Student mindsets that need to be stopped

foreign [Music] tour and today I'd like to talk about mindsets and habits that students need to give up I still see myself as a student but when I was a full-time student doing classes there were things that I looked back at I cringe at myself for even having these habits and mindsets myself and that I see in current students now the reason why I want to talk about this is that a lot of these things are going to hinder your growth they're going to actually do more harm than good such as stunning your growth Burning Bridges and even finding your own voice or whatever style the first one I want to talk about is the fetishization of studying or over glorifying the practice of studying first of all I'm not against the practice of studying I'm all in for it Master copies studying from Life studying from reference studying other artists these are all great but there are students and artists that get stuck in this loophole of only studying and not really taking their studies and putting it in their own work to problem solve that's where the real learning comes from not the eight hour life drawing classes you like to brag about to show how much you study and how much you're dedicated to learning and studying I see a lot of amazing studies from students hell I see a lot of students hold study groups which is really great but that's all it is it's just studies they either don't apply those studies in their own creative work or their creative work is nowhere near as good as their studies you have to apply these studies to your work to see how to problem solve these things otherwise you'd just be another person that just studies and not really have an artistic voice the next one I want to talk about is enforcing a bias of what animation is and how to learn it there's a lot of things to talk about here so I remember when I was at school there was this whole argument about 2D animation being more Superior than CG animation as well as these stupid arguments about how if you're serious about learning 2D animation you should only learn it by animating it on paper if you do it digitally you're a fraud you should learn things a certain way avoid doing things in a certain way and I think this was also enforced by teachers who had a strong belief a bias or an opinion about how to learn animation first of all you don't want to alienate other students who got into animation from different reasons from you and you don't want to be close-minded about how to learn things seriously guys having an animation desk where you can animate on paper and you have access to animation punched paper is such a privilege and this can hinder your growth especially when you have to adapt to a different style adapt to a different methodology or a new way of thinking that kind of goes against the biases that you have also you look Like A pompous prick when you start enforcing a bias animation is animation just leave it as that the next one I want to talk about is being a know-it-all and there's many layers to this first of all I think it's important for anyone to be knowledgeable in whatever they're involved with you can memorize all the technical terminology the history the names the techniques and then there's another layer where you're flaunting that knowledge to other people where you want to show them that you're more knowledgeable than them you're smarter than them so you go out of your way to sort of drop all these facts all this knowledge or name drop and if you're gonna go out of your way to do that at least have the skill to back it up there's a lot of people who are just people who flaunt knowledge and facts and things that they learned from other people but their skill level is pretty weak I remember when I was a student I had a classmate who did an internship at a major studio and when he came back he started becoming a know-it-all because he's seen how the studio Works he's been mentored by someone who works in the industry so every time time he gave me feedback he would always flaunt about his Studio experience and how it was you know life changing and how he would use that experience to make his feedback seem absolute and that same student would also name jobs saying that he was mentored by someone really prolific within that studio and that's the next thing I want to talk about and that's what I'm going to talk about name dropping so there are students who just name drop for the sake of different reasons so some of it is to justify arguments some of it is to brag about their experiences or being close to this person that they're talking about I remember there would be an animation related argument and you know they're talking about whatever what's good animation what's good this or that and then one person goes well my friend and my personal Mentor James Baxter said this so this makes your argument invalid which I think is such a cop-out and very lame so guys when you do this you do not look prestigious you don't look cool you just look like an the next one I want to talk about is taking every preach or teaching for fact now when I was a student I really really wanted to work in a major Studio such as Dreamworks animation Disney Pixar you name it so every time a teacher said something that would help me get closer to that goal I would take it as fact but I think deep down there was always a part of me that highly disagreed with them too like there were sayings that like oh if you're animating in threes that's bad animation or things like if you're drawing anime then it just gives your portfolio a very amateurish look nowadays there's a lot of teachers that I disagree with or that I don't really hold up in a high opinion anymore I've had teachers say that bad animation is animation that wasn't animated in 24 frames a second or 12 frames per second whatever so because of years of conditioning myself that every preaching from someone in the industry or teacher I always felt was right it took me a long time to rewire my thoughts and beliefs and to sort of find what feels more honest and truthful to me like if you wanted to get work in the industry and they're looking for these specific things that's a different thing and I feel like if you can adjust your work to fit that in your portfolio cool but to put it in these quadrants where you say this is good animation or this is the right way to do things or this is the wrong way to do things then I don't think you're helping yourself out so the only advice I would give is that if you're learning something and a teacher says something I would say always take it with a grain of salt do your own research online make your own stuff on the side so you can find a paradigm or a dogma of your own the next one I want to talk about is not doing something that you're interested in because you're told you aren't ready for it or you tell yourself you aren't ready for it so I want to talk about this because I'm all about Freedom when it comes to learning something