20 Mile Marching

The climb out of the darkness is going well. Because it's near the end of the project, my days have been filled with finalizing art and animation.

Here are some cool buds in the video I'm making. If you know me, you may recognize some or all of these critters as real life pals from years ago!

Man's best friends!

I'm animated a lot right now too. I think that curve editors look pretty. Check out this collection of animation curves for a couple objects in a scene (a plant and a speech bubble).

Animation curves! This is what I look at while I work.

20 Mile Marching

I'm working a lot right now, which has left me to think about pacing and taking care of myself. So, this week I'm going to ponder on the term "20 Mile Marching". I talk about it all the time, and I first read about in Jim Collin's book "Great by Choice."

What is it? It's a term used to describe a way of working and thinking. In simple terms, it's about achieving consistent performance with both and upper and lower bounds. We need both the ambition to achieve and the self-control to hold back.

In the book, they describe an example of two people on an expedition across the country. One person marches 20 miles every day, rain or shine. No less (so it's a hurdle to overcome), but no more (so he doesn't overexert himself). Some days it's easy to march 20 miles, and some days it's not, but every day always only 20 miles.

In contrast, the second person begins marching on the first day and feeling excited, he marches 40 miles. Exhausted on the second day, he wakes to find that it's extremely hot outside, so he waits inside his tent for a better day to go out. He continues this behavior of overexertion on good days to make up for lost time, followed by weakened days where he doesn't march at all. But when a powerful storm hits (metaphor for a trying time in business), it nearly kills him and he is forced to wait for better weather.

By the time this second person stumbles past the half-way mark to his goal, our 20 mile marcher is nearing the end. The person who paced himself will cross the finish line by a huge margin. He had the ambition to achieve in bad times and self-control to hold back in good times. In other words, he had the strength to persevere during bad times because he hadn't spent all his resources during the good times.

------

It's so tempting for artists to push themselves hard to achieve their goals. We want to be good. We want to earn the respect of our peers. We want to earn enough money to feel secure. Naturally we figure that if we push ourselves to our limits, we have a better chance of achieving these worthy goals.

However, ceaseless exertion of our talents isn't going to do it. I've worked hard in my years. I've been up at the ungodly hours of the night, working and working. I'm ambitious as hell, and I obsess in a way that can lead to frustration. Of course we need to exert our talents ambitiously and obsessively, but we need to do so smartly. Wailing on a cave wall with a spoon is not the smartest way to dig.

As much as I hate it, I have finally accepted the fact that I am a not a robot. I too must heed the 20 mile march. I'm also a physical creature who actually needs to sleep at night, eat right, and stay active in physical ways. But it's hard because creating with my brain and my hands is very engaging. Why stop at 11pm to sleep? Animating this character is fun! Why spend the time to make a nutritious snack? Reading tips on cinematography is much more interesting. And why would I ever want to stop storyboarding a chase scene so I can go for a real run that will only leave me drenched in sweat and pain?

But humans need more than that, they need brain stimulation (or lack thereof) too. We need social connection with other humans (especially those we love), and time spent letting our brains rest from our work. I used to think that when I let my brain rest from my work, I was slacking off. I wasn't being dedicated, and if I liked resting, it meant I didn't like art as much as an artist should. The truth is that I love art, and I usually can't stop thinking about it. I don't doubt my conviction as an artist. So, I've found that when I free my mind to think about other things, like how a bike works or laughing at a funny puppet video, I find that my art benefits.

Daydreaming and thinking about "useless" stuff can really pay off. Of course, you can't just do that, but that goes without saying. When I do rest, I'm giving my brain a chance to make subconscious connections that I hope will lead to an epiphany. You know those "ah-ha" moments when an idea feels like it "comes" to you? That's your brain making a connection between two things that you had thought hard about individually, but not together. You can't know when a connection will happen, but you can increase the odds by developing the right environment for them. It starts by giving your brain a chance to wander. And by the way, I'm not saying anything new here. I've read books on this stuff.

