WHO'S REALLY DOING IT?

Animator Obinna Onwuekwe, a frequent reader and commentor on this site in times past, is one of the few really doing it. On his Mayhem Productions site, he is making it happen. He currently has two 3D animated, cel shaded series running on the site, and in addition to being free to vue there, you can also download versions for the most popular mobile devices, including the PSP, Zune and iPhone. Using tools like Vue 6, modo, Lightwave 3D and others, he is bringing his imagination to the screen.

The site currently appears to sport all free content supported by pay per click ads. Aside from the episodes of the series, the site also offers story and character bios and, in the future, it seems will offer tutorials on the tools used and even a web store. ONe can only hope we well see more of such efforts in the near future as many other animators are empowered by the amazing tools out there to create what they really want to create, and get it on the screen.

I've said it a thousand times. You don't need millions of dollars. You don't need major studio backing. You only need ideas and the will to bring them to life, whatever it takes!

CREATION OR COMPETITION?

Last night, the youngest brother in the family I am staying with here in South Korea, was watching the last few episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist. I haven't watched anime in ages, so I was quickly sucked in. Don't get me wrong, I am traveling in Asia and anime is everywhere. It's on the TV, in the cinema and posters and billboards line the streets and shopping malls. But I haven't really watched anime since I left California.

I began to remember how much I loved this stuff. I began to remember how much I always wanted to create works like this, but with characters I could identify with, and situations and background that meant something to me. I remembered how much I wanted to tell my story, and other creations of my imagination. Unfortunately, I also remembered how I let so many trivial things, negative ideas and criticisms get in the way. Nothing got done.

I find myself asking the question, why didn't I just make it? Of course there are some very real reasons for this, the time and cost to do it, versus the competitive battle for survival, but I have clearly overcome these things before. So what, then, is the real reason? Somewhere along the line, I lost something. One of the reasons I left California was to find a place where the cost of living was extremely low, that it might take the competitive battle for survival out of the picture so that I could just make it> Sadly, that didn't happen, and I think I know why, though that is a story for another post.


If you are in the business of animation, competition is the rule of the day, and it is a fierce competition. In the last 30 years we've seen animation move from the Western world to Japan, then later South Korea, then the Philippines, India and now possibly even to Bandladesh. You see as each of these economies developed the infrastructure to make animation studios possible, their extremely low labor costs made them the "next big thing" in the world of outsourced animation.


Animation in Bangladesh supposedly costs in the realm of $35 per second, working out to around $2000 per minute. Compare that with a cost of over $100 per second or $6000+ per minute in Japan or the western world and you can see how outsourcing becomes essential in that competitive battle for survival. If you are an animator, freelancing your skills to clients around the world, you have to compete against such rates from even third world economies. I have seen posts on popular freelance sites where people are expecting Japanese quality animation for $300 per minute, and people are replying to them, claiming they can do it. Animation is extremely labor intensive. There is no way around this. A freelancer trying to do good work at such rates must be going through a soul crushing experience in any economy.



If, however, you are a storyteller, then you can create what you want to create, and that doesn't have to have anything to do with that competitive battle I mentioned earlier. Sure, you have to survive, put food on the table and possibly fund your efforts until they support themselves, but there are many ways to do that. When I created Understanding Chaos, I had a regular day job and worked on nights and weekends to see my dreams fulfilled. The fact is, animation itself, especially competing in that business, is likely not the best way to fund your dreams, as many jobs will require far less of your time and bring you much more money.


I wrote some time ago about infamous animation creator Ralph Bakshi and his words from last year's Comicon. Even he recommended living hard for a while, eat ramen noodles, work to fund your dream project, but get it done! The rewards for your creation will far outweigh anything you can bring yourself by competing for the peanuts thrown out in the animation industry of today. Follow the path of Chaos and create rather than compete for someone else's creation. What you create, you own, and that is of supreme importance in todays animation market.


I have a bit of road to travel before I get back to where I should be, but I feel a real need to create again. I have been walking the earth in search of something, and while I can't say I found it, I know that I am close. My experiences have given me all new fuel and ideas and I am seeing visions starting to come together. I don't yet know exactly what I am going to do, but I know that I must do something. It would be a shame to let the talents and gifts I was given go to such waste. That holds true for any storyteller with the gift to create.