Nostalgia Envy

Over at Jim Hull's blog there's a really great post about his getting back into traditional animation once again, after a long stint sitting in front of computers. He describes the feeling of setting pencil to paper once again, and the rush of flipping his drawings in his fingers. Reading this and his other informative posts on the old greats makes me feel kind of ignorant to the work done by my peers, particularly those no longer around, and the knowledge they passed on.

Jim, like many of the 2D animators in America, has been immersed in animation lore since college, met some of the old masters and has even worked with a few of the big names. Clearly this is in stark contrast to my own educational endeavours, (as outlined in my previous posts), coming from the more techie computer side of things. I wish I could have been exposed to similar influences during university. Although there is no accounting for talent, how much further down the road would I be if armed with that little bag of tricks?

Of course, tricks can be acquired, and maybe I'm just being impatient. I do feel that I am improving steadily, so maybe I just need to be more inquisitive, and I'll trip over that trick bag on the way.