So, letting myself rest with a 20 mile march regimen has helped me so much that I feel it's worth telling everyone I know about it. It's about balance. We should work hard everyday, but we must also rest well everyday. I can't tell you how many artist I've encountered who are burned out, apathetic, frustrated, and plain ol' sleepy. They need to pace themselves. And if they work at a company, the company needs to stop forcing them to not pace themselves. The big companies in the industry don't understand 20 Mile Marching, and it's hurting their teams of artists. It makes me sad.

Resisting the urge to work a lot when you have lots to do and the energy to do it is not easy and it's downright un-intuitive. So, think of it like a Chinese finger trap, you know those toys we used to play with as kids? The trick to escaping our entrapment is not to push harder against our cement walls. It's by taking a step back, planning, and making a proper vault over the obstacle in the morning...after we've got a good night's rest in us.

Work smart and rest well, my friends.

Bailey

The Dark Side of the Creative Process

This blog is all about peeling back the layers. So, I'm gonna be honest...I struggled creatively this week. Art is always a struggle to one degree or another, but every now and then it can be pretty rough. Some people might scoff at the woes of a creative. After all, the job of a creative person can appear to be an easy one. I'll agree that it's not physical labor, but it is exhausting nonetheless. Creating is less like "make-believe" and more like solving a really hard puzzle. A puzzle that you can't even see properly. It's a brain workout.

Unfortunately, inspiration does not flow from a faucet that we can turn on and off whenever we want. That is why the movie, music, and every art industry in the world is inherently volatile. Artists make every effort to increase the odds of new ideas, inspiration and excitement. But that's all we can do. We can only increase the chances of lightning strikes by creating the right conditions for it. I won't get into what those are, because that's a different topic.

Projects can be great fun, but even the best projects suffer from the inevitability of human nature. At least that's my experience. Maybe someone out there has only experienced easy projects, but I doubt it. If you're going to grow, then you need to challenge yourself. And every creative has been bored, exhausted or depressed by a project. It's like the quote by Jill Soloway: "Every project is a race between your enthusiasm and your ability to get it done."

The emotional timeline of a project is a predictable downward slope that pauses at a low, very dark, very serious place before suddenly rising again at the end. This dark place is something every creative has experienced. I'm not kidding when I say that this stage sucks. It's full of self-doubt, apathy and fear. Most of the project is a struggle, but this darkness requires the most energy and confidence to emerge from. It's my thinking that the process of doubt is not a fault of the artist, rather it's just part of the process of doing something new. And a while back I saw a graphic of this, but I modified it based on my own experiences. The original one I saw can be seen here, but here's mine:

You'll notice that it's hard to rise all the way back up to that ideal dream we feel when we first start a project, but we can make something pretty good anyway...if we work hard. And yes, I occupied the lowest point this past week. My enthusiasm was non-existent. But the thing to remember is that every project (especially the long ones) go through this descent and eventual rise. The 3D Printing project was no different last year. There was a time when I had zero interest in it. My inspiration had dwindled and the movie looked like crap. But through considerable effort, I overcame it. We always do, unless we give up or have to stop.

I'm lukewarm on what I've made this month. But it'll come through...enough. That's the other thing. Not everyone will like it. And even worse, there's no guarantee that my art will be liked by my clients. All I want, sincerely, is that I like it. If I like it, then someone else might too. Carrying on to make art for ourselves is the only genuine way to make art.

Creating is hard. I'll admit that I've abandoned a lot of projects to rot in the darkness phase. To be clear, I don't think every project needs to be finished. Sometimes this is perfectly fine because we should be focusing on something else anyway. But if we decide to finishing something, to keep going, to keep marching...know that we can rise to a level that seems impossible from where we are.

Onward and upward!

Bailey

A Big Year

Happy Holidays!

Well, I've slept about 2 hours in the past 40 hours. It's been a frenzy of family time, client work, and a mad dash to get a new cube dance finished (it's the most ambitious yet). But I enjoyed my Christmas, albeit with heavy eyelids.

It's hard to believe that I've been writing the blog for three continuous months already. And it's thanks to my friend for the idea. It's been good to force myself to release art every week. I have no plans to stop anytime soon, so keep coming back to see better and better things!

