what advice do you have for an aspiring animator?

It might sound like a crappy answer but my best advice would be to just keep on drawing. I mean, everything. Take a sketchpad everywhere with you, sketch people on the bus, wandering cats, your classmates, a cola can in the street, doesn’t matter. Life drawing also helps in this respect too. 

Also, you can never watch too many cartoons if you want to be an animator, Especially the old ones such as Looney Toons, Tom and Jerry and the Tex Avery cartoons. That’s pretty much what I and everyone at AKA Cartoon was raised on :)

If you see a copy of this book going cheap, pick it up and read it back to front until your eyes are about ready to roll outta your head: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571238343

Honestly though, I cannot draw for toffee so I’m woefully inadequate to give advice on the drawing side of things. The best folk to talk to would be someone who does storyboards or directs cartoons, someone like scottdiggs. Someone else who I’ve noticed has got a fantastic eye for technique and timing is lynyrdsquidward. I’m sure if you ask him nicely he’ll give you some tips on how he got started with animatin’ :P

Bottom line: just get started. It all comes down to that.

Good luck!