Staring at the Blank Page.

Over the last couple of years, I dedicated my spare time teaching myself basic character animation techniques. This did not occur after some vivid revelation or moment of truth. Since childhood, I’ve enjoyed both listening to and sharing stories, and I’ve spent a lot of time with pencils, markers, pens, and a blank sheet of paper. I had a pretty general idea of how to tell a good story, but even as an adult I yearned to bring my storytelling to life.

About five years ago as I browsed the iOS App store, I stumble across the Plotagon app. I read the reviews and thought I’d give it a shot. I downloaded the app and soon realized how to build the characters, create the dialogue, and even use its green screen feature.  This app became a great tool allowing me to create a whole collection of episodes based on an exaggeration of life with friends. My stories came to life, but they still did’t feel like mine.

Now, I am not discrediting the Plotagon app by any means because the app reignited my passion for telling stories. The Plotagon app offers endless customization options, but it’s all still very Plotagon.   I have always had a certain style to which I draw, and a certain style telling my stories.  I still ached to make my stories more authentically mine, from concept to the feature presentation.

So, about two years ago I sat down and started reading and really digging into how I could bring my stories to life-my way. I’ll tell you what, some really great voices in the animation industry really are quite generous with their wealth of experience and knowledge.

Now, I’ve given you a backstory as to how I got to this point. In the next few post I will share some of the great resources who’ve been instrumental in helping me get to the point of actually bringing the blank page to life. I’ll also take some time sharing how I set up my files for animation, some of the stories I’ve produced, and until then… take some time to discover the endless possibilities of a blank page.