An open letter to Geewhiz,

I don't hate you. I know it seems like I do. I know I'm an asshole. First and foremost, I sincerely apologize for that. As mean as I can be, the last thing I want is to genuinely make somebody feel bad about themselves.

The reason I am so critical of you is because I see potential. You have GREAT character designs and lip syncing. Your color palettes are nice. Your audio is always synced. You do some things very well.

The problem is the things you don't do well. I have already been over these several times, but to reiterate: walk cycles, anticipation and follow through, perspective, and general "liveliness."

I firmly believe that you should never discourage an artist. Even if what they're making isn't good, you should never outright say "hey, stop. Give up." I will never say those words to you.

However, I also believe in the philosophy of Ira Glass, that you don't truly start to master something until you've done it 10,000 times. That number is subjective, but the lesson isn't. Creating quality work takes effort, time, and repitition. Draw your characters. Draw them again. Keep drawing them. Establish rules for your characters. Stewie Griffon is never allowed to be draw from the side. Silly rule, right? But it has a reason. Find your reasons. Establish your rules. Then go over them and establish them again. Take your time!

I am not a good animator. You will never hear me claim as much. But there are rules to animation for a reason. There are rules to drawing for a reason.

Ask almost any artist who does commissions. Ask almost any popular animator. Where did they start? What did they do first? The artists will tell you gesture studies, and the animators will tell you Richard Williams. These are industry standards, not just something one person does.

A big step for me when I began learning cartoons was to stop trying to cover up my inability to bend arms correctly with stuff like jackets and cloaks. Someone better than me said "hey, even if you're character is going to have a cloak over his arm, it's obvious when you just drew the cloak. Draw the arm underneath first, then the cloak will have a more natural shape, even though the arm isn't visible." That was a HUGE step for me. I'm so glad I learned that lesson. I did gesture studies, I learned foreshortening, then I just drew the same character over and over until it was easy and I could do it blindfolded. Another analogy is to singing. It is widely agreed that the mark of a great singer is that they can sing poorly, because by knowing what they SHOULD do, they are able to take things away to lower the quality of their voice. The point being that if you want to do something your own way, learn it the right way first. Do life drawing. Even if you're an animator. Go out and draw birds. Do gesture studies. Draw your hand holding a sketchbook. And then when you know how to draw hands really fucking realistically, you can take things away and it'll look GOOD. Learn the right way, then break the right way. Tear it apart and make it your own.

Look, I'm tired of being salty. I'm in a shitty mood this morning. I don't want you to give up on animation or anything like that. I genuinely see potential in you. I am 100% willing to share resources with you. I can share guides and links and advice that have helped a lot of people.

I won't mention your name anymore on the RT sub. I got out of hand today. I just want you to learn the right way, so that you can meet your full potential.