animation

Happy Independence Day!

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Happy Independence Day!  Although not nearly as amazing, inspiring, and requiring as much courageous sacrifice that the men and woman of our country paid for the independence the United States won from Great Britain, this July 4th is also the anniversary of the official start of Eric Miller Animation Studios.  While the majority of my celebrations today will be in honor of our country’s independence, a small part of my celebrating will be for the independence of the company I started a year ago today.

I have learned a great deal in this first year of independence.  I have made mistakes, but I have also made a great deal of progress.  Our country at 239 years old is still making mistakes, learning, and working to correct mistakes it has made.  There is a lot to celebrate this year for The United States.  I’m proud of the country we live in, and grateful that it has allowed me to have this opportunity to follow my dreams.

I hope you all have a safe, fun, and happy Independence Day! I have not forgot about you Canada, happy belated Independence Day to you as well!

 

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 Freelance Artist Roster

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This week I started updating our freelance artist roster.  Animation is a team effort, and requires a highly skilled, and highly trained crew of artists, technicians, and production staff.  The larger studios with deeper pockets tend to have more specialized artists that work on a very specific part of the production pipeline. Think of a factory where you might be responsible for the same task on the assembly line.  A large animation studio would have artists that are specialized in character animation to be the animators, or specialized artists to do all the modeling of characters, props, and set pieces.  Each step of the pipeline is done by artists who are specialists in that area.

In smaller studios there are often artists who are referred to as generalists.  These would be artists who can model, surface, and rig characters instead of being specialized in only one area.  Since these artists spend their time working on multiple areas they might not be as skilled in one area that someone who specializes in that area might be.  Having artists who are generalist may sacrifice on the quality, but is often much more efficient, and cost effective.

In a larger studio if a Character TD is rigging a character, and finds an error in the model they would have to send a revision request back to the modeling department.  This might take some time for a modeler to get to it, make the correction, and send back the fix.  This is all time that the character TD is either sitting there waiting, or having to move on to another task.

On the other hand if the character TD is also the artist who modeled the character then they could simply make the needed fixes on their own, and then get back to working on rigging the character.  This is more cost effective since you only have to hire one artists, and there is less downtime.

I like to keep a healthy mix of specialized artists, and generalists.  By keeping my artist roster updated it allows me to stay ready for new client work at anytime.  When a client is ready to start a project I go to my roster, and quickly put a team together.  My goal is to have at least 5 people in each specialty that I can call up when I have a project.

By focusing on the top 5 positions it makes it easier to maintain, and helps build a more consistent quality.  Since these artists are freelancers they might be busy working for another client, so by having at least 5 I give myself plenty of backups.  I order the artists on the list with 1 being my top artist, so the artist in position 1 is the first person I call. If they are unavailable I go down the list.  If I have a list of my top 5 animators, and I find an animator that is not as good as the number 1 animator on my list, but better then number two, then they would take the number two spot and everyone after will be shifted down a position.  The animator who was in the number 5 spot will be taken off the roster, and moved into the extra artist list.

I’m always looking to find the most talented artists to work with to keep our quality at an extremely high standard.  While skill level is the most important part of how I rank the artists on my roster there are other considerations.  Other things I consider are; how easy they are to work with, how efficient they are, are they friendly and professional, are they reliable, and what is their rate?

By having a roster I can keep my quality at a more consistent level, so potential clients know what to expect.  It also helps in bidding out projects, since I know the rate of the artist I work with on a regular basis.  These are all things that help me in running the business.

If you are interested in being on our freelance roster please go to our website and fill out the Career News form.  Building a strong team of talented people is the key to my business.

 

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 June Update

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I wanted to give everyone a June Update on everything I’m working on with the company.  Although I don’t currently have any client projects I’m working on I’m still pretty busy with many other tasks.  Here are some of the things I’m currently working on.

Animated Short
I mentioned in an earlier post I was working on a CG animated short.  We are making progress with it, but have been taking our time to make sure it looks great.  As I write this we are working on the design of the main character, as well as brainstorming the set location.  To keep costs down it will be in one simple set that we can reuse for the different episodes. Once we finish the character design phase we will start modeling the character, and then rig it for animation.  At the same time we work on the character rig we will also be surfacing it.

