Grant Moore, BIT

2012 Goals

2011-12-30T19:49:00.001-05:00

I enjoy having goals, I feel it's important to always have something important to work towards. It not only keeps me motivated but helps to fuel a continual process of personal evolution. Admittedly, I come up with too many and have a bad habit of dropping many goals, however there are always a few that rise to the top. That's why I've decided to write a post about what I feel, at this present time, are my most important goals for the upcoming year.

Health & Fitness
I'm 26 and in relatively good health, however have come to the realization that I have not been maintaining healthy habits. In more recent years I got so caught up in school and career matters that health slowly got pushed to the side. Not to say I'm in poor shape, but if I want to have a long, healthy life, I need to develop and maintain good habits now.

Healthy Meals - I already eat fairly well, but would like to expand my culinary skills so that eating healthy is not just a mundane routine, but something fun to explore.
Regular Exercise - Building a 3-day a week routine and making it become a part of my lifestyle. My sister helped build an initial program to follow, so I've already got a head start. The tricky part will be the follow-through and making it a healthy habit.
Physique - I'm looking in the mirror and not liking what I see. Not to say I'm self-conscious, but I intend to re-gain the physique I had in younger years where I actually had some tone.

Relationships
I've come a long way in terms of forming relationships (friends, family, significant other, business, etc...). I'm sure the people who have known me for a long time would say in more recent years I've really matured and become a much more social person. I've had some lucky breaks, friends who stuck around as I fumbled and grew as a person and feel lucky to be where I am right now. However, there is always room for improvement!

Friends - I have an ever-expanding social network from casual acquaintances to close friends who I consider family. I hope to maintain my existing friendships while also pushing myself to build new ones and become a more socially capable person.
Lady Friends - Anyone who knows me well will know I'm not exactly Rico Suave when it comes to the ladies. I'm an embarrassingly late bloomer, so this area of my life is still relatively new to me, but through a few experiences I've gained a level of confidence that I hope to continue exploring in hopes of building a positive, fun and loving relationship with someone.
Business - Building and maintaining business relationships is a unique one. As with most things of which I am ignorant I've simply thrown myself at it head-first hoping to come above water with something resembling an understanding or positive approach.

Student Loans, Finances & Frugality
The bane of my existence is the acronym known as OSAP. When I graduated June of 2009 I had racked up about $28k worth of student loans. Not terrible compared to many others, but sizable enough for me to feel stressed. Since then I have worked a mix of freelance and short-term placements and despite earning a relatively meager salary each year have managed to knock it down to $7.5k owing at the time of this posting.

OSAP - Pay off the remaining $7.5k by the year's end
Salary - Increase my annual earnings to $48k. I would prefer remaining in the first tax bracket to keep a healthy work / life / effort balance, as well as other philosophical reasons.
Frugal Living - To increase my quality of life while maintaining a frugal outlook. My spending habits are sometimes frugal and other times luxurious. I'd like to form habits and personal boundaries to minimize wasteful or un-necessary spending.

Indie Game Development
What's life without some sort of creative personal project? To me, it would be pointless! I've tried numerous times to get an animated short off the ground, and each time I simply lose interest. After some reflection I've come to the conclusion that while I love animation, I don't have the personal interest in developing it as an art form. So, I've decided to explore using my skills in game development instead!

Pole Force One - As some of you may have seen me post, I've already started working on a game about super-hero strippers. It is my hope to build and release a fully playable demo towards the end of next year.

Tattoo
I've always wanted to get a tattoo but was never sure exactly what. I want to explore this idea more seriously this year. My gut feeling is that I would go for a collage of things important to me to fill up a quarter to half sleeve. It's pretty early so I'm not entirely sure yet, but I'm going to design the concept / placement myself by going the ultra-nerd route and sculpting my arm in 3D and creating my own art. Either way, I'm looking into getting some ink!

Stock Assets

2011-12-20T02:54:00.000-05:00

It's 3am, I've been working crazy hours lately and just finished a project for a client before I go on holidays. Yet, in my sleep-deprived, delirious state, I have decided to write a blog post. What about? My experience with using stock assets.

Stock assets are both a blessing and curse. I'm a freelancer, I fill a lot of different roles. I deal with clients, manage finances / budgets, create proposals and contracts, act as a creative director, model, texture, animate, light, render, tech support, etc... basically, I'm a one-man studio. It's a lot to handle all at once, being responsible for what would traditionally be delegated to several people. Frankly, sometimes I just don't have the time or interest in doing it all. That's where stock assets come in handy.

The number one reason I use stock assets is to save time. I rarely have the appropriate budget to set aside enough time to create custom assets to meet a projects requirements. I'd love to, but it would take too long and cost the client too much money. Instead, I try to budget 25% of the project total for purchasing stock assets. This is great, because I can push out a project relatively quickly and cheaply which satisfies the market I'm currently serving. However, there are some downfalls to this approach.

Except in extremely rare cases, stock assets will require work to be usable. I was amazed when I first started using stock assets as to how poorly organized some of these files really were. To the point where I wondered why I was even paying money because it seemed to take longer to fix the file than it would have to make it myself. As someone who is very neat, organized and makes use of naming conventions for all files and nodes, it's a struggle to open up one of these files and have to decipher what exactly is going on. At first, I would spend hours upon hours cleaning out the file and bringing it up to my standard. It took my a while, but I eventually learned an important lesson.

My job as a freelancer is to produce a quality end-product. Working towards anything other than that goal is a waste of time.

I've had to teach myself to NOT go through these assets and fix every little thing. Rather, to clean it up a little so I can use it and then hit the render button. If I can make it do what it is required to do and the render looks good, then it's ready. Yes, the files end up being a chaotic mess and I cringe inside thinking of how it should be, but freeing up more of my time by not cleaning it, is far more important.

