Sand, Sidewalks, and Stories

Okay, well first off, the films we watched in class today were gor-GEOUS. Sitting there watching all of the creativity there was amazing. And with the sand castle short... can you imagine how long and tedious it must have been to make such a beautifully smooth animation like that with sand I mean just think about how easily it moves and the amount of effort it had to have taken to control it. Mind-blown, that's all I can say.
But after class, I looked more into Frederic Back and his stuff. I actually found some of his autobiography online and read bits and pieces which was really pretty interesting. It was cool because I read one entry where he said he started off with sidewalk chalk, which, I dunno about the rest of you, but that's where I started off, too. My neighborhood knows my house as the one with all of the sidewalk chalk. I was constantly out there drawing, and people would go on walks around the block and look forward to seeing my goofy drawings every day since I was probably five years old. Just goes to show that anybody can start off from small beginnings. :) 
Also, I found a little section where he talked about his inspiration for Rien, (All Nothing), and how he worked on it, which I found to be interesting, so I thought I'd share it, especially for all you other animation kids out there.
      "In 1977, Robert Roy, head of youth programming, accepted the proposal for All Nothing for the international exchange program. The title was inspired by The Soldier’s Story by Ramuz with music by Stravinsky. The soldier gives his little violin to the devil in exchange for a book that makes him very wealthy. Then he comes to the bitter realization that having everything is like having nothing. It was while working on All Nothing that I perfected the technique of using Prismacolor pencils on frosted cels that produced such extremely rich shades of colour and let me work very quickly. I did the background in pastel and spray colours, which gave an interesting giclée texture. The technology for moving the camera was improving, but Paul Webster had to do all the calculations and adjustments manually, so I drew pan and zoom shots whenever possible. Suzanne Raymond came in to help with the last scenes so we could finish on time. She was a talented artist, able to adapt her style to that of the film, and her drawings were identical to mine. Normand Roger created magnificent theme music, scoring the movements perfectly to put just the right emphasis on my comic and dramatic intentions. I was completely bowled over by what he did."
I'm not completely familiar with the phrase "bowled over", :) but otherwise it is really cool to hear from his perspective on how all of that gorgeous little film came together. Plus he was an adorable old guy which makes me smile :) just look at him. 
BY THE WAY, fun fact, he got fixative in his right eye while applying it to a drawing for his film Crac!, and it never recovered, so he just gradually lost vision in that eye. So be careful.