Finishing your personal passion projects - An Animator's thoughts

now that you're working on a personal project you might realize that it's easier said than done to finish a personal project in this video I'll share some tips and advice that may help you finish your passion projects although I come from mostly an animation background I try to keep it as general as possible so it applies to a lot of personal projects [Music] hey guys it's CE Caputo and today I kind of want to talk about sharing tips and advice on completing your personal passion projects for this year I just wrapped up on a personal project which is a proof of concept video that I've been working on for a while I just wanted to finish a sizzle reel for it and that was my personal project for the last few months now if you have a personal project that you want to get done whether it's a comic whether it's an animated project or some illustration piece it's always good to have a strategy in a plan for finishing these projects and many times most people just procrastinate or never finish anything one of the first things I want you guys to think about and maybe you can write this down on a paper or on a document is write down all the benefits you can gain from the project when this project is actually finished another way to think about it is why did you start in the first place what are thoughts that come to mind that excite you when you finish this project I want you guys to think about the best results that can come out of this project so for me for someone who wants to work on short films and really short animated projects I think about film festival submissions and possible Awards which can lead to interviews and traveling to different places in the world I'm going to be real with you guys my personal projects have led me to opportunities and rewards which a few years ago it actually helps my visa case that allows me to work and live within the United States when I made the TV animation course that took me a year and a half to finish I wanted to make an educational video course that gets people excited for TV animation but it also led to passive monetary income therefore when a production ends or I get let go from a job I'm stable enough to take my time in looking for new jobs or to work on personal projects sometimes I do these really small comics that are meant to be a joke my goal is really just to make people laugh it's something that's meant to be casually enjoyed the goals and rewards for your personal projects don't have to be amazingly huge it has to come from a genuine place even if that reward is small that's still good enough maybe you just want to gain more followers and traction to your website or your portfolio speaking of portfolio maybe these personal projects can be added to your portfolio which may lead to collaborative opportunities in the future now the second big advice I'd like to give is to break down your whole process and make a schedule out of it in animation we have this thing called the pipeline test and it's really just a test to see if production workflow works we experiment with how much work goes into coloring animation backgrounds all the necessary steps to get a final image from nothing if you're doing comics start off with doing thumbnails and then bring those thumbnails into layout rough it out and then do the clean up any of your painting start with roughs then the flats and then rendering whatever medium or personal project you're doing the point of doing the pipeline tests is to see how much work it takes to - each step and whether you need to compromise sacrifice I'll talk about that stuff later in the video so when you are doing a test or you're basing it off your previous experiences record the amount of work you'll need to do for each step now once you know how long each step takes break it down into a calendar or schedule set dates and deadlines for yourself put a date on when a certain step should be finished and save a few days in just finishing a single step this is after knowing how long each step should take so you have a clear idea in how many days or how much time you need to finish a certain milestone or you could be more vague where you just put a month to a certain step for the dream Bend it's proof of concept for example starting June until October I just worked on animation from rough to tie down to clean up and I need by the end of November I just wanted to be done so November was just labor work that includes coloring that also included compositing and speed painting backgrounds one thing I want to say about thinking about your schedule is to be realistic meaning that don't cheat it as you're going full sprints every day on the project and that schedule is really tight maybe go one third of a full sprint a light jog you probably can't spend the next six hours working on personal project after a full-time job but that also leads to burnout and burnout leads to procrastination and just giving up on a project working on personal projects can be a marathon especially that personal project is big so when you're thinking about your schedule think about days or weeks for times when you're not working on the personal project at all I have two reasons for suggesting this one take breaks and enjoy life - what happened to be get sick or what happens if there's a circumstance that puts things to halt you need to have days that allow for accommodation it's a cushion those be realistic maybe have a full time job and you only want to spend an hour to 2 hours per day working on a personal project so make a schedule that works for your lifestyle while being able to spend time enjoying life now the third tip that I've been doing recently and that's helping me keep track and stay focused on work is to record your process while you're working on your project when I'm recording myself I tend to stay more focused on my work rather than browse the internet and do things stop procrastinating another thing to keep in mind is so that you can make archive videos so when you want to make making a video or behind the scenes you have footage for my video capture software I've always used OBS open broadcaster software not only do I record what I do on my computer but I also use it to stream that way there are people watching you while you work it's free so you can just download it online now with that being said put in some interval brakes I use an app and a stopwatch called Pomodoro and there's a browser base for this too whereas for 25 minutes I'm just working and after those 25 minutes are done there's a 5 minute break and then another 25 minute of working and in a long break that can be 10 to 15 minutes but honestly do what's best for you because your work style changes over time now the fourth advice I'd like to give is to make a deadline that matches an event when I work on my own personal projects I like to think about certain events and festivals to reveal my finished projects so you can think about events like exhibitions conventions film festivals maybe you're trying to make a deadline for a gallery so if you wanted to finish an illustration sequence maybe set a gallery for yourself or a certain day sometimes you want to be done before a certain holiday for the dream Bandits proof-of-concept video I just wanted to be done before Thanksgiving better yet before the year ended when I finished my TD animation course I wanted it to be done before CTN but I never showed it at CT but I did use that as a reference when finishing a personal project not only does a deadline just force an urgency to finish a project but think about how that deadline or event matches up to why you started in the first place and why that event can lead to the benefits that you're aiming for the fifth advice I'd like to give is to have friends or a check-in group to show process of progress of your work I always like to show works in progress to friends to get feedback support and