I live for cartoons. It never ceased to amaze me how animation works. Even though I didn't know the principles behind them, when I was a kid I could tell good animation from bad animation, and I didn't watch bad animation. As a teenager I truly discovered my artistic side and drew constantly. These drawings were mostly cartoony, inspired by the classic Looney Tunes and Disney cartoons. Everyone has to start somewhere. I always wanted to get into animation, but I was held down by my perceived limitations in my artistic ability. So I simply kept doodling on the side through the rest of high school, on into my enlistment into the Air Force, and as I worked in temporary jobs through the beginning of the new millenium.
When I finally landed a permanent job working as an industrial control panel fabricator, I took that opportunity to begin my college education. My original plan was to get into electrical engineering, since my background has been in electronics, starting with my enlistment. I had just started taking the general education classes when after two years of employment I was laid off from the shop. At the time it was a blow to the ego, but I soon saw another door open. Electrical work was fine, but it was very constricting. I hadn't realized how much my creativity was smothering under all the regulations and rigid structure of electrical standards. I needed a change.
I still felt no hope in getting into what I really wanted to do, which was animation or even comic book art, so I did the next best thing I could think of. I changed my studies over to graphic design and became a full time student at Nashville State Community College. A previous temp job of mine was designing post cards, which I really enjoyed doing, so it seemed like a natural fit that would let me work while using my creative side for once.
After I had earned my Associate's in Visual Communication with focus in Graphic Design, I moved to Orlando to change a long distance relationship into a local one. My new degree got me a position at FedEx Kinko's. Well, it was work, and once I got out of the shipping end and into the production floor I did apply what I learned. As for my education, I still wanted to earn at least a Bachelor's, and changing states made it difficult to attend local universities without having to earn another Associates in Florida, something I still don't understand the logic behind.
My girlfriend had mentioned a school I never heard of that offered computer animation, so I decided to check it out. Full Sail was a weird name for it, and the tuition was pretty hefty, but I saw an opening. This was the break I was looking for in getting into animation. Like many people, I was enthralled by Pixar's films and found computer animation to be a great new method of animating. This was the answer to my inability to draw consistently enough for traditional animation.
After much thought, I decided it would be well worth it to earn an accredited Bachelor's in Computer Animation, and I feel that way even more so as I near the end of that journey this year. Not only have I learned new tools to use in computer animation, but I have also strengthened my traditional artistic abilities and built a strong foundation from which to begin my new career. I have learned a great deal from Full Sail, and I will continue to do so as I start my new journey into the field of computer animation.
-Jeremy