Our December 2015 Animation Company Update

As this month comes to an end it is time for another Animation Company Update!  Was always, it has been a busy month, so I will keep this post short.

Bink
We have been making great progress with the short, but the crew has been busy with the holidays.  This is a busy time a year for everyone, and there has also been bugs going around. We are trying to all stay healthy, and as productive as we can.  Things will hopefully start to pick up again in January.

Client’s Web-Series
This month I have been talking with a startup toy company about producing a series of animated videos to introduce their new toy line.  They are looking for 8 CG-animated videos each around 2 minutes in length to post online.

I was able to pull together an amazing crew to work on them, and now we are just waiting to get the final details of the contract ironed out with the client before we start.  We might be getting started on the first episode as early as next week. Due to the NDA I can’t share any details about the project, but stay tuned for future updates.

Society
Last week we had our 6th society mixer, and the last one for 2015.  The previous mixers are normally 95% artists, but this last one was closer to 50% artists, and 50% producers.  I’m very excited about this, since it is more beneficial for everyone attending.  The producers can actually hire the artists looking for jobs, and it creates win win situations for all.

We also have a good mix of people earlier in their careers, and more experience people who can act as mentors.  I’m really enjoying the mixers, and I hope those who are coming are also having fun and getting something out of them.

Marketing
I mentioned in an earlier post I hired a marketing consultant to help with a marketing strategy.  She took a look at my company’s current marketing efforts, and then compared us to some of the other companies in the same space.  After analyzing the research she then created an intensive marketing plan for us.

She provided a lot of really great information, and gave me ways to improve our marketing.  I have been waiting on doing a lot of marketing until we finished the short, but as we are getting close I wanted to have a plan in place.

Now that I have a great plan the only problem is I don’t have the time in my day to actually implement her suggestions. I will be looking for a freelance junior marketing coordinator to help me implement the new strategy.  If you know of someone looking for a part-time marketing position please let me know.

 

Well, this about covers all the things we have going on.  Have a great holiday!

eric_miller_animation_holiday_card

 

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.

Report Card for This Year’s Resolutions

The report card for this Year’s Resolutions which I set at the beginning of the year in the post “New Year’s Resolutions for an Animation Studio” is not the best report card I have received.  While some of my priorities have changed I thought it would still be fun to look at the goals I was aiming to reach for this year as we come to the year’s end.  While I didn’t achieve as many goals as I hoped I still feel this year has been a huge success.  Just don’t show this to my parents since I might get grounded. LOL

eTMkRaAAcWork-Life Balance:
At the beginning of last year I was coming off of a busy project with Toys’R’Us, and my work-life was very much out of balance.  I feel I have done a much better good job at keeping a work-life balance this year.  If at all possible I try and only work during “working hours” on weekdays.  Yes, I might be checking and responding to work emails on my phone during my personal time I try and keep it to a minimum.  I also multi-task at night when watching TV by reading business related articles, but this is something I enjoy doing.  I guess when your “work” is also something you enjoy it is very difficult to separate them.  I could always continue to improve on this, but there is always room for improvement with everything you do.

x_mark_red_circle3 new Major Clients:
When it comes to clients this year was not as good of a year as I hoped it would be.  I set the goal for 3 new major clients, and now I realize how ambitious this goal was.  While it’s always good to set your goals high it is not a good strategy to set them so hight you will have no chance of reaching them. This one was nearly impossible for a new animation studio.  It would have been really nice though!  While I have had a lot of clients contact me the majority of them didn’t have the budgets required for me to take on the projects.  It is a very challenging and competitive time, and I’m competing against studios who have been around much longer and are more established in the industry.

x_mark_red_circleGrow Team:
I had the goal to grow my team this year, but I’m still a company of one.  The company is setup in the virtual studio model, and I’m working exclusively with freelancers.  This is mostly due to the fact I did not have the income to bring on anyone full time.  The one major change to my company’s structure was changing it from a sole proprietorship to an S-Corp.  So in away the company did grow, but not in the way I was thinking when I set my goals.  Adding others to the team is still one of my top goals, but finding out how to make that work is not easy.  At this point having an assistant would be amazing to help me get through my daily tasks, so I can focus on the more important parts of the business.  A smarter choice might be to bring on a partner who’s skills are complimentary to mine.

