Right…Here we go!

HELLOO!! My name is Swell. It’s great isn’t it? You see I was born into a family of nature lovers. There’s a proper name for the type of people they are but I can’t remember it. That doesn’t look too good on my behalf since I AM a member of that family for over eighteen years. Any who… Swell is like a peaceful name. Apparently I bring peace to the minds of anybody I talk to. The fact that I’m a drug pusher doesn’t always give the right impression but…………… That was a joke by the way.

 

  I’m eighteen, and I’m starting University. Actually I just started today. It is miles apart from Secondary School. I don’t even know what the point of Secondary school is if they don’t even really prepare us for college life. It’s so different! I’m an individual here! In secondary school I was just another student. Another piece of flesh who couldn’t speak for themselves. Teachers don’t fully understand your personality because of restricting uniforms! Teachers judge a student by test results, behaviour in class and (this may not always apply) the type of personality an older sibling may have possessed during their school days.

School, I think, doesn’t prepare a student to speak for themselves (unless you do Transition Year maybe). The teachers don’t go out of their way to encourage you to come out of your shell. Well my teachers didn’t anyway. School should be more hands on from day one. It’d be way more interesting, I can guarantee that.

 

……………Slightly off topic? I think not! Actually I do but being dramatic can be fun. What are my interests I hear you ask. Or SHUT UP YOU DUMB BITCH WHAT ARE YOU NATTERING ON ABOUT??? I’ll just ignore that, because I am getting to my point!

You may have noticed my blog is entitled “Animate Procrastinate”. Well I came up with that title because I have started to delve into the art of traditional animation. You know, the type of animation used in magnificent Disney cartoons as “The Lion King”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast” etc etc. All the films before they joined forces with Pixar and created “Toy Story”.(I have a slight obsession with that film as do most children born between the years of roughly 1990 and 1993.)

Traditional animation consisted of drawing EVERY frame of the movements a character makes in order to create the illusion that the character is real and moves by itself. This type caught my attention way more than computer animated cartoons. I prefer the traditional way of doing things. It’s a shame for computers to take over everything, and I guess by me animating in this way I am contributing to keeping this art alive…… even though no one will probably see my animations. Or will they? (See…drama.)

I have a YouTube account which goes by the name of TheMoodymuck. Here’s a link if you want to have a gander:http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMoodymuck

If you’re going to look now, which is at 8:51 15th September, you will absolutely NOT find any animated videos, just videos from concerts and weird videos about dogs and diggers that I clumsily put together on Windows Movie Maker. BUT! I will have an animated short up sometime hopefully before December sometime because I’m actually entering a competition. And when I say animated SHORT(!) I mean short. The video has to be in around five seconds long. A lifetime for snails, a split second for cheetahs. *Note To Self: don’t ever try to take on job which combines the workings of David Attenborough and Neil Armstrong!

Here’s the video created by TomSka which lists out the entry requirements and the prizes:

 

And here’s a video of what my short animation could be featured in if I get through:

 

So there you have it! That’s my plan! But you see I always make plans, I just never normally complete them because I procrastinate A LOT!! Seriously, I should get a medal for it I’m that good! And that’s where I got the procrastination part for my title from. But I’m hoping this blog will help me overcome my talent at procrastination. Also I hope that if there is anyone who is even considering attempting traditional animation themselves, that my journey will help them learn what to do and not to do.

 

SWELL.