The 6 Commandments of Contracting

2011-10-11T10:30:00.000-04:00

I found this excellent post by Jon Jones regarding contracting and how to be a professional when being an independent freelancer. You can go directly to his blog to read it, or just read the copy & paste of it below. Some really good stuff in there!

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I’ve been dealing with contract art for nearly fifteen years, and have been a full-time professional for over ten years. I’ve worked both as an artist and as a manager in a variety of settings. As an artist I’ve freelanced from home, in-house at an art studio, and in-house at a developer. As a manager, I’ve outsourced art at an art studio with internal and external artists, outsourced and managed entire art teams in-house at a developer, and now I’m a freelance art producer managing teams all across the world. And boy are my arms tired!

Suffice it to say, I’ve been through just about every contract art management position and relationship you can imagine. I’ve come to identify several habits and character traits that make me love working with certain contractors, and on the other side of that coin, I’ve identified a few that drive me up the wall thus ensuring that I will never work with them again. I feel the term “Dos and Don’ts” is cliched, and “Commit these acts at your own peril” is too Temple of Doom, so instead I’ll present Professional vs Amateur with relevant Manager Insights many may not realize.

This also applies directly to the way I approach freelancing now. I still have much to learn and I am far from perfect. In the past, I’ve made pretty much every mistake I list below. In a way, bringing them out in the open like this is a way to hold myself more accountable. I’m writing this just as much for my own benefit as I am for contractors. Everything I list here is something that I strive for daily so I can improve myself and be a better contractor for my own clients. Welcome to my catharsis!

The First Commandment: Thou shalt know the day and the hour.

Amateur: “I’ll have it done in two hours!” Delivers it in eight hours.

Professional: “I’ll have it done in eight hours.” Delivers it in six hours.

Manager Insight: If an artist blows his time estimates consistently, it erodes my trust in his ability to deliver at all. I always notice and remember. I don’t want to have to figure out “Amateur Artist Math” and do the conversions in my head: 2h = 8h, 4h = 12h, one day = two days. I am neither nanny nor mathematician. I have dates to hit!

I’ve been in a position where I’ve been stuck with an artist that won’t correct his behavior and that I can’t replace, so I actually have to lie about when it’s due just because I know he’ll be late if I give him the real due date. And obviously I can’t tell him I do that, because he’ll be onto me and will find another way to weasel out of it, once again leaving me in the dark on delivery dates. If you make me treat you like a child, no allowance for you. Sometimes that has been the only way to get the artist to deliver it on time, and this puts me in an odd and almost parental position.

What does it say about him, his competence and his skills as an artist if he consistently fails to understand how long a task takes? Is that someone you’d work with again?

I understand that sometimes you run into problems. That’s fine. But if you’re going to be late,tell me. Trust me, I know how awkward it can be to approach someone pre-emptively and tell them something unpleasant. But I’d rather know so I can plan for it being late than simply not hear from the artist and get a late delivery. I have a boss, too. I report to my boss, and telling my boss it’ll be done on a certain day and getting it later makes me look like I can’t manage my artists or stick to a schedule. No one wants to feel that way, and that affects you directly, too!

I appreciate honesty and giving advance notice that you will be late. I do not like being surprised by a late delivery with no warning. In fact, that always irritates me. If you make me look like an idiot to my boss because I trusted you, do you think I would ever trust you or want to work with you again? Of course not. I’d cut you loose without a second thought because it is in my direct, immediate interest to replace you. No matter how cool a person you are, this is still business. Be a Professional.

The Second Commandment: Thou shalt heed the teachings of the technical guidelines tablet.

Amateur: “Here’s the delivery!” File is a mess, textures are named incorrectly, texture file associations are aimed to random files and directories on his hard drive. Bonus points for weird or profane filenames. (note: Not actual bonus points.) Obviously, the directions and technical documentation I sent were either ignored or misunderstood.

Professional: “Here’s the delivery!” Files are properly named, textures are properly assigned, technical guidelines were met and I don’t have to fix anything because he paid attention to my instructions.

Manager’s Insight: I don’t know if the Amateur just didn’t read the doc, or if he simply didn’t understand it. My three options in order from most desirable to least desirable are as follows:

a) Repeat myself. Tell him to reread the doc and hope he suddenly gets it. However, this could be another blown deliverable if he doesn’t. High risk, very little time spent.
b) Explain myself. Write up a detailed changelist and tell him exactly how to fix it. Medium risk, lots of time spent.
c) Do it myself. Low risk, excessive time spent.

Ideally, this will never happen. Practically speaking, it totally will.

When this sort of issue comes up, my ideal option is option A. I do NOT want option B because there is a 50/50 chance that the amount of time I’d spend re-explaining the task and what to do about it would take longer than doing it myself. That’s a slippery slope toward option C, which is the LAST thing I want. In option C, now I’m doing your work for you, and why should I have to? It’s obvious to my boss at this point that I’m wasting time and money, and that makes me look like a chump. This will ultimately affect you as well, because it’s not hard tracing the problem back to its source. (I’d like to point out that option C is a sign that I’m doing my job badly.)

Don’t make me do your job. I respect attention to detail and people that think of ways to do their job well, understand my bottom line, and try to save me time. It’s good customer service, good business and the Professional way to act. It’s the mint on the pillow.

Honestly, no one’s perfect. Sometimes I’ll have to rename a file here, tweak some verts there. That happens. If it’s just one or two issues small enough that it would be faster for me to fix them myself rather than telling you, I may just do that. It’s likely that a client may not even mention it. But if there are a lot of issues like this and it happens consistently, that’s more work for me, and it’s going to really irritate me over time. This is Amateur hour nonsense. It makes us both look bad, and will make me rethink working with you again. Your mom doesn’t work here. Clean up your own mess.

Be thorough, check your own work, pay attention to the directions I give you, and be a Professional. A manager may not mention this as being one of the reasons he continues to send you contract work, but trust me, it is a major factor.

