A
female
age
26-29,
anonymous
writes:I've been keeping touch with an old friend of mine from school who left early because he found an opportunity to pursue an artistic direction, something he had always wanted to do.He's not the type who talks much, and I've often misinterpreted what he means when he says things. This time I want to get some other opinions to help me unravel a puzzle before I jump to conclusions.He's a cartoonist. Recently he's befriended a foreign man who promised to teach him animation (it had always been his dream) in turn for transforming the man's written stories into comic books.My friend seemed super excited about it. I asked him a bunch of questions because he seemed to enjoy tslking about it. One of the questions was whether he was going to try 2D or 3D animation (2D like Snow White or The Little Mermaid, or 3D like Frozen or Tangled). He told me 2D, because he prefers it old-school and doesn't like being in front of the computer all the time.He even planned on moving to the town the man is from, only coming back on weekends. He did move. But then after a few weeks he's been seen in town during weekdays. When I talked to him again, he told me he wasn't going to do animation anymore. When I asked him why, he told me it involved computers too much.Now, because he's such a good friend, I like to read up a little on stuff he's interested in, to understand him a bit better and keep conversations going. I learned that there are two types of 2D animation: drawing every still picture by hand, or using computer programs to attach body parts of a character to a frame, then you manipulate the joints to make them move instead of redrawing.So I asked him if they had been doing it the second way. That's when he toldvme they were doing 3-D animation, involving designing an entire character on the computer, never picking up a pencil. But he always acted as if he would rather die than do 3-D animation. Now he'd quit all forms of animating completely, though he never touched the type he wanted to do.A few days later, I caught from him that the man hadn't been doing 3-D animation when they met, but suddenly switched over.My friend doesn't act disappointed, though, and says he likes that he can focus on cartooning again. But I know boys often hide their emotions to look macho.Do you think there was a misundersanding between my friend and this man? Might my friend be really disappointed that his hopes of following the dream were crushed, or scared because he's missed out on school and can't do a formal course in animating unless he's graduated? Or has worry really slipped from him and has he really gotten over a halt to a career he's been dreaming about for ages?Do you think my friend is actually feeling troubled and needs support? Do you think I should encourage him to try 2-D animation again, and maybe use what I know about it to try and teach him how to do it? Or would that only make him feel worse?(I am not his competition. I can draw, but I can't make a character look alike in separate drawings, so I will never be able to do animation myself.)
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female
reader, anonymous, writes (22 December 2015): Hi, it's me, the article writer.I'm glad to hear other people find the situation strange, too. I realize I have to clarify a bit more, but even with extra info it still seems like an unfinished puzzle.My friend is a few months younger than me. He's seventeen. His folks are all alternative-thinking people who also takes life as it comes. I know my friend struggled with school. The subjects available around here are either science (too confusing for him), or useless rubbish that's easy-breezy. If you take the easy way outm you've kinda wasted your time.He's impulsive and makes decisions within the second he gets an idea. I didn't even know he was leaving school when he did. He can't afford any college courses and our community has been sucked dry of sponsorships.He's not moving in with the man, he is moving in with family that live near the man. I know the man is foreign, and that means he might be movinng back soon, so maybe my friend left school to take a chance to learn from him, and was planning on finishing school later. Like I said, my friend doesn't say much.Whenever I do talk to him, he says not much is going on at the moment. But huge things happen between conversations: one day there was still no set date for moving, the next they were gone. One moment he hasn't started animation yet, the next he's already quit.Sometimes I feel like something should really be bothering him, but then it turns out I got it completely wrong. He publically mentioned to a group of random kids that his father had been abusive to him the year before, and it looked like it didn't bother him. He hangs out with his dad a lot nowadays, as if it never happened. I just feel like it's impossible to really be over it in such a short time. Which is why I feel like this might be something of the same: a macho cover for secret sadness.
A
male
reader, Been there Now over it  +, writes (21 December 2015):
I went back to UCLA film school in my late 40's and took an animation course as part of the film/tv program. It was the most difficult course I've ever taken in my life. Everything is about high math (it made algebra look simple) with no emphasis on drawing. As a matter of fact, computerized animation is for technicians, with artists only supplying the story and artistic vision. Just doing shadows is difficult. You're right that it is all done on computer and requires frames and often a "kit" of body parts for a particular character. The only student who really "got it" was the biggest nerd/geek you can imagine.I can see how a cartoonist like your friend would very much dislike animation and would prefer returning to cartooning. The time he really needed support was when he was involved with 3D and going thru that period of frustration. I don't see how "the man" could switch from 2D to 3D without a lot of course work, so it may not have worked out for him, too. Now that he's returned to his love of cartooning, your friend could well be happier than ever. I don't see why he would need any support at this point.
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A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (21 December 2015): How old is this friend? I'd be more concerned about some random man asking him to come and live with him than whether he's animating in 3D or 2D.
This whole story sounds a bit odd. Usually animators go through college and university and get a degree before they get offered jobs in the industry. Yes there are some very talented artists out there at your age but they usually still need to go and get a degree before securing a job.
How was he permitted to just leave school early to pursue a degree, if he is your age where are his parents and what do they think about him moving away with some man offering him jobs?
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