Motion Graphics Sizzle Piece
Since we are offering 3 main services, Animation, Visual Effects, and Motion Graphics, I wanted to make sure I had examples of the different styles of work we can do.  The Toys”R”Us commercials are great examples for VFX, and the Animated short will be the example of our animation work.  That leaves me needing something to show off what we can do with motion graphics.  I have been working on putting a sizzle piece together to help show clients what we can do.

I have been talking with some motion graphics artists about a piece that will show off what our crew can do with motion graphics.  We are still early in the discussions, but I’m excited about the direction that it is heading.  I will keep you updated as we move along with it.

Business Plan
I have been trying to find the time to put together a business plan, and I finally got started with it.  It seems silly that simply writing out your plan would have such an impact, but it has already helped me a great deal.  It got me thinking about things I have not thought about yet, and gave me some ideas on how to grow my business. I have not got to the mission statement section yet, but I’m looking forward to working on that.

S-Corp
My company is currently a sole proprietorship, but for some time now I have been looking into changing it into a S-Corp.  There are several reasons I’m planning on doing this, but the two main ones are limited liability, and tax savings.  It will also allow me to raise money by selling shares if I decide to go that route.  I have been talking with my CPA, and next plan to talk to an attorney about it.  As long as everything works out I should be moving forward with this in the next month.

LA Society of Creative Professionals
I mentioned in my last post about forming a society to plan monthly outings, and activities for networking and fun. Well I have setup a Facebook group for it, and plan on working on getting our first outing on the calendar.  If you are in the LA area, and in the animation, visual effects, or motion graphics fields please join the group to find out about our events.  I think this will be a lot of fun, and who knows it might help you find your next project, or new friends.  Visit the Facebook group.

Finding New Clients
Another thing that is a constant for me is looking for new clients.  This is by far the most difficult part of running your own company.  These are skills that you don’t learn while working for a large corporation, and has been a huge learning experience for me.  I have been cold-calling/emailing, but have not had much luck with that.  I have tried getting a commercial rep, but I have not found any that don’t already have a full roster of companies.  I have been doing a lot of networking, but still no leads.  The thing with networking is that you never know when someone in your network might turn into a project.

Although I will continue trying to contact clients directly I also want them to find me.  This is why I have been investing in my own projects like my animated short, and the motion graphic sizzle piece.  It seems to be a much more effective way to gain new clients.

I have also been reaching out to directors, and try and establish a relationship with them.  This way when they are working on a project that needs animation or visual effects they will hopefully reach out to me to help.  Often times directors have a lot of influence over the studios and agencies they are working for in bringing in their own people.

As you can see I have a lot of things on my plate, and a lot of work to get done.  I also always have work to do on my website, but that never really ends.  I hope you are enjoying following along with my progress, and if you ever want to know about anything specific please leave me a comment below.  I will answer to the best of my ability, and if appropriate dedicate a blog post to your question.  As always don’t forget to subscribe to get the blogs delivered directly to your email inbox.  Well, it is time for me to go back to work, so until next time.

 

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.

Society for Creative Professionals

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I have been thinking about creating a society for creative professionals in the entertainment industry.  Through the society we could put on a monthly networking event co-hosted with my company.  This would include artists, technicians, and production staff in animation, visual effects, motion graphics, and other similar professions.  This event would be open to members of the community from students that are trying to get into the industry to veterans who have been in the industry for years.  It could create mentorship opportunities to help the new members in the field to meet the experts.

It would be a fun way for people in the industry to network, or just hangout with others in similar professions.  As my company grows this will provide a way for us to give back to the creative community, and introduce people to our team.

The networking event would happen once a month, and will be held at different bars throughout Los Angeles(sorry for those of you not in the area).  Most likely starting around 7pm, and at locations close to the larger studios to make it easier for those getting off work to attend.  I’m thinking it could be held on the 3rd or 4th Thursday of each month, so people can plan for it.

The networking event is only the beginning of what the society could do.  It could help the members of the industry find work, and put on educational/training events.  The possibilities are endless.  I always thought it be fun to start a secret society, and while we won’t be doing anything secret this might be the next best thing.

I’m trying to think of an appropriate name for this society of creative professionals, so please let me know if you have any suggestions.  Also be sure to keep an eye out for the invites to the first event, and I hope you can all make it.

 

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.

Realigning the priorities of Eric Miller Animation

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When I was younger, and decided I wanted to start my own animation company I wanted it to rival Walt Disney Animation.  You have to love the naive imagination of a young boy.  I might not have given up on those dreams, but the reality of the difficulty of the goal I set is more apparent.