eTMkRaAAcDevelop my own IP:
This goal was more of a “It would be nice”, but I did not imagine I would actually be able to do it.  Not only did I develop our own IP(Intellectual Property), but we are actually making it.  In May of this year we started developing our own animated short which is currently called “Bink”, and we are planning on finishing production early in 2016.  Any of you who regularly read my blog knows it has been the main project I have been working on this year.  It came out of the need to show clients the quality of CG animation we can do, and since we currently had no fully animated content on our company’s demo reel I needed to find a way.  I knew in order to get respectable clients I would need to have something to show, and this is why creating our own shorts moved up in priority.  I’m very excited about our progress on the short, and looking forward to being able to share the first episode with everyone.

eTMkRaAAcContinue to learn:
This was an easy one for me.  I have learned so much from running a business and producing an animated short.  With the business, I have tried and failed on many things, but also have had a lot of success.  I have learned a great deal from both.  I’m learning more about marketing, corporations, taxes, financing, networking, and many more.  With the short I knew a great deal from working at DreamWorks about a very specific part of the production process, but I’m learning things I had no idea about.  I thought I knew a lot about an animation pipeline, but my understanding was only so deep.  The technical challenges to make sure assets and shots work with downstream departments is a huge eye opener.  I know I will never know everything, but I have been lucky enough to work with an extremely talented and intelligent group of people who have been a huge help.  This is only one part of what I learned during this process of producing the short.

x_mark_red_circle10,000 Facebook Likes:
Yes, another very ambitious goal I had, but did not achieve.  The week I wrote the goal I had gained over 512 likes in 1 week, and thought if I kept even half this momentum I would easily make it to 10,000.  Well there was a lot of weeks I did not gain any new likes, and none of the other weeks were even close to 500 likes.  At the beginning of this year I had 1,450 likes, and I’m currently at 4,417.  While this is still an almost 3,000 gain it is nowhere near my 10,000 goal.  The larger my social network the easier it will be to get our shorts out to more people.  The other point I should mention is it is not all about numbers, but the quality of those likes.  We want to get our content out to people who really want to follow our story, or potential clients who might send work our way.  So while I want to reach as many people as I can I also want to target my likes to be from the right people.

x_mark_red_circleDo Good:
While I like to think I did some good I feel I did not do enough, and this is why I’m considering this a miss.  While it is easy for me to use the excuse of how busy I was it is a pretty weak excuse.  I hope next year I can find ways to give back to my community, or other people in need.

x_mark_red_circleGovernment contract work:
Last year I was looking into doing government contract work.  I was going to classes about how to get government contracted projects and not only learned it is very difficult, but currently impossible for me.  They required your business to be around for at least 5 years.  This ruled me out instantly, so I put it on the back burner for a few years until I’m a more established business.

eTMkRaAAcWikipedia Approval:
This was added partially as a joke, but also out of a desire to get my business into the “history books”.  I kept trying to add Eric Miller Animation Studios to Wikipedia, but they would instantly take it down with the reason “no sign of real notability”.  It became a goal to get a Wikipedia page for my business to stay, and not be removed.  In February I was able to get an Eric Miller Animation Studios Wikipedia article up on the site.  While this was mostly a person mission of mine it turned out to be great for business. I have been receiving a good amount of traffic to my company’s website from my Wikipedia page.

While I did not achieve as many of my goals as I hoped I did make a lot of progress this year.  I hope 2016 will be our best year yet, and each year after will be better then the last.

 

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 November 2015 Update

It’s time for my November 2015 Update to let all of you know everything we are working on.  I’m really good at keeping myself overworked, and extremely busy.  No matter how productive I am each day I never get to a point where I feel I’m caught up.  You may have noticed from my failure to post to this blog each week that I have not been able to keep up with everything.  While continuing to write weekly posts is very important to me sometimes I’m just not able to find the time in my schedule.  So while I might not post every week please don’t give up on me and this blog.

