Woggy Project #8: Lil' Me Cartoon

Ahh, juvenile me. Aren't I adorable? I think so, but then again, I'm probably biased...

Anyway, this project happens to be one in which I invest much of my professional goals for the medium-term future. I would like to create my own cartoon series, somewhat loosely based on experiences growing up, somewhat based on experiences that belong to people who are completely not myself but who I have observed in a comedic way over the years. As such, I will need to be just a little bit vague about the cartoon itself, even though the details of it are very non-vague to me, for the simple reason that, knowing how slow I am to achieving my goals, I wouldn't want to just lay out a whole blueprint for some ill-intentioned fiend of the interwebs to come and steal my brilliant ideas as their own, simply because they happened to be a little better at the speed of finishing a project thing, if you catch my drift. For example, the name of my cartoon is definitely not "Lil' Me", but that name will just have to do for our purposes. This is of course, all to speak of the future, so let's get to the beginnings of my little woggster, shall we?

I was vacationing in a particular unnamed place with my husband, one which helped pop up some memories of yesteryear, when all of a sudden I woke up in my hotel bed on a dark and early morning with a terrific idea. I was going to write a cartoon!!! The beginnings of the theme song came ridiculously easy to me, or at least the first half did, and I wrote it down immediately in a little notebook that I always carry around in a hopeful manner whenever I go on trips, even though the exact number of pages I have filled in it and other similar ones on similar trips probably could be counted on the digits of one or two hands, tops.

I was very excited to finally have something to write down, let me tell you. I could hardly wait the three hours it would be until my husband would wake up so I could sing my theme song for him, but as I knew he probably wouldn't appreciate its genius at that hour quite as much as me, I decided to spend the time in between thinking up some characters and episodes to go along with my fab new theme song. Of course, I didn't write them down, but little changed about them between then and the time when I actually did get around to drawing and writing about them.

My enthusiasm for this particular project blazed forward in a fashion I had not seen in years. It was quite exciting, let me tell you! I sketched, I plotted, I purchased items of technical importance, I found and began demo-ing professional animation software! I tutorial-ed like the wind!!! I created playlist soundtracks for my characters, I researched pop culture for technical accuracy, I planned my website debut, to be someday followed by a full cable network contract!! (Well, the last two in my mind anyway)

And then... well, then my demo expired, and it was time to buy the whole professional shebang and I sort of faltered, and believe was assisted by our old computer opting for early retirement during my period of faltering-ness.

With a new system brought differing system requirements, blahdeblahdee, and then, and then, and then, here am I today. In the same place. Many sketches, many computer files, many ideas, a complete theme song, but still no cartoon.

The primary obstacle here is a technical one. Having begun the tutorial process I became happy to see that mastering computer animation was a skill that actually seemed quite achievable. However, I quite dismayingly also realized that man, this learning curve was going to be waaaaaaaay longer than I had originally anticipated.

You see, I had, it is true, had ample experience creating films, and understood that part completely, and had read several books on the animation process. I had even, as previously mentioned with Woggy #6, made some simple animations that I had included as parts of my films before (ones in my thesis my advisor even called out as a primary quality highlight of my film, though they were only seconds long). But I had never actually been through any sort of formal animation training, nor had I ever walked through a complete animated production from beginning to end. Not to mention the highly technical process of using software nowadays, which while making some parts easier, makes the learning part much more difficult.

What I wanted was for all of my fab, fab ideas to spring straight from my head, or at least my hand, and quickly make themselves into the fabulous cartoons I could already see fully formed in my mind. What was real was that as I walked through my technical tutorials, I realized that while I had thought I was in cartoon college, getting ready to complete my PhD in cartoonology by say, next month, in reality I was actually in cartoon kindergarten, and it was going to be a long, long time before I would be able even to figure out how to animate my own stick figure silently jumping up and down for three seconds with a pretty background. Let alone create my first character study for my cartoon, let alone have a full fledged pilot episode to show someone somewhere. All of the fabulous episodes, many of which I already know the plots and settings to, would be many a distant day in the future indeed.

So, let's just say I was a bit discouraged.

And that's where I sit today. I still think my idea is fab. I still think my cartoon could really make it and be amazingly funny. I still think this could be the future of my career. And I even still think I will someday soon quite capably enter and one day complete the little old home-self-school course I call Computer Animation 101, taught by professor Online Tutorium.

Now when that day will be, that, I don't know. Let's keep hoping for the best!!

Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:

• Get a new drawing program for my Mac
• Purchase professional animation software
• Purchase needed tutorials
• Begin tutorials
• Complete all tutorials
• Create a short & simple trial animation with one of my "Lil' Me" characters.
• Make a new list, based on what I learned in the tutorials, of all the remaining steps between now and a completed pilot episode of "Lil' Me", and do all of those things