Eric Miller Animation’s 2017 New Year’s Resolutions

I wanted to take a moment to set some goals for 2017 on what I want Eric Miller Animation to accomplish. I feel it is important to write down my goals at the beginning of each year, and to constantly revisit those goals as priorities change. You can see how I did on my 2016 goals in my earlier post “Report Card for 2016’s Resolutions“. Here are my goals for 2017.

New Bink Short:
It would be an understatement to say the progress on Bink is slow.  It has always been on the back burner as we work on other projects. I also need to make sure I have enough money coming in from client projects to pay for the work on Bink.  This situation has caused our progress to be much slower then I hoped it would be.  We are currently working on a 3-4 minute Bink short, and my goal for this year is to have it finished.  The major hangups right now is getting the fur working properly for lighting, and locking down a great story.

Grow Team:
This year is all about new relationships for me.  I will be spending a lot of my time meeting with talented people in the industry, and finding ways for us to work together.  I would love to be able to build a great team of very talented people who are ready to take on any new challenge which might come our way.  My goal is to bring on more people to help grow the company. This could be producers to help bring on more clients, directors or creative directors to take the creative lead on our projects, or advisors who can guide me with their wisdom and experience.

New Clients:
We have had 5 clients we have worked with since I started the business in July of 2014.  I would love to continue working with these clients on new projects, and I would also like to bring on additional clients.  The first few years have been about getting things setup, but for this year I really want to take off.  I will be setting a very ambitious goal of 5 new clients in 2017.  I think with the momentum we ended last year with that this is an attainable goal.

Be Profitable in 2017:
I’m actually surprised I have been able to keep the company profitable considering most business can expect to loose money in the first few years.  So far the only year I was not profitable was 2015, and that was because we were doing work on the Bink Teaser.

With my business 1 project could be the difference of a profitable year or a loss.  I’m not selling widgets to consumers where it is all about pushing product.  My business is more about building relationships with my clients, and hoping when they have animation work they think of Eric Miller Animation Studios.

While the business has been profitable I have yet to take a paycheck for myself.  I have been keeping the money in the business to help it grow.  My goal for 2017 is we make enough of a profit that I can take a reasonable yearly salary, while still having money left over to grow the business.

Grow Social Media Followers:
Growing our social media is important to me for several reasons.  I want to be able to share all the amazing things we are working on, and also would love to increase our chances of finding those new clients.  I think social media is a very cost effective way to market our services to grow the business.  While the quality of our followers is more important it is a hard thing to track.  I will set the goal as growing all our social media accounts by 50%.

Increasing each network by 50% will be as follows:
Facebook: 4829 -> 7,243
Twitter: 1033 -> 1,550
LinkedIn: 233 -> 350
Google+: 23 -> 35
InstaGram: 697 -> 1,046
YouTube: 282 -> 423

 

Well, these are some of the general goals I have for this year. I hope to not only achieve these goals, but to go above and beyond them.  I hope you all have a great and successful 2017!

 

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.

Eric Miller Animation: 2016 Year in Review

As this will be my last blog post in 2016 I wanted to do a Year in Review of how this year has been. Many of these things we have gone into greater detail in past posts, so this will just be a quick overview of the year. Overall it has been a great year.  We got to work on some great projects, and I got to attend some really exciting events.  The business was profitable, and we did a lot better then we did last year.  I’m very excited, and looking forward to what we will achieve in 2017.

Events & Projects:

MagicMeeMees:

mmm_1to4
You may have seen the web series we have been working on called MagicMeeMee which is based on the toys by the same name.  Our client, Future of Play, asked us to create this web series to help get people aware of their new toy-line. We started working on the series at the beginning of this year, and ended up working on the episodes most of the year.  We released the first episode on July 11th, and the 4th episode earlier this month.  Currently the four episodes have a 173,173 combined view count on the client’s YouTube pages.  Creating this web series was such a great learning experience, and I felt each episode was better then the last.  I hope we get to work on more of these episodes in the future.  Click here to watch the series.

 

Producer Guild Awards:

pga_awards
On Jan. 23rd of this year I attended my second Producers Guild Awards. I was also able to talk my wife, who was pregnant, into being my date.  I’m not sure how she was able to wear high-heels while pregnant, but she somehow pulled it off.  I think one of the awards should have gone to her for that.  It is always fun to dress up, and go to these awards to mingle with all the talented people in the industry.  It is also fun to see the movie stars who make an appearance.

