animated toast

[Peter Wassink]

its pretty obvious that those nails weren't painted by hand

That doesn't even matter - wether they print it, or paint it, or let it grow by trained bacteria - it's still technically animation because they work frame-by-frame.

Yes its animation, i don't argue that.
What i do not like about this one is that they took a lot of effort to imply (without any tongue in cheek) that it was all meticulously handpainted on tiny nails by three animators working for a month.
Had they really exaggerated it in a fun way i could have appreciated it
But now, like User767 said... it all just seems geared to taking credit and awe for something that they never really did.

[slowtiger]

if I can survive as a lone animator.

Yesterday's Tricktisch meeting in Berlin had some discussion about that, starting from the jobs we recently did. There was that guy asking "But why do you work for others?" - "Because my landlord doesn't give me the apartment for free" - "Why not?", at which point I sorted him under "stupid troll". He said he were quite happy with living by Hartz-4 (german unemployment help), even with his 3 children. He also stated that there were just 2 kinds of animators, those who work for it as a job, and the (true) artists. Needless to say that he saw himself as an artist, until recently living from some gouvernmental grant. I was just a tad bit pissed by his aggressive "bohemian" stance.

[Fabrice]

He also stated that there were just 2 kinds of animators, those who work for it as a job, and the (true) artists.

Growing as a human (and animator) is trying to be both at the same time.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I've always lived by the creed that one should be useful to others to make a living. If no one would want to pay me for what I do I would have to find something else to do to survive. How can anyone do good work as an artist when paid by welfare?! If I were in that situation, I would feel so useless that I wouldn't be able to draw anything decent.

[Fabrice]

I've always lived by the creed that one should be useful to others to make a living. If no one would want to pay me for what I do I would have to find something else to do to survive. How can anyone do good work as an artist when paid by welfare?! If I were in that situation, I would feel so useless that I wouldn't be able to draw anything decent.

I believe that with no challenge at all, there is at the end no energy left to create something with own's life and talents.
It's like a waste and also it's like a long-term psychologic self destruction

[slowtiger]

How can anyone do good work as an artist when paid by welfare?

I don't know. Certainly I didn't create much stuff during my welfare time. But I don't know if this is a general rule.

Art history is full of people who starved or suffered a long time, and others who lived by other's generousity, and then those who made a living, sometimes even a luxurious one, from their art (and finally those who just were fortunate to be rich - quite a small group). It doesn't seem to have any relation to the quality of their art, as well as a piece of art's quality doesn't depend on wether it was "free" or commissioned or not even meant to be art (like a poster for advertising - think Mucha or Toulouse-Lautrec).

[Paul Fierlinger]

You make good points; I have to give this some thought... the first one that comes to my mind though, is that I perhaps think of myself more as a craftsman than an artist. Animation is weird that way, at least before YouTube, which is that there is too much detailed work that has to get done, involving the use of lots of hardware and software and equipment in general and also keeping oneself up-to-date with this all, to concentrate only on the art factor without an outlet such as a picture gallery to exhibit and be connected -- the way the bohemian artists of bygone years could be motivated to create. But now that there is YouTube, an animator can de facto exist in a limbo (read Welfare or a day job) and improve over the years, thus find work on films enjoyable. I, for one, always had the need of affirmation by getting paid. For that reason I never had a problem working on commercials the way some of the more art purists of animation seem to have. Animators of the former Communist block come to mind and how many of these are there around now?

[User767]

When packs of social animals become dysfunctional, the weaker individuals are pushed out by the stronger ones but often the weaker ones survive well on their own and become the proverbial "lone wolves". I'm already headed towards the free ranging Internet to see if I can survive as a lone animator.

Unfortunately, our society doesn't push out the 'weaker' individuals any more (well, they do, but the definitions have changed). A lot of management in the corporate world is in power because they can't actually do anything. Instinctually, they know they're going to be pushed out of the pack. So, since they have no 'real' work, they can spend all of their time on not getting culled. It's a survival thing, but shifted toward our society. If they can put enough time into themselves, they succeed. The people who create and contribute are so busy actually doing things, that they just don't have the time to fight these people. And the ignorant management are the ones we all have to deal with every day. They're the ones who make the world a harder place to deal with. If it weren't for them, we'd all be happily lounging in the garden of Eden. (I'm kidding, but only sort of)

It's interesting that animation requires such a substantial investment of equipment. It's generally out of the reach of the poor. Probably one of the more expensive 'art forms' to get into. Doesn't seem fair that one of the few art forms you can actually get a job doing is automatically financially exclusive. Hard to even cobble together something found to make animation. The requirements of final display impose limitations. Flip books? Sure, there you go. I'm wrong after all...

I think I'm now clarifying my ideas of how society works, and how much I dislike it. Perhaps this is impetus for me to become a philosopher instead. Ah, but I can't just now. I'm way too busy to even be writing this...