Business:
Recently I have hired a marketing consultant to do some research, and strategizing for my business’ marketing plan.  There are two areas we are working on with this plan.  One is branding and marking the company as a whole, and the other is planning the release of the animated short we are working on.  I feel these are both things which will help grow my business, and hopefully get us more client projects.

I have also been doing a lot of research on foreign animation service companies.  One of my biggest challenges is the cost to do animation in the US is much higher then it is in other countries with cheaper labor or tax credits.  My plan is to find out how much these other companies are charging for each service, and then finding ways to lower my costs to compete with them.  I know I will not be able to get costs as low as them, but if I can get close I feel I will be able to win clients through other things we can offer.  For example being local makes it a lot easier for clients, so being in Los Angeles gives us a huge advantage.  Having amazing quality that is better then our competitors.  I hope to show this level of quality with our animated short.  Customer service, I want to make working with us as easy and comfortable as possible for our clients.  I want them to be so happy they not only return to  work with us again, but also tell other people about us.  Hopefully these other benefits will be enough to get the clients to pay a little more  in order to work with us over our remote competitors.

Short:
The short always tends to take the majority of my time each week.  So far we have had 14 people working on the short, so we have had a decent size crew.  We started working on it in May of this year, and plan to be working on the first 30-second episode until early next year.  While it is taking a long time to complete I’m very excited with how things are progressing.

All the assets for the first episode are modeled and currently being worked on in surfacing.  We have also finished character rigging, and we have started working on camera and rough animation.

Here are some rough poses done by our animator Jacob Gardner to test the rig, and get something more appealing then a t-pose for surfacing to work with.  It really gives you a sense of Bink’s personality, and where we can take it.

Bink Poses

As we continue to move forward on the short I will send more updates.

CTNX:
This weekend I will be attending The Creative Talent Network Expo in Burbank for the second time.  I went last year and had such a great time I wanted to go again.  You can read about my adventures last year at CTNX here… “An Amazing Experience at CTN Animation Expo” .

The first year I went to see what it was all about, so this year I’m hoping to take full advantage of what the expo has to offer.  It is a great place for networking with artists, animators, and anyone involved in animation.  I plan to attend some really great panels, and also hoping to learn some new things.  Next year I’m considering getting a booth for my company, and maybe even participate in the job fair to find talented artists to work with.

Facebook Network:
My Facebook network is continuing to grow, and we now have over 4,000 Facebook likes on our company page.  The larger our network the better chance we have of getting the short to be seen my the right people.  If you have not liked our page you can do so with the link below.  Also I always appreciate when you share my blog posts, or other social media sites with your own network.

 

Paris Attacks:
I wanted to end by briefly commenting on the terrorist attacks in Paris, and other places.  It is disheartening people resort to violence towards innocent people to make their statements.  My thoughts are with all of you who have lost loved ones, or have been effected by all this violence.  The animation industry has a very large and talented French community, and I hope you and your families also stay safe.

 

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.

Is it really almost November?

Is it really almost November?  This year has been flying by, and will be over before we know it.  I guess that is what happens when you are having fun?  This year has been a very busy year with running the business.  I feel that I’m learning new things everyday, and there is always challenges to overcome.  To me the challenges are part of the appeal of running my own company.  There is no roadmap that will work for every company, and it requires you to constantly readjusting your strategy.  Below is a quick update on some of the things I have been working on lately.

Bink:

It is really great to see everything coming together.  All the models for the first episode are now built, and both Bink and the Hand are in-progress on the rigs. I have started to see very early surfacing work on Bink which is awesome to see.  I would share the renders, but I think it is a little early for that.  We should be able to start animation in November if everything stays on schedule.