encouragement I'm kind of secretive when it comes to my projects but I'm not too secretive to hide it from people I really trust so I avoid sharing it to everyone I only share it to people that I know I can trust meaning that these people will actually help me get to my goal rather than resist the people I select will help me get closer to a goal that I want rather than veer away from it and give something that's completely out of what I'm aiming for because there are people who just like to criticize just for the sake of feeling entitled when I worked on cram dragon for example an individual I respected a lot gave me some feedback that didn't sit well with my goal so from then on I only communicated with people who can help me get closer to that goal and if I strayed away from that goal they can help me bring me back they can be objective they can be critique and they can give me suggestions as long as it strengthens the project the way I wanted now another advice I'd like to give is to compromise and sacrifice maybe your original vision is way too ambitious so how do you find ways to trim it down to make it more realistic for you so maybe you can start removing elements in your project that aren't important to you find alternatives and work with parameters maybe deal with limited colors or no colors at all just black and white sometimes these parameters can add and strengthen to your film it makes it feel more focused and condensed if you work in animation like I do maybe you can think about ways to have more budget and limited animation or maybe trim the running time so you can actually finish something ask yourself this if a certain element was removed from your project would it change this project drastically if you feel like that one element gives the project perp don't remove it if it doesn't have a drastic role for the project or if it's just meandering and it just takes away from the actual purpose of the project then you might want to consider taking it out one big advice I'd like to give and this is something that's very personal to me it is prioritizing certain projects what is realistic for you and your life think about the lifestyle you want to lead in the lifestyle you currently have life stuff gets in the way and that's a fact and depending on the scale you set for your personal projects personal projects can take up a lot of your free time an individual who's single and lives by themselves may have more flexibility than someone who has to take care of a family you want to have more life experiences outside of your work and obligations to fulfill that's outside of your personal projects so maybe you want to do a personal project that's more small and casual but what if you're someone like me who likes to do a lot of personal projects at once having a lot of ideas and personal projects is actually a great thing but the problem with this is that if you're working on them all together at the same time you're not spending enough time for a single project to be finished therefore you might not end up finishing any project at all so this is when you have to actually start prioritizing think about things like what is the urgency of a certain project to be done right now how close are you to finishing a certain project is there less work for a personal project does it make sense with your current lifestyle if you were to finish this project as soon as possible how would it make your current lifestyle better maybe the next few weeks the next few months half a year or the year is just dedicated to only one personal project so you can get that one personal project out of the way understand if your projects are long-term or short-term and think about which one works well with your lifestyle now great advice that I should have done more when I was at school is to create incentives and rewards for hitting certain milestones when working on your personal projects the thing about motivation is that it's fickle passion and things can just die out easily so you need something once in a while to ignite that flame yes there are rewards and benefits you can gain after finishing up project but that's still a while to go so think about giving yourself a small reward for finishing a milestone in your project think about incentives you can give yourself finish all the rough animation and tie down treat yourself out to a nice dinner finished a hurdle in your project go out with friends and have a blast maybe you finished a major step and you had a really good place maybe buy yourself something pricey as a nice gift for yourself or go on a short vacation trip for the weekend if you're a social butterfly maybe throw a party celebrating a certain stuff that's finished but you want to give yourself rewards for hitting a certain milestone in your project sometimes I like to share work-in-progress with friends and their excitement kind of motivates me so again think about incentives so the last bit of advice I'd like to give is just to keep moving forward stay disciplined even in small increments I like to use a gym as an analogy because it kind of matches perfectly well with a personal project that does take time when people start at the gym they usually go very hard at the first two weeks and then they go less and less because when they miss one day they'll say oh I'll go the next day and then they end up missing that day and they'll say oh I'll go the next day and then they end up not doing anything at all and that similar thing can be done with personal projects whether it's animation comics or whatever you're working on you kind of have to give yourself some small discipline to work on these personal projects but be realistic again don't work full sprint and blow your wad maybe set yourself a time limit only spend one hour or two hours on your personal project a day and once that time runs out just stop working on it and keep doing that until it becomes more comfortable and it can be sustainable and then if you want to increase that time later on you're free to do that but be careful with that because thinking about how much work you have to dedicate yourself to a certain day does stress you out because again there will be days when you just don't want to work on your personal project at all or you just don't have the energy to perform your optimal and maybe the schedule yourself is just adding more pressure just work on it little by little even if each day is just a small fraction the work you usually do that's why I always encourage you guys to work on a schedule that allows you to spend time taking breaks and enjoying life and the only time so you should be going full out is when you're in the final steps of your project when it's close to being done not saying you have to go full out but if you had to I feel like that's the best part to be at it also try to remember the reason why you started in the first place one may be excited about it and what's the best outcome for you at the end of the project and that's why my first tip might be one of the most important ones - to help you remember that anyways those are some of the tips and advice I'd like to share on finishing personal passion projects I hope you guys enjoyed this video and I'll see you guys next time interested in learning hand-drawn animation or learning how to finish an animated shot from beginning to end have a look at the store where you'll find the complete introduction to 2d animation video course tutorials and other resources learn classical animation approaches drawing lectures techniques and other process videos visit the store through the link in the description below

Channel: Toniko Pantoja

Views: 47,700

Keywords: Toniko Pantoja, Youtube, Animation, Tutorial, Advice, Lesson, Vlog, Adobe, Photoshop, Animate, Flash, After Effetcts, Premiere, Video, Film, personal, passion, projects, finishing, tips

Id: 7iLMcgyf9_M

Length: 14min 42sec (882 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 09 2019