Eric Miller Animation

Update on our Animated Shorts

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We are making great progress on our animated shorts.  I say shorts with an ‘s’ because it will be multiple 10-15 second shorts that we will be creating.  They will all be in the same environment with the same character, but each vignette will have a different “event”.

So far this experience has been so much fun, and it really re-energizes my passion for animation.  The feeling that you are creating something out of nothing, and how almost endless your options are to create this imaginary world. I’m not expecting to make my money back on this short directly, and honestly I don’t plan to make any money from it.  Everything is being paid for by the company out of our savings.  I’m looking at the expense as an advertising expense, since I plan to use this to help get more paying customers.  It will hopefully show what kind of work our studio can make.

So you might be asking where we are at with everything?  Currently we have our character in the final stages of character design, and he will soon be heading over to modeling. All the action will take place in a single room, and that room is currently being modeled.  I’m also in talks with a surfacing artist, and a lighting artist to be ready for the next stages of production.  There is a lot of asset building that needs to be done before we can even start animation. We should be ready to start animation sometime in September or October.  I’m hoping to have the first 5 shorts done by the end of this year.

I plan to post some concept art in a later post, so keep following to see what we are working on.  Also now would be a great time to subscribe to our YouTube channel, since that is where we will be posting the shorts once they are finished.

 

In other news, next Tuesday (July 21st) will be our first Creative Professional Mixer, so if you are living in LA I hope you will make it.  So far we have over 30 people RSVP’ed to the event, and it should be a great time.  I plan to have a mixer once a month, so join our Facebook group to get updates on the events.

I have also started the process to change my company into an S-Corp, so soon I will be the CEO of Eric Miller Animation Studios.  Sounds so fancy, right?  This will provide me with some tax benefits, and legal protections.  I have been doing a lot of work in trying to grow my business, and this is the next logical step.  It is a very exciting time, and I’m looking forward to the future.

 

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.

 

Thank you, 3,000 Times!

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Eric Miller Animation Studios Facebook Page has reached 3,000 Likes! Thank you to all of you who have liked us on Facebook, and have shown your support! Building our social network is important to me, because it is the easiest way for us to share what we are working on.  We are in progress on our first CG animated short, and we are excited to share it with as many people as we can once it is finished.

Click below to Like us on Facebook!

 

Also please recommend others to Like us!

 

You can also find us on other social networks.

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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.

Produced by Conference 2015

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This weekend was the Producers Guild of America’s annual Produced by Conference.  This is a conference for producers, and has a lot of really great panels, mentoring, and networking opportunities for members of the guild.  This was my second time going to the conference, and I wanted to share my experience with all of you.  If you are interested in reading about last year’s conference you can do it here.

Paramount-fountain-pga-pbcLast year’s conference was held at Warner Bros. Studios, but this year’s was held at Paramount Pictures.  It was nice to get back on the Paramount lot, and it reminded me of when I worked at DreamWorks Studios(DWS).  At the time DWS was owned by Paramount, so I had my new hire orientation on the Paramount lot.  They also had free weekly movie screenings at the huge 500+ seat theatre that I often took advantage of since I never had the money to pay for movies.

The conference opened on Friday night with a general meeting for the members followed by a really nice Hollywood style party.  The meeting was interesting, but of course it went longer then expected.  They had every committee get up and talk about what their committees where about, and what they were working on.  I think they could have done abbreviated updates instead of each of them taking 10-15 minutes each.  I also did not eat dinner, so I was ready to get out to the party.  When we finally got out of the meeting, and to the party I spent the first half hour just stuffing my face with all the delicious foods they had.

I did not attend the conference on Saturday, and only went to the conference on Sunday.  If you are interested to see what sessions they had you can check out the list here. The conference is open to non-Producer Guild Members, but you have to pay for it.  A member gets one day free, or they can buy both days at discounted rates.  Let me know if you are interested in going next year, and I can get you the information on it.

The sessions that I went to on Sunday were “The art and craft of pitching for television”, “Conversations with: Kevin Smith”, “Creating Meaningful Brand Partnerships to enhance your content”, and “Everything you wanted to know about games, but were afraid to ask”.

The pitching for TV was very interesting, and entertaining.  They had a panel of executives, and 5 producer/writers that took turns pitching their ideas to the executives.  The executives had fun with it, and did things like interrupt them, walk away, talk to people during the pitch, and so on.  The goal was to show you what you might expect to see when pitching to these executives, and how to keep your cool during your pitch.  After each pitch they would give pointers at how to make their pitch stronger.  It actually was very educational.  It was neat to see what worked, and what did not work.  It gave me a lot of great insight on ways to improve my pitches.

Kevin-SmithI signed up for the session with Kevin Smith more for the fun of it.  If you don’t know who he is he is the director/writer for movies “Clerks”, “Jay and Silent Bob”, and “Dogma”.  They had John Horn as the moderator, but I don’t think he got a word in after they started.  Kevin just talked about one story after another, and barely stopped to take a breath.  It was a fun time, and I think I laughed through the entire session.

The session on creating brand partnerships was interesting, but I was expecting something different.  When I signed up for it I thought it was more about creating meaning for brands from your intellectual properties.  Instead it was about partnering with Brands to have them in your TV show, or movies.  Things like product placements where you actor is drinking a coke, or driving a GM car in the movie Transformers.  It was interesting to hear about how much money can be made for adding in these products.  I think they were saying $100,000 for a product in a TV show, and millions of dollars for movies.

The last session I went to ended up being the one I got the most out of.  It is always interesting to hear about the $90 billion game industry.  It is such a rapidly growing industry, and there are so many different platforms for them. There are PC, console, mobile, tablet, and social/Facebook games.  You have the Pay-to-play, In-App purchases, free-to-play, and many other types of games.  Virtual reality is also an up and coming platform that I feel will continue to grow.  I wish this session was longer, because you could tell they were only scratching the surface.  I hope to reach out to some of the people on the panel to continue the conversations.

In addition to the sessions I also met a lot of really great people, and heard some very interesting stories.  The main reason I go to these conferences is to network, and create new relationships, and this year there was no shortage of that.  I will spend most of today reaching out to the people I met this weekend, and finding ways we can work together.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about the conference, and if you have any questions about the conference please let me know.

paramount_PGA_PBC

 

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.