It all started with an idea...

Don't worry, this isn't another "How much do I love this show? Well let me tell you..." post. This book came in the mail for me yesterday (I'd preordered it back in January!) and calmly, I opened it and immediately went to the back page. There was a small afterword from Mike & Bryan, commending their fans about making it this far in a book they had put together solely for them. I was really touched by the fact that these two guys had created a universe that had affected so many people - young and old - and it had all started with a simple idea.

I love these kinds of books, where the animators just sit back and reorganize all of their thoughts and their work from the preconception to the final product in order to give their fans the creative process. I have a PIXAR book about A Bug's Life stashed away somewhere, too, and I'm definitely the type who'd disect every "behind the scenes" footage from an animated film DvD. It's like playfully fitting the pieces into a giant puzzle, discovering where the ideas for certain scenes came from and why animators decided to give characters a certain "look" rather than others.

It's hard to explain but I feel like the reason my enthusiasm for art school hasn't been completely present is because I know there will be bumps along the road. I know I still have a lot to learn, and that I'll have to work collaboratively with others (which isn't my strong suit all the time, and that at some point... I'm going to have to push myself really hard and not give up on that competitive, sometimes cruel world in the animation/entertainment industry. Ideas evolve, and that's the scary part. Sometimes the final product is so different from what you initially worked on, and it doesn't always feel like it's yours. But it's all part of the creative process, and that's what I continually learn from reading these books.

If anything, I need to take a breath, face the challenges, and realize that creativity needs to come with an open mind. I can do this.

=)