Around this time a year ago I knew I was planning on leaving my job at DreamWorks Animation, and my last day was quickly approaching.  I had been trying to figure out the best way to start my company, and I finally had a plan.  It might have been a shot in the dark, but it at least had a chance for success.

Since the day I officially starting Eric Miller Animation Studios my strategies have changed many times.  I have also learned a great deal along the way.  As I was trying to find my way I changed who I thought my target clients should be, and what services I should offer.  I was making decision based on bringing money in instead of what I wanted my company to be. I was looking into doing cheap explainer videos, and white board animation videos.  I thought they would be easily marketed, and quick to produce. I never stopped to think if it was something I enjoyed doing, or if it was the best move for my business.

I was also wasting a lot of time talking with “clients” that wanted to make animated videos, but did not understand what went into making them.  They wanted Pixar quality animation, but wanted to get it done for pennies.  Creating bids, and trying to find artists that would be willing to do the work for less in order to hit these unrealistic budgets was taking an incredible amount of my time.  More often then not these projects never even happened.

I was working really hard with no real payoffs, and I knew something needed to change.  I looked at my company, and at what my own goals were.  I asked myself, what kind of work do I want to do?  What will I be proud of, and inspired by?  What do I want my company to be known for?

After thinking hard on each of these questions the solution was very clear to me.  I want to create high-end computer-generated animation, graphics, and stories with heart.  I did no want to worry about being the cheapest, or fastest, but instead I want to offer the highest quality animation.  In addition to offering extremely high quality work I also want to be known for being the most organized with the best client experience possible.

My ideal clients are the larger studios that are looking for smaller animation houses to assist with their feature and episodic projects, as well as marketing, and other needs.  Also ad agencies requiring high-end animation and graphics for commercials, and game companies looking for game cinematics.

I also plan on using the money generated from the service end of the business to fund our own internal animation projects.  This is where my true passion lives, and it is important for me to constantly be creating and telling stories.

As Steve Jobs would always say “There is one more thing…”.  I want to explore the future of entertainment, and I feel the next big thing is in virtual reality, and augmented reality.  I want to create content, and quality entertainment in these areas.  I feel like the future of entertainment is heading in this direction, and computer-generated animation is the perfect medium for it.

I hope refocusing my efforts will lead to more ideal clients, and allow me to do work that I’m proud of.  I might have less clients, but the ones I will get will hopefully be the right ones.  My strategy for the company will continue to evolve, and I’m excited to have this opportunity to follow my dreams.

 

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.

 

Starting Our First Animated Vignette!

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I’m very excited to announce that we have started pre-production on the company’s very first animated vignette.  We have brought on a very talented artist to do the character design work for the main character, and hope to move through pre-production quickly.  For now I’m going to keep the details quiet, but I will share more as we move through production.  The general idea is that we will be creating several 10-15 second cg animated vignettes that will focus on our main character’s situation.  The hope is that they will be comical, beautiful, and a lot of fun.

Not only will these vignettes be extremely entertaining they will also serve very important purpose for the company.  They will test our pipeline to see what is working and what is not. This will allow us to improve our process, and make sure everything is running smoothly.

Another purpose is to showcase what we can do as a company, and add to our body of work we can show potential clients.  Currently the only work we have to show is the VFX work we did for the Toys”R”Us commercials.  I would like to open up more cg animation opportunities for the company, and I can’t do that without showing our potential clients what we can do.

In addition to our animated vignettes I might also be joining a talented creator and director of an animated short as a co-producer.  Once again I can’t share many details at this time, but I will be able to share more soon.

I’m limited on my time to write this week, so I’m going to keep this post short.  Please keep following along to keep up with what I have going on.  If you are interested in helping out with any of our current or future projects please sign up to our career news list.

 

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.

Gaining Momentum

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I sometimes look at starting a company like trying to push a boulder from its resting position in hopes of gaining momentum.

If you have no experience in “boulder moving” then you may find it difficult to even budge it.  You’ll start off trying to push it this way and that, adjusting your stance, or maybe even recruiting some friends to help.

At first it may seem impossible, and an average person would most likely give up.  You might get “lucky” and have something slingshot the boulder without you having to do anything.  This may seem like a great thing, but the first time you run into trouble you will find yourself back at the beginning.  Without learn how to get a boulder moving then you will have to learn it the next time you loose your momentum and come to a stop.  It is best to go through the struggle of learning how to move the boulder on your own.  That does not mean you can’t get advice or help from people who have already moved a boulder, but you need to make sure you understand how it is done.

