Motivation?

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EHEBrandon
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Motivation?

Post by EHEBrandon »

What do you guys usually do for motivation? Like to make you want to animate? Like me I love animating and I currently working on making a anime series got all my voice actors and everything... But sometimes like today and the past two days... I just lose all my pump and get like unmotivated where I don't feel like doing it at all... Like I want to do it in my mind I tell myself but then my body and mind says do it later... Not right now.. So its like I really want to get things done but lately I have been lacking motivation badly... I am usually on the computer all day and night at times animating its just been the past week in general where I don't want to do it.. But yet I want to if that makes sense... So my question is.. What usually motivates you and gets you pumped to animate? Like when I first started a year ago I was so damn pumped and excited but this last week its just been like not there... I would really like to hear some things you all do so I could try that... Sorry if this is dumb or its in the wrong section... But I would like to know..
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dueyftw
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Re: Motivation?

Post by dueyftw »

The problem with using the computer for animation is the computer is a distraction. It can do so many things and with the internet it better than a TV. SO disconnect and get down to work. NOW if I could only follow my own advice.

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Danimal
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Re: Motivation?

Post by Danimal »

EHEBrandon wrote:when I first started a year ago I was so damn pumped and excited but this last week its just been like not there
Ay, there's the rub: creativity hits and the spark is there, then it fades.

Very little motivates me to animate. I find it tedious and boring. Writing and acting are my favorite parts. So... I remind myself that once the animation is done, I can go back to writing and acting for the next cartoon. Usually once I get the first scene or two done, the excitement returns as I see my vision take shape.
~Danimal
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neeters_guy
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Re: Motivation?

Post by neeters_guy »

Yeah, common problem. For myself, the bigger the project, the more I'll procrastinate. It helps to break it up into smaller tasks and then reward yourself as you complete them. On the other hand, professionals don't have this problem, they either animate or starve.

Btw, Lwaxana posted a similar thread under Miscellaneous Chat: Motivation
EHEBrandon
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Re: Motivation?

Post by EHEBrandon »

Sorry didn't see the other post... Anyways see like I said above I love animating but The problem is.. Is motivation and actually getting myself to do it... Like before I would watch cartoons/anime and seeing other peoples work motivated me... But now it's not like that.. It's like it doesn't work anymore but that is probably because I keep watching the same series.. Maybe I should try another series to see if that inspires and gives me that spark.. I am not sure what else I can do unless you guys have something that motivates you.. I will try above suggestions.. Hope they work. :) But if anyone else has advice please post. :)
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slowtiger
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Re: Motivation?

Post by slowtiger »

Deadlines. Nothing is a better motivator than a tight deadline.

I'm lucky since I don't need that much motivation to animate: it's too much fun, and often I do it to procrastinate from other stuff. And it's my job anyway, so I don't need to motivate me after a boring day job.
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Animark
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Re: Motivation?

Post by Animark »

I think you're talking about problems any creative worker knows from his own experience. I usually never work more than 3 hours (sometimes 4 hours) at a time. After that I make a break of 1 hour (more or less) and have a walk outside, or everything else except sitting in front of a screen. Mostly I get a lot of nice ideas I draw in my sketchbook during the break and it is very important to do it without using any computer. After that I often have a good feeling and come back to my work for the next 3 hours. My personal experience with that method is, that I am doing much more nice and high-quality animations during the 6 hours as when trying to make as much as possible in one exhausting period of 6, 8 or more hours. And when it's closing time - I like to watch my favorite TV-series or doing other senseless things ;-). Give it a try.
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Droxon
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Re: Motivation?

Post by Droxon »

I usually visit sites like http://motionographer.com/

And I get inspired and very excited.
wizaerd
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Re: Motivation?

Post by wizaerd »

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer but I fully know the dilemma. I'm not a professional, I do it strictly as a hobby. My biggest problem is my technical skills haven't quite caught up to my imagination. I have all sorts of great things planned out in my head, but when it comes time to actually do them, the resulting artwork never looks like I imagined, and then there's the tediousness of putting it together, layer naming, making sure the layers are in the right order, keyframing, screwing it all up and re-starting, etc... I often wonder why the heck I enjoy this at all... But when I do actually get something finished, and show it to folks (mostly friends & family), their smiles and/or laughter makes it all worth it. Sometimes. I haven't done anything in quite some time because I truly lack the motivation right now...
steveryan2
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Re: Motivation?

Post by steveryan2 »

I have the same problem. I work in isolation on my own projects, which I think is a huge contributing factor. On the one hand I love the freedom and control that working alone provides. On the other hand, doing everything myself means that the work goes slow and I loose steam. This is especially true if animation is a side thing. I think that working with a small team or even one other person can help provide a lot of motivation because the work moves more quickly and because you don't want to disappoint your team members. You hold each other accountable. It would be really great to get a small group of three or four people to work with where we rotate through each other's projects. I help you on your project for two or three weeks and next month you return the favor.

