For others like me, we sometimes have mixed feelings about this subject.
But trust me, this lesson should be very helpful to all you animators out there.
This important lesson is a part of Richard William's Acclaimed book on animation called:
On one of these lessons is a rather humorous but very effective lesson on getting rid of all the distractions when you're doing your own animation work.
The name of the lesson is UNPLUGGED.
This is to discourage any distractions when you're doing your animation work.
Richard Williams learned that the hard way with this example he got from Milt Kahl.
Funny but very effective.
Learn to take this lesson seriously for Milt Kahl's sake.
When Richard Williams wrote this book in the early 2000s, he was using knowledge that was archaic.
By that, I meant knowledge from when he was mentored in the 1960s and 1970s during when he was making his Magnum Opus THE THEIF AND THE COBBLER.
Despite Pop Culture of the time, Richard assumed the old-guard listened only to Classical Music...
Don't assume what your mentors listen to. They keep their tastes closeted.
While Compact Cassettes were a thing between the 60s to early 2000s, and recently had a resurgence from Audiophiles, it can be difficult to convince today's animator, whether they be 2D or CG, to get them off their Headphones.
Also, headphones have changed since 2001 when Richard wrote the book.
While Wired Headphones are still manufactured to this dayNowadays, I see people on Public Transit, or on the Streets wearing Wireless Headphones.
Or whether they're earbuds like Apple's Air Pods.I apologize for using only the headsets as image example but you can't expect me to take photos of people on the bus or SkyTrain wearing these without their permission.
Anyway, the main distraction in today's animators is not just music but also:
Our Smartphones.
In today's society, we often deal with checking our Social Media statuses to see what our friends and family are up to,
Check the news,
And to check up on what the Nerds are talking about in terms of what...
THEY...ARE...EXPECTING...FROM...US...ANIMATORS.....
tell the animators to ignore the expectations from us the fans......
*COUGH*Zaslav*COUGH*Minecraft fallacy*COUGH*
Then this is the end result as demonstrated by Comic Book Guy below.
Unapologetic Derision from the fandom.
And why can't I find my image of Comic Book Guy denouncing the Poochie Episode in my Hard Drives? I knew I had it somewhere. Oh well, his LAN Modem Upgrade image should do.
So what I'm saying is
DON'T GET DISTRACTED BY YOUR PHONE.
But also at the same time,
WE DON'T WANT TO THROW AWAY OUR PHONE since it's our essential tool in life.
My advice is:
SELF-REGULATE.
There's a time and place to surf the web on your iPhone or Androids but when working on important animations, Distractions are a NO-NO because DEADLINES.
As for Cassettes, we can't always unplug... At least not since the 1970s till the late 2000s when Cassettes were supplanted with digital media for our Dialogue tracks.
We the animators relied on Cassettes for almost 35+ years till digital because we need to hear the audio from the actor's performance, as well as pin point where to mark it on the EX Sheets for dialogue.
While Williams mentioned Computer Animation during the part where he noticed two CG Animators improved on their animations after getting rid of all the distractions such as headphones from their work environment, the principle of the matter as Williams described with the Milt Kahl example was from when Animation was still drawn on Paper
which persisted even with digital ink and paint since WACOM TABLETS didn't have screens at the time and drawing from within the computer, even with the best tech from SGI, was still too synthetic so the artists just drew on paper before scanning them into the computer.
WACOM Cintiqs would eventually take over animation desks and the like.But despite the change of technology to animate in 2D or CG,
the principle of avoiding distraction is still king.
Get rid of all your distractions by putting your phone down, and putting it on Silent/Vibrate.
Don't get tempted to read those articles on Chrome, Edge, or Firefox,
Just FOCUS, FOCUS FOCUS on your animations.
If these two SHREK Animators took Richard William's advice to turn off your devices and put away your headphones and cellphone, than you can take the advice too.
Update as of September 29 2024:
On September 24, I went to my Local London Drugs and bought my RAZER KRAKEN V3 gaming headset.
That’s all I’m going to say.
Additional Update as of December 16 2024:
Back in Novemeber 9 2024, I bought a pair of SONY BLUETOOTH Headphones...
That's all I'm gonna say.
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