And what a year! It's been a truly great year for my career, and I don't say that lightly. I'll be brief... At the top of the list is that I quit my salary job and started my own business. It's the smartest thing I've ever done for myself because it has brought me so much joy. This year also was the most productive year I've ever had, having released more finished and behind-the-scenes content than ever before. And I've continued to meet and work with more great people!

Where is Forma Pictures heading?

Well, I've got more than a few projects queued up. More ideas than there's time for, as usual. Client work will remain an important part of my plan. But with Hunted (and more like it), Forma Pictures will begin to release its own content. It's going to take time, and 2015 will be a huge learning year.

Things to look for in 2015

Small, choreographed animations - Like the cube dancing videos and other expressions of intense musicality are forthcoming. I'll release these every two weeks.

More edited shorts - I love editing, and my series of re-edited movies will continue on. The 4th one is already in development.

Fortnight of Frames - This will be a two week romp of constant design and animation creation, with daily releases. It will be intense!

Continued Hunted development - Hunted isn't going away. So far there are three of us contributing to the project. Lots to do yet!

Improvements to site - Forma Picture's website has never been completely finished. I released it because I had to. There are aesthetic and back-end updates coming.

2-minute, animated company video - I'm finishing this in January, and I'll release it as soon as I'm able.

Secret project - I've had the opportunity to work with some great people on something I can't talk about yet. Hope I can share the details this year.

And without further ado I give you Mann Co. Party, the 4th in my series of Cube Dancing videos. I can't seem to place what it's an homage to...

Bailey

Billing the Hour

Today I'm going to talk about time tracking and what I've learned when it comes to billing a client for the work that I do. But first an update:

I'm doing a lot of client work at the moment. The rest of December and most of January are going to be very busy for me. I've been designing 2D stuff like cartoon people, dogs, trees, and other lighthearted things for a commercial. I may also post a photo of the print work I've been doing once it's printed.

Although I'm busy, I'm still making time for you guys. On Christmas Day I'll be releasing my fourth cube dancing video. It's gonna be the best one so far! And after that I've got content lined up for you for the next 3 weeks. Some concepts, some videos, and some behind the scenes. LOTS coming up.

The Billable Hour

There are a few different options when it comes to determining how to bill a client. There are flat rates, where you do all of the work for fixed price. And there are day rates (or hourly rates), where the end cost depends on how long it takes to do. I've done both, depending on the job.

For some design work, especially the smaller jobs, I'll quote a fixed price. I'm fairly confident in my estimations for jobs that take less than a week. But for the larger, more ambitious projects, I favor the day rate approach, which in turn is based on an hourly rate.

A typical 90-120 second animated commercial is a daunting task. There are so many steps, each with varying time costs. And depending on the complexity, it can take months and months to complete. And I never create something that's completely like what I've done before, so there is always an element of learning and exploration that adds to the uncertainty of the final cost. All of this means that, as a contracted artist, I need to keep careful track of the time I bill.

Contrary to what you might think, I do not start at 9am, stop at 5pm and call it a day. Billable hours, as they say, are only those hours where you were actively doing meaningful work for the client. Bathroom breaks, lunch breaks, and checking my email do not count. So, I have my iPhone sitting at the side of my desk with a timer. Whenever I'm painting, animating, or editing, I start the timer. But, say, if I happen to tab over to Twitter, I stop the timer immediately.

What I've found is that getting to 8 billable hours takes at least 9-10 hours of real time. And that's working pretty much non-stop. And when things like dinner are factored in, it can easily take 10-11 hours of the day to make 8 hours worth of money. So, a "9 to 5" doesn't actually produce a real 8-hour day. All the little, seemingly innocuous, things add up fast. A few 5-minute email checks leave me missing a quarter of an hour. And while I'm writing this blog, I'm not getting paid!