 

Annie Awards:

annie_awards
In February I attended the Annie awards for the first time, and it was such a fun event.  This event is very different from the Producers Guild Awards, because it is all about animation.  There is an added excitement to these award shows when you actually know the people getting the awards.  I already have my tickets for both of these events for next year, so I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

 

Launched our Online Store:

store
In April I was really excited the company launched its online store.  I don’t expect to make millions off the merchandise, but I wanted to offer company related shirts for anyone who might want them.

 

Logo Updated

logo
We also made an update to our company’s logo this year.  I wanted something which was a cleaner and simpler read, since I felt the more detailed logo did not print well.

 

My Daughter was Born:

ayla
My wife and I were really excited to welcome our daughter Ayla into the world on May 1st.  She has been such a joy, and I love watching both her and her older brother starting to play together. Even when most of the time it is her brother taking toys away from her. She is already crawling, and trying to walk.

 

UT Alumni Magazine & UT Home Page:

utnews
Bink got a lot of love this year from my Alma mater, the University of Toledo.  He ended up making an appearance in the UT Alumni Magazine, UT News, and the University’s Website’s Home page on a few occasions this year.

 

3D World Magazine:

3dworld
Bink also made an appearance in 2 issues of 3D World Magazine.  Once before the release of the teaser short in June, and another after.

 

Bink’s Friends & Family Screening and Wrap Party:

binkparty
How often do you get to create something new and exciting?  I figured we might as well go big with the release of the first episode of Bink, and throw a screening and wrap party to thank all the crew for all their hard work. Even with twisting my ankle really bad hours before people showed up I still had a great time.  As a side note: My ankle is still recovering from this incident.

 

Bink’s Debut:

This might have been one of the biggest things coming out of the company this year.  After working on the short for over a year we finally finished it in time to release it on June 28th. We got a fair amount of attention, and even some clients from the work we did on Bink.  While I consider it a success I still feel there is more to come from Bink.  We are actively working on a longer episode, and hopefully will be releasing it in 2017.

 

University of Toledo – University College: Alumni of the Year:

utalumniyear
I was honored to be selected by my university as the Alumni of the year.  They flew me back to the university in Toledo, Ohio for the Homecoming game, and the award gala where they presented me with the award. It had been a long time since I was in Toledo, so it was really awesome getting to go back and relive some of my college experiences.

 

DreamWorks Animation Presentation:

dwapres
After the release of Bink, DreamWorks Animation invited me to do a presentation for their employees about my company and the projects we have been working on.  It was exciting to get to go back to the DWA campus, and do a talk about what I have been working on.  I also really enjoyed reconnecting with some of my former co-workers.

 

2016 ShowReel:

After we finished all the MagicMeeMee episodes we updated our showreel to showcase all of our new work.  Jared White, who also wrote and directed the MagicMeeMees web series, edited this company showreel together.  You can check it out below.

 

The World Animation & VFX Summit:

wavs
In October I attended the World Animation & VFX Summit, which was my second time attending this event.  I went last year, and got a lot out of it.  This event is geared to producers, and studio heads so all the presentations on very relevant to what I’m doing.  I had a great time at this at this year’s event, and looking forward to going again next year.  I only hope they don’t schedule it on Halloween again.  Check out our blog post about this year’s event.

 

CTNX:

ctnx
In November I attended my 3rd CTNX animation expo which is held each year in Burbank, CA.  This is always a great event, and is much more artist focused then the World Animation & VFX Summit.  I always meet so many great artists and animators as well as learn a lot from the panels and presentations.  Check out our blog post about this year’s CTNX.

 

Honda Project:
The last project we worked on was 2 videos we did for Honda.  One was used at the Los Angeles Auto Show, and the other will be used at CES next month.  Unfortunately we do not have permission to share them online.  If you are going to CES let me know if you see our video.

