first time.

Larry Lauria does a good job of sharing his enthusiasm for the medium. Each lunch break he shows academy award winning animated shorts, to give the students an idea of what can be achieved with a pencil, plenty of paper and imagination. On the first day, students realize the amount of work needed to create just one second of animation. They create a one second animated morph, having one object transform into another.

The students are issued plastic portfolio cases that come packed with the basic supplies needed to create hand drawn animation. They get red, blue and black Prismacolor pencils, an eraser, sharpener, a peg strip and a flip book. The 150 page flip book is the most creative assignment the students get. They can create any type of animated scene that they like. Some students plan a whole story while others simply play with shapes and forms.

There are several animation projects in each of the ten classes each month. Some students finish with ease while others struggle to keep up. I’m always trying to encourage students to make passable animation
better or more entertaining. This is the hardest thing to pass on, the
fire in the belly, an undeniable need to create. Some sleep walk through
life trying to just get by. Some discover this drive early while others
will find it later in life. Jobs might come and go, but a life fueled with creative ambition will always be full filling.