The Key(s) to Success?

[Darkwing]

First of all, I've been out of it a while. Pretty much ever since school started, I've not done anything animation related or been around on the forum even, so hello again!

 

So, I have a question, which I'm sure is a question many have had who've attempted to produce anything at all, which essentially is this: how does one successfully produce their own animated short?

First I suppose I should define successful.

By successful, I mean, have completed in its entirety (so basically script straight through to release) a short film (maybe no more than 5 minutes in length). Furthermore, how long did it take to produce it? What are certain goals a person should set for themselves when embarking on such a project? What is it that drove you to finish the project in a timely manner? Are their certain techniques that allow you to simplify or shortcut elements of the process?

 

I mainly ask this of those who've completed projects, but anyone can throw insight in. Personally, I've been struggling for 6 and a half years to produce from start to finish, a short film with Animation: Master, but have yet to actually do so. I've definitely learned many lesson along the way, but I still think I;m missing something. Is it focus? Dedication? Something else?

 

In addition, if anyone has any thoughts on the above, but for a series format (so have completed multiple episodes to say a web series) I would be really interested to also hear your opinions and see if there are similarities or differences in producing a singular short as compared to a series.

 

Finally, is there actually a key (or more than one) to success? Or is it more of a luck induced phenomenon where you managed to somehow complete a project start to finish with no real explanation as to how or why?

 

Alternatively, I'm also really curious to here from those who haven't completed projects. What made you stop? What were the hardships you faced? What were your expectations? If you tried again, do you think you'd succeed? What lessons can be learned? Nothing should ever be considered a failure so long as there were lessons learned and I'm sure everyone has learned numerous lessons over their career with A:M and animation in general!

[robcat2075]

Two great examples among us of getting-it-done are Spleen and Largento.

 

They set sane limits to their project scope based on what they can do and the time they have to do it in.

[TheSpleen]

Not really sure how to answer

I do everything wrong and just start

[TheSpleen]

constant rendering

[John Bigboote]

Hats off to the SPLEEN! for gittin-er-done! AND- his work quality is ever improving!

[TheSpleen]

Hats off to the SPLEEN! for gittin-er-done! AND- his work quality is ever improving!

Thanks!

[pixelplucker]

I think it all boils down to success of a projects completion based on priorities which are based on time/money which then dictates to the value of the projects themselves where projects that require less time and make more money take precedence over other projects and this seems to be an endless cycle.

 

Short answer: If your always busy then you probably really never complete anything nor make any money at it.

[Rodney]

I've been struggling for 6 and a half years to produce from start to finish, a short film with Animation: Master, but have yet to actually do so.

 

I'd say the #1 reason people struggle for long lengths of time on projects is that their projects take a long length of time to complete.

 

There are several things that increase production time and you've chosen a project that has many of these (here are a few):

 

- Animated humans

- Realistic humans

- Detailed environments

- Realistic environments

- Scale Spaceships (w/ interiors and exteriors)

- Realistically textured props, vehicles, spaceships

- Special Effects

- Realistic effects

 

Note that I've added a second lineitem for each when the goal is realism.

Realism more than anything is tough going unless/until the specific cheats are in place. For instance, faking a high level of detail with textures can save a lot of time in modeling detail.

 

Ultimately, getting things done requires experience (i.e. trial and error) and that takes time and effort in the creation of each and every scene.

 

Given the task you've set for yourself I don't think a six year ramp up to it is a bad thing.

Most projects of that sort take two to four years with hundreds of people.

And that is working full time with lots of overtime and often the farming out to other artists/animators/effects houses many scenes.

 

I'm also really curious to here from those who haven't completed projects. What made you stop?

 

I can only answer for myself here but I realized the stories I had were more ideas than stories and as such were stories that weren't fleshed out enough to be worth telling. After getting involved in the forum I found myself having more fun and as much satisfaction in helping others realize their ideas. It's not a high priority for me but I may revisit a few of my own characters and stories some day.

 

I'd be interested to see where you are in your production schedule.

 

Added: A key to success is to only spend that time which is needed on any particular thing. If you can hint at something with a black blob of blurry bumps use that instead of the real thing. Think in terms of a producer/director who has a limited amount of time to work on such things. Remember that a task will expand to fill the time allotted to it so don't allot too much time to it. Keep your deadlines close and personal, be professional, don't procrastinate, don't be too much of a perfectionist (i.e. we too easily fall in love with one frame of animation)... get ready to move on to the next thing. Act like you are spending someone else's time and money and they are running out of time with no more money in the bank.

