Appreciation for Animation

So, I am a psychology major in a DMA class, with a bunch of DMA majors who have always appreciated short films and animation. I am only taking this class to get one of my required art credits. Coming into this class and watching the films we watched I was so confused because I did not understand how a lot of people thought all these films we watch were so amazing and great, when I thought they just looked terrible and cheaply put together, especially some of the animations we watched, and I cannot think of a specific one because as soon as I saw them I just ignored it and never thought anything of them again. I had never seen any of these films before, and I think that's where the problem was. All my life I have just been used to watching films that were the best of the best when it comes to how they were put together and films that have huge budgets, so everything was perfect. I was not used to seeing these animations that were just made of sand, and the sand is what the turning point was for me. Until then I was just watching what in my mind was just dumb films that I did not appreciate at all, that I thought looked awful. When I saw the animations with sand my mind totally changed. I couldn't fathom how hard it was to animate with sand and it blew my mind.

The amount of hard work and endless hours of just moving the sand around is incredible, and to make it move how Caroline Leaf does is just amazing. Its not just the animation though, its the story behind all of the animation also. Telling a story with just sand is something I have never seen before. So, I have a new found appreciation for all the films we have watched and especially animated films. I wish I could come into the class with the mindset I have now and watch all the films again.