New Year’s Resolutions for an Animation Studio

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It’s a new year, and a fresh start. In the past a new year was simply trying to remember to change the last digit or two when writing the year, but for the most part little changed. With the business it seems to be much more abrupt of a change, because of the way things are setup with the IRS. Closing out your books for the year, sending out 1099’s, and getting ready for taxes.

Last year feels like I was just testing the water, since it was only half the year. 2015 will be my first full year in business, and that is both exciting and scary. I did not have any downtime last year, since as soon as I left my day job I had a project to work on. This is the first time with the business that I’m not making any money. There is a good chance that January will be the companies first month in the red. Hopefully there will not be to many months this year in the red, but only time will tell.

I plan to use this month to lay some groundwork to hopefully set the company up for success the rest of the year. I feel the most important thing is to get my website updated and looking professional. This includes getting my demo reel edited, and uploaded to the site. I will still mostly be focusing on client work this year as I don’t feel I have the money or reputation yet to start my own projects.

It being a new year I thought it would be appropriate for me to set some goals for the year, or New Year’s Resolutions if you will.

New Year’s resolution: From Wikipedia
The ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts. The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named. In the Medieval era, the knights took the “peacock vow” at the end of the Christmas season each year to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.

Below are some of my resolutions I make that I hope to accomplish in the next 12 months. Some of them are a stretch, but why set goals that are to easy to achieve?

Work-Life Balance:
These last 6 months have been crazy busy, and that was only dealing with 1 client at a time.  I need to find a better balance between the demands of the company, and my personal life and family.  I realize that the business will always take a lot of time, and these first few years might be the most time consuming.  That is why it is even more important that I find a way to balance my time between it and my personal life now.  After all, one of the reasons I wanted to have my own business was so I could enjoy life more.

3 new Major Clients:
This might seem counter productive to the previous goal, but that is why it is even more important to find a balance now.  Most companies want to continue to do better and grow their business, so growing my customer base should not come as a surprise.  My goal this year is to get 3 new clients with large projects to work on is going to be challenging, but I feel is important for the success of my business. Ideally I would like to have more animation projects, but I also enjoy VFX projects.

Grow Team:
Right now the company is just me, and when I have projects I bring on Freelancers to help out.  This is great in keeping costs down, but I want to bring on others that can help me grow the business.  People that are invested in the idea, and share my passion to grow the company.  This needs to be the right person, or persons that can add something to the team.  With Strengths that compliment my weaknesses.

Develop my own IP:
I know I’m not at a point to produce my own content, but I would like to start developing our own content.  Who knows if we get a great idea we might be able to find funding for it.

Continue to learn:
One of the best parts I experienced in running my own business is that I learn something new almost every day.  I want to continue to learn this year.  I want to continue to try new things, and push myself out of my comfort zone.  This keeps things interesting, and makes all the hard work worth it.  I never want to be stuck in neutral.

10,000 Facebook Likes:
At first this sounds like an unrealistic goal, but I feel this is actually attainable.  This week alone I have gained 512 new likes on my company Facebook page.  I’m currently sitting at 1,450 likes, and growing quickly.  I know this week is not the norm, and if it was I would achieve my goal around May or June.  Some weeks I don’t get any new likes, so I feel this goal is challenging yet attainable. I could use your help to reach this goal.  Share my page with your friends, and help me spread the word. Facebook Page  I also hope to grow my other social media sites, but I will focus on Facebook for this goal.

Do Good:
I want to find a way to give back to the community, a charitable organization, or help a cause.  I have not figured out the best way to give back, but this is something that is important to me.  It also does not have to be only one way.  I have always wanted to make an animated video to help kids that are bullied.  I know there are a lot of kids that struggle with bullies, and I want to show them how they can get help.  Even if it is just educating the kids that are bullying to make them realize what they are doing.

Government contract work:
I want to figure out how to get on these government contract lists.  I was way to busy last year to take the time to make sense of all the paperwork that is required to get on these lists to obtain government work.  Now that I have more free time I would like to figure it out.

Wikipedia Approval:
This might seem like an odd one, but hear me out.  I have this fun game I like to play with Wikipedia called “Lets see how long I can have an article on Wikipedia for”.  I play by adding a new article for “Eric Miller Animation Studios”, and see how long it takes them to remove it. They normally send nice uplifting messages like “The article Eric Miller Animation Studios has been speedily deleted from Wikipedia due to no sign of real notability.”.  Normally it is removed within seconds, but this last time I was able to keep it up for 7 days.  Progress!!!  So my goal is to do something that Wikipedia considers noteworthy enough to get my company in the “modern version” history books we call Wikipedia.