 

UPDATES:

Blog Post Data:
I actually have two blogs.  This one which I use more as a personal journal of my journey in starting an animation company, and they we also have one for the company. Here is some information on both of them.

blog.milleranimation(this one):
Total 2016 Views: 6,657
Top 2016 Blog Post: Building An Animation Company’s Leadership Team (961 views)
Total Subscribers: 54

milleranimation.com/blog(the company blog):
Total 2016 Views: 5,195
Top 2016 Blog Post: Talent Spotlight: Introducing Violette Sacre (494 views)
Total Subscribers: 42

Website Data:
Total 2016 Views: 32,645
Top 2016 Page: Bink (2,632 views)

Social Media & Marketing:
This year we created a Social Media Marketing Coordinator position, and we have had a few people in this role. They are responsible for daily posts on all our social media accounts, weekly blog posts, quarterly newsletters, and a few other tasks.  This has helped us stay active on all our social media accounts, and create some amazing content for our website.

Facebook:
Network Size: 4,833 Likes
2016 Growth: +407 Likes

Twitter:
Network Size: 1,044 Followers
2016 Growth: +522 Followers

Instagram:
Network Size: 707 Followers
2016 Growth: +466 Followers

YouTube:
Network Size: 287 Subscribers
2016 Growth: +278 Subscribers
Most Popular Video: Bink: New Arrival – Teaser (5,881 views)
Total Channel Views: 10,005

Vimeo:
Network Size: 27 Followers
2016 Growth: +15 Followers
Most Popular Video: Bink – Teaser (514 views)

Google+:
Network Size: 20 Followers
2016 Growth: 4 Followers

Society of Creative Professionals:
While technically the Society of Creative Professionals is not part of the company, and is only hosted by me I still wanted to include it in this update.  We ended up having one mixer each month this year with a range in the number of attendees.  Our biggest mixer this year was our April mixer which was held at the Robin Hood British Pub in Sherman Oaks.  We had over 35 people show up at this event.  If you are interested in coming to our mixers please join the groups Facebook page.

In Conclusion:
Overall I think this was a great year.  I was able to attend a lot of great events, and meet a lot of new people.  These connections will help me to continue to grow the company.  I look forward to the coming years.  I wish all of you a very happy and successful new year!

 

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.

Report Card for 2016’s Resolutions

I started to set Resolutions each year of the goals I want to accomplish within the coming year, and then review how I did at the end of the year.  In January of this year I wrote my resolutions in the post titled “Eric Miller Animation’s New Year’s Resolutions“.  Check them out, or just look below to see how I did.  It seems I need to try harder in 2017 if I want to get a perfect report card

green_checkAnimated Short:
I set the goal to finish the first 30 second episode of Bink this year.  While it took a little longer then I expected we were able to finish it in June of this year.

green_checkNew Clients:
I set the goal to get 3 new clients this year, and while it might be debatable I think we can count 3 new clients.  The debatable part is the one project had both our client and the end client we were dealing with.  So I’m going to count both Alpine, and Honda as clients for the purpose of this goal.  Honda is also a really big client, so it was great getting to work with them on the two projects we did for them this year.  The 3rd, and actually the first client we had this year, was Future of Play.  We did the most work for them by creating 4 episodes of the MagicMeeMees web series.  I’m very happy with the work we did with all three of these clients, and hope to continue to do work for them in 2017.

green_checkLearn Something New:
This goal has been an easy one to check off each year.  I still put it on the list because I feel it is a very important goal to have.  You should never stop learning, and this is a cornerstone to the success of my company.  Of all the things I have learned this year, the one thing which sticks out in my mind now is about how the market of selling your IP works.  This was something I always wanted to learn about, but was always an unknown to me.  It was great to sit down with a couple producers to talk about how it works.  What I learned was an eye opening experience, and it also showed me how much more I have to learn on the topic.

painted-xGrow Social Network:
This goal was to increase all our social media networks by 100%, and while I grew some of them to over 100% I was unable to do it with all of them.  Take a look at the numbers below to see how we did.

This is what the numbers are: Starting point –> 100% increase goal | Current followers = Actual % increase
Facebook: 4,427 –> 8,854 | 4829 = 9% increase
Twitter: 513 –> 1,026 | 1033 = 101% increase
LinkedIn: 146 –> 292 | 233 = 60% increase
Google+: 11 –> 22 | 23 = 109% increase
InstaGram: 235 –> 470 | 697 = 197% increase
YouTube: 5 –> 10 | 282 = 5,540% increase

As you can see the big winner is YouTube with a 5,540% increase, and Facebook having the smallest percent increase.

painted-xProfitable 2016:
The goal was for the business to make enough money I could take a salary for myself, and still have the business be profitable.  I did not achieve this goal, because while the business was profitable it was not profitable enough for me to take a salary.  Technically I could have taken a small salary, and still have the business be profitable, but I decided to keep the money in the business this year.  I’m hoping for a more profitable 2017, so I will be able to both take a salary while still keeping the company profitable.

