(Cross-posted between devlifters.blogspot.com and strongmanimator.blogspot.com)
Tonight was DE Bench day, but before I get into that, I'm going to vent for a sec. I'm not sure who has seen those Planet Fitness ads (I've only seen them on YouTube), you know, the ones where they basically make anyone who is serious about strength training out to be a muscle-bound mentally challenged idiot. Like this one:
Sure, this guy is a caricature, but the commercial effectively makes all of us who are into strength training out to be idiots who just like to lift heavy things (and grunt a lot in the process). I don't care in this was meant to be tongue in cheek; these perceptions bother me.
If anyone knows strength training, they know that there is a level of intelligence needed to succeed. That intelligence doesn't necessarily need to translate each athlete knowing exactly how to eat, how to train, or how to rest to succeed- a lot of the times it's know who to talk to and how to learn in order to succeed. Picking things up and putting them down is a part of this, and it IS the fun part, but it's not the only part.
This gets me to my point- A month or so ago, I started a separate blog about my video game animation career. I specifically stated that I was going to keep my training and my animation career blogs separate. In effect, I was separating my life not into work and play, but into smart and stupid. I made the poor decision, in retrospect, to ignore that each of these aspects of my life actually affected each other in ways other than how I spend my time. I'm going to change that starting now.
I'm still going to post my training log on devlifters.blogspot.com, but I'll be discussing both my training and my animation career on strongmanimator.blogspot.com. My goal is to shed light on and discuss how animation and my career parallel my training- how successes and failures in one affect the other, and how I learn from those success and failures in one and apply that knowledge to the other.
I have no idea how well this will go, and I hope those following me and those clicking on my links will give me feedback so that I can continue learning while I try to teach them something. This should be fun :)
Great post, the more time spent learning and working in the real world the the better the work done on the computer seems to be.
ReplyDeleteI like kicking things more than lifting things but the process of knowing my own body continues to be a source of learning and the source for improvement in character rigging and deformations and animation. Art or creation of something takes huge amounts of energy and mental effort. You learn and increase that ability , not from spending more time on the computer, but through physical effort directed at a goal, mind and body as one.
Agree 100% about the intelligence factor. Try and deadlift 200 lbs without any instruction or any knowledge of how your muscles or body need to work. You'll be like me with screws and rods in your back (although mine was not from a mistake like that).
ReplyDeletePlus, as Brad pointed out, 3D is all about the body. Knowing how it works because you're using it is going to make you a better modeler, rigger or animator. Knowing how sunlight affects a room or bounces off a chair because you went outside one day is going to make you a better lighter. Seeing a rusted up car on your lawn... Means you should probably get rid of it, but it'd make you a better texturer as well.
LOL about the rusted car, but yes, you hit it right on there, John.
ReplyDeleteBrad, what kinds of kicking are we talking here? I do powerlifting/strongman because I am uncoordinated :)
Tukong, Korean Martial Arts mixed with soft style and lots of weapons. http://masteryi.com/.
ReplyDeleteThough I have been liking kettlebells for lifting stuff since the movement can be very dynamic and pluses my martial arts movements.
Awesome. I have the utmost respect for those who can train with that kind of discipline and coordination. I was a springboard diver in college and it took me all 4 years to get up to par with the kids at our winter training facility!
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