Ten years ago when I finished my computer animation training course at the School of Communication Arts in Minneapolis, I created a flipbook business card. I thought that it would be the little something that put my demo reel package over the top and get me that job at Pixar.While I was going to school I worked for a sign company and used an exacty knife to cut away scrap vinyl to create the hard-edged graphics.
Even though I was learning how to animate on computers, I did not own a computer. These were the days of 486 Pentiums and if you had 32 Megs of RAM you were stylin'.
The finished product consisted of twelve separate business cards, each containing one frame of animation. I made them by hand; cutting, assembling, stapling. Before attending computer animation school I studied hand-drawn animation at Columbia College in Chicago. I was accustomed to doing things the hard way. If I wanted animation, there was no other option.
I gave away all of the original flipbook business cards so I can't show you a picture. They are probably all in a landfill in California and New York, where I had hoped to start my new animation career. About five years ago I was unemployed and dug up the original vinyl frames and made the animated GIF you see above.
After ten years and countless releases of computer animation software, this handmade little ditty still looks good. Proof positive that the only limitation is your imagination.
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