Thought of You: by Ryan Woodward

 


    As an animator, and an artist in general, I am always looking for inspiration, something to make me keep pushing my art and my medium. Some animators look to the past, some of the old veterans, others look to the future, trying to navigate an exciting world of ever-evolving new technology. I like to look under rocks, well, that is to say, I like to look where others might not be. I like to find independant animtors, experimenting not only with form, but also story telling and movement. How can an expertly crafted line tell a love story. I found a beautiful piece of animation that I still use for inspiration.



    Thought of You, by Ryan Woodward, is an exempliary piece of animation art that I still watch regularly years after discovering it. It feels liek one of the purest pieces of the artform I have yet seen. There's no dialogue, there's no color, or any details for that matter. What ther is, is form and movement, the short lets the animation do all the talking.

    Ryan Wood ward is an animtor and storybosrd artists, mostly known for doing effects-based animation on 2D films like Osmosis Jones. Effects like watre, fire, and air are often the most dificult to animate well because of their chaotic nature, but to Woodweard, they came as a fun challenge, and something he excelled at. He eventually moved his telent to storyboarding for live-action films like Spider-Man 2 and Where the Wild Things Are.

    But his curiosity led him back to hsi first love, animation, and he was yet to make the mark. On a flight home he heard the song The World Spins Madly On by The Weepies, and something connected. Reinspired by the song and his feelings of love and connection, Ryan started putting together ideas for a short film. His love for dance and motion led him to create something unique to him and his family that he wanted to share with the world.

    Eventually his fascination with the human for and  2D animation led him to a choeographer, and they planned out a dance that he would use as inspiration for his short Though of You. Ryan's love of the medium and understanding of form not only let him to achieve the expression he wanted, but also gave the animation world a gift. It gave me a piece of animation that just keeps reminded me why I do what I do, and what this artform can do.



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