 

Regardless of not achieving all the goals I set for the business I still feel 2016 was a great year for the company.  While I don’t want to set unrealistic goals I also don’t want to make them so easy I don’t have to push myself.  In next week’s post I will dive a little deeper into the 2016 year, and what we were able to accomplish this year.

 

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.

Eric Miller Animation Dec 2016 Company Update

OK, so I know my last post on this blog was the end of September, and I have not been doing a great job at finding the time to write my posts.  This makes me sad, because I was doing so well for such a long time at keeping up with my weekly posting.  I kind of expected as things got busier with the business it would be harder to prioritize the time to write in my blog.  I know, these are all excuses.  I have been working on a new project which has been taking a lot more of my time then I expected.  I thought since I have not posted in a while we are about due for a Company Update post.

Bink:
Progress on Bink has been extremely slow, and we are still working on two different parts.  We are still slowly working on getting the fur to work better in lighting, and currently testing the changes we have made.  We are also working on the story.  Awhile back we changed from the idea of creating multiple 30 second shorts to a longer more thought out short.  I wanted a short with a powerful message, and want to make sure it is great before moving it into production.  We have had a lot of ideas, but we are doing a lot of massaging of those ideas trying to find the best version.  Jared White is doing most of the writing, and Charlie Petrek is helping more as a consultant.  When we can we have our story brainstorming sessions as we move the story along.

MagicMeeMees:
We were commissioned to do 4 episodes, and we have completed the 4th and final episode.  We will be sharing this episode tomorrow on our social media channels, so keep an eye out for it.  We had a lot of fun creating these 2 minute webisodes, and hope the client asks for more.

Honda:
We have actually been doing some work for Honda, and this is the project which has been taking up a lot more of my time then I originally expected.  It started out as 1 small little video, but that video turned into a much bigger deal which required a lot more work. The first video was shown in the Los Angeles Auto Show last month, but we don’t have permission to share it.  They also asked us to do a second video which we are currently working on, and hoping to have it finished by next week.  There was talk of a 3rd video, but I don’t know if this is still happening or not.  I was very excited to get to work with a big client like Honda, and hope we can do more work with them in the future.

Other Projects:
We have had a lot of projects I got to bid on, but for one reason or another we did not win them.  There is a lot of competition out there, so I’m often bidding against several other companies for the same project.  The more projects I bid on the more I learn about what the clients are looking for.  The good news is that I’m now getting more clients with more realistic budgets asking us to bid on their projects.

Social Media & Website:
We have recently seen a big increase with our social media followers, and myself and our Marketing and Social Media Coordinator have been trying many different approaches to build our following.  The last two months we have also seen a significant increase in our organic web traffic to the company website.  I have been seeing a lot of our keywords climbing the ranks.  We are on page 1 of Google search for the keywords “animation studios” which generates about 68.6 clicks per month to our site.  As we continue to move up in the search rankings the traffic to our site will increase. The goal is if someone is looking for animation services we will be on the first page of the search results increasing our chances of getting to bid on the projects.

Society Mixers:
I’m also still hosting our monthly animation & VFX society mixers.  Our next one will be next Tuesday for anyone in the area who might be interested in coming.  We are returning to the same place we went to last December, Tonga Hut.  We will be there from 7pm-10pm, so stop by and say hello.

Industry Events:
I have also been going to different industry events like The Animation & VFX Summit(AVFXS) and the CTN Animation Expo(CTNX).  This was my second year going to the AVFXS, and I feel I get a lot out of it each year.  We posted an article about it on the company blog which you can read here.

This was my 3rd year going to CTNX. It is geared much more to artists and animators then the AVFXS. I really enjoy going to the different panels, and meeting all the artists.  Majority of the people I meet are students, and I always enjoy talking with them to see what they want to do after school.  You can also read more about my time there on our company’s blog CTNX Recap.

