Myles Lott is pursuing a bachelor of fine arts in animation. He is soon to be a 2021 graduate.
Do you have an audience in mind when creating?
I don’t necessarily have an audience in mind. I just like to make things that I can look at and be proud of.
What and/or who inspires you?
Inspiration comes in many forms for me. I can go throughout my day and see something simple like a kid playing with a ball or a woman putting on makeup in traffic. Then it’s like getting hit by an overwhelming feeling of creativity. Other than that, my friends also inspire me. Seeing how far we have come together and seeing what amazing things they are doing with their art keeps me pushing forward for new ideas.
What style would you classify your animation?
Style of animation? That’s a tricky one because I wouldn’t say I have any particular style that I stick to. Sometimes I use a cartoonish style and other times I go for a realistic approach. The only thing that stays consistent is me. What I mean by that is, is that every artist has their style even if it stems from a certain type of animation. Two artists could animate the same character doing the same action with the same techniques, but they would look different because they put themselves into their work. So, with that line of thinking I would say that my style is “Myles Style.”
What is the worst animation you’ve seen? And what made it worse, in your eyes?
I’ve seen a lot of bad animation, but there is not one that sticks out to me above the rest. The one thing that makes animation truly bad to me is when there is no passion in it. Truly good animation comes from the soul of the animator, and if the passion isn’t there, the work suffers. The audience then truly feels the difference in it.
What is an average art-making day look like for you? Do you sleep?
The average art day looks stressful from start to finish even in the times I’m enjoying it. As an artist, I put so much of myself into my work that it can really drain me. Especially when it comes to setting deadlines for assignments. I do try to sleep though. It never goes as planned, mind you, but I do try. On a good day, I can get eight hours of sleep, but most days it’s about five hours with (maybe) a nap mid-day. I don’t sleep because I’m constantly trying to put 100% into my work. Which from an outside perspective looks completely insane, but I enjoy it funny enough.
Anything you like the people to know about your craft?
One thing I would like people to know is that even though the final product looks beautiful their are a lot of ugly parts that you don’t see. There’s so much drafting and re-drafting that goes into making animations. It sometimes feels like you’re taking three steps forward and two steps back every step of the process. Even though the work is rewarding at the end getting to that final point is very hard work and it doesn’t really get to much easier since every production is different.
Any projects you’re currently working on? Anything you’re proud of?
I’m not currently working on any big projects, just small things in order to learn new skills that I can bring into projects in the future. Currently, I’m working on some small dialogue pieces in order to try and push myself towards a more realistic feel in my character acting. My goal is to make them feel life almost as if you could talk to them. I’ve actually just finished one of them and I’m quite proud of. I almost gave up on it due to unforeseen problems with the program I was using. I was encouraged to take a break and come back to it. After doing that I knocked it out in a couple days and I was very pleased with how it turned out.
