Bakshi at Comic-Con

Ralph Bakshi's comments at Comic-Con '08 have graciously been made available courtesy of ASIFA in YouTube format.

I won't be embedding the video here on my blog out of respect for ASIFA's rights, but you can click this link here to see it.

I highly recommend watching it, especially for you fringe animators who dream of working for the big studios or who feel the current state of the industry doesn't provide you the chance to fulfill your professional dreams.

I really like Ralph's hard nose New York take. He basically throws down the guantlet and tells you that you can do it, you don't need Lasseter or Katzenberg to tell you that you can. I agree, if you want to animate then animate. Yeah, working on those legacy pictures would be great, but look at Dick Williams! He's probably the single most influential person in today's modern animation industry. Almost every big name animator today has worked with Dick, or under one of his proteges. Don Bluth did it! He got tired of the Disney machine and made his own company! And regardless of how one may feel about Bluth's latter ventures you can't deny the brilliance that was Banjo, NIMH, American Tail, Land Before Time, Dragon's Lair I&II and All Dogs. Most of that stuff was literally done out of a garage!

Watch the Clip, get inspired, grow a set and get to work. James Baxter said it best at the Marc Davis theatre, all the information is in The Illusion of Life and Dick Williams books (I'd also like to add Eric Goldberg's book to this). It's up to you to do your homework. It's up to you to become the good animator. In Clay Kaytis' Animation Podcast Interview James says that if you're good enough people will come find you. I believe if you create something it will find it's audience. Take your time, make your own stuff, work for independants, get your sea legs and when you become accomplished, when you get good, they'll come find you. And hopefully by then you'll be too good and want to make your own thing.