Business:
As far as business is going we are doing well.  The company will be profitable this year, and I will be able to take a paycheck.  I have not been taking a paycheck throughout the year, and wait until the end of the year.  If we are at a loss then I don’t take out a paycheck, and if we are profitable then I do take a paycheck.  As business continues to pick up I will be able to take a steady paycheck, but for the first few years in business I will do it this way.  Right now it is all about growing the company.

 

Well, there is a quick update on what I have been doing with the company.  Running your own company is not always as glamorous as you might think, but I really enjoy it.  I hope you enjoy following along on my story in creating my company.

 

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.

Eric Miller Animation Sept 2016 Company Update

As much as I have tried to squeeze in time to write my blog each week, I have found it incredibly difficult to do.  The good news is I have not had time to write the blog because I have been busy with new projects I have been bidding on.  While many of them I can’t talk about in details, I wanted to quickly update you on what I have been working on.

Bink:
Yes, while the progress has been slow due to the limited amount of time we have had to put towards working on Bink it is still moving forward.  As much as I would love to spend all my time working on my own projects the truth is the company needs to bring in money in order to do that.  So this means my client projects are made a priority.

We are working on improving the fur so it works better for lighting both technically and visually.  We are also working on the story for the next episode.  I really want it to be a much bigger story with a lot of comedy, surprises, and heart.

MagicMeeMees:
We have finished episode 3, and are now working on the fourth and final episode.  We have had a lot of fun creating this webisode, and we are hoping our client orders more episodes.  I will be sharing the third episode in early October, but for now here is a still from it.

screen-shot-2016-09-21-at-1-01-41-pm

Still from Episode 3: Mittens Lights Up Holidayland

 

Charity Project:
OK, so this will be the first vague project I will talk about in this post because of the Non-Disclosure Agreements I signed(NDA).  I was reaching out to different charities about the company donating money.  I wanted to find a few great charities which would specifically help children.  One of these organizations asked if we would be willing to donate VFX/Animation work on a PSA they are working on instead of donating money.  I agreed to help in anyway that I could.

I was able to put together an amazing crew of charitable people who will also give some of their time and talent to help with the project.  I’m really excited about it, and looking forward to getting started on the production.

Car Company Video:
This is a smaller project we will be doing to create a video for a large car company(I know vague).  It will be a combination of 3D modeling,  animation work, and motion graphics.  It started out as a smaller little project, but I heard from the client today that they want to talk about adding to what we will be doing.  I’m not sure what the changes are yet, but I’m excited this little project will be bigger then what I expected.  Especially with it being with a big car company which I would love to add to my client list.

Automotive Features Videos:
While we are talking about cars, this project will be 2 videos which will break down features of a new car.  I sent my bid in for this project, and now waiting to see if we get the project or not.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Healthcare Commercials:
This will be two 2D animated commercials for a healthcare company.  We don’t do a lot of 2D work, but I know a lot of really talented 2D animators.  I was approached about helping create these commercials, so I have been working on putting the right team together.  It is a mix of finding the right talent, and who’s schedule line up with the quick turn around needed.  I think I found the perfect crew for this project, and will find out more later today.

CA Government Project:
This is by far the biggest of the projects I’m currently bidding on, and it involves both 3D animation and a live-action production.  I heard from the client yesterday we are among the top 3 companies they are considering for these commercials.  I’m excited about this project for a few reason, but the main reason is it is for a great cause.  I love working on projects that have a positive impact on the community.

Other:
The last two weeks I have been getting a lot of projects, so it would seem my marketing efforts are working.  Some of them are great projects, and some are just not the right fit for one reason or another. Sometimes I turn down projects, and sometimes I just don’t win them.  So while I have less time to write my blog I’m still excited about being able to grow my company.

 

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.

 

Eric Miller Animation Aug 2016 Company Update

Lately I have found it rather difficult to keep up with these weekly blog posts, but I wanted to at least give the monthly Eric Miller Animation Aug 2016 Company Update.

Bink:
There are two things I’m working on with Bink, and the first is getting our writers together to work out the rest of the Bink shorts stories.  I want to take the ideas I have for Bink, and work them out with the writers to get a full script and storyboard.  I would like to do it in a way we could then break it up into smaller episodes, since I don’t think I have the money to do them all at once.