Part of it too is personality. For me, projects are not meant to span over the course of a year or more. A couple months is about how long I can maintain full enthusiasm. I realize that I simply need to see results fast and then move on. I wish that I had more patience and fortitude, but I don't and I know this about myself. So this translates into shorter projects.

Another part of it come from the fact that each of us enjoys some tasks and not others. One person mentioned he loved the creativity that writing brings. Others may like planning and storyboarding, or creating the sound track or painting backgrounds. Ask yourself if the actual process of animating is more of a boring task for you; a task that you feel you must complete to see your project realized. Some people love the planning stage (me) and starting something new, but have to force themselves to see the project through to completion.
bleep
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Re: Motivation?

Post by bleep »

I'm not a professional, I do it strictly as a hobby. My biggest problem is my technical skills haven't quite caught up to my imagination.
Maybe your imagination is deceiving you. when you make something and restart from beginning again on same thing you will always come up with a better solution. Try to make something and start over again after some time will mostly give you better result.
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braj
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Re: Motivation?

Post by braj »

Whenever I watch nearly any decent animation, I look at the credits and realize even the most simple animations usually are a decent team effort. That keeps me from feeling too lame. I need to come up with little "assignments" for myself, I'm still learning slowly and have very little talent, so writing a story, writing music, recording dialog, everything sometimes seems beyond my capabilities. But procrastination is the worst. Don't do today what you can put off till tomorrow, and be sure to borrow a hamburger that you will gladly pay for tomorrow. Or something. I think watching cartoons and movies is the most inspiring, it makes me want to write words and music, and animate. But then I end up spending too much time watching cartoons.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Motivation?

Post by Greenlaw »

EHEBrandon wrote:What do you guys usually do for motivation? Like to make you want to animate?
Preproduction!. I avoid animation until after I get my storyboards drawn and an animatic cut with a temp track. Design is also part of preproduction but that can also continue to develop during production. Every successful production I've been involved with, personal and professional, depended entirely on carefully considered preproduction.

Without a solid plan of action, I tend to get bogged down in details, get frustrated, and the project is eventually abandoned. I think anybody who's been there will say the same. Remember, broad strokes first...then fuss the details.

When I'm working with a crew of artists, nothing gets us more fired up about tackling a difficult project than inspired concept art and a well edited animatic. Being able to see a project as a whole before you begin can make completing the tasks ahead a lot more doable and a lot less intimidating.

G.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Motivation?

Post by Greenlaw »

I did this way back in 2005. It was the first short film Alisa and I made together and it's a good example of how a storyboard functions as the blueprint for getting a project finished.



In the upper left, you can see the animatic, which is basically the storyboard edited on a timeline. This gives the artist/animator timing information as well as visual information. Having an audio track to edit your beats to is a huge help. As you can see, the storyboard doesn't need to be complicated or a beautiful work of art, it just needs to be informative. The animatic needs to clearly point to your destination and show you how to get there. In that sense, it's actually more like a map than a blueprint. The storyboard was drawn over a weekend, and I probably spent an evening cutting the animatic in a video editor.

Back then I sketched my boards on cheap copy paper and scanned them into Photoshop and used a custom action to properly format the sketches for placing on a timeline. Nowadays you can just use a phone camera to get your drawings into your computer. For video editing I use Vegas Pro, but you really don't need anything fancy--if you do a search, you can find free and open source programs that can help you with this task.

To the immediate right is the raw footage. As you can see, we pretty much shot it exactly the way I storyboarded. We built the sets over another weekend, and shot the live footage in the evenings after work. I think it took us three or four nights to shoot everything.

Then it was just a matter of following the animatic and putting it all together. You can compare this to the panel in the lower right. (The lower left it just a bunch of goofy stuff that happened during the shoot.)

I know this short film isn't technically animation but what I've written here completely applies to animation and possible more so than with live action. If you're curious to see the final version of the film, it's here: Hello Frankenstein.



For more info, here's an article about preproduction for another one of our shorts: Storyboarding 'Happy Box'.

Hope this information helps some artists who feel overwhelmed by the process. To be sure, making an animated film is a big undertaking, but if you take the time to break your production down procedurally, you can keep things quite manageable and doable.

G.
Last edited by Greenlaw on Wed Sep 10, 2014 6:41 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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braj
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Re: Motivation?

Post by braj »

Greenlaw, that was awesome, but I think you forgot the storyboard video and posted the completed film.
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