The Third Commandment: Thou shalt heed thy client’s word to the letter.

Amateur: “Sure, I’ll incorporate that feedback!” Misses half of what I asked for and acts like nothing’s wrong. Clearly, he either didn’t read the feedback again, tried to remember all of it and failed, or just ignored half of it. All of this sucks equally.

Professional: “Sure, I’ll incorporate that feedback!” Nails every single point spot-on and (as a bonus!) verifies point-by-point what was fixed.

Manager’s Insight: This comes down to two points: 1) The Professional is showing me he pays attention to what I say, and 2) he’s focused on details and doing a good job. It’s easy for an Amateur to slack off, misread something, not double-check, or just let things slide and hope he’s not called on it because he doesn’t want to do the extra work. Maybe he doesn’t get called on it and it’s handled in-house. But just because a client may not bring it up doesn’t mean it wasn’t noticed and remembered. It absolutely should be brought up, but they may not have the time or desire to confront you.

Personally, I have no problem with confrontation, and I will be a bastard if I have to because I have a job to do. I don’t like doing that, and you don’t like being on the receiving end. Save us both the time and drama. Strive to be the Professional that makes a client think “Wow, he nailed it!” instead of the Amateur that makes the client think “Well, he completed items A, C and E but forgot B and D. Again. And now I have to either write it up or fix it myself when I have a mountain of other work to do. Splendid!”

One important point, however, that you may not realize: Sometimes — emphasis on sometimes — the sign of a job well done is the quiet, peaceful absence of problems. Everything flows smoothly, is exactly as expected, people are happy and there is no cause for complaint. Doing the job right simply may not bring open acknowledgement or kudos, but doing the job wrong is going to set off alarms that everyone notices. It took me many years to realize that, sometimes, lack of acknowledgement is something to take pride in. It’s not ideal and I try extremely hard to acknowledge and appreciate everything I can, but I have a lot to do and may not always be able to afford the time. Remembering this can keep you sane.

The Fourth Commandment: Thou shalt be mindful, for the End of Day is nigh.

Amateur: “I’ll have it ready for you by the end of the day!” Submits the deliverable at 3am, which is the end of HIS working day but is eight hours after I’ve left work and gone home.

Professional: “I’ll have it ready for you by the end of the day!” Submits the deliverable at 3pm, so I have another four hours to review it and write feedback.

Manager’s Insight: End of Day means the end of MY day, not the end of YOUR day, night owl. Plan for this. I need time to review the assets and generate feedback. If my workday ends at 7pm and I get it long after I’ve gone home, that doesn’t do me a lot of good, does it? Especially if I have an imminent deadline.

This all comes down to this timeless adage: Under-promise and over-deliver. The earlier in the day I get a delivery you’ve promised, the happier I am. But if you dramatically overestimate when I’ll get the asset and I get it uselessly late, what good is that to me? I can either stay late at work — guess how much I like that? — or put it off until tomorrow morning.

Remember: You are not the end of the pipeline. You’re an important part of the process, yes. However, other people are lined up after you take your finished product to the next stage of production and finalize it. This takes time, and issues like this pile up and affect a lot of other people down the chain. Do not be the cholesterol in the artery of my project.

The Fifth Commandment: Honor thy customer and thy reputation.

Amateur: “I’m just this guy that makes art. What’s customer service? If I make good art, that’s all that matters because that’s all they really want.”

Professional: “I’m a service provider and I take customer service seriously. I am an artist, but my success in that depends on creating art to my client’s exact specifications.”

Manager’s Insight: You are in the customer service business. A lot of artists coming from a studio environment don’t really have to worry about doing much else besides showing up and doing what’s asked of them. It’s usually hard for people to get fired for unsatisfactory performance, so a lot of annoying little habits and behaviors can get glossed over. (note: Everyone notices even if they don’t bring it up.)

It’s a lot like dating. You work out, dress well and try to get in “dating shape” so you can look as attractive as possible for potential mates. [Insert charming romantic comedy “how they met” story here, possibly starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Lopez.] Then when you’re in a relationship, you let a few things slide because you’re safe. Contractors do this. Contractors should not do this.

This is the difference between being a contractor versus being employed full-time at a studio. As a contractor, you are ALWAYS dating. You are ALWAYS selling. You ALWAYS have to keep that standard of careful attention to detail, composure, and will to go the extra mile to make your client happy so you’ll keep working with them long-term. And even clients like flowers from time to time. (note: Please do not actually send clients flowers.)

The Sixth Commandment: Thou shalt not mock the client with feeble protestations.

Amateur: “My dog ate my stylus!”

Professional: “I dropped the ball on this, and I will do my best to correct it.”

Manager’s Insight: I’ve heard every excuse in the book. Weird technical issues that are magically resolved when I try to step in to help, you never got that email you had actually already replied to, your wife\girlfriend DEMANDED that you nap through this deadline (true story!), and the list goes on. For my part, when I make a mistake, I own up to it. It sucks, it’s awkward, and I feel bad. But making lame excuses makes me look irresponsible, sloppy, and insults my client’s intelligence.

There is definitely a difference between an excuse and a valid reason. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference. But if enough of those stack up, that’s a red flag. It’s easy to think to yourself “These are all perfectly valid reasons! If they’re reasonable, they’ll totally understand and forgive me.” Sure, but the more mistakes there are the less I’ll ultimately trust you, valid or not. If I hear one more “It was an Act of God!” story…

Don’t be a mistake factory. But if you make one, just fix it. I don’t always really need to know the details of why, just that a mistake was made and that you’re on top of it now. Honestly, I just want results and honesty so I can understand the situation, troubleshoot as needed, adjust the schedule and allocate resources to keep production moving.