It will be a slower process, but it will give you an understanding of your boulder that is priceless. You will eventually learn how to get your boulder rocking, and by using its own momentum to rock it more and more.  Finally it begins to roll, and as you continue to push you gain more momentum.  It beings to roll faster, and faster.

Once you have that momentum it is easier to keep it moving.  Now that you don’t have to work so hard at getting it to move you can focus on what direction you want to take it.  Early on the boulder is smaller, and easier to steer in the direction you want it to go.

Congratulations! You got your boulder moving, and now the fun begins.

When I started my company I was prepared for the struggle to figure out how to get the company moving.  Before I had a chance I got our first project with Toys”R”Us, and it slingshotted the company moving full speed.  This was amazing until the project ended, and I found I was quickly loosing momentum, and did not have a clue on how to keep things moving.  I never had the chance to learn how to get the company moving, so I found myself frantically trying different approaches to keep things going.  Nothing was working, and we eventually lost all our momentum.

I took this opportunity to really learn my business, and figure out the direction I wanted to push it.  I must have changed my mind several hundred times while I tried things out.  I now have a path laid out, and I have been working to get the company moving in that direction.  I feel that these last couple weeks I have finally got things rocking.

I’m excited to help the company gain momentum as it continues to grow.  Please keep following this blog to see where we go.

 

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.

That’s A Wrap! April Update

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You might have noticed that I’m a little late on my blog post for this week.  While I normally try and post every Monday sometimes that is not always possible. This week was an eventful week, and it left me with no time to write a post until now.

On Monday I spent most of the day with a bookkeeper going over my company’s Quickbooks database.  I wanted to make sure the books were in order, and check that I was doing everything correctly.  This is one of those little things that in the back of your mind you worry about wondering if you are doing something wrong that will destroy the company.  Luckily besides a few minor things everything was in great shape, and I got to let go of the stress of worrying about it.

Tuesday I finally got to meet an ex-coworker face-to-face.  I know that sounds odd that I had a coworker that I never met in person, but that is the truth.  We both worked at DreamWorks Animation, and met while we were working on Monsters vs Aliens.  I was at the Glendale campus, and she worked at the Northern PDI campus in the bay area.  We have kept in touch, and a few years ago she moved down here to SoCal.  She is currently working at Disney Junior, and we finally got the chance to meet for lunch.

After our lunch I spent the rest of the day working on my presentation that I will give to Disney Junior at the end of May.

On Wednesday I had a great phone conversation with Everett Downing, the director/creator of The Book of Mojo.  He is currently working on getting his animated short funded on Indiegogo.  It sounds like a really fun project, and we hope to meet and discuss how we might be able to work together on his project.  He already has a talented group of artists that are already on board to help with the project who are working at studios like Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, Paramount, and others.

The campaign still has a way to go to reach its goal, and time is running out.  Check it out, and if you are interested in contributing feel free to donate. The Book of Mojo

That brings us to Thursday, which is when I finally have a chance to catch up with my blog.  Once I finish this I have to go over my schedule for the next few weeks.  I have a list of people I need to meet with, but I’m running out of time in the week to have meetings.  I have been trying to keep my lunch meetings to no more then one a week, but lately I have been doing 2 or 3 a week.  On the days I have lunch meetings I don’t get as much work done, so I try and not over schedule them.

Tonight I’m going to the ASIFA general membership meeting.  I have been a member of ASIFA since 2007, and this will be the first time I have made on of the meetings.  I normally only go to the free movie screenings that they have.

ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film D’ Animation) was founded in 1957 in France, and chartered under UNESCO in 1960 as a membership organization devoted to the encouragement and dissemination of film animation as an art and communication form.

I thought that it would be a great opportunity to meet the other members, and do some networking.

Last week I met with the founders of Boom Box Post.  I have been looking for different companies to collaborate with on projects to help with the things I don’t know much about.  Boom Box Post is a boutique post-production sound studio, and is co-owned by two really great people, Kate Finan and Jeff Shiffman.  It is scary the similarities we have in our situation.  We each have moved out to California around 10 years ago, and I started my company in July, and they started in August.  They are working with some really great clients, and I look forward to working together on some future projects.

Hopefully this momentum continues.

 

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.