When I hear people say they get 16 hours of work done in a day, I pause. I certainly have no doubt that they were on the computer for most of that time. But to truly get 16 hours of real work done in a day is very difficult. Things like commutes, lunch, dinner, bathroom breaks, email checking, adjusting Photoshop shortcuts, chores, exercising, and reading up on the industry take time out of our precious days. Even if you eat while you work, you're not going as fast as normal. Not to mention any family time, entertainment, or getting a good night's rest. So, yeah...I often work from 9am to 2am. But there's no way I can bill a client for all of that time.

If you made it this far, here's an early, early concept I drew last year for the 3D Printing commercial I made. Is this different from the final look, or what? Just goes to show how much things can change over the course of a project.

A very early concept for 3D Printing: Making a Better Future. Very different from the final direction!

A very early concept for 3D Printing: Making a Better Future. Very different from the final direction!

Bailey

The Life of a Freelance Artist

Artists have to make money. I wish I could just create whatever I wanted and not worry about finances, but I'm not there yet. Most of us are either working at a company earning a salary, or we're out hustling on our own, booking gigs, selling our art and earning a living that way. Right now, I'm doing the latter.

One of the things that's been most surprising to me since starting my business is how my perception of money has changed. I worked in an office for seven years. I earned steady income for that entire period, and I was never out of work. During those years, I didn't really think about money very often. As long as I had a job, everything was magically alright.

But now I think about money every day. It's what keeps this adventure going. So, I hustle, research, and strategize all the time. And when I sign contracts for paid work, it's a feeling like no other. Diving into the unknown can be terrifying, but completely invigorating. I choose to perceive this path as a series of opportunities to make my life the way I want it. And because of that, I feel very good just about every day.

It's important to note that I make every effort to keep my creative time free and clear of stress. It's hard to create when stressed. And if I can't create, I can't live. So, stress mitigation is kinda important. Luckily, I learned a great deal about stress management over the last seven years, and I'm still working to be better at it.

So, would I recommend this path to other artists? Well, it depends on what kind of person you are. It takes a lot of work, time, care, responsibility and discipline. That's just fine with me, because I relish that stuff. It does mean that every move I make matters, but that's why it's so great too. I get to be making the moves, not someone else.

If you're on the fence, think about it like this: you need to satisfy the priorities in your life that are specific to you. For me, this is what I want. I want control, responsibility, and opportunities for insane growth. It suits me, so I'm absolutely happier than I've ever been. But everyone has different intrinsic or situational needs. And they must satisfy them or risk being unhappy. And remember, good will always be the enemy of great (more on that here).

The best piece of advice I have is this: Listen to yourself. We're always subconsciously telling ourselves what we want in life. But do we have the courage to objectively listen, no matter what it says? It may not be easy to accept what we want. I wish I loved building rockets, but I don't so I won't be trying to work for NASA. And years ago, members of my family were upset with me that I didn't pursue a career as a dancer. They said I was throwing away my talent. But here's the deal: I didn't love it. If I had done it, I would have been throwing away my life, not my talent. So, I didn't do it.

I know that fear is the biggest de-motivator. Believe me, I've had my fair share of it. And it was because of fear that I resisted starting my own business. But when I remembered that the days of my life were falling away, like grains of sand, I knew I had to do it immediately. And I knew that I could fail, but I could fail just as easily not doing what I loved. In fact, we're more likely to fail at things that we don't love. And besides that, we can get a string of bad luck, no matter what we're doing. So, I implore you...do what you love.

It's worth it.

And now, for the dumbest yet in my super dumb series of dancing cube videos that I force myself to make quickly. They are not masterpieces, but they make me laugh while I'm making them, so that's something.

Your pal,

Bailey

Drawing Dogs

This past week I was busy with storyboarding and creating style frames for a secondary project. I find that storyboarding takes a lot of mental effort. Probably because I'm trying to concept, stage, edit, and keep continuity all at once. There will definitely be some behind the scenes stuff in January, but here are some dogs:

These dogs are in it to win it. You'll see more of them in January.

There was no progress on my original short film (Hunted) this week. I'm still figuring out exactly how to balance it with the rest of my work. I also don't want it to take years, so I may need to devote larger chunks of time to it.