Well, these are just a few of the goals that I have for my business this year.  I will keep you updated on my progress on all these goals as the year goes on.  I expect all of you to hold me to these goals, and if I’m slipping on any of them to call me out on it.  Heres to an amazing 2015!

 

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.

Thank you 1,000 Times!

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We now have over 1,000 Facebook likes.  Thank you for being a part of our journey! This is our final achievement in 2014. Happy New Year Everyone!

 

Thank you, 300 Twitter Followers!

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We now have over 300 Twitter followers!  Thank you to all that are following, and if you would like to follow us you can click the link below.

 

 

A Blank Canvas, and Endless Possibilities for an Animation Studio

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We are in the last weeks of our second Toys”R”Us project, and when it is done we will have made around 40 commercials for them.  These have been amazing first two projects for my company, and very fortunate to have had this opportunity.  A big thanks to Hashi for thinking of me, and brining me on board to help with it back in July.  Earlier this week after finishing one of the very important commercials we got a very nice email from the agency letting us know how happy the client was with our work.  This is the kind of late night emails I actually enjoy getting.  Hopefully we will get to work with this agency again on other future projects they might have.

As this project is coming to an end I have been kicking the search for my next projects into full speed.  I’m currently in talks with a company that asked me to do some CG animation work for them that.  I’m actually really excited about this project, since it is the kind of project I have been wanting to do.  I will know more in the next couple weeks if I will get to be involved with this project.  It would be perfect timing for me as I start to ramp down from the Toys”R”Us project.

I have also been doing a lot of thinking about how far my company has come so far, and where I want to go with it.  When I left DreamWorks Animation 5 months ago I was expecting that the first 2 years I would not have any clients.  I figured I would need at least that much time to put together a portfolio, and to build a brand for my company.  I feel I’m already ahead of the game, so I could not be happier with how things are going.  With that said though, I feel I have not done anything extraordinary.  I’m positive that anyone that took a chance, and spent the time could be doing the same thing that I am doing.  If I want to make my company great I will have to find a way to make it stand out from the rest.  I will need to find what is unique and special to my company, and expand upon it.  This of course is easier said then done, and I’m still trying to figure out what will set us apart from the crowd.  Luckily this does not have to be figured out at this moment, and it might end up being a more organic discovery as the company grows.

What excites me about where I’m at with the studio are the endless possibilities, like an artist with a blank canvas.  I have the opportunity to guide this studio in any direction that is seems best.

“The sky is a canvas, so paint your own life.” – Jada Berglund

 

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.

900 Facebook Likes! Why Social Networking is so Important for an Animation Company

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It is a little after 4am, and I thought… “what a great time to write the blog post that I was not able to get to on Friday”.  I took a quick power nap earlier, so I’m full of energy now.

I will start off by saying Thank You for all of you who have supported me in so many ways since I left my job at DreamWorks 5 months ago.  Our company Facebook page now has over 900 Likes!  I’m getting closer to my 1,000 Likes goal, and I will need all your help to get there.

You may ask why I care so much about the number of Likes I have on Facebook, but a strong social presence is extremely important these days.  There are several reasons why I feel this is important.  First off it gives me a direct line to people who are interested in what I’m doing with the company, and the work we are doing.

There are a lot of people doing some amazing work out there, and on occasion something goes “viral”.  It is not always clear why one thing goes viral and another does not, but having a large social following certainly can help.  It all depends on the right people seeing it at the right time, and sharing, and then it getting shared again, and again.  If you are not reaching enough, or at least the right people your work may never be seen more then your own social network.  The more people that I have a direct link to show our work the greater chance I will have of it being seen by the most people possible.

Another reason is that I would love to one day create my own content, and a popular way of raising money to do that is crowd funding.  I have mentioned before about some very successful campaigns where the people raised far more then what they needed.  I feel like having a way to communicate directly with people that are interested in your work is a great place to start in raising money, or getting the word out there.

