Module 2: Read, Goal Setting

   Read: Short Goal Setting Essay

Goal Setting: A Little Inspiration (Week 2)

You are just beginning the study animation, with a class or two behind you and a lot ahead of you.

This path, focused on contemporary 2D, has a strong aesthetic component, but as you have no doubt learned for yourselves, it also has a technical part (not as much as 3D, but still significant).

Studying animation in general, has never been easy. It can be surprisingly demanding because making films, and making video games is hard! Often students become interested in the major because they like to watch animated films and play interactive games. But watching and playing teaches none of the skills necessary to build them.

For this second week of class, there is a lot to accomplish, with browsing, reading, and projects to put into your creative journal. This week's goal setting exercise therefore, is on the lighter side. There is no writing component - just read the quote and commentary below, and come to class prepared to spend a few minutes in discussion:

"He wonders how so much water can resist the pull of so much gravity for the time it takes such pregnant clouds to form, he wonders about the moment the rain begins, the turn from forming to falling, that slight silent pause in the physics of the sky as the critical mass is reached, the hesitation before the first swollen drop hurtles fatly and effortlessly to the ground." - Jon McGregor, from If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things.

You're all seeking to become masters of a discipline. Let's be honest, if you're not pursuing mastery of something, you're just spinning your wheels. But mastery of animation as a discipline with all its moving parts does not come easy. So, whether its design, rigging, effects, compositing, or animation itself, all of you are working towards becoming supremely good at something.

There's a popular science-class experiment demonstrating critical mass, wherein a teacher adds water to a full glass one drop at a time. As everyone huddles watching, the water refuses to leave the glass. Drop by drop, it mounds above the lip, defying gravity and common sense.

Until finally, one single drop breaks the spell and water spills down the sides.

In the quote about rain drops and gravity above, Jon McGregor wonders about the celestial version of this phenomena: How do clouds, which weigh more than whales, stay up there? He wonders at that magic moment when vapor becomes liquid, or as he puts it, "the turn from forming to falling".

In our daily practice, we wonder when our efforts will produce fruit. How many rigs will it take before we can consider ourself really ready for what comes next? How many times must we animate a scene before it flows like water? How do we get the best performance from a cut-out puppet? How many sketchbooks do we need to fill before we begin to love what we find on the page? How in the world do we get a solid grip on this very complex software?

We can never know, because believe it or not, we are not in control of the final answers. All we can do is accumulate drops. One day, one exercise, one focused moment, one clean repetition at a time. Our part is to show up.

Over time, we gain mass. We grow. We build volume. It's a long, hard journey.

And then in an instant, we make something beautiful, "fatly and effortlessly."

Guided Reading Questions

• Take a moment to ponder the McGregor quote. How does it relate to the day-to-day work you do for your education?