Just Find Role Models!

Starting these posts and sharing all my personal stories always makes me emotional. For the past few weeks, I can’t stop thinking of how lucky and grateful I am for some of the people that I came across in my journey so far. I've been thinking of how much some animators have changed my life and what an important role they have played in my development, whether they know it or not. I believe that without them I would have given up long ago and I would have lost the chance to pursue my dream. Mostly because of self doubt and reasons I mentioned in some of my previous posts.

I want to share with the world (always over-ambitious), or whoever cares, my personal thoughts on the importance of role models in animation and generally in life. I try to remember these stories, these moments that have changed my life as often as I can.

I realized this quite late in my life, but I believe that having role models is one of the most crucial aspects on the path of self-improvement. We are creatures of comfort and we don’t like to leave our comfort zone, lacking the motivation, not having or not feeling that strong urge within us.

But we are also social creatures, we like to copy what and who we like. Soon we come to realize that all that we lack at the present moment, can be found among others, or to put it in the right way, driven from others, our role models.

Positive role models are indescribably crucial in an animator’s life. Having one or more in our lives acts as an indicator that we are at least trying to get better.

The definition of “Role model” is something like: a person looked to by others as an example to be imitated.

I am not talking role models only as animators but as people who serve as an example of the values, attitudes, and behaviors associated with a role. They can also be individuals who distinguish themselves in such a way that others admire and want to emulate them. 

Demonstrate confidence and leadership, someone who is always positive, calm, and confident in themselves. And let’s face it, everyone likes a person who is happy with their achievements, but continues to strive for bigger and better objectives.

And I found these qualities, that I personally admire in a lot of animators. I am fortunate enough to call some of them my mentors.

Mentors are a second source of learning work ethic. When they take us under their wing, those who guide us or even those who just share their process while animating with us and show us their problems or spend some of their time to give honest, helpful feedback to us and demonstrate that we ourselves need to be honest and fair in our dealings with others. We get to witness our traits, see beyond the faults right into their solution.

Our positive role models motivate us, teach us in a specific way to an extent where we uncover our true potentials, and overcome our barriers.

Also going back to my struggling point. Listening to your role model or witnessing his success will give you a different perspective in your own struggles. If you chose a good role model who struggled with similar problems, or had obstacles like yours in his life, then he or she will provide you with the answers to those problems. If not, at least, give you a different approach to look at.

I wish I was better at copying their qualities and mimicking them better to pick up things like dedication, discipline, positive outlook on things, courage, self-confidence, compassion, and many others.

I think we subconsciously recognize many habits as being good, and adopt them as our own. And if we have the habits of our positive role models, it’s more likely that we will have the same results in many areas they did. Maybe we will adopt some of their habits too. Or at least adopt their workflow or some cool hotkeys for example.

And that is the importance of having a good role models in our life in my opinion.

I will write my next few post praising these people who mean a lot for me and my journey as an animator. Unfortunately there’s not enough praise for some of them and hopefully I will introduce them and their work to some people who haven’t been lucky enough to discover them yet.

These heroes, that shape today’s animation deserve more than a single post. Maybe one day there will be statues in their image, songs sung, poems and books written or films made for them. But until then you should stay tuned for my next posts.

In the meantime, look for inspiration everywhere and, of course, keep animating!