[TheSpleen]

Constant Rendering

[robcat2075]

At a convention I heard this story from a guy who ran a VFX studio but also taught animation at a school in Los Angeles.

 

His class had gotten to the point of starting their final projects and they had to run them by him for approval. One boy had a great idea that the teacher approved right away. A girl in the class had an idea that was borderline lame but it fulfilled the assignment so he approved that too.

 

A week later the boy comes in with a better idea which is obviously superior so the teacher approves changing his project.

 

The next week the boy comes back with an even more fabulous idea and the teacher approves it even though time was running out.

 

In the end, the boy never got his project finished and had nothing to show for all his work but the girl who had been working all along got hers done and had a nice piece for her reel.

 

The moral... "the worst animations are the ones that don't get finished"

[Roger]

I am perhaps the worst person to give advice here, seeing as how I don't actually have anything finished, but I'd have to agree with Robcat.

I have drastically reduced the scope of my project in terms of length and am thinking of cutting it even more, down to the bone. Ripping out anything unnecessary. I am considering shooting for a minimalistic (or at least more so) look like Fluffy or Andre and Wally Bee.

I've also been working on getting my bills down to a point that I can live on what most people would consider a poverty-level income, in the event of job loss or making the leap to working on this full-time. I make way more than I ever used to, but my financial struggles have left me with an extremely Bear-ish outlook on the economy. My family makes fun of me for being frugal, but I like having money in the bank.

 

But, I digress. Back to your question - I guess if your project has ultra realistic humans, environments, etc it better be really short. 5 minutes is maybe too much. Maybe try to cut it down to half? I knew a guy in college that was maybe 4-5 years younger than me, extremely talented and was a TA for one of my classes. He was doing some long-form short (like 10 to 20 minutes) in the Star Wars universe. I don't know if he ever finished it, or what, as I lost touch with him.

 

But 10 to 20 minutes is way too much for one person, unless you are extraordinarily talented and have excellent time-management skills.

So maybe scaling back the scope of your project is something you want to look at seriously.

[TheSpleen]

I agree with the minimalistic approach.

Before AM, my only 3d experience was making maps to play in Unreal Tournament.

My lesson there was a flat cube when decaled properly can create the illusion of high detail yet rendertime it is only a cube.

I average 5 to 6 minutes in a month

Not Pixar quality, but I do my best and if there are flaws, I will correct that on next video.

Flaws happen, It is how we learn.

I am quite proud of my Library of flaws on YouTube LOL

[robcat2075]

Even the big studio shorts like Pixar does tend to be very small scope things, like that birds-on-a-wire short. Great idea with just the bare minimum of set and character models to get it across.

[Roger]

Even the big studio shorts like Pixar does tend to be very small scope things, like that birds-on-a-wire short. Great idea with just the bare minimum of set and character models to get it across.

 

Pixar has a way of making anything into gold. I seriously think they could do a short on the life cycle of dust bunnies and it would be entertaining.

[Bruce Del Porte]

Profound questions!

 

I animate as a hobby and I think TheSpleen's credo "...I animate and design to make myself laugh..." is spot on. For a multi minute short you will watch it hundreds if not thousands of times and the idea you are animating needs to stand up if not improve as you go along. The large number of abandoned projects on my hard drive are mostly ones were the joke or idea lost its amusement value to me. A lot of times it is when I try to make a topical point and the moment passes before can come close to finishing. I would love to know TheSpleen's key to productivity for producing 5 to 6 minutes a month. That would be a game changer for me. The Rear Window short I just did took fifteen months to produce. The piece is six and a half minutes long. Even without adding another key, I'm not sure I could render it straight through in a month. Gene, do tell!

 

 

From a production software standpoint, after Animation Master, a good nonlinear editor (NLE) is your most important tool. I use Vegas Pro but there are a number of good ones out there. I start by roughing out the short using story boards if you have them or because I don't draw very well I make crude place holder stills of scenes with the actors in the T position. I also rough out the sound design. Dialog and the music you chose often dictates scene length. Render it out to a video and once it starts to make sense, I start animating. As I go along, I substitute rendered animation for the place holders and build the movie from there. Once again I have to agree with TheSpleen, constant rendering keeps the momentum going. I try and add some animation every day and render the entire sequence over night. Once positioned in the NLE version of the movie, the sequence updates automatically. I try and render the NLE video out daily to get an idea how it is all coming together in the big picture.

