Monday, March 06, 2006

Want a studio? Need strong nerves.

Here is another lesson that I have learned running an animation studio. It would be great if having your own studio meant that you could draw, animate or create whatever suits your fancy. Unfortunately this is not the case. Your ability to create is limited by your ability to pay your rent, pay phone bills, pay utilities, pay credit cards, pay the line of credit, pay travel expenses, pay equipment leases and pay your employees' salaries. If you can cover all those things every month you can think about being creative after that.

As I'm writing this, it saddens me that to be a true artist in a field like animation, it either requires you to live in abject poverty and doodle away in you mom's attic or have to work for a much larger company who has ownership of everything you create.

Here is some more artwork from a television project we are developing called POV. The artist here is Normand Lemay. He is the second fastest sketcher I know next to Mark Andrews at Pixar.


13 comments:

Carlos V. said...

You guys are an incredible inspiration! Love what you do and good luck with all future endevours!!

Anonymous said...

lets hope i can help you change that for you Ricardo,Andre.oh and nice stuff

Bernard Joaquin said...

Hey HOC

The blog is excellent and the website expectionally great...all the best in the future


Benerdwalkin

MANDREWS said...

Nice stuff actually SUPER "EFFIN' " COOL STUFF- very inspiring. You go guys and gals and kick some ass. And as for fastest story board guy I dont know- my speed is starting to wane- i go to too many meetings now.

rock on

Mandrews out

Cookedart said...

Yikes!

I've been by the studio a few times, and suffice to say, gotta love it. I'm really glad to see the artwork being posted up for the world to see, especially because of how many great artists are working there, and how much great stuff seems to be produced. I'm definetly gonna keep checking back!

camille said...

Wow! What a great website and what beautiful, creative work! I've really enjoyed poking around your site. I'm really proud of you guys and can't wait to see what you work on next. Lots of love from Istanbul!

-Camille

Scott Wright said...

Ricardo!

Great to see you guys doing so well.

Love the blog!

Francisco said...

I agree. You are totally right. The responsabilities having an studio are a big problem to the creative side of our brains...

Raymond Xu said...

great stuff, hope things are well and these future projects are looking real good.

Unknown said...

very cool stuffs you gys have been doing!

OV! said...

these are amazing.

>oVi

Unknown said...

wow you guys are amazing! good luck in the future!

Lee said...

WOW...After reading your blog piece for March 06 regarding needing strong nerves etc...i just have to say this....looking at the content on your site...HoC absolutely has the capabilities of being one of those "larger company who has ownership of everything you create"...your team has some of the BEST design I've ever come across. There is NO reason HoC should be giving up exclusive rights on your content. You've got something they need and they've got something you need...so share it. I am bookmarking your site and would love to meet y'all someday soon.