8 Critical Life Lessons No One Tells you in Film & Art School

It’s somewhere we have all been, or are about to face. Art school is long over and your hunt for your first big gig has officially started. It’s scary, its aggressive, and sometimes, it is just too much to handle. The struggle for all of us 20-somethings trying to find our niche in the working world, no matter what your area is, is challenging. For artists however, especially for those wanting to get into the entertainment industry, the struggle is too real.

You aren’t alone, my fellow 20 something. I’m going through it too. While we can’t change our circumstances, there are things that we can take away from this process and leave advice for one another as well as for those about to graduate. There are some very, very big things our schools didn’t prepare us for that I’ve started to learn from those I’ve met in the industry. As tough as it is to face some of them, I think it’s time to take a good hard look at them and learn from them. (Read on)

Why a background in everything BUT art actually makes you the better artist

Going to a liberal arts college was one of the greatest decisions I have ever made for expanding my artistic abilities. Now I know many artists might disagree with me on this. How can going to a school and not studying art help you find a job in the animation and games industry?

It is a question that I have continually asked myself for the past four years as I finished my college degree, and the one that I know many other students in my field have asked themselves. After spending a long time reflecting on my personal experiences and strange background that got me into the world of animation and gaming, as well as learning from my friends who attended to strong art schools, I really have one opinion:

No, going to an arts school doesn’t make you more prepared or better than liberal arts college students, or those artists that are self taught.

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Paper or Photoshop? Why not both!?

It’s the eve of finals week, which in a college student’s perspective means that for the past three weeks I have slept an average of 2-3 hours every day, helped to continue to progression of the carpal tunnel symptoms in my right hand, have exhausted my eyes so much that my roommates go back and forth in thinking either I am constantly crying my eyes out or am on some form of drug, and have made the living room couch my new makeshift bed, and of course; there is Starbucks.

It was here that I was “studying” with a few of my friends who are in the business school. While they were actually studying, I was across the table from them blankly staring off into space with my pencil in my hand and my last two pages of sketchbook, desperately trying to come up with a concept for my last Maya animation short of the semester. The minute the ideas started to flow, I sketched rapidly and quickly and before I knew it, my two pages were gone. So I had no choice but to switch to Starbucks napkins, though luckily the barista kept seeing me get up and grabbing one or two more and felt so bad for the crazy girl in the corner that he brought me some Starbucks paper bags to draw on.

Apparently looking like a ridiculous fool, one of my friends finally chimed in with a helpful suggestion. “Melissa, why don’t you just draw all of that on Photoshop? It would save you a ton of time and you wouldn’t be wasting paper!”

I thought about it, that much was true. If you could draw with a tablet well it would save time. But is that really how it should be done? Should all brainstorming be done on the computer? Or is there something more meaningful and necessary that paper can bring you that Photoshop layers can’t?

“Don’t doodle if you want to fail!”

At least, that’s what my math professor scolded me for doing on the second day of class. I remember looking up at her with probably the most confused look I could muster, not sure if I had even heard her right. “Don’t doodle,” she said again, “You should never doodle during any class.” My entire class of Business majors stared at me like I was a crazy person and I regretfully had to hold my tongue before I started back sassing one of my professors. Did she not know that it was my major? So naturally when she turned back around I doodled her in my sketchbook as a fire breathing dragon; truly the only form of innocent vengeance I know. I have never done anything like that before, nor have I ever disliked a professor since I’ve started college. Luckily I dodged a bullet with that one and dropped the class because of her disagreeable attitude. Though, despite not having to sit in her class another day for the rest of the semester, her words have continued to fester and bother me. How can you ask a student in the arts to stop doodling? Doesn’t that seem kind of counter productive?

Getting Over the Fear of Drawing in Public

I have a professor that preaches to us every day about how every single one of us should be drawing…all the time…everywhere…whenever we aren’t doing something else. He once even told us we should be drawing if we are using the restroom for a prolonged period of time. Now, to be honest, I haven’t met anyone nearly as dedicated as my professor to his art form. He is always drawing, no matter where he is, even on vacation with his family when they are at the dinner table in the middle of a four star restaurant, he still sketches.

One of the hardest things for me to overcome so far this semester hasn’t been Maya or even tricky walk cycles, it’s been improving my art skills on my own time. More specifically, it’s finding the balance on how to get over that fear and rise above the stigma of drawing in public environments, no matter how creepy you may look doing it…

 

Yes! Take my hard drive, but don’t take my sketchbook!

I always have to ask, why do people steal things from others? Growing up I believed it to be one of few things; the objects were for monetary value, they were kleptomaniacs, or they would steal just to prove a point to the world. I found myself asking the very same thing again this past week where, for the first time in my life, someone stole something from me; my external hard drive. At first I was angry, furious even. I wanted to break down and cry and just yell at the world. As the minutes searching my school for the missing hard drive drew on, so did my anger. I let it stew long enough however, that my voice of reason finally kicked in.

While I was fumbling furiously through my bag yet again, hoping that maybe it was wedged somewhere under the pile of random objects hiding in there, I noticed my lone turquoise sketchbook tucked away safely in it’s corner unharmed. It was unbent, gleaming white and clean and yet severely abused and used. It was my baby, and it was safe. I realized at that moment that it didn’t matter what idiot at my school was carrying around a damaged pink external hard drive claiming it was their own. All that mattered and all that was important to me was inside this sketchbook. It contained all my valuable information  and concepts regarding all the projects I have worked on, all of my mistakes and accomplishments in drawing, gesture poses that would resemble preschool scribbles to the untrained eye, and more importantly, it was my secret escape into the workings of my own mind that no one will ever see.

Design, Story, and Animation: The Walt Disney Archive Series

I suppose to the kind employees at my local Barnes and Noble, I might be a creepy loner with nothing better to do during the middle of the week except wander around the cases of books that I can never afford on my meager college budget. It is sad but true, but while nearly everyone else parties it up on the weekend at my school, I often find myself in my dorm room in front of a blank sketch book and tearing myself apart when I can’t think of what to draw. It’s at that point that I always find myself behind the wheel of my car and driving down the long stretch of road to our beautiful bookstore. And in all honesty, this happens nearly every other week.

You see, I am having a secret affair in the back of the bookstore. It’s with the Film and Television section. It is here that I will sit on the ground and marvel at the creativity and the sheer passion of the artists whose work grace the pages of the art and visual development books for all of our favorite films. And it was in this location that I discovered the series of art books that have inspired and changed my life in ways I didn’t think possible.

When one door closes, Disney animators just draw a new one.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that when Disney announced that they would be closing the books on their classic Princess films you could literally hear the sounds of small sections of people’s hears snapping off. Well fairytale lovers, don’t weep just yet! Though our princesses are not quite back, 2D animation just might be. Only this time, our heroine isn’t even “beauty” at all. In fact, she is actually a beast.