Patience is the ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties.
"You must have the patience of a saint" That's a phrase you hear a lot as animator, well I hate to burst the bubble, but it isn't true. We are just as impatient as anyone else. The fact is that animation can be an incredibility frustrating job, especially when its not going well.
You know that feeling that wells up inside you when you sit in a utterly pointless traffic jam, and there is somewhere you need to be - an hour ago! Well that's the feeling you have animating some days.
It effects different animators in different ways, some cope better than others, but every animator goes through it.
What helps you get though these moments/days/shots, is not patience, but rather, discipline and focus.
Patience is what producers need, as they wait for the animators to do their job.




Yep! you've hit the nail on the head there!
Good luck with the project, it all looks great.
you have my 100% support!
Posted by: charlie hopkins | April 26, 2006 at 07:08 PM
I remember a couple of years ago, myself and a friend had been filming for around four weeks. We were in the middle of a sequence of around 4 days when I noticed that an eyebrow had gone missing off the puppet. We both stood there and gazed at the puppet for such a long time, took a heavy breath, turing to each other and began a 40 minutes of hysterical giggles, so much so we had to leave the studio. We couldn't speak to each other for tears and us keeling over holding our ribs which were aching. I don't think it was a case of laugh or cry, we really were knackered, fed up and I think slightly off balance. (maybe thats the key to being an animator, being off balance :0)!!)
Posted by: Kerry | April 26, 2006 at 11:34 PM
Hi Charlie - Thanks for your support, and for the MySpace add too!
Kerry - I've had moments like that. I remember a few years ago spending a few days on a shot, only to discover at the end it all concertinaed up inside the camera.
Posted by: Phil Dale | April 28, 2006 at 08:23 PM
Fantastic reorganization on the FMS site!! Maybe it was always laid out like that but I came into the blog a different way? In any case, this is getting exciting! I'm going to keep giving what I can.
Rock on.
Posted by: Shelley Noble | May 02, 2006 at 02:28 AM