美語情景對話 第297期:Design 設計

Todd: Eli, could you talk a little bit about what you study to be an animator and how the industry has changed over the years?

託德：艾麗，你能談談你學了什麼專業才能成爲動畫師的嗎？還有這個產業這麼多年有什麼變化？

Eli: Yeah, well, I actually studied, the degree I did was a graphic design course, which taught you art, every aspect of graphic design but they looked at graphic design as actually communication design which is basically just trying to get a message across a certain way thought the use of graphics, you know graphical methods, so I mean, that doesn't necessarily mean just you know text, words, on a screen, you know, words on a poster. I mean, people's people's views of graphic design is usually like posters, advertising, um, adverts in magazines but we were sort of made to think that that is just a tiny bit of graphic design, I mean you can communicate message, through any medium, you know even sort of acting, and stuff like that, they were, it was really that broad so, obviously with my love of anime I chose animation, I mean, it's something I've been interested in for a long time and I do 3D computer animation kind of like "Toy Story" but obviously not as good. I was actually the only person on my course doing that, so it was quite a challenge. I had an amazing animation tutor, who had got some pretty amazing portfolio behind him, to help me out, and if it wasn't for him, I probably would have torn my hair out years ago and maybe even quit the course cause I, there was a big, dispute with sort of my view of computer animation, what I was interested in with the graphic design tutor's views, they were all about deep meaning and you know, messages behind work and I was actually about learning how to animate well, you know the techniques of animation. I mean it's always very important to have the background skills of ideas because you can be technically good at something, you can be able to use a computer program brilliantly, but if you don't have the sort of ideas or background then you're never going to be able to make a good piece. I mean, I've heard that Pixar, the company who make "Toy Story" actually hire actors instead of animators to do their animating. They hire them for their acting skills and then they teach them how to use the software afterwards, cause actually, that's what it's about, it's making characters act, it's whatever it is, whether it's a coke can or a book, if you want to give that a personality, you got to think about how you're gonna give this inanimate object a personality, how are you going to make it looked scared, how are you going to make it look happy, um, that's what I was interested in, sort of techniques of learning how to do that, so, yeah, it was a struggle but it was definitely worth it in the end, and I think I'll go on to have a good career.

艾麗：當然，實際上我在大學修的學位是平面設計，這個課程會教你美術，有關平面設計的所有方面，但是他們把平面設計看作通訊設計，基本來說就是試圖通過特定的方式得到信息，對圖形的使用進行思考，你知道就是圖形分析，所以我的意思是，這不一定意味着你只要知道屏幕上的文本、文字，或者是海報上的文字就可以了。我是說，人們通常認爲圖形設計就是類似海報、廣告、報紙上的廣告這樣的東西，但是我們則認爲這些只是圖形設計中的一小部分。你可以通過任何媒介傳遞信息，你知道，甚至是動作這樣的東西都能傳遞信息，所以它的概念非常廣，很顯然我選擇動畫師這個職業是出於我對於動漫的熱愛，動漫是我很長時間以來一直感興趣的事物，我會做類似《玩具總動員》這樣的3D電腦動畫，但是顯然做得並沒有那麼好。實際上我是這個課程中唯一一個從事這個職業的人，所以這是很大的挑戰。我的動畫導師非常了不起，他有一些非常棒的作品組合，總是能幫助我，要不是他，幾年前我可能就泄氣了，可能甚至會退出這個課程，因爲我當時對電腦動畫的看法有很大的爭議，我感興趣的是圖形設計導師的見解，那些都是深層意義，你知道，作品背後的意義，實際上我學會了如何製作好的動畫作品，你知道就是動畫製作的技巧。我是說，擁有思想的背景技巧非常重要，因爲你可以在技術上擅長某些事情，你能更出色地操作電腦程序，但是如果你沒有思想或是背景，那你就根本不能做出好的作品。我是說，我聽說皮克斯公司，就是那家制作出《玩具總動員》的公司，實際上他們在製作動畫作品時僱傭演員而不是動畫師。他們因爲演員的演技而僱傭他們，之後他們會教授演員如何使用軟件，因爲實際上，這就是製作角色表演的方式，無論是什麼，是可樂罐還是一本書，如果你想給予那個事物個性，你就要思考你如何賦予無生命的事物個性，你怎樣能讓他們看起來可怕，怎麼能讓他們看起來高興，嗯，這就是我感興趣的事物，類似於學習如何製作的技巧，所以過程很艱難，但是最終一切都很值得，我認爲我會有很好的前途。

重點講解：
1. be interested in
感興趣的；有興趣的；關心的；
eg. I thought she might be interested in Paula's proposal.
我覺得她對葆拉的提議可能會感興趣。
eg. I am very interested in Greek and Roman mythology.
我對希臘羅馬神話非常感興趣。
2. help out
幫助…做事；
eg. Don't reckon upon your relatives to help you out of trouble.
不要指望你的親戚會幫助你擺脫困境。
eg. He was extremely knowledgeable and could even help out the carpenters.
他的知識極其淵博，甚至能幫木工解決問題。
3. be good at
擅長的；精通的；能幹的；
eg. He is good at getting things up for parties.
他善於安排聚會的各項事宜。
eg. I am not good at drawing.
我不善於畫畫。
4. in the end
最後；終於；
eg. After many years of hard work, he won the award in the end.
經過許多年的努力，他最後終於獲得了大獎。
eg. In the end, things will mend.
[諺]車到山前必有路。
5. go on to do sth.
（做完某事後）進而，接着（做另一件事）；
eg. He would go on to receive the money from the government.
他將繼續接受政府的救濟款。
eg. He would later go on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics.
他後來贏得了諾貝爾物理學獎。