101 things to say to annoy an animation student

....ok so there's only 7...I'm sure there are more...I just haven't thought of them yet

I've been wanting to put together this picture for some time. As an animation student, and as someone who loves animation in all it's forms, I often get involved in conversations with people and questions like this pop up...and time and time again i have to explain them, as politely as possible

Talking with other animation students and animators in general I complined a list of the top most irritating questions that we get asked most often. And now i shall explain them:

1) Thanks to the boom in the popularity of animation this question doesn't get asked to me often by adults. But in high school i found that so many people didn't know what animation was.

2) This statement has probably been aimed at other art students over the years. Choosing an art subject doesn't mean that you're stupid at everything else. You have to have a knowlage of mathematics and english at least to be an animation student, and while you technically don't need to get great grades to get onto an art course (you need a strong portfolio) it's wrong to assume that only 'stupid' people do art subjects because they can't do anything else

I passed all my A-levels...including spanish (and i SUCK at languages) with grades I can be proud of....so there

3) Oh my god, the number of people who told me that people have said this to them *rolleyes*

I don't need to tell you artists on DA (no matter what your field) that drawing can be mentally taxing. For animation students we sit at lightboxes all day, every day of the working week (and at weekends if we need to finish stuff), drawing pictures over and over again. You can get backache, neckache, headaches, eye strain, RSI, carpel tunnel, migranes, stress-related illnesses, pins and needles and cramp. Tiredness is the least of our worries, and yet people are suprised when we say how tireing animation is.

It's not physical tiredness, it's MENTAL tiredness. it makes our brains hurt, and when we get a break we just want to sit down and stare into space for a few hours. Is that so much to ask?

4) Ok ok, i know writing a Thesis is bloody hard work, don't get me wrong. But it's not all fun and games being an animation student

the average student on a non-art based course in the UK will go to lectures for about 7 hours a week. They normally get the whole of wednesday off, and the earliest most of them have to be in by is 11.00am

and yet people whine about having to go to a lunchtime lecture.

OH PLEASE. I get up at 7.45am each morning. We work all day from between 9.30-10 to 4.00pm-8.00pm, and then go home and have to work some more to complete our animation tasks, OR got to work at an after college job until some ungodly time at night. We ALSO have to do 2 essays over the year (in the third year we have 3 essays and one ten min presentation). We work on wednesdays when everyone else gets a day off.

As i said before, animation is NOT a walk in the park,and it peeves me when people get all high and mighty about how their work is 'harder' than ours. I may not be able to write a biology thesis, but I'd love to see a biology student making a 1min 30sec animated film

5) Ho boy XD

I know it is possible for a 2D trained student to get a job in any of those companies...but NOT as an animator. Disney has fired all it's 2D staff, and there's little sign of there being a change to that in the near future. Pixar and Dreamworks are soley based in CGI now, and Aardman is 3D model animation.

The only hope to 2D animators is the much smaller companies...and even then you'll be lucky to land a 2D animation job

6) South Park, Team America:World Police, Animal Farm, Plague Dogs, Bevis and Butthead, When the Wind Blows, Watership Down, ATHF, Ghost in the Shell, Grave of the Fireflies, SPAWN, Cleopatra:Queen of Sex, Monkeydust, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, AKIRA, Perfect Blue, DEAD LEAVES, Legend of the Overfiend, Final Fantasy:Spirits Within, Golgo 13, Blood:The Last Vampire.

watch all of these, then come back and tell me animation is just for kids

7) See above ;D

and Pocoyo is AWESOME DAMMIT








Ok that's everything

All mentioned names and brands (c) their creators and respective owners

important: if you've ever asked or said any of the things drawn above, please don't be ofended. it's not the questions themselves, it's just how many times the same questions are asked XD