The other thing is working on the fur again.  We got the fur to work for the first episode, but it required a lot of work for the lighter getting it to work in each shot.  We are looking to get the fur to behave a little more reliably, so it will be easier going forward.  I plan to bring on a fur expert to help with this task.

MagicMeeMees:
This is our client project we have been working on since the beginning of the year.  We have completed two episodes, and are working on completing the 3rd and 4th episode.  I’m really excited about these future episodes, and think each episode ends up being better then the last.

Social Media & Marketing:
A few weeks ago I brought on Marta to help us as our new Social Media and Marketing Coordinator.  Brittany was handling this for us before, but she moved to New York city for another opportunity.  Marta has been doing a great job, so very excited to have someone helping out again.  She handles posting and responding to comments for all our social media accounts, writes the company’s weekly blog, sends out the quarterly newsletter, and a few other things.

Finding Clients:
This is what I spend most of my time each day doing, and sometimes I wonder if I know what I’m doing.  I have been going at this from a few different angles.

Interacting with potential clients through social media is one of the ways I’m doing this.  Basically I try and find those people I consider to be my target market and like/respond to their comments and posts.  This is a very subtle approach, and the logic behind it is to simply get them familiar with your brand.  If they like what you have to say they might follow you back, or look into finding out more about you.  The big thing though is when I reach out to them to see if they could use our services they will be more likely to respond because they know our brand.

Another way I have been looking for clients is by getting on different websites for finding freelance/production work.  I have a profile on a lot of sites now, so hopefully someone looking for animation services might come across my profile.  I also look through these sites to find postings of projects we might be interested in.

Networking is always a big one for me for finding clients.  I have been reaching out to people in my target market, and trying to set up face to face meetings.  I also try and attend different networking events where I can find potential clients.

I also do some paid marketing, but this is one I don’t do a lot of at the moment.  I need to find the right places to do this kind of marketing, because sometimes it backfires.  I’m offering high end 3D animation services, and this normally requires larger budgets then most companies have.  Marketing in the wrong place gets me a lot of leads, but I end up wasting a lot of time bidding projects to clients without a realistic budget.

There are a few other things I do, but I’m always trying new approaches.  If any of you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

 

Well this about sums everything up of what I have been working on lately.  I will try and do a better job of keeping up with my weekly blog posts.

 

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.

Eric Miller Animation July 2016 Company Update

We have had a lot going on these last few weeks, so I thought it be a good time for the July 2016 Company Update.

Bink: Hopefully all of you have seen the first episode of Bink by now.  Through our different postings there has been over 50,000 people who have watched our yellow and blue little creature, so I think this is pretty good for our first animated short.  I have never been an expert when it came to YouTube, so before launching Bink I did a lot of research on the best practices.  Things like the best day of the week and time to post to get the most views, or should I post it as a Facebook video, a YouTube link, or a website link.

It turns out Facebook penalizes YouTube videos, and don’t put them on as many of your friends newsfeed as it does with its own native Facebook videos.  I wanted to drive traffic to my YouTube Channel, so in order to do this I ended up sharing a link to my website which contained the embedded YouTube video as website links are ranked higher then directly linking to a YouTube link.

Many of you have been asking when the next Bink is coming, and I’m still trying to figure this out.  Producing one of these episodes(even at 30 seconds) is pretty expensive.  Before committing to another episode I need to make sure the company has the available funds to do so.  I need enough client projects to bring in money I can use to fund future Bink shorts.  I will need to take a good hard look at my current client projects, and the company’s savings to see when is the best time to produce another episode.

Bink-AmuletI have been doing a lot of thinking on the Bink shorts, and have a lot of really fun ideas of where I can take the story.  I want to explain more about who Bink is, and about his species, where he is from, and how he end up in this testing facility.  Each episode will give you a little more insight about Bink to eventually help you see the whole picture.  Some of my future plans for the short will also take us outside the testing facility, and you might even get to meet more of his species(can you imagine how cute baby Binks would be?). A lot of very exciting stories I look forward to sharing with all of you.  The animated gif of the amulet is a hint  there are more to Bink then you might have expected.

