We rescued a doggie last Friday right in front of the marina. And… he ended up staying with us. His name is Minidog. My cats are slowly getting used to him, but still hissing at him a lot. We took him in the boat to the sandbar (with life jacket! hahaha) and he took a swim for the first time in his life. Here is him jumping from the boat and the amazing sunny octopuses (animated octopus cartoon characters) that were swimming with us in the ocean:
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This week I’m DOING with of my dreams: I’m getting my Scuba Diving Certification with @ScubaDivaLaura and my hubby. It’s so important for our soul and spirit to DO our dreams. What are your dreams? Make a list of 10 and arrange your schedule to start DOING one of them today!
The Scuba Diving class is absolutely AWESOME. I learned SO MUCH and it was SO MUCH fun!! In this video I’m learning how to get rid of water that accidentally gets into your mask while you are underwater. But, I felt so good DOING my dream that I wanted to show you how it felt so I added some of my own imagination to it and my Chihuahuas in Space decided to join me in the pool!
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Do you have those days where you are just blocked, low energy and can’t get yourself to work? I think you are missing some ‘inspiration’. Inspiration is that spark that turns you on and all your creative energy just flows. It’s like magic when it happens.
It’s very important to recognize when you are lacking that inspiration so you can be productive and creative whenever you need to be.
It’s a very good practice to create some sort of a system to recognize when you are in need of some inspiration, so you can do something about finding it back.
How do you recognize when you need inspiration? When you just can’t get yourself to do some work, when you feel low in energy, when you feel blocked, you just can’t create, write, or do whatever you gotta do.
What can you do about finding some inspiration? Take a moment to think and write down 10 things that exite you, turn you on, you find fascinating, you love. Take that list and tape it to your monitor and when you recognize that lack of energy, look at the list and do or look at just 1 of those things 10 things. Take a little brake and do it. You’ll see how quickly your creative juices come back and you are on top of everything.
If you discover new things that inspire you, add them to the list immediately. Think of that list like your treasure of inspiration that you can go back to and recharge. And if you travel a lot, keep the list in your computer or your phone so you can access it at anytime.
What inspires me? I’m inspired by my cats, when I swim, specially if it’s outdoors, by looking at some artists art, by going to the zoo.
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Hello!
In this video I talk about the importance of keeping a video library, how it can help any illustrator, designer, motion graphics artist, motion designer, animator or broadcast designer save a lot of time when getting new projects with quick turns arounds. I shot it at the beautiful Biltmore Hotel, here in Coral Gables during a weekend retreat to plan the rest of the year (I know! so much work, but it was great!)
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Hi!
In this video I talk about looking at EVERYTHING with new eyes to find inspiration EVERYWHERE.
Enjoy!
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“True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.”
A. Einstein
How to animate your short film while full-timing in you animation or motion graphics job?
You gotta get your s*t together and get organized. No way around it.
1 -How big can your project really be?
I find that is very important for me, to be able finish the projects I start. I’m not the kind of person that is working on a project for 3 years. It took me many tries and a few abandoned projects to learn that the animated projects I wanted to make had to be small enough to be done in 3-4 months having a full time job at the same time. If it took longer than that, I realized I got tired of the project, lost objectivity and wanted to just veg-out in the couch doing nothing. Go for a small project at first, something that you can get done in 2 weeks or so, to see how you feel about it and if you can finish it. If you finish it, then plan something a little bit bigger and so on.
Once your script, storyboard and art direction of your short are done and you are ready to animate it’s time to plan out the timeline of your animation.
2- When to find the time to work on your side project?
The happiest and most efficient way I found to work on a side project while being a full time employee is to work for 2 for hours in the morning, before going to work. In the morning I’m fresh, rested, is very quiet and my brain it’s at it’s full. Some periods of time I worked only 1 hour before leaving for work and that was better than being upset at work because I couldn’t work on my side project that day. During the week 1-2 hours + half or whole day of Saturday was OK for 2 or 3 months. To work more than that means that you will probably burn out, I don’t recommend it. Some people prefer to work at night. I find that I’m very tired mentally and physically to work at the end of the day.
I figured out this system to start and finish my animated shorts, art projects, portfolio website, etc, because I discovered I would be very upset and resentful at work if I couldn’t work on my own side project. It got to be so much that I had to work on my side project every day or I would be in a bad mood. Talking about it with co-workers I discovered the other artists, designers, motion graphics artists and animators had the same problem and everyone was frustrated, upset, burned out and not doing their day jobs very well because they were trying to work on their side projects in an unorganized way.
It’s hard at the beginning to get used getting up early , but at the 4Th day you are so happy with how much you advanced in your project that next you are looking forward to get up super early the next day. It’s amazing how much you can get done in 1 or 2 hours when you are organized and your full attention is concentrated.
3- Define what you will be doing the next morning the night before.
You are a lot more productive if you know what you will be working on that morning do before you start. Either at the end of your hour/s working on your side project plan what you’ll do the next day, or plan it and write it down before going to sleep. Starting the day knowing what you have to do it’s really good because you are relaxed and focus. And A LOT more productive.
4- Set realistic deadlines. You will burn out if you don’t.
Setting realistic deadlines is very important because you can get very frustrated if you didn’t get done as much as you wanted. If you don’t know how long something will take, test doing a few frames and then calculate how long it could take to do more frames. Push yourself but no too much because after 3 months it’s very easy to burn out. So give yourself 1 day of the week where you just have fun and give yourself brakes some days or some weekends. You’ll see that when you come back to your project you’ll be more fresh, rested and full of energy again.
So Plan, Plan, Plan!
A really good way to help you plan the animation is to get a big wall calendar and write on it what you’ll be doing when. That will relax you and there will be no day you don’t know what to work on. When you don’t know what to work on is very stressful and you loose objectivity. It’s very important you to know where you are in your project’s timeline. It helps you if are delayed, or advanced and when you are going to finish it. Plan a celebration show party when it’s done. Celebrating your accomplishments it’s a very good practice.
If you want feedback on any project you are doing please post a comment here. I always want to hear from your projects and successes.
After years of experience designing for a living I came up with this technique of getting inspiration for my color palette very quickly and effectively without having to travel very far away or pull my hair out!
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Just being a great designer isn’t enough to get hired. It certainly was not enough for me as the Sr Art Director at MTV Networks Creative Services department. In this video I talk about one of the main reasons I hired and keep hiring designers to work with me for design projects at MTV, Vh1, LOGO and Nickelodeon.
Use this client management tip to get hired for any graphic design, motion design, broadcast design, motion graphics or animation and keep getting work from the same client again and again and again.
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If you learn how to find them around you, you can re-arrange your furniture so now it gives you a calming feeling when before it was upsetting and you didn’t know why, you can draw anything you want or you can figure out why you like a landscape and you don’t like another.
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With all the sadness of Michael Jackson’s early death, I though I put a little smile on you. I did this very funny promo a while ago for the Vh1 show Michael Jacksons’ Secret Childhood. Here is little Michael walking to school in the morning.
To Michael Jackson!
