It is time for our February 2016 Animation Company Update! It has been a busy month, and I feel like I’m juggling as much as I can to keep the company moving forward. I don’t want to bore you with every detail, so below you will find updates on the bigger projects and activities I have been working on.
Bink:
The major activity with Bink the last couple weeks is we have been doing a lot of work with the music and sound effects. On Monday I received the final music underscore from our composer, Carl Johnson. He did an amazing job of creating different themes, and music for such a short animation. This episode is only 30 seconds, so introducing the different characters has to happen very quickly. I’m excited to see how it will work with the other sound effects.
The sound effects are being done by our good friends over at Boom Box Post, and I had a spotting session with the Co-founder Jeff Shiffman last week. This gave us a chance to look at the short, and talk about what I expect to hear at different parts. He ask a lot of really great questions, and brought up things I did not even think about before. This is the awesome part about working with different talented people, they each bring something unique to the project which adds unique layers to the project making it that much better. I can’t wait to see what he does with the SFX when we meet for final remix on Monday. As a side note, we made it onto their website with their other amazing clients! 😀
I have also started to reach out to the press about writing articles on Bink. I have heard back from 2 different industry magazines who are interested in doing write-ups about the short. One actually wants to do a few articles about different aspects of the production process. I think getting these articles will help in getting the word out to as many people as possible.
We are working on problem solving a few more things in regards to Bink’s fur, but otherwise we are ready to start lighting and rendering the shots. We are in the final stretch, and I’m very excited about getting to share this short animation and all the hard work of everyone involved.
Project-MMM:
Our client project we are working on is also going really well. All the models are built and surfaced, and all the characters are rigged. We are currently finishing up rough layout where we are taking all the assets and composing the different shots with virtual cameras. This is all done on the computer using software called Maya. We plan to start animation tomorrow, and hope to have it done in a few weeks. The quality of this short is more in line with a web-series while with Bink we are aiming more towards feature quality. This is why we are able to move much quicker on this project then with Bink. Once we finish the first episode of Project-MMM we plan to move on to the 2nd episode. I’m hoping we can streamline the process and deliver each subsequent episode quicker then the previous.
LA Society of Creative Professionals:
Last night we had our 8th Society Mixer, and we had a great turn out. I’m still having a lot of fun with putting these mixers on, and I have met a lot of really amazing people. I know several people who came to the mixers which through the people they met there lead to them getting jobs, and I have even hired a few people from the mixers. Last night I witnessed something I would have never imagined I would see. Someone who has never come to one of the mixers might have got themselves an interview, because someone at the mixer was saying how this person was looking for a job and how amazing this person is to an executive who has been looking to hire someone with skills this mystery person has. I see this as a sign the mixers are making a real difference in the creative community when people who have not even come to any of the events are benefiting.
Marketing & Social Media:
Our Social Media Marketing Coordinator, Brittany Potter has been doing a great job with all of our social media accounts and marketing efforts. If you follow the company on our different social media sites you may have seen some of her posts. We have also been doing Talent Spotlights where every other week we highlight one of the extremely talented people we get to work with. If you want to check them out as well as the other blog posts you can find them on the company’s blog here.
We are preparing for the launch of the first episode of Bink, and as mentioned above the first part involves reaching out to the press. Once we have the first episode of Bink it will help in our marketing efforts because we can actually show potential clients the quality of work we can do. I have been holding back a lot of my sales and marketing efforts waiting for the completion of the short. In July the first episode of Project-MMM will be out, and this will give us another style of animation to showcase on our portfolio.
While the language on my website has been about how we offer animation, VFX, and motion graphics I plan to change it to be more specific. My focus is high quality 3D animation, so I want my website and marketing to reflect this. We will still offer those other services to our clients, but it will not be a major part of our brand. Focusing on our specialty will help us find the clients we can help the most.
Oscar Week: Animated Features:
This evening I’m attending an event to celebrate the nominees for Best Animated Feature Film. They will be showing clips of each animated movie followed by an onstage discussion with each group of nominated filmmakers. This year’s films are, Anomalies, Boy and the World, Inside Out, Shaun the Sheep Movie, and When Marnie Was There. For more information and trailers, visit: http://oscar.go.com/nominees/animated-feature-film. I have never been to this event before, so I’m excited to check it out. I will be sure to share how it goes in next week’s blog post.
This about covers all the major things I have been working on. I hope you enjoyed reading about all I have going on with the company. Please feel free to leave a comment below if you ever have any topics you are interested in hearing about.
If you have not already, please join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog. Also, 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.
I had a chance before the award show started to talk with Steve Martino the director of The Peanuts Movie. I have seen him at several other events I have attended in the past, but never had a chance to talk with him. I found out he is also a fellow Ohioan. He was born in Dayton, Ohio and went to school at Ohio State University. He also directed Horton Hears a Who! and Ice Age: Continental Drift which I’m sure you have all heard of. He is a really nice guy, and we had a nice little chat.