It’s natural to focus on the technical aspects of your craft and all too easy to overlook the psychological. On more than one occasion my work has improved (in quality and quantity) by changing my mental perspective. Athletes hire experts to deal with the stresses of performing, and I don’t think it’s that different for those in creative fields. These movies are not a Universal cure-all or a replacement for a professional: these are anecdotes of my experiences, to show the ways in which a change in attitude can sometimes produce dramatic benefits. The movies below are from my ‘Tips & Tricks’ course – the ones dealing with emotional/mental/motivational areas.
BTW, check out my patreon, there’s going to be a lot of animation resources posted there!
OVERCOMING FEAR (4m 23s)
Impostor Syndrome (the feeling that you’re not good enough) is one of many mental goblins that plague many of us. Toxic work environments are real, and can do a number on your head – in addition to inhibiting your creative development. This short movie will describe some of my experiences with these gremlins, and compares my experiences in several studios run on a very different work ethos, from good to bad.
BEATING MENTAL BLOCKS (7m 51s)
Writer’s block is a well known ailment – but it can affect those in other fields also. I was crippled with this very early on in my career, and was on the point of quitting my job at the Don Bluth studio when a co-worker leant me this book by Shamus Culhane, a veteran animator who worked on Disney’s ‘Snow White’. Alone in the world of animation books, Culhane’s work deals with creative flow and how to liberate it. Were it not the happy accident of being given a copy, my animation career would have ended in 1991.
CREATIVE BREAKTHROUGH (8m 14s)
One of the most frustrating aspects of a career is that of being on a plateau. No matter how hard you work you never seem to ‘level up’. You may spend years on a plateau regardless of what you do. However, sometimes there are mysterious, seemingly overnight improvements. This movie will describe my experiences with these strange moments and my theory as to how they might occur – and how you might (MIGHT!) replicate them.
PREVENTING BURNOUT (6m 17s)
Burnout sounds like a madeup 1980s yuppie phantasm – but it’s quite real. It’s basically a repetitive strain injury to your brain. Just like the workers on Ford’s production lines in the 1920s, doing the same thing over and over can finally lead your mind to say “Nope. I’m not gonna let you do this any more”. This movie talks about the burnout, and how to keep a watch out for it creeping up on you. Prevention is better than cure.
DREAMS (6m 5s)
Yeah, you’re probably thinking I’ve gone off the deep end into woo. Maybe I have, but I don’t care. The correct interpretation of dreams (especially recurring ones) can occasionally unlock hidden creativity. This has happened to me on two separate occasions. Suffice to say that correctly interpreting one recurring dream was a key factor in my work moving up to a new level, both in quality and quantity.
WHEEL OF FORTUNE (6m 45s)
Life is capricious and often cruel. I’ve been around the industry long enough to see entire fields destroyed (hand drawn features), new ones appear (CD-Rom games), only to be destroyed after a few years as technology advances! This movie explains the importance of flexibility and the willingness to retrain (often in short spans of time) to keep up with a rapidly changing workplace. You must always be ready for sudden shifts in the industry.
CAREER NETWORKING (3m 41s)
I’ve worked with people who have hobbled their careers by a simple mistake: sucking up to the boss while alienating or abusing their workmates or subordinates. This movie is a warning for those who fail to realise that if you want to survive the long haul, the genuine support and friendship of co-workers is far more vital than the approval of a boss. That intern or assistant you sneered at today could be your boss tomorrow!
For more courses there’s a masterlist of classes, covering traditional principles as well as how to animate in Photoshop, Flash-AnimateCC, Harmony and After Effects. For new movies dealing with the free design/animation app KRITA, subscribe to my youtube channel and check out my patreon!