Bink Merchandise: I have had a lot of people ask for Plush toys of Bink, and I have actually started looking into it.  It seems to be a little out of my reach at the moment, but as the series grows in popularity I might be able to support the expense of making plush toys.  My brief research has shown there are companies which will make custom plush toys, but most have a minimum order of 1,000 units.  I’m not sure there are enough people who know about Bink where I could sell 1,000 plush toys to make my money back on the order.

While we don’t have plush toys yet, I did add more Bink shirts and other merchandise to our online store, so be sure to check it out.  I ordered some test prints to see how they printed, and they turned out great.

FullSizeRender

MagicMeeMees: The big thing this week is we finally got to share the first MagicMeeMee episode which we started working on in January of this year.  We are currently working on 3 additional episodes each with its very own unique worlds and characters.  This web series is for our client, Future of Play, which is a startup toy company who will be releasing the MagicMeeMees toy line next month.  Depending on how the toys sell they may decide to make more episodes, so go out and buy the toys!

You might also notice this web series is a very different style and quality then what Bink is.  We had a very tight budget with these, so we designed it in a way to keep the complexity down.  For example none of the characters have fur, and are very simplistic in design, there are limited reflections in the world, and there are no FX.  We had a very talented crew working on these episodes, and they all did an amazing job working within the budget constraints.

There were other challenges such as we needed to stay true to the toys and their worlds as much as possible, and we had to tell a story without any dialogue or narration.  We also needed to make sure we showed off the different functionalities of the toys like the glowing chests to show their emotions, and their communication through buzzing/vibrations.  Food is also really important part of the toys, and you will see this more in the future episodes.

Here are the amazing crew members who brought MagicMeeMees to life.

Jared White Writer, Storyboard Artist, Editor, & Co-Director
Carl Johnson Composer
Linda Kurgpõld Modeler & Surfacer
Nico Sanghrajka – Character TD
Jim Richardson – Rough Layout
John Eric Domingo – Animator
Eric Deuel – Animator
Chris Mayne – Animator
Danny Clark – Animator
Benjamin Liska – Lighter & Compositor
Boom Box Post – Post Production Sound Services
Jeff Shiffman – Sound Supervisor
David Carfagno – Sound Editor
Jesse Drake – Re-Recording Mixer
Eric M. Miller – Producer & Co-Director

Company: So as you can see we have been pretty busy with our different projects, so you might be wondering what is next for the company?  Now that we have a nice body of work I plan to update our companies showreel to include the Toys’R’Us, Bink, and MagicMeeMees work.  I feel this gives us a nice variety of projects and styles to show clients what we can offer.  I will be spending most of my time reaching out to potential clients, and trying to bring in more projects.  The more client work we can do the more the studio can grow, and the more money we will have to do our own projects like Bink.

 

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.

Create Animated Content for Virtual Reality

I have mentioned before that I wanted to create animated content for virtual reality, so I thought I would expand on what I was looking to do.

There are a lot of people who have a much better understand of VR then I do, so I won’t try and explain where we are technically with it.  If you are in the entertainment industry you most likely know there is a lot of interest in VR right now, and a lot of money being thrown at the development of the technology.  There are easily over a dozen VR headsets out there from Google Cardboard to ones like HTC Vive.

So you might be asking in what way do I want to be involved with VR?  I don’t plan to get into the designing the hardware for it, but I would love to get into content creation.  I found this neat little graph which shows “Types of Virtual Reality Content Internet Users in Western Europe and the US are Interested In Watching/Experiencing” You can see at the top at 39% is movies.  This is might be why Hollywood is so invested in figuring out how to make VR content.

Typically movies are shown to the audience by controlling what they see in the frame of the camera.  When the director wants the viewer to focus on something they can easily do that through framing and focus.  The difference in VR is you loose the control to direct what the audience can see.  It has the creative people in Hollywood trying to figure out the best way to tell stories in this uncontrolled lens.

I have been wanting to create content for VR, but was not really sure how to get started.  I have been seeing a lot of interesting stuff with the 360-video, and I believe this is a great place to start.  I might start by rendering one 360 environment(Maybe the lab where Bink is trapped), and seeing how it works to stitch the images together.  Then move into rendering video in the same way.

