What the hell?

Animation brings the loons.

It really does. What is it about animation that attracts the absolute nut jobs? Find anyone who has been in the business for any length of time and you'll find they'll either have loads of stories of people melting down and going crazy, or they're the subject of some of those stories themselves.

I guess a lot of us have 'creative' personalities. Creative as in volatile. Emotional. Temperamental.

And we're geeks in a way but, let's face it, animation or art college is not a hangout for the intellectual. So we're nerds without the smarts to back it up. To add substance.

Putting that together with a career path that has you sitting at a desk all day, immersed in the actions of a cartoon character, making films one frame at a time (the height of insanity) with nobody to interact with but those like you and, well, is it any wonder that so many of us are totally and utterly bonkers?

Like flies to shit

So I went to this company day of fun last week and, well, it wasn't so bad at all. The people here at the moment are a fairly balanced bunch. That is very unusual for animation. Usually, there's a few loons, the 'I'm so wacky and funny' types and someone who I'd put money on being a serial killer.

Yeah, the animation business seems to attract far more than its fair share of crazies. And they, in turn, are attracted to my desk. No idea why.

Actually, there seems to be a huge amount of people with extreme religious views in animation. They branch out in all directions but the one common thing among them is that they are all convinced they are right. Not all religious - some are extremely anti-religious and then others are part of these sort of 'self help' cults that are religions for tax purposes only. I find if a group of people call each other 'wizards', it's best to steer clear.

Then others just come from different cultures I guess, like the guy who told me I'd be killed for my shoes. They weren't even good shoes. We weren't even having a conversation. He just hovered at my desk for a bit, told me I'd be killed and then walked off. I don't even know where 'his' country is.