We all have projects or goals that we have left behind. Broken branches in our tree of life. Usually, the stuff that is important to ourselves is the hardest to prioritize.
Back when I was trying to work on independent films my old friend John Rock used to say, ” Sometimes life gets in the way.” Back then I was young and arrogant. I never thought I would put my creative projects and ambition on hold.
Yet, here I am all these years later. For years I was looking back at my unfinished works with regret. Looking at my old work would cause me a general feeling of melancholy. I never set out to be an interactive designer and I definitely never had a goal of working in front-end development.
Six years ago I started my first animation project. I was enrolled in Quinnipac’s online master’s degree program with a focus in interactive media. While I was in my final semester life got in the way. Sometimes life drops rocks on you and other times it drops bombs. I never saw it coming, but it totally engulfed me.
I had to put my studies on hold to focus on life back home and ensure it didn’t effect my professional life. (it did for a bit) What happened is less important than what I did or in this case didn’t do with it.
I went into a tailspin and part of that was that I was no longer creating. I wasn’t doing what I loved. My life became about everyone else and in that I lost myself and it hurt my ability to help others.
Today I have the power of hindsight. I can look back and I understand that when you’re in the throws of chaos it becomes very hard to find your center. I’m finally in a place where I can take a breath, look around, and figure out what’s important to me.
I looked back to the beginning. My first love was cartooning. I studied Don Bluth, Max Fleischer, Tex Avery, and Friz Freleng to name a few. In my teen years, I was inspired by watching the works of Matt Groening, Mike Judge, Tim Burton, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone. My one constant inspiration was always Chuck Jones.
Chuck Jones approached animation like a musician. He understood pacing and rhythm better than anyone. One of the keys to his creativity was building rules around each of his series of shorts. The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote notoriously had 9 Golden Rules. I always wanted to have a gallery of characters that I could plug into shorts like the old Merrie Melodies.
I worked on my own creations. Around the age of 12, I created Jake Scruffington. Jake was based on my dog, Max. Max was a mutt. For many years I would refine his look and attitude. I would build a world of over 150 characters around Jake.
These would live as one-panel cartoons on 9″ X 12″ or 11″ X 14″ Bristol Boards. I would draw them first very lightly in pencil and then use my Rapidograph pens and Prismacolor markers.
As time progressed I would learn to translate my characters on the computer. Using Adobe Illustrator was challenging, but would enable me to eventually animate my characters.
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Six years ago I set out to do just that. I wrote a short 5-minute chase scene with Jake and his rival Burt. The idea was that they would meet at a stop light, stare each other down and race. Because this is an animation the race would escalate. Their vehicles would get exceedingly absurd. They would start as race cars and eventually morph into space fighters. The climax was supposed to end in space with Jake ultimately turning his car into a mock Death Star before blowing Burt up. It was simple, but it was meant to break the ice and set the tone.
In the middle of that semester I had to stop the project and school. I really thought it would be sidelined forever. It was one of the few regrets in my life.
This December I made a judgement call. I was watching “Scrooged” and realized it wasn’t too late. (Freaking Bill Murray gets me every time. I wrote some emails and reenrolled. I thought I would finish my animation.
I learned that the program had changed since I left. Instead of an individual capstone project, we were required to build a website. I saw this as an opportunity.
One of my other broken branches over the years was launching Margin Doodles. That’s right, the very site you are on. My excuse was always, “But how does it serve my career?” Well, I’m finally where I want to be and doing what I want to do so that is no longer an excuse.
Today I added an unfinished work to my portfolio. The unfinished “Rivalry” animation from my original run at Quinnipiac. I plan on revisiting it and completing it, but for now, I have put it up as a reminder that you can always go back.
Life might get in the way, but it’s up to each of us to decide what is worth going back for.