Coming Up Next : What Can/Should Animators Do In Downtime

P.S. – This is just an intro about my upcoming post and not the post itself.

Lately I have come across many discussions, emails, questions as to whats the future of Animation (specially in my country, India) looks like and what should we do about it to get employed or remain employed. Majority of them are from freshers/beginners, very newly inducted into production or are waiting to get that ever so elusive first break in the industry.

So I thought it would be prudent to give some thought to it and see if I can come up with something worth pondering or at-least answer some questions I have been asked. Though this post has been motivated keeping in mind whats happening in the Indian Animation Industry and what can Animators(or to-be) do, but I am filled with hope that what I am about to share will resonate across diverse set of Animators(or even in general artists and may be even people looking for jobs or already in jobs but fearful of whats going to happen next) regardless of which part of the world they are from.

Now I really desist the very over-hyped-blown-out-of-proportion word “recession” and hence I am using the word “downtime”.

Also I am totally not going to get into details, of industry figures and statistics, so I wont be mentioning any studio names and what current work they have and what work they plan to get in the near future. My post will be primarily about what we can do at an individual level. We cant influence the circumstances around us, but we can for sure influence how we react to it and what can be done by each one of us.

So its all about what you can/should do at all times, whether the time is good or not so good. This post will be more about self-growth yet offer practical suggestions which will enable you be more pro-active about your circumstances/challenges/setbacks/failures instead of being reactive towards them.

I have to admit that whatever content I am sharing it with you has been condensed and sourced from different resources in the form of people I talk to, books, audio books, blogs, podcasts, seminars and so on and also layered with my own thoughts. Having said that the reason I am sharing it with you is that I am 100% convinced that you will definitely be able to relate to some if not all. I have myself tried and still trying many of them and hence that’s the reason of my conviction that it will be useful for you. Its my sincere intention to help people by sharing whatever little I know and not to just increase the eyeballs/traffic for my blog. But again use your own discretion and then decide what makes sense for you personally.

Depending on how much I come up with, the post may be divided into multiple posts for ease of reading.

Also for the first time, I am making this a collaborative post where in you are more than free to send any suggestions yourself and I shall include this in a different post dedicated to just the views I receive from different people explicitly. Needless to say by due credit will be given.

You can send your suggestions/views by email(mentioned in my profile) / or using the comment section below/ or on Twitter.

Thank You !

@|b

P.S. – I am sure you would have noticed the image above where a ray of light seeps into the otherwise dark room. Its my endeavor that this post will do the same for you, doesn’t matter how small the effect might be.

The 6 Rules for Superior Energy and Fitness by Robin Sharma

Inspiration/motivation/self-help,  is one area which I wanted to share and discuss on my blog, but due to time constraints couldnt really devote time to it. Though I did start a bit on it from this post, still there is a LOT to write about it. 

Hopefully in the near future.  In the meantime I will try to post snippets here and there. 

Stop Procrastinating – 7 Tips

Its been sometime since I posted something(apart from my Weekly Movie Recommendations) as I have been(and still will be for sometime to come) really busy with my own independent 3D Animated Short Film, which hopefully will be completed in a couple of months. You can get more info on that here. 

But “procrastination” is one area which I struggle almost every day and I am sure each of one us do face it more often than we would realise or care to admit. Many would also use other terms instead of “procrastinate” like “putting things for later”, “prioritizing”, “being lazy” and so on. So I thought it would be a good topic to dwell upon.  

One of my good friends Josh Corken has a recent blog post on how to stop procrastination.  Its short and concise, simple and well written and I felt it was perfect to get some light thrown on this topic. 

I wont say its the definitive guide but its a fantastic starting point to get the idea across. 

Hope it helps you as it surely helped me to brush over things which I need to be constantly reminded about.

@|b 

The Coffee Story – Search Within And You Shall Find It

This is one story which has been engraved in my mind and the hidden meaning in this story is so powerful and inspiring that it keeps surfacing on my mind from the deep corners where its been stored for ever. I don’t remember where i heard this one, may be it was on TV, movie, magazines or newspaper.

“Its a beautiful morning, slightly drizzling which makes the morning even more beautiful. A person wakes up and decides to start the day by sitting in his veranda which gives him a view-to-die for of the beautiful ocean and having a hot cuppa of coffee.

But he is surprised to see that someone has already made his coffee and his lying on the dining table. He is pleasantly surprised, takes the coffee and walks towards his veranda. He is comfortably settled down and savors the beautiful morning view. He takes a sip of his coffee but is taken aback. The coffee is very bitter. He is so comfortable that he feels very lazy to go and get some sugar and a spoon to make his coffee sweeter. So he decides to have the bitter coffee itself. He is clearly a bit unhappy but then that’s the choice he has made.

He has finished his coffee half way thru, when the next sip totally surprises him again but this time in a positive way. The coffee becomes a bit sweeter this time.

He notices that the nearer he reaches to the end of the cup and finishing his coffee the sweeter it becomes. Now he is almost reached the end when he sees something and starts laughing at himself.

At the bottom of the coffee cup there were sugar cubes. All he had to do to make it sweeter was to stir. ”

Now it may seem like any other story with a good funny pay off but its a beautiful analogy to relate to each and everyone’s of our life.

The coffee is our life. When you have reached the end of the cup and can see the base, we have entered the twilight zone of our lives. We all search for happiness, peace, calm around us and by running over other material stuff like money, fame, prosperity, recognition, attention of others and so on, but we fail to realize that the real happiness lies within us all. All we have to do is stir.

So before its too late, stir and seek inside yourself and i can assure you that, you WILL definitely find whatever you are looking for.

@|b

Celebrating Our Mistakes

Came across this nice article about why we should celebrate our mistakes and learn from it instead of brooding or feeling sad over it, because if not for the mistakes we may even cease to grow in life.

Read more right here.

@|b