Staying Motivated
Recently I’ve been approached from a couple of different directions about the difficulty of staying motivated. Peter asked a question about this in the comments for Make Your Own Cartoon.
Creating an animation is not a minor task, as I’m sure you’re aware. There are many steps involved, and finishing any of them is an accomplishment in its own right. The problem is the lack of public acknowledgment. That may be the coolest storyboard ever but in the end, even after the animation is completed, who will see it? Unless you’re a part of a team it’s just you and your great storyboards.
My idea for this is to make your smaller steps public. I bet your parents would be impressed with your storyboards. So would your friends and girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband/live-in-nanny. For that matter, I would love to see it as well.
A few months ago I started reporting to a friend, letting him know how I was progressing on any particular animation, right down to the nitty gritty details. While I certainly value his opinion the point of doing this is mostly to officially let somebody — somebody who cares — know that I’m working on the next animation, and to offer some gentle prodding if he hasn’t heard from me in a while.
To that end, I would enjoy hearing from visitors who are in the midst of creating their own animation. Do you need somebody to ask you how your animation is going? I will happily be that antagonist for you. If this is something I can help you with, leave a comment below or send me an email.
I also recommend visiting this particular thread at AnimationForum.net.
Tags: motivation
March 17th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I have a great story ready and I’m satisfied with my character designs the problem is I’m stuck on how to create backgrounds.
Truth of the matter is I wanted my backgrounds to look hand painted and I have absolutely no experience in painting though I have been dabbling in Corel Painter IX and have made some decent but not spectacular paintings either.
I did walk around my neighborhood and took photographs of interesting looking buildings and the creek in my local area and I’ve created a layout and yet I feel like I’m on the urge of defeat. I haven’t thrown in the towel yet I spent too much money on my hobby to just quit!
I decided to still practice using painter IX and use Adobe Illustrator to create my backgrounds instead.
To Add to my frustration I always end up getting pulled away from my hobby due to errands that are usually a can’t wait task.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I suspect you may be farther along than you think. Instead of getting frustrated that your backgrounds aren’t perfect, why not try running your photographs through an artistic and blur filter in Photoshop, then use those as your backgrounds? The blur will keep the backgrounds from becoming too distracting.
Are you using Toon Boom for this animation?
March 19th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Definitely using Toonboom Studio 4 actually and because of your encouragement I’ll keep going.
Thank you Will.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Here is a little update on my situation I found a way to visualize my background art in 3D.
I’m making a 3D model of the house in my cartoon with foamboards,an X-acto, Knife and Foam Glue to assemble the house. I still have the drawing now hopefully I’ll have a better understanding on how to create the illusion of depth on a sheet of paper or on the Illustrator canvas.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Very cool idea Rhiannon. That will give your animation a very unique feeling, I look forward to seeing it!