TIPS - Keeping Motivated (Part 2)

TIPS - Keeping Motivated (Part 2): Yesterday I talked about the first way that I find useful for keeping motivated. If you haven't read that, have a look:

TIPS - Keeping Motivated (Part 1)

Ok it takes a lot of hard work to do part one, but thankfully part two is much easier. Today I'm talking about discussion. Now some people will find this easier than others - it really depends on the people you know. I obviously work with a lot of fellow animators, and I spend at least some time every day discussing animation with them. This may seem like idle chit-chat that wastes time, but I assure you it's not.
What it is is a pooling of ideas and knowledge. It is a way of finding out things we would never be able to find out ourselves. It is a challenge of the things we think we know.

Talking about animation is a sure-fire way of keeping your interest in it. It's also a fantastic way to cement concepts and thoughts in your head. Let's take an example. How many times have you seen a movie and really enjoyed it? A lot right? Well how many times have you sat down and analysed why you liked it? I'm guessing not that often. Imagine you talk about it to your friends and one of them says they don't like it. Personally, this becomes a challenge - to describe to them why you like it. In doing this you are not just trying to persuade them, but you are analysing the film. This can bring things to your attention that you never thought of.

That's just one example. In general of course, we all have knowledge about certain things. If a few of us put our knowledge sets together, we have something far stronger. The things we agree on will be reinforced, the things we disagree on will weaken. What we have here is an evolution of thought.

Again, like in part one, we are learning - and this is addictive. The thing is, though, is that this is a very easy way to learn.

The difficulty is when you have noone to talk to about your chosen subject - in this case, animation. I had this problem when I first started learning. None of my family or friends had much interest in animation and certainly didn't know anything about doing it. The way I found to get around this was to start up this blog. It introduced me to people all over the world with the same interest that I have. Animation forums are another good place to talk to like-minded people. I can't imagine how I would have got into the industry if it hadn't been for the fantastic resource that is the Internet!

So get talking! Where I work, there are a core few people who discuss animation techniques, films, and whatever else. The rest seem to be a silent majority. I'd wager that the standard of animation in the whole company would raise significantly if EVERYONE talked to each other about their work.