Conclusion

Overall, these are pretty basic guidelines that may seem obvious at first glance, but so much more thought than you realize goes into dealing with issues stemming from not heeding them. I hope that this list and the Manager’s Insights prove to be useful to contractors that really care about being a Professional and want to be at the top of their game!

Artists, managers and clients: Is there anything you’d add to this list? I’d love to hear from you!

OIAF - Day #3

2011-09-26T15:54:00.000-04:00

I survived the entire weekend, watching animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival and after recovering for most of a day I figured I'd finish up my summary of what I watched for the third and final day.

Making of Pixar's Luna

I got to see Pixar's new short before you! Nya nya nya *sticks out tongue*. Alright, so now that my shameless gloating is out of the way, I'll start by saying I won't say much about this one. The reason being? He asked us nicely not to go about blogging too much about it, hoping to keep much of the story a surprise.

Pixar's La Luna will be the short that proceeds Brave in theatres and is a short story about a young boy going out with his father and grandfather in a boat to complete a special task. It's definitely Pixar quality and quite enjoyable. The talk itself was interesting, he spoke about where and how the idea developed, often relating back to his own family and their experiences and relationship dynamics. Showing us some of the behind the scenes footage was great, especially the hilarity of watching people yell at each other in gibberish (think "The Sims" voices). Overall, an interesting look at how Pixar goes about creating their short films. Definitely one of those "you had to be there" kind of events.

Canadian Animation Showcase

This was my favorite short film screening. While I appreciate being able to see films from other cultures and gain unique perspectives, there's something to be said of watching animation that comes from familiar roots. The selection was excellent, there wasn't a single film I disliked in this screening, and they ranged quite a lot in style and subject matter. Here are a few of my favourite picks...

The Good Little Bunny with the Big Bad Teeth

Just a cute, simple animation. I loved the style throughout, it feels almost like high quality comic come to life, which I really enjoyed.

A Tax on Bunny Rabbits

A cute animation made entirely out of ASCII characters showing a robot trying to hunt down some rabbits. Couldn't find a trailer, but wanted to mention it anyways.

Sheared

A man and his sheep, hilarity ensues. Just watch it, it's really great!

Wild Life
http://www.nfb.ca/film/wild_life_clip_1
http://www.nfb.ca/film/wild_life_clip_2/
A story of a British man colonizing a plot of land in Alberta, shown through various letters home to his parents. It had a great visual style and interesting story.

Second Hand

I loved this one a lot! It's a humorous look at two very different lifestyles, on one hand you have someone who lives their life like clockwork and on the other, you have the laid-back, leisure lifestyle. A really great contrast and presentation.

Mulvar is Correct Candidate

I really wish I could find this video online, but alas I'll just have to say this one was incredibly funny. Basically showing the pointlessness of political campaigns and how they just try to pander to the crowd. However, I would definitely vote for Mulvar!

Feature - Chico and Rita

A beautiful love story about Chico, a pianist, and Rita, a singer, who go through their respective entertainment careers all the while struggling to express their love for each other. I definitely was lost in the music throughout the film, the story had excellent pacing, going from fun highs to sad lows. The animation itself was perfect, blending various 2D and 3D styles seamlessly. I'd highly recommend anyone interested in animated films or music to check this one out!

Summary
I unfortunately had to make it an early night as I was completely drained from the weekend... introverts, we can't take crowds for too long! I had an enjoyable time and as always, was left with motivation for the upcoming year and will be working hard to bring my own creations into reality. I learned a few important tips and tricks from the panels and making mental notes from films and hope to see something I create up on the big screen in 2012. Until then, I have a lot of work to do!!

OIAF - Day #2

2011-09-25T01:12:00.001-04:00

Home from my second day at the Ottawa International Animation Festival and I'm exhausted! So, I will do my best to give a recap of what I experienced throughout the day...

Surviving as a Short Filmmaker

Given that some of my personal goals and dreams are to produce my own entertainment & artistic media, it was safe to say that this panel discussion about what it's like being a successful short filmmaker was definitely on my "must see" list for this years festival. The panel featured Andy London, Carolyn London, Biljana Labovic, and Nick Cross. They all had some pretty unique backgrounds, perspectives and thoughts on what it's like to be an independent film-maker, but I'll try to summarize a few of the key points that I remember (I should have taken notes... hindsight).

Creating short films is more a result of a desire, a need and passion to create for the sake of creating, rather than a commercial goal. They love what they do and much like traditional artists, must create in order to find purpose and happiness in life.
Nearly all independent animators have a "day job". They all maintained that it is incredibly difficult to make your entire career on independent short films (citing only a few successful examples, such as Don Hertzfeldt). Generally speaking, they expressed the need to work in a commercial field in order to support yourself and your own films.
Commercial work may sound "soul crushing" to those who have a passion for creating their own works, but it can yield positive results. Learning new techniques, teaching yourself time management skills, practicing your craft, etc... try to look at it as a balance to your independent work, rather than a hindrance.
The biggest change in animated short filmmaking is both the proliferation of tools (computers, hardware, software, etc...) making animation production "easier" as well as the new potentials for online distribution and sharing. We are at a time where new media revenue streams are being discovered, so it's an exciting time to be a filmmaker.

I'm sure I'm missing some of the other great points, but you must forgive me it's 12:30am right now and I'm getting what I can remember out of my head before I go to sleep!

Feature - Taevalaul (Sky Song)

I don't even really know what to say about this one. It was a beautifully created stop-motion animation with some of the strangest imagery imaginable. The first half of the film, I'll be honest, I had no idea what was going on. I was struggling to find the "story" from what I was seeing - especially since I hadn't read the description prior to watching the film - and was beginning to think it was a random collection of "weird" shots. Eventually, it was revealed that the character was simply in training for an important task...bringing a letter to the moon! I won't reveal anything else, suffice to say I enjoyed this film a lot!

