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You know what's a horrible pain? Coming up with all kinds of ideas for animated shorts, only to be stopped in the middle of the thinking process by the little nagging voice at the back of your brain that tells you there's no way one person on a single computer with limited knowledge of animation or 3D software could do.

It's very annoying.

I just came back from a walk to get some good stories and concepts for the animated short I'm going to be graduating with next year (so, you know, it's got to be amazing. About ten times better than Toil and Trouble) and came up with some decent ones. However, each time there's something which I know I won't be able to do properly. I know it's a defeatist attitude but I do know my limits. I see what I was like this point last year and how much I've learnt (which, I have to say is a lot), but still, what I'm going for now would require, at least for the rendering times, multiple computers and people working on it. I've set the standard high for myself for next year, but I don't want to overdo it and end up with something subpar. Everything I do has to come out exactly as I want it, and looking at Toil and Trouble, there were a lot of things I had to compromise on, and it shows. I don't want any of that this year.

Well anyway, I'll talk about some of these ideas with some friends in the next few weeks and they'll help me organise myself a bit more, hopefully.

I'll be glad to get this comic finished too. I'm about a third of a way through the second (of three) chapter, so I'd say I'm about halfway, more or less, through the whole thing. Once it's done, it'll be a nice boost of self confidence, and will free up some time to work more on the animation. I've already freed up time, having finished (finally) reading The Count of Monte Cristo, which, if you guys haven't read it, an absolutely amazing book, and not at all in any way shape or form like the film they made in 2002, or the swash-buckling adventure tale it was always made out to be in everything. In fact, there are very few buckles swashed, and only one (brief, flashback) duel. I've never read a revenge quite like it.

Here, I shall leave with this letter from Austin Madison, an animator at Pixar who wrote this as part of the Animator Letters Project . I'm only posting one up, but click on the link, it's filled with some inspiring letters, if, like me right now, you're running a bit low on inspiration.