Working in the commercial world it is important to always be bringing in new clients, but finding clients is not always easy.  Often calling clients up directly does not seem to get a very good response.  I think they have people calling them all the time trying offering their services, so they often put up these walls.  A more natural way is for them to “discover” your work.  When they find something they like they will reach out to you.  Sounds simple enough, but if they never see your work, then don’t expect this to ever work.  Once again, having your work being seen by more people you have a greater chance of an agency seeing your work.  It also helps if they see that people are interested in your work, and you already have a large following.

So for my small company that does not have much of a marketing budget a strong social network is important.  Of course this is only part of the puzzle, but it is not a part you should ignore.  So once again thank you for Liking our page, following our blog, and supporting us in any way.

You might be saying “Eric, I have already liked your Facebook page, subscribed to your blog, and following you on twitter, so how else can I help support your company?”  Well, I’m glad you asked!  You can share with anyone in your network that you think might be interested in what I’m doing with the company.  If you like a blog post, please share it on your Facebook wall.  If you like a video we made then tweet it to your followers.

In all seriousness, I can’t thank you all enough for reading my blogs, and following along on this journey.  It is hard to believe it was only 5 months ago that I left the port of DWA, and set sail on my own.  It has been such an exciting voyage so far, and can’t wait to see what is on the horizon.

Last Monday I was invited to attend the DreamWorks Animation’s Home Leadership Dinner.  They have these dinners when they are nearing the completion of a film to thank the show’s leadership for all their hard work.  I actually was a little shocked when I got the invitation, but was excited that I was able to attend.  It was really nice catching up with everyone, and sharing with them my experiences since leaving DWA.  Many of them had no idea I started my own company, and were very surprised to find out.  Some even thought I was still working at DWA.  It was a very fun evening full of stories, reminiscing, and laughter.  I really appreciated that they still including me in the celebration.  I can’t wait to see how much the movie has changed since I left in July.

DWA-Home-Leadership-Dinner-Photo

 

 

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.

An Amazing Experience at CTN Animation Expo

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I had a great time at the CTN Animation Expo this last weekend.  Not only did I get to see a lot of industry friends, but I also got to meet a lot of new people.  I also got to hear a lot of great discussions, and meet some of the animation legends.

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Ken Duncan

I had the pleasure to hear Ken Duncan talk about his studio that he started 8 years ago, and was excited to get to sit next to him in a “Meet Ken Duncan” discussion.  Ken worked at Disney for many years, and is best known for his female characters that he was supervising animator on.  This includes Meg from “Hercules”, and Jane from “Tarzan”.  I learned of Ken and his company Duncan Studio while working on the DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda DVD featurette.  We were doing the CG bookend animation, while his studio worked on the 2D animation part.  I’m hoping for a chance to get to meet him for lunch sometime, and to see his studio.  Fingers crossed.

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L to R: Eric Goldberg, Ron Clements, Bill Kroyer, Jerry Rees, John Musker

On Saturday morning I started my day out going to a tribute to the Late Robin Williams with film directors John Musker, Ron Clements, Jerry Rees, Bill Kroyer, and supervising animator Eric Goldberg.  They have all worked with Robin Williams, and they wanted to honor him by sharing their experiences working with him.

It was really great to hear them talk about their memories of Robin Williams.  When Jerry Rees was talking about his experience he talked about directing “Back to Neverland”.  For anyone that remembers the Animation tour at Disney/MGM Studios at Walt Disney World where you get to go on a walking tour through the animation studio you will have seen this.  Sadly the animation tour and the Florida animation studio is no longer around, but it was one of my favorite attractions.  It is also one that I worked at when I did the Walt Disney World College Program Internship my 2002 spring and summer semester in college.  The tour started out by everyone coming into a small theatre where they played “Back to Neverland”.  It had Walter Cronkite, and Robin Williams, and they turned Robin into an animated character to show you how animation works.  If you have not had the privilege of seeing it on the tour, I will include an extremely poor quality version I found on YouTube.

Working as a tour guide I had to introduce the film, and then watch it around 4 to 5 times a day.  I loved it and never got sick of it.  When I learned that Jerry Rees was the director, I was overly excited.  Later that day I ran into Jerry and John Musker, and told them about my animation tour guide days.  They were very nice, and I had a great conversation with them.  They were also kind enough to take a photo with me.

