Get Animated!

Back in 2005, I was blessed with an opportunity to teach a ten-week course on animation at the East Lansing Recreational Center. After the class was over, I was charged up and ready to start a program called "Get Animated" where I would teach several courses on different styles of animation to adults and children. I had drawn up the course plans, had talked to the ELRA event director and was looking for equipment so I could expand the styles of animation taught (as well as increase the number of people that I could teach). Then, life got in the way. It started out when I got t-boned by a girl who ran a stop sign in my neighborhood, followed by a year's worth of physical therapy, and several unexpected & expensive home repairs. It was a rough couple of years. As what I wanted to do was sidelined by what I had to do.

Over the past four years, I've wanted to get back to teaching but haven't been able to pull it all together with a comprehensive program for children and adults. Enter: ASIFA/Central. I've had the opportunity to meet many professors in the area, like Deanna Morse, Jim Middleton, Gary Schwartz, and Ellen Besen who have provided me with a wealth of ideas, instructions and advice regarding the art of teaching animation.

So, this weekend, I was doing a little surfing on the net and got a boost from the National Film Board of Canada. Turns out that the NFB had a traveling program last year called Get Animated (http://films.nfb.ca/get-animated/) where they held animation screenings, master classes and workshops. Well, I decided that it's time for me to put up or shut up.

As Cartoon Network's traveling show has the getanimated.com domain, I've registered my domain as: getanimated.info. I've dusted off my lesson plans & notes to jump-start my proposal to the ELRA, have been given the opportunity to teach a one-day paint-on-glass workshop for ASIFA/Central, am attending a pixillation workshop in Toronto, got a lead on a working 16mm projector, and a source for blank filmstock (direct-on-film animation). Things are starting to move back into position. So, hopefully, by the Fall 2010, I'll be teaching animation again!