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The Smars Unlimited blog has officially moved. I’ve been having some problems with spam comments on my post…one spanning a whopping 1000 comments…about VIAGRA! Even after killing all the links and removing all the comments within a weeks time I had a new 300+ …So, I’ve move to Live Journal. HERE. Where all future post will be made.

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I love being a member of

I have the revised version here at home, as it was a required text for my intro to animation class all that time ago. I still use it from time to time when something is bothering me about the way I’m approaching my work. Yeah I delve into the

Seeing this book for me is like someone putting a copy of Action Comics No. 1 in my hands. Seriously, I’m a total history geek, and not just your typical history, I enjoy the history of things like animation, comics, photography and film. It’s really in depth stuff. I advise looking at an owning both copies.

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Another thing that I was actually shown by some fellow animators was

Now, Bakshi isn’t my favorite animator, but he is in my top 20. Why? Because he’s got guts. He says what he feels , steps on toes, spit on graves, and keeps on animating. His personal mantra of going against the grain of the animation industry is prolific if not profound. By that I mean, after working as a grunt in the trenches he stood up and said to himself why do I have to do it this way, WHY? He then proceeded to create his own animation on his own terms. One of the things that John Kricfalusi said about his experience working with Bakshi was that he learned to animate. And by that he meant drawing off model if it meant you pulled off visually incredible or amazingly entertaining. He said that each artist should be allowed to inject their style into the production, giving the cartoon life…true life if you ask me. Not like Disney (and I don’t have anything against Disney…really) who choose to create “animation” versus cartoons. there is a difference, but that is a rant for another day. Bakshi tells it like it is, in the panel he basically called out the entire animation community. He asked why so many of us are sitting around bitching and moaning about wanting to work for the big 3, when the technology available allows us to produce our own work. Get together a couple of people and BOOM, you can make a feature or a series or what have you. And yet so many of us stand in line waiting our turn to be rejected or abused by the heads of industry. Personally my intention was to set off on my own and produce animation featuring my own concepts and characters. I had and have no real desire to work for Disney , or Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. It’s a job mind you, but unless they’re looking into my work as the future of their programming, then It’s just a distraction from my true goal. My true dream. On my own the possibilities are near endless, if not endless; but with those guys I’m limited, not to mention if I do get one of my shows picked up by them… I lose it. Long gone are the days of making deals like George Lucas and his Star Wars character rights triumph. The industry is fully aware of fandom and its ripple affect. I digress slightly. My point is Bakshi is right. All these animators are sitting around whining about wanting to work for Pixar and Disney or Nick…whatever. With technology the control, the power has been returned to it rightful owners…the people. It has happened or is happening in the music industry, television, movies, video games… why not animation?

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Hmm. yaeh. I think…I think, I might be losing my mind. I’m not sure exactly what it is that is causing it, but after some long and serious thought on the matter I deduced that school is most likely the primary cause of it. Well, I won’t put all the blame on school… I’ll put a bit on my job as well. I get up at 1:50 in the A.M. and drive around for hours delivering newspapers to several houses, businesses, and apartments. All those numbers to remember, all those street signs to locate, and then which person gets which kind of paper on what day…yeesh! I do this day after day, seven yes, SEVEN days a week holidays especially. The news never stops, the chaos of the world, sprinkled lightly by some happiness is constant. The utter monotony of this, in conjunction with my daily classes I think is the cause of what I have come to call “me losing me.” I’m forgetting simple things like dates, I’m in a constant state of perpetual lateness. All this month I’ve been so near late for classes, that I’ve had to drive my car to school just to make it on time or within close proxy. I usually take public transportation, but I have to leave two hours early to get to classes on time that way. So, even though it is shorter (30 minutes) I use up the gas I don’t have to run my route at the AJC ( the paper I work for.) I’ve been both uninspired as an artist (sort of ) and have been neglecting my duties as president of our school student organization The Animation Society. I thought at first it was my school work load that was keeping me from completing my duties, but I realized that being in junior classes wasn’t doing it. I’m actually cracking up. I forget half the time what day is what, and what time it is and when I have to be at what class. I’m forcing myself to get some animation done, but I try to be Zen about it as not to end up like Tex Avery. I try to maintain some semblance of sanity, but I find that shell is decaying as rapidly as I can create it. Sleep has become a series of brisk naps with headaches in between, occasionally getting in a solid four hours here and there, with bizarre dreams that I wake from covered in sweat, burning hot to the touch, and feeling sore as if I have just run a marathon up the side of Mount Everest! GASP! I can only hope that with the up coming break I will be able to get a grip on the parts of me that are trailing off into the vast depths of nowhere-insanity-land. I hope.
On the up side to this monster sized downer, I have been channeling this chaos into my first animated mini series NIVADAHMANDI. I’ll go into details and make image post as it progresses. ‘Till ten, Live Love & Eat fruit.