The other big thing I have been working on is trying to line up the voice talent.  I’m looking for a female voice for a scientist that makes announcements over a PA system, things like “Ready to initiate testing”.  As well as the voice for Bink, and this has been much more challenging.  I think I have a few options for the female scientist, but nothing for the voice for Bink.  I’m looking for a unique voice that is similar to the way minions, or Stitch talks.  A unique language that you can’t really understand most of the time, but occasionally there are words you do understand.  I recorded my son “talking” to use as an example, since when he talks it is very cute and you can occasionally make out an actual word. If you are anyone you know might be interested please let me know.  Here is the link to the VO project.

LA Society of Creative Professionals:

This last Tuesday we had our 4th monthly society mixer, and it was another great turnout.  So far our attendance for our events have ranged from 10-50 people.  I have been meeting a lot of really great and talented people, and hopefully others are enjoying the events and getting something out of it themselves.  I feel that no matter what you do networking is a key to being successful.  Plus I just love meeting new people, and learning about their unique lives.  I always show up to the mixers early to get things setup, and there is always this fear that no one will show up.  So far that has not happened yet, and hopefully it never does.

Corporation:

This week I have been learning a great deal about authorized and issued shares.  I have been having a highly debated conversation with my CPA and my attorney on how many shares we should issue, and how many we should save.  According to the articles of incorporation for Eric Miller Animation Studios we are authorized to have 100,000 shares.  I learned that it is a good idea to not issue all of them, and save some for later.  For example my attorney suggested only issuing 100 shares to me.  Since there are only 100 shares issued I’m still 100% owner, but it gives me extra to bring on partners, or offer to employees.  The debate has been how many shares to issue, 100, 25,000, or some other number.  It seems my CPA and attorney had different opinions, so we had to work out each of their reasonings for me to make a decision.

Part of that discussion is also how much I should spend on those initial shares.  My attorney explained to me “The greater the capitalization, the stronger EMAS is against an attack that it should be disregarded as an alter ego. Alter ego is a judicial doctrine that says that people should not be able to hide behind a corporate form if the corporation is inadequately capitalized and fails to comply with corporate formalities. If the corporation is found to be your alter ego, then you will be personally liable for its debts. If “the corporate veil is pierced” then a creditor could get a judgment against you individually. This defeats much of the purpose of incorporating.”

So as you see I have some pretty important decisions I’m trying to make.  As I mentioned I’m learning so much each day about a variety of different things I would have never learned about if I did not start my own company.

We are having another baby:

My wife and I made the announcement yesterday on Facebook that we are expecting another baby in May of 2016. We are both very excited for the new family member, but it is also very scary.  It is very challenging to have one child so having another it will be more of a challenge.  Having a house payment, two kids and in the second year of starting my own company is enough to stress anyone out a little.  I’m positive we will find a way to make it all work as we did with our first one.

 

Well, there is a quick run down of some of the things I have going on in my life.  Thank you for reading about my journey in starting my business, and as always leave me comments below.  I love reading about what is on your minds, and your responses to my posts.

 

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 October 2015 Update

Is it really October already?  Wow this year is flying by.  I’m already starting to see Christmas advertisements online and in my email inbox.  I have not been doing the best job at posting every week.  It is challenging to find the time to think, let alone write a post for my blog.  I will do my best to keep posting, so I thought I give you all a quick update on what is going on.

Animated Short:
In my previous post I mentioned I was considering naming the creature character and the short “Bink”.  I had a lot of very interesting reactions from different people.  While it still seems the majority of people like the name Bink I thought I share the other name I was considering.  The name I first I really liked was “Neap”.  I liked it because it was different, but also had reference to the ocean.  A neap tide is a tide that occurs when the difference between high and low tide is the least.  A neap tide comes twice a month in the first and third quarters of the moon.  I thought having a name that is in reference to the ocean would tie the creature to his back story about him being a seafaring species.  The main reason I kept looking for names was because the need version of the spelling meant “the remnant substance left over from vaporizing marijuana”.  I’m not sure how common this word is used, but was not sure it be a good way to go.  There is also a character called Meap on Phones and Ferb.  I’m still leaning towards Bink, but would love to hear what everyone thinks about Neap as a name option instead.

