Motivation?

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Greenlaw
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Re: Motivation?

Post by Greenlaw »

Sorry, I accidentally posted that before I finished writing. Hit refresh and you'll get the updated text and link. :)
sceech
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Re: Motivation?

Post by sceech »

Hi

For motivation, you need to get something out of doing it. People are motivated by results or gains. Would you get out of bed and work all day in the field for $2? No. If you'd be paid $100,000 for 8 hours of picking raisins in the rain, you would. Unless you hate animation, there's a solution.

Try making some very short, easy to finish projects. I've done short and long projects. What you need is to know that by the end of a session or two, you'll see results, and have something to show and feel good about. I can do a simple 10-20 second animation from blank screen to finished animation in about 8 hours.
I'll give you my site, all of them were pretty much done in a day each, as I was learning Anime.

It's easy to get a bunch of actors to do voices, but they're not the ones sitting there working for hours and hours. They get the glory, you do the work. If you start with some small projects, easy to create and animate, your results will get you going. Last winter, I did 30 of them in two months. I stayed motivated because I knew I'd have something to see and show by the end of the day. It also developed my skills without a big time investment. A series is a monstrous job, and a lot to organize and manage, I'm doing one now, but I would suggest doing a series of shorts, using simple backgrounds, and 3-4 of the same characters to interact, but keep it short. As you work, you can jot down ideas for the next short (a minute or less). If you write ten ideas, pick and make only the best of the ten, then play with the characters in your head while your work, create a voice that YOU do for each, give them each personality. I use Audacity to record all my voices, I never have to leave my desk or worry about someone's schedule or delivery. If your voices all sound the same, there are a lot of tips on YouTube to alter voices in Audacity. Audacity is easy to use, too, and it's free.

Write while you're animating, I have a second computer next to my Anime computer with a Word document open at all times. I stop animating anytime I have an episode thought or idea and write it down, then continue animating. It's normal for me to end up with all my animating done and 2-3 pages of ideas written down by the end of a long session.

Best example to make my point is Family Guy. Seth McFarlane does Peter, Brian, Stewie, Quagmire, the newscaster, and dozens of bit characters.
My site is Sceech.com, where you can see both live action ad animated clips I've done, all short and sweet. My series will be out in about 2 weeks.
You can do this!

All the best,

Dave
sceech
Posts: 52
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2014 8:11 pm

Re: Motivation?

Post by sceech »

Hi

For motivation, you need to get something out of doing it. People are motivated by results or gains. Would you get out of bed and work all day in the field for $2? No. If you'd be paid $100,000 for 8 hours of picking raisins in the rain, you would. Unless you hate animation, there's a solution.

Try making some very short, easy to finish projects. I've done short and long projects. What you need is to know that by the end of a session or two, you'll see results, and have something to show and feel good about. I can do a simple 10-20 second animation from blank screen to finished animation in about 8 hours.
I'll give you my site, all of them were pretty much done in a day each, as I was learning Anime.

It's easy to get a bunch of actors to do voices, but they're not the ones sitting there working for hours and hours. They get the glory, you do the work. If you start with some small projects, easy to create and animate, your results will get you going. Last winter, I did 30 of them in two months. I stayed motivated because I knew I'd have something to see and show by the end of the day. It also developed my skills without a big time investment. A series is a monstrous job, and a lot to organize and manage, I'm doing one now, but I would suggest doing a series of shorts, using simple backgrounds, and 3-4 of the same characters to interact, but keep it short. As you work, you can jot down ideas for the next short (a minute or less). If you write ten ideas, pick and make only the best of the ten, then play with the characters in your head while your work, create a voice that YOU do for each, give them each personality. I use Audacity to record all my voices, I never have to leave my desk or worry about someone's schedule or delivery. If your voices all sound the same, there are a lot of tips on YouTube to alter voices in Audacity. Audacity is easy to use, too, and it's free.

Write while you're animating, I have a second computer next to my Anime computer with a Word document open at all times. I stop animating anytime I have an episode thought or idea and write it down, then continue animating. It's normal for me to end up with all my animating done and 2-3 pages of ideas written down by the end of a long session.

Best example to make my point is Family Guy. Seth McFarlane does Peter, Brian, Stewie, Quagmire, the newscaster, and dozens of bit characters.
My site is Sceech.com, where you can see both live action ad animated clips I've done, all short and sweet. My series will be out in about 2 weeks.
You can do this!

All the best,

Dave
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slowtiger
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Re: Motivation?

Post by slowtiger »

For motivation, you need to get something out of doing it.
I read this as "you must get fun by just doing something", not "you get something in the end after you did it". I think this may be the most important part of any art or craft.

I'm happy as long as I can do something. Drawing, writing, composing, programming, building stuff, whatever. Keeping my hands occupied it the best thing for me. I only have to be careful not tot tell my clients how much fun I have while working, since they might refuse to pay me then.
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Telemacus
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Re: Motivation?

Post by Telemacus »

slowtiger wrote:I only have to be careful not tot tell my clients how much fun I have while working, since they might refuse to pay me then.
:lol: They probably wouldn't mind. A happy worker is a good worker, even if they're Borusia Dortmund followers. :)
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Greenlaw
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Re: Motivation?

Post by Greenlaw »

My wife has a story about an animation studio she worked at long ago. A supervisor was showing a client around and the crew overheard the supervisor say "They have so much fun here I don't know why we even bother to pay them." I imagine this person was trying to be funny but it sure did not sit well with the crew. :)

G.
sceech
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Re: Motivation?

Post by sceech »

If you have fun doing something, you get good at it. I think the motivation issue resulted from the frustration of trying to organize and plan such a big project. Mastering short projects that always get completed is more rewarding than one big one that sits uncompleted for months. Smaller stuff will help polish the skills for larger projects.

I've had the same discussion about newbie independents that want to make feature films. I'd rather make 60 two-minute shorts than one two-hour feature, unless somebody else is paying. It's sixty "clean slates", plenty of room for all my bad choicess. More chances to fail, and to succeed, and keep the best 3 or 4 for my reel.
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3deeguy
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Re: Motivation?

Post by 3deeguy »

It is a passion for me. My problem is I'm not fast enough to keep up with everything I can imagine.
Cheers, Larry
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