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The rest of the weekend was a mix of going to different workshops, some of which were ones taught by friends of mine, and walking around on the exhibition floor.  It was really nice getting to make a lot of new contacts with artists, and meet some extremely talented people.  It was interesting that majority of the people I met were trying to get jobs at one of the major studios, and I’m the crazy guy that had a studio job and left on my own free will.  Maybe that is a sign that I’m a little crazy, but I’m okay with that.

One of the best things of the week was seeing these amazing projects everyone was working on.  It really inspired me to want to try and pull a team together, and make an animated short.  There were several people there that got their projects entirely funded by crowd funding.  I met animator James Lopez that did a Indiegogo campaign to raise money to make an animated short.  He raised almost 1/2 a million dollars so far which is enough money to make 4 animated shorts if not more.  I’m sure that is the exception to the norm, but it is still a fun thought to play around with.  In closing I had a great time at the conference, and I’m looking forward to going again next year.  Who knows, maybe I will get a booth for my company next year.

 

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 have been a bad blogger!

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I have not been a very good blogger lately, and try and post every Friday.  I missed last Friday, and this post won’t really count as an actual post.  Things have been crazy busy, and this weekend I will be at the CTN Animation Expo.

Wikipedia says:

“CTN Animation Expo is an annual three day animation convention that focuses on putting “the talent” center stage. It is held at the Marriott Convention Center in Burbank, California during what is officially proclaimed by the City of Burbank to be “Animation Week” for this event.”

With me being out for the next 3 days I’m afraid I’m going to miss a post this week as well other then this quick update.   I actually should be leaving now for the conference, but waiting to get on a conference call.  The Toys”R”Us project is getting very close to the end, and after that I will have much more time to write my blog posts.

Follow my Twitter account for updates these next 3 days for CTN tweets.

 

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.

An Animation Company that can always Improve!

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This week we are still moving at full speed on our current projects.  Toys”R”Us posted the first commercial of their Holiday Campaign on their YouTube channel that we have been working on.  We work on all the individual shots, so it is nice to see them all edited together with final SFX.  I included it on this post so you can watch it here.

I enjoy meeting with other professionals in the industry, and I always feel like I walk away from those meetings knowing so much more then before.  I learn so much from talking to these people, but at the same time it can also stress me out.  Learn about things that I feel I should have known, but didn’t always makes me worry about all the other things I might not know about.  This week I had one of those experiences after meeting with a very knowledgeable proffesional.  I left the conversation thinking about all the things I need to do to make my company better.  These things include, but are not limited to legal protection, advertising, and security of our data.  I think we are doing a pretty good job with all of these, but I also see ways we could make it better.  This is something I really want to look into, so the company can be the best that it can be.

This also got me thinking about the company and its culture.  At first I was thinking strictly about finding work, and doing the best job that we can, but I feel there is so much more then that.  For example, what do our clients think of working with us, and how do the artists feel about working with us?  I want people to enjoy working for the company, and truly want to be a part of what I’m trying to build.  I don’t want to be looked at as simply a place to get a paycheck from.  I want the company to be known for doing great work, but I also want a culture that is something to be proud of.  So these are some of the things that I will be spending more time brainstorming.  Please let me know in the comments of what you think makes a company a great place to work, or a company you want to do business with.

FullSizeRenderOn Wednesday, I went to an event for any who has earned the BSA rank of Eagle Scout in the Los Angeles area.  It was nice to get to talk with other Eagle Scouts about their scouting memories, and meet some really amazing people.  Scouting has always been such a great part of my childhood, and I hope that my son will get to have similar experiences in scouting.  At the event we had former Boy Scout, actor, and environmental activist Ed Begley, Jr. as our guest speaker.  I got a chance to talk with him, and he is a very interesting man that makes you really think about ways that you can be more environmentally minded.  This guy has a 10,000 gallon grey water tank under his house, and wind turbines on his roof for electricity.  I met a lot of other people that are in the entertainment industry, and had a conversation with a producer that has an animation project that he wanted to talk to me about.  He has a fun exciting project, and I look forward to our continued conversations.

Yesterday I went back to DreamWorks to visit some of my friends.  It was great getting to see everyone and getting caught up with how everyone is doing.  DreamWorks is such a great company, and there are some crazy talented and amazing people that work there.  I’m still very happy with my decision to leave, and go off on my own. Maybe one day DreamWorks will ask my company to do some work for them.  Wink-wink nudge-nudge for any DreamWorks executives reading this blog.

 

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.