It’s time for my November 2015 Update to let all of you know everything we are working on. I’m really good at keeping myself overworked, and extremely busy. No matter how productive I am each day I never get to a point where I feel I’m caught up. You may have noticed from my failure to post to this blog each week that I have not been able to keep up with everything. While continuing to write weekly posts is very important to me sometimes I’m just not able to find the time in my schedule. So while I might not post every week please don’t give up on me and this blog.
Business:
Recently I have hired a marketing consultant to do some research, and strategizing for my business’ marketing plan. There are two areas we are working on with this plan. One is branding and marking the company as a whole, and the other is planning the release of the animated short we are working on. I feel these are both things which will help grow my business, and hopefully get us more client projects.
I have also been doing a lot of research on foreign animation service companies. One of my biggest challenges is the cost to do animation in the US is much higher then it is in other countries with cheaper labor or tax credits. My plan is to find out how much these other companies are charging for each service, and then finding ways to lower my costs to compete with them. I know I will not be able to get costs as low as them, but if I can get close I feel I will be able to win clients through other things we can offer. For example being local makes it a lot easier for clients, so being in Los Angeles gives us a huge advantage. Having amazing quality that is better then our competitors. I hope to show this level of quality with our animated short. Customer service, I want to make working with us as easy and comfortable as possible for our clients. I want them to be so happy they not only return to work with us again, but also tell other people about us. Hopefully these other benefits will be enough to get the clients to pay a little more in order to work with us over our remote competitors.
Short:
The short always tends to take the majority of my time each week. So far we have had 14 people working on the short, so we have had a decent size crew. We started working on it in May of this year, and plan to be working on the first 30-second episode until early next year. While it is taking a long time to complete I’m very excited with how things are progressing.
All the assets for the first episode are modeled and currently being worked on in surfacing. We have also finished character rigging, and we have started working on camera and rough animation.
Here are some rough poses done by our animator Jacob Gardner to test the rig, and get something more appealing then a t-pose for surfacing to work with. It really gives you a sense of Bink’s personality, and where we can take it.
As we continue to move forward on the short I will send more updates.
CTNX:
This weekend I will be attending The Creative Talent Network Expo in Burbank for the second time. I went last year and had such a great time I wanted to go again. You can read about my adventures last year at CTNX here… “An Amazing Experience at CTN Animation Expo” .
The first year I went to see what it was all about, so this year I’m hoping to take full advantage of what the expo has to offer. It is a great place for networking with artists, animators, and anyone involved in animation. I plan to attend some really great panels, and also hoping to learn some new things. Next year I’m considering getting a booth for my company, and maybe even participate in the job fair to find talented artists to work with.
Facebook Network:
My Facebook network is continuing to grow, and we now have over 4,000 Facebook likes on our company page. The larger our network the better chance we have of getting the short to be seen my the right people. If you have not liked our page you can do so with the link below. Also I always appreciate when you share my blog posts, or other social media sites with your own network.
Paris Attacks:
I wanted to end by briefly commenting on the terrorist attacks in Paris, and other places. It is disheartening people resort to violence towards innocent people to make their statements. My thoughts are with all of you who have lost loved ones, or have been effected by all this violence. The animation industry has a very large and talented French community, and I hope you and your families also stay safe.
If you have not already, I hope you will join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog. If you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.
