In elementary school the only thing about politics that you're required to know is the name of the President of the United States. When I was in the third grade, the person in the oval office was Ronald Reagan, a man who was a famous radio, film and television actor. I mean, like, Kevin Bacon famous! I remember that being a big deal when I was young . It didn't mean anything to me, however. To me he was just the President.
I had a group of friends that I used to hang with then. They lived near me and every time we hooked up my buddies and I had this ritual. We would ask our parents for a few bucks and go to the store to buy junk food, of course, but also small notepads. We'd take a pile of candy, chips and sodas and hike back to my crib. Next, we scoured the house for pencils, pens, crayons and markers. High off of caffeine and sugar we sat in a circle and drew pictures in our newly bought little notebooks.
I was the big idea guy so I would come up with the story. Another buddy of mine was the artist so he drew the characters and whoever was left threw in some coloring. We passed the notebook around and took turns scribbling in it, drawing dragons and stick figure warriors. Ghosts. Vampires. Zombies. Whatever, our sick and deviant little minds could come up with.
Once the pencils dulled and the candy supply ran out the picture show would start. Hunched together we belched like Vikings while one of us flipped the little notebook of our animation production. It was easy, simple and fun. We taught ourselves how to do it. We made our little cartoons for shits and giggles.
I thought about this Wednesday while I sat in front of my television monitor trying to figure out how to recreate those kid movies using Adobe Photoshop. The instructor explained to us how she made the animation of a pooping dog just as easy as my explanation above. While the explanation sounded simple enough (Remember, I had done this before) the process was totally different.
Ok, Damon click this.
Now, drag that into here.
No, click this first.
Draw this line.
Wait, why does the line look like that?
I need a marker. Where is the marker?
No, that's a Brush Tool.
And, that is a Line Tool.
What the fu..?
What I would give for a real marker, for God's sake.
In the end, I settled for a very simple animation project...a boulder rolling down a hill. I'm still learning. After, I took a tour of the room and looked at the other students' animation projects. I was amazed at what these younger blokes managed to put together in such a brief time. A breaking cup. A comic-like family portrait. A giant head with crazy stuff shooting out of its mouth.
The experience of struggling through a computer program that replicates what I did as a third grader and watching the ease at which the other students tinkered around with their animations was fascinating. A complete "flip of the script" in less than twenty-years.
Like Ronald Reagan's Kevin Bacon-like stature that I could care less about, I wonder if my classmates feel the same way about #2 pencils, Bic pens, and tiny notepads. How would they feel about stick figure super men and dragons that coughed up wax textured red crayon for fire?
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