Animation | 8 Tips for Working with Animators
I figured that I've written a post about how animators are treated by bosses or colleagues and what goes on in the animation world, prior to this, I think that I should also provide solutions for working with animators or so things would be much efficient and smooth sailing. This would be mainly from my perspective and experiences of what I would expect from the client and from colleagues.
Working with animators is actually pretty simple and we get contented pretty easily. You just need to know how to push the right buttons. Hence, I've come up with :
8 Tips for Working with Animators
No. 1 Don't be TOO controlling
A little bit of our own space and creativity will definitely make us happier. And when we're happy, we do things faster and the production rate will be higher. I've been to a company where every day the supervisor would micromanage each and every employee in the department. He would always send a message almost every hour to check in on us and whether we're almost done with our tasks. The thing here is, a lot of us are adults and we know how important it is to meet the deadline. Meeting the deadline is already a stress factor, having the supervisor breathing down your neck isn't going to help any further.
Though, sometimes, if you feel that the animator isn't doing a good job. It is okay to talk to him/her and to understand the situation he/she is facing. Many times, the animator may not understand what you want.
No. 2 Talk to me
It's okay, I won't bite. You may ask me questions about my idea behind the animation and what inspires me to create. Most of the time, I would gladly share because it pumps me up enthusiastically when explaining my idea. Usually, we animators love to talk about the stuff we came up with. So don't worry about talking TOO MUCH to me. We could you know.... talk about life and such too.
No. 3 Don't be afraid to ask questions
No. 4 Provide references/examples
We LOVEEE any references/examples that you can give us. Reference to the style you want or the art direction you want. Before we start doing our 'magic' on the scenes with our own creativity, you may have something else in mind. So please, provide as many references to how you want your project to look and feel before you ask us to begin. Any questions should be asked before the animators start to animate the scenes. This will also help us understand your vision of your project.
No. 5 Say NO to general feedbacks
In addition to the previous tip, you may want to prepare some references for us along with your feedback. This will not only help you and I save valuable time, but it will also save your cost for hiring me. Many times I've received general feedbacks such as, 'can you make the scene happier?', 'can you change the pose?' etc... Off I go with my own creativity which would usually return with more feedbacks. So... help me help you.
No. 6 We value appreciation A LOT
Personally, when people come to thank me sincerely for helping them with a small job, I would usually do it for free. I know.... you guys must be wondering why would zord do things for free, is he stupid? Well, if the job only takes less than 30 minutes to do, and isn't that hard, I just don't feel like charging people. BUT, I love money, so I will probably still charge you peeps. :P
But yea, jokes aside, animators love to appreciated and we will remember whatever that is said to us. The appreciation would help boost our productivity to 'go the extra mile' for you. Appreciation can come in all forms including monetary. So if you love what I do, pay me. Or if I tell you that it's a gift from me to you, love me.
No. 7 Communicate the deadline with me
'Ain't no body for time for Overtime'. What makes me happy as an animator is going home on time. It allows me to relax, destress and prepare myself for another day tomorrow. When you're communicating the deadline with me, please listen to my deadline first because I would know better how long that animation is going to take. When we've given you a quotation on the deadline, do not cut it short and ask if we could doubletime the project. Then what is the point of communicating the deadline when you don't respect what we've just said.
No. 8 Pay me on time
Animation is not an easy task. We spend countless hours and valuable creative brain juice to come out with that awesome content where you'll probably earn a million bucks advertising with it. We would really appreciate it if we get paid right after submitting the final version over. Unfortunately in Malaysia, I've seen friends of mine 'begging' for the clients to pay them and some don't even pay. This gets dragged on for a year and the client just disappear.
After being in this industry for over 7 years now, I think these are some of the 'essentials' that every animator expects from their peers and clients. I guess in the end, we all just want to produce good work and projects that will entertain everyone.
Have a great week ahead!
Thank You
If you like what I do, check out my other posts on meetups, animation, and designs.
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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://zord189.steemblogs.club/2019/10/10/animation-8-tips-for-working-with-animators/
Nice work!
Very useful tips, the last one is soooooo important. Thank you Zord, always so helpful:)
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Funny funny
When posting to powerhousecreatives, can we steal
And use your banner above?
That would be nice. I've got too many footers already though.
This post was informative and was therefore upvoted.
Thank you