NEW BOOKS^__^

I've actually spent alot of money on animation and THE GREAT Hayao Miyazaki artbooks this holiday. I also bought STARTING POINT 1979-1996 by Hayao Miyazaki. The foreword was written by John Lasseter, the directer of Toy Story. I had no idea he had such admiration for Miyazaki. And now that I've read his foreword, Its definitely understandable how he gives his Pixar employees so much FREEDOM. There was one sentence I loved at the beginning of the book.

"Follow him as he takes his first steps on the road to success, experience his frustrations with the manga and animation industries that often suffocate creativity, and realise the importance of bringing the childhood dreams of the world to life."

This was truely a very POWERFUL start to the book. It was touching in a sense. Although I having planted a foot in the industry yet. Our uni tries to portray the feeling that we already are. I can understand how the industry can suffocate creativity since I've met a director of BBC and publishing companies. They say the same thing. And all have that spark in their eyes when they see talent - when someones able to capture the innocence of a childhood dream.

The book is VERY MOTIVATING, it even has advice from miyazaki aimed at students aiming to working in the industry. The argument of quitting school and moving straight into the industry or actually going university. It makes me feel that much closer to animation in general. Its emotionally in depth. Technical and theoretic conclusions are all included too. Its been a long time since I felt so inspired. Its a feeling that died after finishing my first year at Ravensbourne. I think the technical aspects of 3D animation tend to kill our creativity, everything becomes grey (refering to mayas greyness) and everyone ends up with the same blank expression on their faces infront of their laptop. It became depressing at one point. Even Pixar sticks to TRADITIONAL materials for their pre-production. Its probably because technology is advancing so much, us students tend to fall for the "trend". I even feel we were brain washed into thinking digital art was the only was to go at times. Even working with a Wacom Cintiq and professional painting programs such as Corel Painter, Photoshop. I still feel, it can't beat how expressive traditional materials work with the human mind. I mean, face it, we were born holding crayons and chewing pencils, none of us had wacom graphic tablets to chew on. =DD

Even though I havent finished reading the book, I feel as though I've matured a bit, and I now see the industry in a different perspective from before. I'm going to need to work harder if I want to get anywhere from here... in a good way =D

AND GOOD NEWS, TVPAINT has agreed to ..publish? upload the mayfly film we're currently working on, onto their main website =D So, hopefully, it'll be up to standard^^ I even found chinese brushes for TVPAINT! Made by some china guy.. who named everything in simplified chinese... how convenient ..(sarcasm). I can't read simplified chinese since I studied traditional.. so I might be relying on google translate for the next few weeks =P