There’s a book on my shelf I look at at least once a week.
The Animator’s Survival Kit.
I spent a lot of my youth in the 2D animation studio my father worked in. I was never good at drawing, but that place stuck with me.
Lately I’ve been thinking about it more than I have in years.
Part of the reason is AI, honestly. Not because I want to start using it. Hell no. Every time a client has tried to push it into a project, it’s backfired. They paid more, got less, and saying “I told you so” at the end wasn’t nearly as satisfying as you’d think.
But the whole topic is doing something to me. It makes me want to go the other way and make something physical. Something that takes more effort, not less. Maybe stop motion, where I could finally use everything from my model making hobby.
I’ve never done it. I have no idea if it’ll be any good.
And that thought makes me happier than anything has in a while. After years of focusing almost entirely on the business side, it showed me the creative spark never went anywhere.
More than 17 years of paying for my life with something I love, and I still love it.
I spend most of these emails telling you to work on the business. So let me say the other half once: keep making something just because you want to. It’s the part that keeps the rest worth doing.
– Moritz
Tiny tactical tip:
Block two hours this weekend for a piece nobody is paying for and nobody will see. No portfolio goal, no posting it. Just make the thing you’d make if clients didn’t exist.