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Why I want to become an animator

Why I want to become an animator


Well I did not want to be an animator when I was young. I didn't think I was able to draw well even when I was certainly drawing a lot. Drawing was only one way to express my ideas that I had for stories. Other outlet was writing and that must have been one of my first dreamjobs, to write books about the stories of my lively imagination. I loved reading comics and watching cartoons and me and my twin sister where able to do that a lot. Probably because that made the twins behave and sit quietly and focused for a while. 

I remember how we would act the happenings in the cartoons in our playtime. We would get a sticky tape roll and pretend that it was movie tape and we were filming, acting and later editing a movie. We would create backstories and a world for our toys and have very detailed story series for them. I remember that some kids had trouble keeping up with our plays, but some were instantly excited and into the ideas and usually those became good friends with us.

In elementary school I was drawing comics about characters that I had invented, just for fun. And yes my twinsister was doing that too. And we had a very good friend who we would draw comics with and create more stories. In the end of elementary school she introduced manga for us and while I was struggling to understand what made manga different and at first couldn't draw anything that look like it, after a while I was totally become a fan and also figured out the style. All my weekly money went to manga books, Ranma 1/2, Time stranger Kyoko, Fullmoon wo sagashite, Inuyasha, Naruto... and the list goes on. I started to read more comics and also draw more. Still you can see my backround in my drawings, especially when I try to draw something fast I feel like I fall right back into my manga starter days. Manga made me also interested about other comics like works of J.P.Ahonen and Juanjo Guarnido.

During those early years I got a lot of ideas, but others stayed and started to build a huge world around them, at least in my head and some comics and writings. I think you can definetely train your imaginative ability and it feels like after a while the process becomes somehow automatic. Right now I have five different stories in my head and some of them started over ten years ago. One of them is more ready than the others, to the extent that I can see very clearly what it looks like with my minds eye. It also feels like it's writing itself. If I suddenly get an idea for it I usually try to write it down even when it seems to add itself quite well to the story without needing to remember it. The ideas activate whenever, but mostly when I listen to music or walk outside. Also travelling gives me always a lot of inspiration and the best ideas. It may sound nice and effortless but it's also a bit frustrating to get so clear ideas. It feels like I'm watching a movie but can't show it to anyone else, and even if I tell about it or write about it it's not the same. That's why being a storyteller and a writer is not enough, I want to show my ideas, I want to make them look like I see them. 

Sometimes I'm wondering if I should take Disney's path and expain and inspire others with my stories and make someone else to draw them, but I would really like to take Miyazaki's path and make comics and animations about them with my style. That's why I want to be an animator and an artist and a comic artist. I may want to work for others, do different projects and learn many things in the future, but that will be always my goal behind everything I do. And it doesn't matter how successfull my stories become, I just really want to get them out of my mind and show to others! 

That's why.



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