The good old times...

I suddenly had an urge to write about myself, or at least about what brought me to Ringling. I've been listening to The Animation Podcast quite a bit during classes as I draw, and every episode has been like a jolt of energy, making me want this more and more. And so, I decided to think about why I had come here.

I am Colombian and was lucky enough o grow up in a third world country. No, I mean it! This meant that our TV stations didn't get cartoons when they came out. Nope, the first cartoons I saw weren't the great Disney ones from the 80's and 90's (These were for my teenage years when we got Cable). I grew up with the good old stuff... Bugs Bunny, Daffy, Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, and even Merry Melodies and Silly Symphonies. I ate this stuff up! It was ALL I saw, and most of the channels I got aired this in the mornings and right as I got home until 7pm. I became obsessed with Bugs, drew him, pretended to be him when we were playing hide and seek at school, and even ate carrots and began taking piano lessons. He was my childhood hero (even though he cross dresses ;).

So I became an animation nut and I didn't even know it. My teen years came by and I didn’t really go into rock music or buying CDs and watching MTV. We got cable, and I watched Cartoon Network and The Disney Channel. I adored Gummy Bears, Tale Spin, Chip'n Dale R/R, and Darkwing Duck. Oh, and Duck Tales (Whoo hoo)! This was all on original English tracks too, which led me to investigate where these all came from. USA (for the most part!). Aaaah, paradise. How I loved going to Disney World and buying cheap VHS tapes at 7/11s. Good old Daffy and Bugs cartoons in their original language. I still have about 3 boxes full of tapes I got when I was a kid.

Animation thrilled me. I never considered it as a profession until my late teens though, and even then it was my..10th choice? It wasn’t until after Toy Story that I began wondering... Do I REALLY want to be a Math guy and go into Physics? Engineering? I DID draw on my spare time, so why not Graphic Design? Hrm.

Took me a while to remember how Ariel and Sebastian captured me when I was a kid (Little Mermaid was the first movie I EVER saw in a movie theater. Blew me away. I even had my parents buy me a fish tank after the movie), and how when I was 7 I watched Bambi over. And over. And over again. I still have that old tape where I recorded Bambi..Covered in blank stickers with horrible drawings of the characters.

Then senior year hit me like a brick. Dude! I can ANIMATE OMG WTF YA RLY!

I'm Colombian. Not many people know it, but animation isn't big there. ;) By this I mean the little animation there is, is reserved for commercials and a couple of shorts here and there. This is fine and all, but people don’t consider it an art form there. 90% of "animators" there are "3D artist", and 70% of those are engineers who know how to use Maya and think that's all there is to it. So I went to a design school, then ended up in Canada where I went to an affiliated technical school.

3 years of learning how to use software. Waste of time? Probably, but I finally figured out that this was art, not learning how to click a mouse and render ugly scenes. I freaked out! I spent so much time being a computer geek that I never improved my art, and since our high schools back home didn't offer good art classes (they gave us a bunch of oil paints and a canvas and told us to paint..That was ALL), I already sucked. Not only that, but the evil that is Anime hooked me into drawing bad, bad fan anime. I have some stuff to remind me how I should never try to do that again.

So I went back home to Colombia for about 8 months and worked on a portfolio for Ringling. Why Ringling? Everyone recommended it. Now I realize Sheridan or CalArts would have been good choices too. But it didn't matter, I just wanted to go to art school. It was 4 months or trying out stuff and teaching myself how to draw, and 4 months of insane portfolio work. I honestly didn't think I would get in, though. A guy who's never had an art class in his life? Pft! Sometimes I wonder if I got in because I'm a minority.. ;)

ConceptArt.org's forums were great help, and I should return there someday and give back to that community. Awesome artists and great inspiration.

So now I'm in art school, majoring in animation.. Focused on 3D animation. I've learnt so much about traditional animation here though, that sometimes I want to go to CalArts. The pencil gives so much freedom.. I suck at traditional, but I like it. :D But then I realize that an animator should be able to use many mediums to express themselves, so my goal is to make great 3D using traditional principles..And who knows..Maybe become a full fledged traditional animator one day. One can only dream. :>

And if I succeed or if I fail... I owe it all to that wascawy wabbit. Heheheheheheh.