We are making some great progress with the short, and we have started rig wrecking and surfacing the creature character.  For those that don’t know what either of those are here is a quick and simple explanation.

rig_wreckA character TD will take the model and add a “skeleton” with joints to allow the model to move. Then they have to tell the geometry how to behave when a joint is moved.  Sometimes when a joint is moved in a certain way it does not look right.  Rig Wrecking is the process where an animator tests the rig trying to find things that don’t look right(Trying to wreck the rig).  This is then sent back to the Character TD with the animator’s notes of what issues need to be fixed.  This image is an example of things that were found during rig wrecking that were sent back to the Character TD to fix.  It is not uncommon for this back and forth to happen several times to get it working properly.

Surfacing is the process of adding a texture to the models so that when lighting is added and you render the scene everything looks amazing.  This can also be the stage where fur is added, where you define how shinny or reflective the surface is, and many other attributes that influence the final look of the characters and environment.

Both stages are very exciting because the characters become more and more realized.  We also will have a lighter that will be starting in November to start getting things ready to be rendered.  All surfacing, and animation has to be finished before lighting can do their final renders.

Company Update:
I mentioned earlier our company was changed from a sole proprietorship to an S-Corp, and the corporation started on July 24, 2015.  Once the corporation was formed then I needed to elect it to become a s-corp.  This process took a little longer, since we had to wait to hear back from the State.  I just received word that everything has now gone through, and the S-corp is completely setup.  Our first annual meeting will be held January 30, 2016.  I’m currently reading through the incredibly interesting corporate bylaws, so that I can sign them.  I’m reading sections at a time with breaks in-between to avoid falling asleep.

Client Projects:
I have not talked about client projects for a while now, and there is a good reason. While I’m still getting businesses contacting me about projects I’m not actively pursuing clients.  Instead all my energy has been going into the shorts.  I believe that it is important to have the shorts finished and in my portfolio before I spend marking money to find clients.  If they come to my website looking for 3D animation they won’t see much in my portfolio.  Once I have the shorts finished and on my website I will then invest in marketing to find new clients.  I’m also learning a great deal from making these shorts, and refining my processes and pipeline.

This is scary and a bit risky, since currently I’m spending more money then I’m bringing in, but I feel it is the smarter way to go.  Lets hope I’m right about this.

 

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.

Our Freelance Artist Roster

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.

Realigning the priorities of Eric Miller Animation

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.

 

Understanding vs Ability

I have been thinking a lot about how my skills have changed over the years, and the difference between understanding and ability. I feel that I now have a much greater understanding of artistry and design, but that I have lost much of my ability to create art.  I have learned a great deal about art from working with and observing such talented people over the years, and this is why I have a greater understanding.  At the same time I have lost my ability to draw and paint, since I have not been doing it.  In the past if you handed me a pencil and asked me to draw something I would be able to do it, but now I would be a bit rusty.

Ability is something you have to constantly work at, and if you stop doing it you might loose your skill.  Understanding is something I feel is hard to loose once you have it.  Once you have the understanding to ride a bike you won’t forget, but you may loose the ability to ride it after a while.

I decided I wanted to regain some of that skill I have lost, and plan to set aside some time each day to develop my artistic ability.  I feel it is important that I keep these skills sharp.  Not only will it be a great hobby for me, but will also be a great skill to have in my line of work.  In the business I will still focus on the management side of things, and leave the art to the extremely talented people I work with.

I look forward to sharing some of my artwork with all of you as I develop my skills, but it might be awhile until I’m once again confident with my work.

If you have not seen them before here are my first two animations that I made in college.  Looking back on these I feel there is so much I have learned, and many ways I could make them better. Things like character design, modeling, story, lighting, and compositing to name a few.  I’m still very proud of them, and they will always be special to me.  I hope you enjoy them.

ChessMate

 

Mediocrity

 

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.

New Year’s Resolutions for an Animation Studio

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

If you have not already, please join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog.  Also, if you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.