Next week I'll be releasing another tiny (short short) as part of my ongoing effort to practice rigging, animation, and choreography. I'm also doing these to force myself to release content at least once every two weeks. It will be goofy and musical!

As for the future, I've begun to think about doing something even more ambitious: a project where I release art every day for two weeks. I'm calling it a Fortnight of Frames. I hope to do it next spring.

Lastly, I began work on my fourth edited short. This will probably be released in February (only because I'm working on it simultaneously with everything else). You can find the first 3 HERE. In case it isn't clear, here are the release schedules for my current projects:

• 1 tiny animation - every 2 weeks
• 1 medium sized project - every 2 months
• 1 short film (Forma Pictures) - every 1-2 years
• 1 short film (part of a team) - every 1-2 years
• ongoing client work - every 1-4 months (varies)

Bailey

CTN & Cubes

What a week! So much happened. I attended the CTN Expo, and had a splendid time. I saw cool art, enjoyed panels, learned, and became inspired. But most importantly, I met a lot of wonderful creatives. Honestly, I was delighted to enjoy the company of such genuinely good people. Overall I left feeling that the community is pretty great. Happy to be part of it! And, naturally, I have something to share. The second installment in my ridiculous Cube Dancing series...

Aaaand last week the composer for Hunted sent me the first draft of the score. We'll be working on adapting it to the story and vice versa. Yay! Music!

Bailey

The Action Movie

It's that time of week again. Last week I promised you an edited short. My work here was just editing. Music and movie clips are property of their respective owners. Crank the music up, and I hope you enjoy!

Originally intended to be about twice the length, this work languished on my hard drive for some time. A couple weeks ago I decided to tighten it up and share it.

In other news, today and tomorrow I am attending 2014's CTN Expo. Gonna see and talk to artists and animators, look at cool art, and learn! I couldn't be more excited. In preparation, I decided it was time to get some business cards in order. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out. Heavy paper weight, silky smooth, and bright blue. And if you're going and you see a guy wearing a Forma Pictures t-shirt, that's me!

Bailey

A Plethora of Projects

Progress on Hunted will be slowing down a bit. The truth is that Forma Pictures has been involved in a slew of projects. As of this writing, I'm working on 3 short film projects (and a couple smaller ones)! Some are original IPs like Hunted, and the rest are being made with or for others. So far, this blog has focused on Hunted, but I'd like to open it up to the other projects as well. At least the ones that aren't confidential.

Showing the other projects will be a more honest representation of the growth of Forma Pictures anyway. Client work remains a core part of its business model. I've got a lot of irons in the fire, and bets on more than one direction. I'm exploring where financial success lies, while still staying true to my core passions of working with great people and creating genuine, music-driven stories. See Good to Great to learn more about the 3 circles (money, passion, best at). I want this blog to peel back the curtain not just on Hunted, but also on the growth of a business.

Never fear, however, because Hunted isn't going away. I'll always be working on it. It's my favorite "kid", and I'll see to it that it becomes a high-functioning adult. Here's a poster concept I recently did:

UPCOMING CONTENT

• Next week I'll be releasing a new edited short. Remember Movie Magic? Well, get ready for more!
• Also, be sure to check out my new series of short shorts (aka "tinies"): "Dancing Cubes." These are goofy, 5-15 second, musical animations. The first one is below. More are on the way!

TWITTER

If weekly updates aren't enough for you, be sure to follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/bkalesti

I actually spend a portion of time each week carefully collecting and posting good content from the web that I feel is worth sharing. I promise I'll never tweet what I had for dinner, because who gives a ****. My twitter presence is just about the craft and the community. It's where I mention new stuff I'm doing that may not reach the blog.

Bailey

Animatic Clip

As promised, I'm sharing a clip of the animatic. The score isn't in yet, so it's rather quiet. The art is obviously non-existent and the animations are point-A to point-B type of stuff. Everything is stand-in for the real art that will come later. But hey, movies are always bad in the beginning. My goal here is to shed light on the gritty details of this process. See last week's update for a more in-depth analysis of what goes into making an animatic.