or getting interested in something and if you're interested in tackling a subject matter that you should tackle it I know some teachers will tell students not to do something because they aren't ready for it may maybe it comes from a place of protecting them from mishaps and stuff like that but I do believe that you know experiences are personal I remember at school I was told to cut down crayon dragon by like a minute or 30 seconds I can't remember but I just couldn't I just didn't feel like it I just followed with my gut and of course they were not happy with it but you know I think that film helps me gain some form of um clout online so I personally do believe it's worth it I've heard teachers give really bad feedback to students saying oh don't do this you're not ready for it without really you know explaining why or without giving any constructive criticism a good teacher will try to give constructive feedback and try to work with the student rather than just tell them no this is bad you're not ready for it just trash it there are talented people in the industry who are lousy teachers so I'll let you know that look part of being a student is to self-learn to self-teach and to find problems of your own to build your own Paradigm to build your own Solutions based on your personal experiences and when you're tackling something it doesn't have to be perfect finishing something or being done with something is far better than trying to be perfect and not finishing anything so the safe advice I want to give is start with something small and try things out but the Curious individual in me would say hey just try whatever you want to do and see how things go from there and you know your experiences are your experiences and I'll add even if you make mistakes even if things don't go well or as you planned don't see that as failure it's a learning experience now the next one I want to talk about is bad mouthing current industry work or talking about how you could improve the current industry I'm going to cover a few things here but whatever opinion you have about the industry and the members involved in it that's really up to you you know you don't want a bad mouth current industry artists talk about how those individuals are failing the industry or talk about how you could improve or save the industry when you have little experience yourself or no experience and that these people are individuals that you might work with in the future first of all it comes off as arrogant and Brash second if you have this burning desire to prove the industry wrong you do not need Studio work you do not need industry you can just do that stuff on your own by making your own stuff without working in the industry but if you're a student trying to get work in the industry because yeah we need work we need income then you're going to want to be careful with how you present yourself you know sometimes these opinions are also voiced by the teachers who sort of preach these things to the students and suddenly it becomes ingrained in students I remember we had a really prolific animation teacher and you know he was really good he was really talented but the thing was that he talked about people that I am friends with people that I worked with and people that he also worked with too even showing their work to students saying why their work is a bad example and why it's problematic into industry I mean who does that now another reason why I'm bringing this up is because I was like this too where I was this hungry passionate individual who made stuff on their own who animated on their own and stuff that I was seeing on TV was this cheap crap well according to my opinion but that's also me having little knowledge or no experience within the industry so whatever I was saying it was all coming from a circumstance that I wasn't aware of and when I was new to teaching I was kind of an because I had this mindset where I made it in the industry I knew what I was doing therefore my opinions were coming from a place of righteousness I think it's important for students and teachers to be critical and to have opinions and to sort of figure things out but that's not the only thing he should be known for and unfortunately there's a lot of students in features and even co-workers that's all they do Dave badmouth the industry and members involved and they're like plungers bringing up old that doesn't matter anymore so the last thing I want to say is as a student it's your job to question everything and to find your own truth like you know I've had students who disagree with me and I'm totally cool with that because I have my own experiences that form my own sort of way of thinking or my own problem solving skills and my students are going to find their own way of thinking and therefore when I'm a teacher my only job is to help students get closer to their goal to sort of understand what they're trying to go for and to help them get closer to that goal but yeah question everything that you're learning and make your own stuff make your own personal projects Do Your Own Thing on the side so you can find your own truth find your own Solutions and therefore maybe find your own way of thinking that's why I don't really like a lot of art Discord servers because there's a hive mindset that I sense or feel where there are you know users who talk about doing all these studies because some artists said so and therefore they all try to do it but really not thinking why it's important or ostracizing people to have a different way of thinking so um yeah that's all I wanted to say so those are my thoughts when it comes to student mindsets that's going to hinder your growth and not going to be a good look when you do come into the industry if it continues long term it can burn Bridges now there's nothing wrong with being a student and constantly finding ways to grow to learn to eventually teach or just to be a student again nothing wrong with that just don't let that be your only source of self worth your only image as an artist or your only voice because there are just some people who all they do is just study talk about how much they study talk about all these preachings that they're taking for fact and really not contributing anything to the industry or to the world of Animation I mean if you're going to study and learn all the stuff just put it to use in your own stuff Jesus anyways it's all by interested in learning hand-drawn animation or learning how to finish an animated shot from beginning to end have a look at the store where you'll find the complete introduction to 2D animation video course tutorials and other resources learn classical animation approaches drawing lectures techniques and other process videos visit the store through the link in the description below

Channel: Toniko Pantoja

Views: 17,052

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Id: EjNcPH3KngE

Length: 12min 53sec (773 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 02 2023