Only in My Dreams
This is about my life dream when I grow up that I have given up. That dream was to be the best an animator in my time. It all started when I learned that my late Aunt, Vangie F. Bernardino, was a special effects artist in a local animation company. She passed away back in 1996 and the company’s name was Fil-Cartoons. I remember when I was still a kid, my Aunt asked me to do some colouring in some character model sheets that I only realized who they were when it was shown on TV. It was “Jem and the Holograms”. I never knew why she wasn’t in the credits but back then. If you didn’t know, Fil-Cartoons was a subsidiary of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons.
On the day my Aunt passed away before I graduated in high school, I made a promise that I’ll follow her footsteps. I took up visual communications as my major on the College of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines; it was the same course and school that she took. I took up animation as an extra curriculum and did my best to learn on my own on how to create an animation. My brother also got into the animation business for a time and from there I thought I could also be one.
On my third year of college, I realized that my calling is in web designing. I got an offer from a small company that summer when I first created my web site in Geocities. So, I took the offer as a summer job and for the experience. They showed me how to use flash and from then on, they gave me the option to be a flash graphic animator. After then, I went back to finish school and found another offer from a different company and that’s where I became a web designer.
Today, I’m still doing web designs and still loving it. My boss asked me when I got an interview if I’m tired of designing web sites. I answered in tagalong, “Parang kanin yan sa araw-araw ng buhay ko.” In rough translation, “it’s like rice in my every day in my life.” It means that it’s part of me already and that I cannot live without designing or creating a web site.
Lately, I’ve been trying to understand how Adobe After Effects work through online tutorials. I know I won’t be able to be the best animator in my time but I feel like I owe myself and my Aunt this opportunity to not let go of what I’ve always wanted. So, here I am Playing with fire (not).
Adobe Affter Effects CS4