A Conversation for Talking Point: What did you want to be when you grew up?
Still hoping
Duff Started conversation Jun 5, 2002
I've always been what people seem to think of as 'artistic'-- that is, I love drawing. (If you want to see, I've uploaded random pieces of art www.geocities.com/duffhut/face.jpg and www.geocities.com/duffhut/hug.jpg). My earliest ambition was to be an 'artist', as bland as the term is: this developed into 'cartoonist' as I started developing a specific style. When I reached my early teens-- I'm 16 now-- I decided I wanted to be an author. Alongside drawing, writing has always been another one of my passions, and I've been writing short stories (of varying length and quality) since I was around 6 or so.
Right now I'm at a crossroads concerning my ambitions, and all of the things I'd like to acheive are, quite frankly, very ambitious indeed. Since discovering Hayao Miyazaki and his films-- see Princess Mononoke if you ever can-- I've had a very strong desire to make an animated film (not in the Disney style, though!). I'd still love to become a successful author-- although I very much doubt I'm anywhere near good enough. The other one of my ambitions is to become a video games designer. This one seems to be the most likely of the three options, since my father already works in the industry (although not in game development) and is currently working with people who might be able to get me places.
One of the things I'd really like to acheive is the element of respect. There are various people-- authors, directors, game designers-- whose work I think is wonderful, and who are greatly respected and looked up to in their field of work; I'd love to become that sort of figure. Selfish, I know, but hey...
Still hoping
Steve K. Posted Jun 5, 2002
Sounds like a great ambition - I have been dabbling in animation since the hardware/software got affordable to hobbyists. Poser, Lightwave, Bryce, plus sound and post-processing (Acid, Mimic, After Effects). Heroes include John Lasseter (Toy Story). I'm currently working through "Lightwave 3D 7 - Character Animation", a great book by Timothy Albee. At his suggestion, I watched "The Iron Giant" recently, great (2D) animation, story, voice acting, etc.
It's a challenging area with many elements besides animation - character development, voice acting, lighting, editing, sound effects, etc., etc. The three DVD box set for "Toy Story" has some great "behind the scenes stuff on the third DVD. 
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Still hoping
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