Animation Cessation

Thank heaven, we've come to the conclusion of our documentary series on the animation class that I attended in the summer of 1991 at Capilano College.  Don't know how much more I could have suffered of this.

If you've been watching along with us this month - revisiting the less than inspiring (boring) layout course in 5 abbreviated video segments (selected from a much longer master video) - you should begin to understand the less than satisfied mood that prevailed upon the majority of our team as we prepared to cross the invisible finish line and enter the doom and gloom of the working world.

Knowing that I would personally not be interested in strolling any further along this dreadful animation path in any manner, I was, perhaps, in a lighter frame of mind than the rest of my classmates - which is never more evident as when we see them all huddled together in a team meeting (minus the instructor) near the end of this chapter, discussing the barren landscape of future employment possibilities, while I flitter about the room like a moth - without care or concern other than to videotape their collective apprehension with a steady hand.

Inanimate. adj. lifeless, comotose.

I'll be glad when we're finished with the uploading of all these old animation class videos from 1991.  To tell you the truth, I'm starting to notice one of my eyelids twitching, and there's a few stress-inducing flashbacks creeping into my sleep.  The realization that this type of work was NOT something I wanted to do anymore came so early into the course that I simply have to ask myself once again: 'why did you bother signing up for this nonsense in the first place?'

As I've reported earlier, it's the other students, stuck in the same situation, that gave this experience any ray of light.  I'm a little surprised to note, that in the 22 years since we wrapped it all up, there has never been any hint of a casual class reunion.  It's quite possible that the majority of them have felt the same as I have about everything and they'd rather just leave it resting in the graveyard of the mind.  And if it wasn't for the rediscovery of these dusty 8mm video tapes down in the storage room, it could have remained there.

Animation Hesitation

With this latest video installment of 'The Animation Degradation', we can quickly see that by the third month of attendance, things had definitely begun to take a turn for the chaotic over in good Sir Jerry's classroom.  I had to hunt long and hard thru my collection of video tapes from that summer before coming across any actual scenes of instruction and learning.  (See rare picture above!)  For the most part, it was just 12 weeks of recess with a few short breaks for lessons.

Yes, there was always a healthy dose of humour and hijinks from the majority of the students during our earlier, more serious classes - back when the dream was still alive - but this later footage will clearly show how the train had now left the tracks and the mad scramble for lifeboats was underway.

Looking back, I still find it hard to believe that each of us received an official certificate proclaiming our successful completion of this animation layout course (yes, even me) when in fact, I still couldn't tell you the difference between 'storyboard slugging' and a 3-field pan.  Not that you'd ever need to know the difference.

Much Too Late To Animate

What I had first imagined as a 3-part documentary series for this blog - showcasing the animation class I attended at Capilano College more than 20 years ago - might, on second estimate, take 5 or 6 or 7 parts to wrap up.  But we'll see if there's any need to devote that much time and effort on what still remains in my mind as an unpleasant, sour, rather pointless 3-month period in the summer of 1991.

On this second episode (of 5 or 6 or 7) some fella named Emmanuel takes over both the narration duties and player introductions and does a fine job describing the situation we all found ourselves in.  Like passengers in a lifeboat after having watched our cruise ship sink, we were now directionless, confused and listing.  Only lighthearted acts of distraction from the other castaways could save us from abandoning all hope of ever working in the industry.  Although personally, I had already given up on that idea by this point in the proceedings.