Looking at Peer Groups

Right now I have to view myself as a student animator with several works done but no completed projects. So I am in the peer group of others like me, Graham Sher, Shira Caplan, ect. Then there is the peer group right above me, which is student animators that have already completed a project, like Mei Koshimizu, Tim Kane, ect.

I am currently working on my senior project with Graham, Chris, Tim and Won, so we will all be elivated to student animators that have completed a project, also this project, once completed, will circulate through festivals. So that will elevate us to the peer group of independent animators, like Bill Plympton and Don Herzfeldt (to name two of the best) Though we would be very low on the totem pole in the independent animator peer group. If I can complete an independent project on my own and it is accepted and enjoyed by an audiance then I can be a more accomplished indepndent animator.

Then there is the peer group of professional animators, like Joe Meridith, Ron Fleischer, and Martin Murphy. Joe Meridith is an acomplished commercial animator, Ron Fleischer is an acomplished TV/film animator, and Martin Murphy is an acomplished video game animator. These are the three basic fields for professional animation, and comparatively I have very little professional animation experiance.

Once I complete my senior project I will have made my appearace in the animation scene, but until then I am still a faceless student animator. I have already begun to make contacts in the professional and independent animation worlds; so that places me a little higher one the totem pole of faceless student animators. Like in most other intertainment professions a person's worth can be measured in what the produce and who they know, and also luck. So, on a scale of 1 to 20, 1 being just in existance, 20 being legion amung men, I would rate myself (after I finish my senior project) at a 3, but in a few years, after I finish a couple other projects I have planned, I would imagin myself at an 8. Comparatively, Martin Murphy, Joe Meridith, and Ron Fliescher are around upper 15, and Chuck Jones is at a 20.