In this segment, Chloe encounters something unexpected, and she's appropriately cautious...

Bailey

The Making of an Animatic

No art to show this week, so I’m showing a little behind the scenes. Personally, I love looking under the hood of a project, so I hope this is interesting to someone.

My main task right now is creating the animatic. During this process I’m addressing three important aspects that are shaping the movie:

• Staging
• Cinematography
• Editing

The initial boards I made were loose and I focused on finding a visual language. After creating the third batch of thumbnail sketches, I spent a day placing them into a non-linear editor.
 

The third batch.

I feel that the staging process is like solving a puzzle. I look to the script and determine all the actions that need to happen to move the story along. The hard part is adapting the ideas into a space, where action happens. Working from an overhead perspective, I literally just scribble ideas for camera angles, player movement, and interactions throughout the scene. When I’m building it, I’m thinking about technical limitations (based on visual direction), composition, eye-tracing, and 2D screen-space rules.

The cinematography has been fun for me. I’ve been getting coverage of each scene, which has helped the editing process. And I’ve been working on shot composition, which is an art form unto itself. Naturally, I feel like a complete novice. Creating a still with coherent composition is hard enough, and then adding the element of time makes it all the harder. As Joseph Mascelli says in The Five C’s of Cinematography (which I highly recommended), “Good motion picture scenes are the result of thoughtful compositions and significant movements, of players and/or camera. Unsatisfactory scenes are the results of thoughtless compositions and meaningless player or camera movements, which distract rather than aid in the story-telling.”

Editing affects the shots too. Sometimes I don’t feel I can cut to a certain angle in the given time, which makes me reevaluate my camera choices. And because this is a music-driven story, everything needs to work harmoniously with the score. So, Hunted is really a series of music-supporting sequences that move the story and emotion along a pre-defined arc. And for even the simplest scenes to work, composition, staging, music, editing, and design must cooperate. That’s really the beauty of film. It’s the convergence of so many art forms…each one potentially elevating the art to higher and higher levels.
 

A very early timeline.

Hunted is a simple film, but I know it will continue to push me to my limits. This is why whenever I watch a particularly well made movie, I can’t help by sit in awe. Good movies are hard to make. I can’t say if my film will be good, but I’ll pour everything I’ve got into it.

I’ll post a clip of the animatic next week (November 7th)!

Bailey

Animatic Underway

After creating hundreds of storyboard sketches this week, I began working on the animatic. I'm feeling good about the scenes, and the time has come to create a robust, moving storyboard. Here are some stills from a few of the scenes:

All very simple, but so important. I'm having fun getting coverage of the scenes, and then editing them together. Some shots have been drawn by hand over and over again, and it's good to finally see them in 3D space. I'm learning what works and what doesn't. Overall, this film challenges me in ways that make me very happy. I've continued to read about cinematography and editing as I try to get better at this stuff. I love film!

Bailey

Breakthrough

We all know that it's difficult to translate the vague ideas in our heads into something real. To help with this, I tried an exercise.

Over the last few weeks I amassed a lot of reference photos and inspiration. This week I chose thirteen of my favorites. Then I wrote down the reasons I liked each one. Finally, I compiled these qualitative assessments into a spreadsheet and tried to find patterns. Some interesting things developed from this. For one, I learned that I'm attracted to art that uses lighting to tell stories. I listed lighting as the primary reason why I liked eight out of the thirteen. I also learned that I apparently have a fascination with silhouettes.

This helped me because it distilled my pool of thoughts into something more tangible. The physical act of writing things down is a wonderful human tool that allows us to see multiple things at once and detect patterns. It forced me to recognize what I liked and didn't like too. I have a tendency to doubt my conviction while I search for "the perfect idea."

The aesthetic I see will serve the story of Hunted. It's been tricky finding an approach that will work for each scene in the film. Some shots will be more difficult, but I'm eager to put my ideas and passion to the test.

Here is the first environment test. This is just the beginning!

If you have any comments, critiques, or an interest in working together, don't be shy!

info@formapictures.com

Bailey