This blog and this website will be the landing page for my attempt to become an expert.
It all starts with the theory that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become an expert in any given topic. As discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers.
I considered pursuing expertise in my profession, or my existing hobbies however having given it a lot of thought I decided that dedicating 10,000 hours to either of those would not give me any joy.
For example, 10,000 hours dedicated to triathlon would likely land me in an early grave with exhaustion. It is also there case I wouldn’t likely gain any joy from that amount of training.
As for my profession? Spending 10,000 hours studying the intricacies of financial services and project management is also likely to put me in an early grave not only because I already spend most of my time doing project management in financial services but also because it’s incredibly dull.
Instead, I’ve chosen something that I’ve loved for as long as I remember. Animation. How this takes form, I do not yet know and I will shape that along the way.
What I expect to happen with this project is that it fails. It might fail early on, it might fail halfway through or it might fail every time I revisit it. Whatever the outcome is, all progress will be logged here.
My first port of call for this project is learning how to draw. My research suggests that the majority of animation departments from the very best to the very amateur tend to use storyboarding as part of their process and even the digitally animated films which we enjoy in 2017 tend to start off with good old pencil and paper.
My favourite animated films of all time come from Aardman Animations in Bristol. Anybody who knows me in person will be well aware of my love for Wallace and Gromit and their quirky outgoings. To be able to draw even a storyboard or scene even close to the quality of the outputs of that studio fill me with joy (I assume).
Some argue that the ability to draw is not strictly necessary for animation however I’ve seen some of the storyboards from Pixar that are supposedly early drafts and they blow apart anything I’ve ever drawn.
I will be drawing and learning as many elements of storyboarding, set design, tools and techniques over the next bunch of hours. I have a book that teaches drawing techniques for characters that I will reference in my first sketches and hour 2 of this blog.
By using this blog I’m hoping it keeps me accountable and ensures I put at least some effort in on everything I try to make.
Wish me luck!