Short Competition 4
This collection of short films was a bit of a mix for me, I really enjoyed some while found others un-bearable. Perhaps it's simply my personal taste that doesn't enjoy the more "abstract" animations, but overall it was enjoyable. I'll list off a few of my favourites:

Buddha Hand's Up

This one was just a really cute animation about a boy monk day dreaming about being a rock star.

Sync

Absolutely mesmerizing. Generally speaking, I dislike "experimental" animations, but this one put me into a trance and I couldn't wait to see what would come up next.

Francoise

A sad story about the rape of a young girl and how it affected her life, beautifully creating animation and a powerful message.

Umbra

I didn't really get this one, but it was fun to watch!

The Goat and the Well
http://www.babelgum.com/channels/180769/clips/6002552
A funny little animation about a woman struggling to milk a goat.

10 Reasons to Love Animation
David Verrall created a personal selection of what he deemed to be some of the more influential animations he has seen throughout the years of attending various festivals. You can find the full list here. I really enjoyed this presentation as it really showed a great variety in styles, subject matter and animation mediums.

Late Night: Adult Animation
I'll be honest, I didn't really know much going into this one other than it contained the word "adult" and thought, "well, that HAS to be entertaining!". Turn out, it was a live podcast (I cannot remember who the hosts were unfortunately) with guest Dino Stamatopoulos, a comedy writer with a pretty extensive past and more recently, creator of Adult Swim's Moral Oral. It was a pretty entertaining talk about his experiences as a comedic writer and creator of stop motion TV series. He even gave us a sneak peak of one of the episodes for his upcoming season of Mary Shelley's Frankenhole, where the main character decides to give himself a vagina!

Short Comp 5
By this time, I was getting quite tired, but had to continue watching animation! Such a tough life, eh? Having to get up, eat food, sit down, be entertained... all day long. Tough work, I must stay. This screening had both some of my favourite shorts thus far, as well as some of my least favourite. I won't discuss the ones I personally disliked, however I'll kindly ask anyone out there planning a dark / introspective / deep animation to try and stick closer to the "short" aspect of animated shorts... please? Long, drawn out shot sequences depicting the same emotion over and over is draining on the audience, especially if we don't know what we're supposed to be feeling for 5 minutes. Okay, mini-rant over, on to the ones I enjoyed most!

Lil' Aliens
http://londonsquared.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Lilaliens.mp4
A cute clay-mation done to the audio of young children describing their "alien" home-planet.

Das Haus (The House)
http://www.dashaus-animation.de/trailer.html
Probably one of the most creative mixes of 2D and 3D animation techniques I've ever seen. I wish I could find the full film, but he's only got a trailer available. Definitely one of my favourites of the festival so far!

The Deep

This great stop-motion animation uses a collection of tools to simulate and underwater world, again, one of my favourites of the festival so far!

Summary
Overall, I quite enjoyed my day. I have to say though, that this year's selections are MUCH more depressing and emotional than previous years - unless previous years were abnormally saturated with comedic films? Either way, I hope tomorrow has a few more laughs as I was beginning to find myself in a foul mood after a while. However, if you stick to the ones I pointed out in this post, all should be well in the world! :)

Looking forward to wrapping up the festival tomorrow!!

OIAF - Day #1

2011-09-24T00:46:00.000-04:00

Just got home from my first day at the 2011 Ottawa International Animation Festival. I didn't get to see too much since I had to work all day and was too tired to stay out late, however, here are my thoughts!

Feature - Colorful

This feature was a depressing, yet surprisingly beautiful, look at finding purpose and happiness in life through various relationships (friends, parents, siblings, etc...). I found myself actually tearing up a few times as the main character and events made it quite easy to relate to. Overall, I'd say of the features I've seen at previous OIAF's, this one is among the best, but probably not one I'd want to re-watch.

Short Comp 3

The short competitions are always my favorite part of the festival, but this particular selection didn't really excite me. Definitely a few shorts that were spectacular (see list below) but there were far too many "experimental" films for my tastes. Also, a few of the more artsy films weren't exactly "short"... so I ended up falling asleep a couple of time.

One Minute Puberty
Definitely my favourite of this competition's selection. You won't regret watching it!

Bout
When they announced this as yet another experimental film, I audibly groaned. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Funny, entertaining and hypnotic!

I'm Fine Thanks
I wish the full film was available online, but I guess the trailer will have to give you a clue. It was a cute little, but sad, story of a man and how he sees himself versus reality. Particularly enjoyed when his head was all wobbly!

Moxie
I really couldn't figure out if I liked this one or not. It was absurdly weird, but funny at the same time. Again, wish I could find the full version, but the trailer will have to suffice!

Made You Cringe
A small collection of hilarious clips. I've linked the first one, they have more... just funny stuff really.

Summary

Overall, a pretty decent start. Sadly I was pretty much exhausted and had to skip out on the late-night animator party and teletoon's screenings (I also kind of wanted to be able to catch my bus and not have to walk home). Going to catch some sleep and looking forward to the festivities tomorrow!!

All About the Mula! - Part 1 - How Much Do I Charge!?

2011-09-08T15:11:00.000-04:00

One of the biggest unknowns to anyone interested in doing freelance usually has to do with money. How much do I charge? How much will I be able to make? What kind of expenses will I have? What types of clients will I get and how do I gauge how to charge them appropriately? What about taxes, how do I take care of that? Do I need a book-keepers / accountant?

When you are employed it's easy, you do work for X number of hours and get paid Y dollars at the end every two weeks you get a paycheque. Freelancing or having a small business introduces a whole new level of complexity to working, one that is often a complete mystery to anyone starting down this path. So I will attempt to give some understanding by sharing my experiences and ideas thus far around all the financial aspects of running a small freelance business.

Part 1 - How much do I charge!?