One of the animation companies who is creating some really great content is Baobab Studios. Check out this 360 animated short they made called “Invasion!”.  If you want it to work you need to open it on a mobile device and in the YouTube app.  It won’t work otherwise.  Being able to be in the world, and look around as you please is a really fun experience.  They do things with sound effects, and having the character look in a direction to help get you to look at what they want you to look at.

Another interesting use for 360 videos is horror films.  Check out this “scary” video.

You can find a bunch of other examples of these 360 videos on Youtube.  I’m still very new to all of this, but this is a perfect medium for animation film making, and it is the logical direction to head.  I would love to hear from all of you on what you know about VR.  Be sure to leave me a note in the comments below.

 

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.

Our March 2016 Animation Company Update

Another month, and another animation company update!  These months are flying by, and it feels like the year will be over in a blink!  Here is what we have been working since my last update.

Bink:
I get excited at every stage of the animation process, but lighting is one of my favorites.  It is like putting the final puzzle piece revealing the complete picture.  You start to see how beautiful everything you have been working on is when it all comes together.  We have started to light the shots, and will soon start seeing final renders.  Up to this point we have only seen work in progress renders of still images, but soon we will be seeing fully lite animation.  On top of that we now have fur working on bink, so getting to see him in his final form is very exciting.

MMM-Project:
This is our client project we have been working on in addition to the “Bink” short.  This project has had a lot of challenges, but I have been learning a great deal from the experience.  Even more then what I learned from working on Bink.  Working on our own short we don’t have the added pressure of a deadline, but with a client project there are milestones, and a deadline I need to make sure I hit.  This means when you have a setback there is a lot more stress to make sure you get back on schedule.  This short has a very different look and feel then what Bink has, but it is really starting to come together.  I can’t wait until we finish the first episode, and can share it with you in July.

LA Society of Creative Professionals:
Last night we had our 9th society mixer at the Riverside Restaurant in Toluca Lake.  We have been getting a really great turn out for the last few mixers.  We have had a nice mix of regulars, and new people coming.

There are always great conversations, but last night I had a conversation with a few people which highlights a lot of the concerns artists in Los Angeles have.  We were discussing how an artist used to make much more money then what they make now for the same kind of work.  There is so much more competition then what there used to be, and people are willing to work for less to get the work.  It was mentioned how anytime someone takes a job for less then what it normally goes for then it drops the price industry wide.  Really this is simply basic economics of supply and demand, but it is having a real impact on these artists.

My experience is that often a client has a fixed budget, and are trying to get a project made.  It is a situation of you wither find a way to make their budget work, or you pass.  While a lot of senior artists want you to pass on the work forcing the client to raise their budget, but the reality is they will most likely find someone to do the work for what they have to offer.  These clients tell their friends and next thing you know no one wants to pay $1 for a service when they know it can be done for $0.90.

These are all valid concerns, but unfortunately this is the way things are going.  While it might seem to only be about money if what you have to offer is a higher quality you can still charge more for your service.  If communication is easier, or you provide better customer service you might also be able to ask for more.  As technology makes it easier to work with anyone anywhere the supply is increased.  As long as there are people willing and able to meet the demand at a lower price it is going to lower the rates industry wide.  There will always be a breaking point.  People can’t provide work without enough pay to cover their bills for to long.  They will either find a way to make it work, or go out of business.

I’m kind of stuck in the middle.  I have clients who want to get their project made, but have extremely low budgets.  If I want to try and make it work, then I need to find artists who are willing to work for less then their rate.  This often means looking for talent outside the US.  It really comes down to who can offer the best service at the most competitive price.  The hope is as I grow my company I can offer a higher quality, outstanding communication, and the best customer service, so I can ask for higher rates.

Business:
While running my own business has been challenging I’m still happy I made the decision to follow my dream.  I have learned something new every day, and I’m always working to improve the business. I spend a lot of my time in the evenings reading a lot of business related posts and articles.  If any of you have any suggestions for great business reading material I would love to hear about it. I enjoy reading Entrepreneur Magazine, and other similar publications.

I think it is fair to call EMAS an international company, since we have clients and artists outside the United States.  While most of our artists our in the US we do have a decent amount of artists outside the country.  Mostly in Southeast Asia as you can see on the map below.  It is interesting to think we have work being done on projects 24 hours a day.  This is also why I’m often responding to emails late into the evening, and as soon as I wake up in the morning.

EMAS-International

 

 

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.