Bearded Thoughts

My Christmas beard is making me crazy. I have never grown it so long before. I am tripping over the damn thing. December 19th is D Day when I do my thing and play D Big Breaded Red One and then D bread can be trimmed.

Maybe it is some of the itchy chin madness that drives me but today I want to do a little meditation on what it takes to be a animator. I have been thinking of this of late because of my work with the Animation Educators` Forum. I get the question all the time from students. What classes do I need to take to become an animator? My answer never fails to throw students.

• Acting (improv)


• Physics


• Dance


• Martial Arts


• Film Studies


• Psychology


• Creative Writing


• History


• Criminology


• Architecture


• Surfing


• Fashion


• Sports


• Hair Dressing


• Political Science


• Interior Design


• Science


• Science Fiction


• Culinary Arts


• Archeology


• Dead Languages


• Mythology


• Religion


• The Occult


• Motion Studies


• and a hell of a lot of Life Drawing, color theory, painting, sculpture, film editing, sound engineering and Art and more Life Drawing.

You can`t lock yourself off and study just one thing like medicine or dentistry, Sure you can become a journeyman animator by just learning how to make the ball bounce and the flower sack hop around.

That is all you need to become what is called a wrist. But do you want to be a mindless artisan getting told what to do and getting a paycheck and punching the clock? You might as well become an accountant, there is more money in it and the hours are shorter.