I've heard this one quite a few times from my friends and online forums, and there is honestly no easy answer. However, a quick a dirty way to get an idea of what you NEED to make can be figure out by writing out the following:

Yearly Business Costs - List out anything that relates to your freelance/business operational costs. This could be computer hardware, software, utilities, office rent, business cards, advertising, web hosting, travel, phone, internet, festivals, etc... the idea is to write out every expense you will have in the process of earning income
Yearly Personal Costs - Figure out what it costs to live your normal life. You have rent, utilities, bus/car, food, entertainment, etc... list everything that is a regularly occuring cost for a year.
The Extra Stuff - There are plenty of extra costs, this is where you start throwing in random items like going on trips, attending courses, paying for unexpected costs like vet bills or a car breakdown, tacking on a random "shit I will probably buy" tax to yourself... you know your life, you know what random expenses come up that aren't regular, list them all. Make a worst case scenario and tack on a couple thousand of "I don't know" money.
Personal Goals - Maybe you are saving up for a new car? Putting money into a retirement fund? Putting cash away to pay off those pesky student loans (that's me)? Perhaps you are investing and trying to make your money grow, or want to fund a start-up? Whatever the case may be, keep in mind the extra money you want to set aside for these things and write down a number
Profit - Similar to having goals, but maybe you want your work to turn a profit every year in excess of every expense or goal you want to meet. Write that down.

Once you've written all of these down, you'll have a number... probably bigger than you'd expect. That's what you need to earn every year to live your life comfortably and to run an operational business. Divide that number by the number of weeks you want to work and how many hours a week are billable (not 8 hours, you'll be spending at least 1-2 a day dealing with clients). That's your hourly wage, that's what you SHOULD charge. I'd recommend doing it all on paper (or spreadsheet) so you can see each item, but Freelance Switch has a good little online app to figure all this out.

http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/

So that's it, that's my hourly rate, right? I go out into the world and proclaim, I will be charging you $XXX!! Nope, that's just a baseline, something to give you an idea of about how much to charge... there are other things to consider!

First of all, who are your clients? How much will they pay? Are you even worth that number? How many hours does it take you to complete a project and what would the expected costs be for a typical project? Unfortunately, I can't help you answer these questions... these are things you are going to have to ask yourself, try out your ability to quote people on projects and see the results. Over the years, I've quoted far too much and lost projects, I've quoted far too little and ended up working for about minimum wage, a few times I made a significant profit from a project and others I was on par with what I wanted to earn. It's taken me two years to get to the point where I know what a day's worth of work is worth... so keep in mind it's a learning process. I'll end this post with a collection of random tips / ideas relating to having a specific rate.

Have a daily rate - At all times, know what a day's worth of work will cost your clients, and roughly how much work you can get done in that time. Figure out some specific examples, like time to design a website, time to make a CG character, time to do whatever... and have numbers in your head you can quote at any time. It helps when estimating costs and negotiating contracts.
Quote at least 25% More - Don't ever quote a project "at cost". You always want to ensure there is a buffer zone to account for random requests, unexpected problems, clients who make more demands than expected, etc... It's also smart to quote about 50% more in total so you have somewhere to go when negotiating. Plus, if you land a 150% project, well... you're out to make profit, right?
25% - 50% Downpayment - For all new clients, once you've agreed on a budget for the project (even if it's hourly / not a fixed price) require at least 25% downpayment (some people suggest 50%, but personally I think it's too high of an ask for most clients). Asking this downpayment protect you by having the client already invested in a project and it also protect the client giving you incentive to work on their project
Stock Assets - Always make your goal getting the job done. There is a quote I read a short while back, "some for the reel, some for the meal". You are out to make money, keep that in mind. If buying some stock assets and customizing them will save you time/money and ensure a project is delivered, then go ahead and license them. There's no need to do everything from scratch, especially if you're a one-man-show.
Know your priorities - You are out to make a living and should keep in mind that "cutting someone a deal" is not in your best interest. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. I personally will cut a deal on a project that really interests me. Only do a couple of these a year, and only if you are permitted to use it in your portfolio... otherwise, you'll have cheap but "interesting" projects knocking at your door every week.

In the end, you're going to have to figure out a lot by yourself, but hopefully some of this long rant will have helped you think of something new or made you ask yourself more questions. Feel free to contribute to this discussion or ask any questions you may have!

Soliloquy of a Madman

2011-09-06T16:39:00.000-04:00

I've been working on "Soliloquy of a Madman" for quite a long time and only recently have I started putting it into production. "An animated short which follows a man as he ventures through the depths of his own mind, battling stray thoughts and facing his inner demons, in an effort to find his inner peace", I've had this rough concept for years but it wasn't until recently that I finally managed to take pages of rough notes, little sketches and brainstorming and molded it into a workable story.

Sometimes it takes a long time for a good story to develop and what I've learned is that you shouldn't force it, it will change and evolve over time and when it's ready it will hopefully have ripened into a work of art itself. While I may have wanted to put this into production years ago, having waited has not only allowed me to reach my desired technical and artistic ability, but also allowed the story to develop and grow with me.

My first goal was to create the character, and this week I finished preparing him and will start working towards a teaser trailer to test the visual effects work flow. Given that the nature of my animated short will be rather somber, serious and towards the darker side of life, I decided as a reward I would create a bit of goofy art with the character. Something to bring out the lighter side of his - and by extension, my - personality before throwing it into the depths of madness and emotional turmoil that I hope to depict with my animated short.

For reference, this is what the character will look like, for the most part, throughout the short.

Company Websites

2011-08-25T13:11:00.001-04:00

So you're thinking of joining the ranks of Entrepreneurs & Freelancers and want to start getting clients and the "mad-monies" that comes with working for yourself? Well, that's awesome, keep that excitement and enthusiasm because you're going to need it to push through the many challenges ahead.

