Undergraduate / I had always been infatuated with animated cartoon shows - USC Cinematic Arts Personal Statement [10]

The Cinematic Arts personal statement should reflect the applicant's individuality and explain why he or she would like to study animation and digital arts at USC. The Animation Admission Committee will review this statement as a measure of the applicant's creativity, intelligence, self-awareness, determination and vision. The statement should be a page and a half, and it should give the committee a sense of the applicant's long-term goals and artistic ambitions.

Requested Feedback:
1. Does my essay properly answer the prompt?
2. Are there any grammatical errors?
3. Any other general advice?

ps. The prompt says that the statement should be a page and a half, but I'm not entirely sure if they meant that with double spacing or not, because that would dramatically influence the word count. I wrote my essay double spaced, but if anyone knows the answer to this, I would deeply appreciate it!

USC SCA Personal Statement

Initially, I had always been infatuated with animated cartoon shows, like any other kid. I drew sketches of original characters with eyes as big as half of their faces, and made up cliche story plots that could make anyone cringe unbearably. I had not taken anything seriously; however, my interest in art had soon been hugely elevated after being introduced to online art communities, where I had the fateful encounter with "Role-playing groups". There, I designed my own characters, created their backstories, interacted with other artists, and developed character relationships; for me, that was an escape route from my mundane life, and the beginning of my genuine passion for art and story making.

Beginning with my artistic focuses, one thing I will never budge on, is the importance of foundation skills. To me, the journey to being an artist is like constructing a building. Without the proper basis, no matter how grand the building is, it might crumble down with a single push. Fundamental aspects of art such as structure and color value are what help support and portray my concepts more effectively to my audience. And while I had previously established that story-making is what drove me to become an artist, I stand firm that technical and conceptual skills stand side by side and one should not be sacrificed for the other. Elaborating on this topic, story is undoubtedly something that has no limit. While your technical skills may have reached perhaps photo realism, your concepts shows no bound in growth. Throughout the years, my ideas have certainly changed, and certainly more change is to come, because we never stop accumulating life experiences. I'd like to point out that I am extremely interested in sociology, history and politics, all of which I believe, accurately display our world in the most realistic way possible. A lot of my art work revolves around my thoughts, my world and generally the mentality of a problematic emo teenager. What I want is to display these not so light hearted topics into forms of story and bring them to the big screen with a unique, dark, yet beautiful aesthetic and share them with the world.

While I am moderately confident in my artistic skills, I will never deny that there is room for improvement, both technically and conceptually. Outside of my academic life, I have been consistently taking art classes instructed by college professional, and attending weekly workshops in art galleries. Short term wise, I not only aim to take a step ahead in fundamental art skills from the understanding of human anatomy to the use of perspective, but I am also constantly undergoing research on different animations and communicating with many of my instructors who happen to be professionals in the industry. Artistically, I have almost always been stylistically ambiguous, because I have yet to find an artistic approach unique solely to me, instead I find myself easily moldable to whatever is in demand. And although being open to different styles is definitely not a bad thing, I strive to find my signature look in the long term by researching works from my inspirations, some of which happen to be James Jean, Kevin Dart, Scott Watanabe and many more to come. Conclusively, whether it be short term or long term, these goals are all stepping stones towards my dream of becoming a contributing individual to the animation industry. From a visual development artist to an arts director, there is a wide range of careers that I inspire and hope to achieve, all of which I believe favorably represents my passion for both art, storytelling, and leaves space for creative development.

Seen from popular feature films from animation studios, I think it is more than obvious that 3D animations have grown to become more conventional on the big screen. And although I will not argue that computer generated graphics can be a great medium, as shown by their growing popularity, I do not think traditional 2D animation should be completely abandoned in the field of feature films. Instead, I believe that the mixture of the two would bring modern animation to its next stage. A clear hybrid of the two styles can be seen from the short films "Paperman" and "Feast" from the Disney animation studio. It not only shows the realistic movements of CGI but also the traditional artsmanship of 2D animation. Yet, although these shorts have received widespread praise, I have not seen this hybrid method applied to television shows or cinematic films. Because of this, I would like to suggest expansion to this new territory and carry this innovation to the big screen, and renew the 2D animation world.

The School of Cinematic Arts of USC has long been my first school of choice, not only for its industrial connections, for it's latest technology that supports the breakthrough of each individual student but most importantly for it's creative environment. As a student who values academic excellence on equal grounds with artistic merits, I believe all forms of knowledge and education is indirectly connected to the process of art making. Not only that but I'm extremely fond of the gallery of student works on the Animation & Digital Arts website where I realize that unlike many art schools which produce students almost like cookie cutters, SCA is different. I am more than delighted to see that the School of Cinematic Arts provides a portal for the unique voice of each individual and that is exactly what I need to pursue my artistic ambitions .