 

Lastly, you will get ideas for improvements as you go along. If they can be added without interrupting the production pace you are setting, embrace the new ideas. If it means you will likely lose momentum, save the idea for your next project. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good.

 

Good luck!

[Darkwing]

These are all really interesting and I think helpful points! Having a reasonable target definitely seems like a key and recurring point. I think I personally suffer from two major things. One being that I don't set reasonable goals and the second being that I really lack focus. Take Red Squad for instance, I haven't worked on that since December. School is partly to blame but at the same time, I do have some free time that I use to just watch movies or TV. Between school and work though, I'm usually mentally exhausted so that extra push to get more work done is definitely very hard. Does anybody have any thoughts or ideas regarding that? I'm sure that's something everyone faces, working through when you're already tired. How do you do it? What motivates you to push through and do an hour a day or whatever your system is?

[pixelplucker]

I suffer from burn out too. After grinding along all day on the computer it is really tough to stay on to do something fun. Lots of fun ideas get bumped for another day then soon forgotten.

[largento]

I mainly ask this of those who've completed projects, but anyone can throw insight in. Personally, I've been struggling for 6 and a half years to produce from start to finish, a short film with Animation: Master, but have yet to actually do so. I've definitely learned many lesson along the way, but I still think I;m missing something. Is it focus? Dedication? Something else?

 

COMMITMENT! You have to commit to it! Don't think about doing it in the future, do it in the now. That's the only requirement. Everything else will work out or you'll find a way to make work out.

 

I spent 16 years *wanting* to do Stalled Trek and it only took 3.5 months to actually do it! Granted, I did have to learn the skills necessary to do it in 3D, but even then, I hesitated for more than half a year after I came up with the idea of doing it the way I did. Why? Because I wasn't committing myself to doing it. I was just dreaming about it.

 

Trust me, once you're committed, all those excuses and obstacles turn out to be nothing.

 

Robert's answer also plays into it. You can't complete an impossible task. You've got to manage it in such a way that you know it can be done. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses and tailor it so that it favors your strengths. Set a realistic goal and work on it everyday. Even if one day, all you do is model one prop.

 

Don't be afraid of how much more you have to do.

 

It's like when people have so many little tasks they need to get done all at once, that they get overwhelmed and end up doing nothing at all. Whereas, if they'd concentrated on just doing a few of them, they'd have less facing them tomorrow.

 

COMMIT!

 

I really thought I wanted to work in comics when I was a teenager. Now, at 45, I know that I must not really have wanted it. If I'd truly wanted it bad enough, I would have worked night and day on it. I wouldn't have just done a few individual projects here and there. I would have written or phoned every comic book company on the planet. I would have pestered them until I got my chance. Instead, I foolishly believed that they'd come to me.

 

It doesn't work that way.

 

You want something, *you* have to do all of the work.

[zandoriastudios]

Show up for work EVERY DAY. Schedule a 1-2hr slot in your studio/office/kitchen table in your calendar. Events will conspire to interrupt your scheduled time, but keep coming back to it every day. WORK on your project during that time...not forum/facebook/etc.

[Darkwing]

I have lost so much focus over the last couple years, it's not even funny. Back in my Anim8or days, I used to be able to produce a 10 minute (terrible) short film in little over a month and all I did was work an hour a day on it. If I could apply even that level of commitment to something with the skills I have now, than that would be great!

[Bruce Del Porte]

We are creatures of habit. I make sure I am up early enough to shower and make coffee before I leave in the morning and I admit I too expect to watch some TV at night as I wind down before bed. Making a habit of an hour a day to animate is plenty. The advantage of a larger, multi scene, project is that you can work out of order. Some scenes require lip syncing, some a walk, some creating a new model. You can work on what inspires you for your hour. The computer can render on its own while you sleep. It sounds like you need to find a project that inspires you. I don't know that I could animate for the sake of animating. Even if you pick something really stupid, if it cracks you up every time you look at it, the effort will have been worth it. Forget about measuring your work againt Pixar. Even if others are rolling their eyes and you are still giggling, it will be worth it. Every artist goes through periods were they don't have a masterpiece idea to work on, don't sweat it, one will come along.

[Vertexspline]

william's advice is so on target---especially for part timers like most here. I need to follow that sage advice.