Personal Development
Blue Zoo
Back in the second term, I and my class went to visit the animation studio, Blue Zoo. We learned a lot about their workflows and how they tackle difficult situations. We got to see Dan (one of the employees) explain his animations and other projects the studio worked and explain some useful techniques for 3D animation. He went into super detail about 3D character animation process and how important it is to be close with the director orders. One of the main things he always said was to be a jack of all trades in different skills in the animation process; as the industry very much favours flexible animators. Here are some more important notes I took down (images below, sorry for bad handwriting!).
Dan went to say that they have a 2D internship available too. The only thing that pushed me away from applying for them is that I would have to learn some 2D rig animations. I am curious about 2D rigs and I would learn it if I were to get a place there, but it’s not something I would see myself doing alongside traditional animation. In the future, I would consider trying out 2D rig animation.
Organisations
I have sorted out my first moves to set out to do after university. Firstly I would kindly ask to get a slight boost from Ravensbourne as they can recommend you to animation studios that do your specialist role. Second I would rebuild my portfolio and apply for the studios I mentioned in my industry research (here are some shots of the studios I could find myself working for). Note I do know and have met some of the staff of Mashed from class, and I’ve received good feedback and help from one of the main animators of the studio called Liam McKeown. I’m not saying my chances are high of getting on board with mashed (because it’s not), it’s that I have better connection with them compared to other studios. (Note: Blue Zoo’s 2D animation role/internship is no longer available but I will be scouting for when it reopens).
I know some internships are no longer available at the time but I’m still actively looking for studios outside these three, as recently, I found out that Blue Zoo has a 2D animation internship available (closed, for now). If this plan doesn’t succeed there’s always plan B as working as a freelancer increasing my connections/notability or doing small animation projects with a small group/studio who want to expand their links and connections.
Time Management
My time management has been slow in January and February. In early March, I changed all that. In Google calendar, I made sure to make every day productive. Each day I would spend 8 hours planning and researching for my FMP while developing more ideas. After presenting I continued this through my calendar. Before I knew it this way of production was really draining and demanding for the past 3 weeks. It was then that my motivation to continue to work plummeted. My daily routine also fell apart, as I was waking up late and when I did wake up, I was too drained to even get out of bed and be productive. When I do try and do work I couldn’t touch my canvas for my animation and I just beat around the bush; doing other small unneeded productions such as looking at tutorials and unrelated research. Then the whole quarantine happened with the coronavirus which made things worse. I would stay in bed for half the day and wouldn’t contact anyone. I won’t go into detail, but the way things were going I was showing signs of a word I do not want mention here.
Of course, I got immediate help from my local hospital (over the phone) around the end of March and with the help of my parents, teacher and friends. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t of have been able to pick myself back up (if you guys are reading this, I seriously can’t thank you enough for pulling me out if that hole).
Self Motivation
Since my current time management wasn’t helping me I had to sort out my priorities first which I wasn’t doing beforehand. My dad helped me by making me write a list of simple tasks to do throughout the day, such as taking a walk, sorting out my appointments, communicating with collaborators, etc. At first, I would do these lists from 10 am to 5 pm; then I slowly expanded my hours as I became more confident in completing these tasks I gave myself each day (see more in Scheduling). I think what fixed my motivation was me being satisfied at completing these small tasks while continuing my ongoing FMP animation and seeing better progress each day.
Here’s a video that had some points I was going through when I was demotivated. Just listening to other people’s hardships and how they better themselves; helped me a lot in person, as it made me make more good decisions to better myself as an animator. At the timestamp 7:20; I was going through something similar where I thought I couldn’t deliver the idea of my animation and it made me not want to pursue it whenever I would try to start it.
It was around the time I started contacting friends and family again and them giving me the confidence to press on. As I mentioned in my production section I started talking to my friends Nadim and Klaus as we worked together through Discord on our own projects while giving each other feedback to better our progress.
New Work Flow
Before I knew it I was back to usual self. My workflow had completely changed. Every day I would wake up around 10 am to 12 pm to write my daily list and task myself goals for the day. These tasks can range from personal task to work tasks. Around 5 pm to 7 pm, I would call it day and relax from thereon. I would extend my time if I haven’t completed one of the tasks so I can at least feel fulfilled that day. I think all I needed was a solid personal routine that benefits my health first before my work and other things. Things became easier with this simple notion of making a daily to-do list (going to thank my dad for that one again). I would recommend this for anyone who is demotivated or worse. To see some of the lists I made move to FMP – Scheduling, they’re really simple, but I found it a lot more useful than my old calendar.
Communication
As previously stated I basically didn’t contact anyone in March, but I still attended the 1 on 1s with my teacher. When I explained my situation of demotivation, he suggested contacting him through Zoom or Aula to keep him updated on my situation. This helped me a lot because having someone acknowledge your struggles and have them see you grow outside that struggle really boosted my confidence in finishing my FMP as a whole (thank you, Dan!).
I also started talking to the people I wanted to collaborate with. I spoke to both Nadim and Tarryk on helping with their animation projects. Communicating with them helped me understand what to do as a 2D animator when you can display your skills and how you can apply them to the receiver. I also learned how to adapt to their vision and feedback so that I can quickly apply it to the animation. (see a sample with dan helping me on my animation below).
Collaboration
I feel like I’ve gotten confident on collaborating with others, whether it’s with someone I know or not; I can have a decent straight forward conversation about their plans and act accordingly. I would voice any concerns from my productive point and explain a plan to counteract that and vice versa. Here's an example of me acting on feedback from Tarryk below (more at Collaboration). To see these conversations you can find them in FMP – Collaboration. The only concern I have now is time; as I’m still waiting for them to finish the rest of their animation so I can animate on top of it as there are only 2 weeks left. I have warned Tarryk and Nadim that there’s not much time left and I’m getting busy with the blog and report, so there maybe chance that I won’t be able to complete your scenes if you don’t finish them soon. Hopefully, I can finish off the report and blog fast enough to complete the rest of their scenes a challenge for myself.