It Seems Opportunity Knocks all at Once

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Wow, last week was a crazy one!  As I mentioned in my post last week I have been busy working on ways to find more clients and to build my business.  I put a decent amount of effort into networking, blogging, and generally trying to get the business name out there.  Sometimes I wonder if all the effort is just a waste of my time and resources.

Last week I had an opportunity pop up that I was excited about.  How the rest of the week went I was not prepared for.  One opportunity after another started to come in, and I found myself slammed trying to keep up with everything.  I was also in shock that everything was happening at once.

It all started with me getting a meeting setup with Disney Junior to discuss ways my company might be able to help them on future projects.  As far as I know there is no specific project, but instead to get on their list of vendors.  I thought it would be a great way to open up opportunities for my company, and a chance to add a great client.

Then a guy that is working for a team of scientist who are working to solve the energy crisis with clean solar, water, and air energy contacted me.  They are looking to make a 3-5 minute CG animated short talking about what they want to do.  It would be a really fun project.

Then I was contacted by another animation company that was started by someone that I admired, and they wanted to talk about a project they are working on with a very tight schedule that they might need some help on.  It would be a blast to get to team up with them to work together on this project.

Any of these things alone would have made it an eventful week, but there is still more.  A mentor of mine who has been running her own animation company with her partner asked if I could help out on a project that they can’t take on at the moment.  They have been swamped with these other two very large projects, and just don’t have the bandwidth to take on anything else right now.

I also had a very interesting guy contact me, and wants to meet up.  He has been in the industry for years, and I’m very interested in meeting him.  Chuck Jones was his mentor, and he has had a very impressive career so far.

So as you can see it was a pretty eventful week.  All the other projects I was working on internally I had to put on hold while I put bids together, and other tasks to get me prepared.

youtubespacelaThe other thing I was excited for last week was finally getting to check out YouTube Space LA.  What is it you ask?  Well, it is a free production facility for anyone that has 10,000 or more YouTube subscribers on one of their channels.  This gives you access to their 7 sound stages and state-of-the-art equipment to help you make your video content.

I always thought this was pretty awesome for them to provide all this.  The reason I was invited was because there was a YouTube and Producers Guild mixer.  The facility was amazing, and everything seemed so modern.  They had a huge video wall that would display anything with the hashtag #youtubespacela.

I still have a while until my YouTube channel hits 10,000 subscribers, but I’m getting close with my 2 subscribers.  Only 9,998 subscribers to go!  I also have not been doing much with my channel, but it is something I’m interested in doing more with in the future.

They have these spaces in Los Angeles(obviously), New York, London, Tokyo, and Sao Paulo.  Below is a YouTube video that gives a nice tour of the Los Angeles space.

Well, I have a lot of work to get done, so I’m going to wrap this up.  Last week was a great week, and even if nothing comes out of these different opportunities it still shows that my efforts have not been wasted.  I have not even been in business for a year, and people are already thinking of my company, and reaching out to us.  That to me is success in and of itself.

 

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.

My 3 Areas of Focus

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I have been very busy working on the company, and I wanted to give an update on what takes up all my time each day.  There are 3 main areas that I’m focusing on, and everything I’m doing is connected to them.  These 3 areas are Ad Agencies, Direct to Business, and a GC Animated Project.  I will go over each of them below.

Ad Agencies:
The first area I’m working on is building the number of ad agencies I work on projects for.  Normally larger companies with with an ad agency to create their marketing campaigns, and those ad agencies will hire production companies to do the production work.  For example, the VFX work we did on the Toys”R”Us commercials was through an ad agency.  The ad agency is who hired us, and we actually had very little contact with Toys”R”Us. This is how much of the broadcast commercial work is done.

One ad agency has many clients that they work for, so getting into one ad agency you have a chance of working on multiple client projects.  The budgets for these projects are often higher, and can be very lucrative for the production companies they hire to help.  This also means that it is very competitive to win these projects.

I’m always trying to figure out how to get more agencies that will call me for any of their animation needs.  I still have not figured out the secret to winning these contracts, but I’m putting a lot of time and effort into learning.  One approach is getting a commercial rep, but that has also proven to be difficult.  There seems to be very few commercial reps that are taking on new clients, so I have mostly been trying to reach out to the ad agencies on my own.  This of course can be very time consuming, and more often ends with no positive results.

The one benefit I have is that I already have my foot in the door from the work we did with the Toys”R”Us projects.  I have heard from several people with production companies that getting your first project with an advertising agency is always the most difficult, but once you have worked for one it is much easier to get work with other ad agencies.