You're excited, you're ready to go, you want clients... where do you start!? WEBSITES! I'm fairly confident that this is one of the first things every new freelancer considers when starting their career, likely thinking, "OMG! I need a website! Every professional freelancer has a website these days, I better make one...". You rush off to whip together a slick design, throw up some samples of your work, stick the name "studio" onto it and call it a day. You sit back and wait for the clients to start rolling in, expecting that contact form you put on it to start spitting out quote requests from new clients. Well, I'm here to tell you, that's not how it works. How do I know this? Because that's pretty much exactly what I did and expected to happen.

In reality, your website doesn't generate business for you (unless of course it is built to sell a product or service, but that's a different discussion). Having a website is indeed a key component to acquiring new customers and getting projects, but it's role is not customer acquisition.

Your website provides validity to your business.

You use a company website to comfort your customers, to give them something tangible that they can refer to so that they can say, "yes, I can see with my own eyes that you are indeed a legitimate business who can deliver the services you are offering".

My first business website was made hastily: it was slick, it has a bunch of paragraphs describing what I offered (read: bullshit buzzwords and filler text no one would read) and had a few samples of my art, which at the time were weak/amateur. It had no goal, no purpose, no life, no personality... it was bland, simply occupied web-space and probably drove more business away than it did to bring it in. After a year and a half, I realized I needed to completely re-brand and design a website that would serve as a custom support tool.

So what makes a great supporting business website? Well, I can't really answer that because it will largely depend on how you want to position yourself to your customers. But, I can tell you how to find out: ask yourself questions, a lot of them.

What services will I offer? Can I fill a specific niche? Anything unique?
Am I freelancer looking for work-for-hire? Or do I want to build a small studio?
What kind of customers do I want? How will they find my website? What will they want to know? What will they want to see? What will impress them?
Do I have example I can show? Are they good enough? Do I need new examples?
What information do I absolutely need to provide? Can I cut out "bullshit / filler" text?
Does my business have a personality? What characteristics can I give it? Will it make sense for the work I want to offer? How can I show this personality?
Do I have a brand? Do I want a brand? Does it apply to my long-term goals? How does having a brand on my website and associated media make me look?
What is my current "skill" level, where do I want to go? How can I present myself in a way that is "better" than I already am?
etc...

Ask yourself LOTS of questions and answer them. Build a plan, figure out how you plan to use your website when acquiring new projects & customers and most of all, don't forget that YOU are the one responsible for finding new projects, your website will not do that for you.

Get the Job Done

2011-06-17T12:04:00.001-04:00

I'm a perfectionist and take great pride in my work. I will spend countless hours working towards creating something entirely by myself as best as I can. Pouring over my work, doing all the nitty gritty and perfecting the smallest details. It's so easy to get caught up in creative work and wanting things to be the best. However, when it comes to producing work for clients, this pursuit can sometimes be a problem.

One of the most important things I've learned thus far is simply to "Get the Job Done". With my personal work, I want to create everything myself and can dedicate as much time as I'm willing to put into it without any sort of hard deadline. However, client work I am on the clock. There are due dates, budgets, specifications and expectations (which are often lower than I would expect of myself). Clients don't care about anything other than meeting a budget and getting a quality product in the end. They don't care how it gets done, and this is where a client project and creative project differ.

You will often not have enough time to make things 100% perfect. This is okay, and simply a part of doing business. I've spent too many hours working on pointless details, doing 12 hour days when I'm only getting paid for about 6-8 hours. In the end, I discovered more often than not, no one noticed the small changes. Sure, some CG guru might be able to point them out, but the client is the one who is paying you. So as long as they - and their audience - is happy, why should you spend extra ordinate amounts of time seeking perfection?

It's all a matter of pride, really. I am prideful of my work and want it to be a reflection of my best skills. Having gone through school, I am used to having to produce work entirely on my own and make it a reflection of my own skills. This isn't how producing things for clients work. They don't care how you get things done. They don't care how long it takes. They don't care if you use stock assets. All they care about is meeting the budget and having a good product in the end.

I'm not suggesting abandoning giving the best quality you can, but rather to keep in mind that if you want to be profitable in a freelance / business endeavor, you have to know where to draw the line. There is a time to step back and say, "this is good enough".

As I move forward with my more entrepreneurial goals, I need to keep this in mind for not only my future service projects, but also for my own creations. As an entrepreneur, learning to be happy with 80-90% is an essential skill because if you demand perfection from everything, you will never get the job done.

Keep Moving Forward

2011-05-21T00:47:00.005-04:00

If I had to choose but one single piece of advice to give to anyone, I'd have to pick the rather simple phrase, "Keep Moving Forward". On the surface it seems rather simple - and it is - but this phrase represents so much more.

It means never giving up the pursuit of your dreams and goals, no matter what life throws your way. You will have challenges, you will make mistakes, you will fail, you will feel scared & insecure, you'll even be an utter fool... all the while wondering why the hell you're even trying in the first place. At times, you may want to give up and just go down the easy road, get comfortable in life and forget all about what you really want. These are the moments that test your resolve and separate those who will go on to achieve things and those who will not.

It means having responsibility for your own life - successes and failures. If there's something you want to accomplish, you can't just sit around wishing for it to come your way. Rather, you need to get off your ass, get out into the world and make it happen. If things aren't going your way, or you don't like the situation your in you have no one to blame but yourself. Make your mistakes & shortcomings a part of who you are, own them, and devise a plan to make things better.

It means living in the "today" and not clinging to the past. You are who you are right this moment, not who you were yesterday. Learn from your experiences, remember them, but choose to be who you want to be. To see dreams come to fruition, you have to be the person that can make it happen. Anything else can be let go.

It means having control of your life. There will be ups and downs, challenges, situations beyond your immediate influence, however if you can keep the spirit of "Keep Moving Forward" there will always be opportunities to actively pursue whatever it is you want to accomplish.

It means whatever you make of it, and whatever you make of yourself.

