Aspiring animators like SJHHS student, Libby Tracy-Council, are working diligently to master the craft and develop the ability to immerse views in worlds of fantasy and tell stories beyond the confines of traditional artistic styles and film.
“Animating is storytelling, I’m a writer as well so I take a lot of what I write and envision it into my animations, I just really like to tell stories,” said Tracy-Council.
Through Tracy-Council’s combined interests in writing and 2D art, she found animation provides her with a beautiful fusion of her two passions.
“I think I started in middle school and just been chipping away at it ever since. I’m hoping to major in animation for college, I want to be an animator,” said Tracy-Council (12).
For some, a passion for artistry and their knowledge of their artistic talent has been a constant in their lives since they were young.
“I started doing those [Original Character] when I was like eight, I got into it surprisingly early,” said Lilly Hamidi (11).
At eight, Hamidi found a sense of belonging in the animation community.
Original characters [OCs} along with “Animation memes,” are terms artists in the animation community made to generalize their different mediums of animation
“When I start animating I usually start off with designing my characters, I call them my OCs, original characters. It’s like these characters that have their own stories and personalities. I like to put that into animation format. I do this thing called animation memes. It’s like a big thing in the animation community. Where it’s like short music videos, short repeating music videos, and with memes, it’s sometimes a copy or some people like to stylize it and make it more creative.
She posts these OCs and animation memes on her YouTube channel. Both Tracy-Council and Hamidi share their work online, however, they both avoid posting their work on Instagram. With artificial intelligence integrated into Instagram through Meta, artists have begun moving away from the platform.
“A lot of artists have taken down their art on Instagram because of this new policy. Essentially you are getting your art stolen for something that is ultimately trying to replace you,” said Hamidi.
“It’s not just animation AI that threatens the entire entertainment industry like script writing, voice acting, and acting in general and it’s a huge issue and there needs to be regulations put in place but I think it will die out because you can’t replace human artists. You can tell it’s AI, I mean it just doesn’t look good,” said Tracy-Council.
Hamidi not only found community through the internet but also forged her own by starting a club at SJHHS.
“I actually run an animation club and we teach the fundamentals, I’m the president, it’s called the Stallion StoryBoard, An animation enthusiast club,” said Hamidi.
For any students interested in joining Hamidi’s club, they meet every Friday at lunch in B05.
It is common for aspiring animators to draw inspiration from famous animators and movies. Tracy-Council uses cartoons to connect her to animating and inspire her work.
“I love cartoons, and watching movies like the Spider-Verse movies and Arcane on Netflix, just seeing the artwork be put into these makes me feel like I need to do that,” said Tracy-Council.
Animation, although beautiful, can be an ugly process which explains the need for so many animators in big production movies. Due to the long tedious process of frame-by-frame work, it makes the results so much more fulfilling.
“Animating honestly frustrates me sometimes because it’s very difficult to get your ideas on that paper or I guess tablet for me because I do digital animation. It’s very frustrating sometimes because when you do in between frames it sometimes looks jittery or just does not turn out the way you want it and on top of that you’re drawing the same thing 200 frames that’s like the same thing. But in the end, I like seeing results and seeing my hard work pay off,” said Hamidi.
To see more of Tracy-Council and Hamidi’s work visit their socials below.