I also recently received this great testimonial from Kent, the Executive Producer of the ad agency I have been working with.

There very well may not have been Christmas this year if not for Eric Miller’s steady hand on the reins. Eric Miller and the team at Eric Miller Animation played an invaluable role in putting the magic in our 2014 Toys R Us Holiday campaign. With over 80 spots in 2 short months, each requiring photo real 3d and character animation to breathe life into magic imaginations, the ask was truly immense. Eric MIller’s experienced professionalism, coupled with a talented and scalable team helped us easily and responsibly manage the ongoing flux that defines a mercurial holiday retail environment. From late season offer and product changes to unplanned branding needs, the team was regularly relied on to exceed expectations, and to do so within reasonable budget parameters and under impossibly short timelines. Santa could not have delivered a better Holiday partner.
~ Kent

Direct to business:
The second area that I’m pursuing is working directly with business to make animated videos for their companies.  These could be anything from explainer videos that they can post online, or training videos that can be shown to their employees.  This is why I have been looking for artist that I can work with to make these videos.  I want to be able to offer whiteboard animated videos, motion graphics, cartoon, and CG animated videos explainer videos.  I plan to make a few of these videos to explain my company, and also show the quality of work I can offer.

My first step is adding a section to my website that markets specifically to businesses offering these types of videos. After my website is in place I plan to have a copywriter write scripts for a few minute to minute and half videos that highlight the different types of videos we offer.  Then I will pull a team of artists together that I can work with to produce these projects.

After we make a few of these videos for the company I can add them to the section on my website for small businesses, and start reaching out to businesses offering our services.  The “Selling” of these services seem a little clearer to me then the selling to ad agencies, since there are many more clients to reach out to directly.

CG Animated Project:
The final area that I’m working on is producing my own animated shorts.  I worked with a friend to come up with a basic idea for the shorts, and I have now been working on putting a team of artists together to make it happen.  The plan is to design a lovable character for the shorts, and make several 10-15 second videos that we can post on YouTube.  These will all be high quality CG animated videos to show off what our team can do, since so far I have very few examples of that kind of work.  This will give some great examples of the kind of cg work I want to do with the company.

Unlike the other two areas this one will not bring any money into the company, and will actually require a significant amount of investment to get them made.  I will be using the money I made from the Toys”R”Us project to help fund it.  I had a decision to make that I could either play it safe, and keep the money I already made for a rainy day, or take a risk and use the money to make something great.  I decided that I did not leave my “secure” job at DreamWorks to start a company so that I could play it safe.

There are a few things that I hope to achieve with these videos.

1) Build a team: Creating these videos will help me in finding talented people, and assembling a talented amazing team that works well together.

2) Animation Pipeline: I will need to develop our animation pipeline, and work flows in order to make these shorts.  Creating these videos I will learn what areas need to be improved.  It is better to figure it out on these projects then when we have a paying customers that are expecting the pipeline to already be figured out.

3) Develop the Brand:  By making really great, gorgeous shorts it will help in building our brand.  It will show people what kind of work we can do, and what people can expect from us.

4) Gain a following: Hopefully if people enjoy our shorts we can start to gain a greater following through social networks.  I want to create something that will entertain people, and having a following will make sure we have an audience to actually see our work.

5) Source of Pride:  The idea of pulling a team together, and creating something amazing is very exciting.  Being able to create something from nothing is why I love animation.  It will give me and the company something to be very proud of.

If I can accomplish any of the above with these shorts I will feel like they where worth the money spent on them.

There you have it! The 3 areas that I’m working on to build my business, and creating a brand.  I was also looking into the government contracts, but decided that was not worth the trouble at this time.  Not only do you get buried in tons of paperwork, but often they have a requirement that you have been in business for 5+ years.  So for the time being I will shelf that idea, and focus on these 3 areas instead.

As you can see I have a lot to do, and a long way to go. I often find myself jumping back and forth between working on the different areas trying to make progress.  Sometimes I wonder if I should not be dividing my focus, and find one thing to go after.  I think for right now I feel like these are all working towards the same goal, and worth me splitting my time.  The Ad Agencies will be a main source of income for the business, but those are not enough to keep us busy all year long.  The direct to business will help keep us busy for more of the year, and these two things can help fund the third.  This will hopefully allow me to do what I want which is make amazing animation.

 

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.