Shameless Plug Media goes Live!

2011-05-01T22:35:00.000-04:00

My company - Shameless Plug Media - new website has gone live! This is just the first step in improving my company's online presence and I consider the website still in "beta" format as it still has the following updates scheduled for the next couple of months:

New Promo / Demo video
More interactive / motion elements added to give a better user experience
New sections detailing incubation projects
A fun social media experiment!

If you are a fan of animation, business, entrepreneurship, freelancing, and entertainment, then maybe you'll enjoy following my progress of launching my business and pushing to become an independent production company!

If you'd like to follow my progress, feel free to "Like" our Facebook page. If you are among the first 25 to "Like" it, you will be given a special "shout-out" on an upcoming incubation project.

Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shameless-Plug-Media/103052999780729

Shameless Plug Media Website
www.shamelessplugmedia.com

Focus!

2011-04-27T12:41:00.000-04:00

Having creative passion for something and knowing what you'd like to accomplish is all well and good, but knowing how to focus that energy towards actually getting something accomplished is an entirely different challenge.

I, like many other creative individuals, lack a certain level of control over our thoughts. We enjoy letting our minds wander and come up with new and exciting ideas all the time. I am constantly thinking of new projects that excite me and often get so lost down this new train of thought that I end up leaving my current projects behind. While it is good to think of new things, especially if you can write them down, it has been a huge distraction when trying to achieve my goals.

In the past, I always had some form of external structure that kept me in line. Most of my life has been governed by school, work or client projects. You have a task to accomplish, various milestones to reach and a delivery date. Simple as that... you either get it done, or you don't get the reward at the end. While I have some opinions against this kind of structure, you can't argue that it produces results.

So, when I initially began to "reboot my passion" earlier this year, I decided I would adopt this kind of scheduling for myself. At the time I was beginning work on my short, "Soliloquy of a Madman" and I laid out an entire work schedule from start to finish, with milestones, deadlines... the works. What happened? Three weeks in, it felt like a job and I lost all interest. I haven't touched the project since because I lost my passion for it (though I intend to pick up again).

Focus Tactic #1 - Limitations

The first tactic is really quite simple: limit the number of projects you work on concurrently, no matter how exciting a new one might be. I have about a dozen different things that I'd like to be working on at any given time, but only so many hours to get them done. What usually ends up happening is that I give up on all of them because it's far too overwhelming.

I like variety, and have learned from school what I can and cannot handle and have decided to limit myself to no more than 3 major projects at once. If I come up with a new idea, I am simply going to write down the rough idea, and leave it until I have finished any of the current projects. No more projects left behind!

Focus Tactic #2 - Structure

It wasn't until recently that I developed a simple system that both allows for my creative / personal freedom to exist, but also keeps me focussed towards an end goal. It's really quite simple actually...

For every major project I want to accomplish - which, right now is re-branding my business, Shameless Plug Media - I create a To-Do list and pick a due date to get the list complete. I write out everything I can think of that will need to be accomplished to satisfy the list's overall goal. I categorize each task, prioritize them, put a percentage complete and notes beside each. That's all, nothing fancy. I have a list of tasks and a date I want them all finished.

There's no fixed schedule, so it doesn't feel like work
All the tasks are geared towards a productive goal
I don't get distracted by new creative ideas nearly as much
It gives me personal freedom in terms of working on what / when I want
I finally have FOCUS!

Focus Tactic #3 - Sharing

Sharing my work and progress has always been something I enjoy doing, anyone who has me on Facebook knows I like to post things, and often. Probably a little too much, in hindsight. So, rather than stifle this habit, I've decided to go the "social media" route and use it as an advantage in not only promoting my various projects & business, but to hold me accountable for actually delivering.

Nothing could be worse for me than to say I'm going to do something, make it known to everyone and then not deliver. That would just be downright embarrassing, and bad for business. Sharing my work is going to be the final kick in the ass to make sure I don't get lazy towards the end, because once I get to the point where I have fans (and I have a surprising number of people who actually already read / check out my stuff) I want to ensure I deliver what they are expecting.

So, a little long winded this time, but as I said in my final point, I am making an effort to share things. By sharing, it helps me to focus my thoughts, create a plan for myself and hopefully, if you've read this, it might evoke some thinking on your end and help you to move towards your own goals.

Thanks for reading!

Rebooting My Passion

2011-04-17T13:37:00.004-04:00

Recently, I came to the hard realization that I have been sitting around waiting for my dreams to come true. Pondering all the fun things I want to be creating while never really sitting down to actually doing any of them. I have a folder filled with half-finished and barely started projects and I began to wonder why I wasn't following through. After spending some time studying a few of my personal "mentors", mDotStrange, Nick Cross and Don Herzfeldt to name a few, I realized they all had one thing in common: they just created. Similar to the famous Nike slogan "Just Do It", they all focus their time and energy towards creating what they love, maintaining this creative goal as their first priority without getting distracted by anything else that comes along in their lives.

mDotStrange made a great video about "Passion" and how, as an independent creator, you really need to truly feel your passion come from within if you are to have any hope of creating what you love. I definitely agree with his message, especially the whole "don't be afraid to make a fool of yourself" aspect...

So with all that said, what are my goals?

Create an animated short that will be accepted into OIAF 2012
Produce an animated series and release it on the web
Continue to grow my business into a more stable, full-time, source of income with the intent to eventually turn it into a small studio
Have a social life! I do have one that I really enjoy, but managing to find the balance between work / passion / life is going to be tough
Mystery Projects - I have a few smaller scale projects I want to create, but am going to keep them to myself for the moment ;)

Some pretty lofty / big goals and I am aware of just how much effort is going to be required to make them all happen. However, just seeing that list written down excites me greatly! So, all I need to ensure they happen is to believe in my own awesomeness and put out the appropriate effort. In time, they will get accomplished!