I have an old shoe box of flip books I have held on to for the last 20 years containing flip books I made from age 10 to around 18-19. I was really into kung fu choreography.
I always wondered what it would look like if I scanned them in and animated them like they were real cartoons. All I did was snap a picture of each page then import the photos into a gif app and set the speed. I did this all on my phone. I created these back before the internet was even really a common thing for people to have. The one with Robin Hood I drew when I came home from seeing Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves in theaters when I was 10 or 11.
I studied animation books obsessively from childhood. Preston Blair, Tony White, Richard Williams, I studied and studied every animation book I could get my hands on. It's fascinating to see these things as an adult and realize I really did have some serious raw talent to be pulling off some of this stuff at such a young age. It makes me want to try my hand at animating again.
Ethan