My (continuing) Motion Graphics Adventure

So, a few weeks since I set up on my own and I've been enjoying it so far. Work has been quite sparse, but thankfully not non-existent and there have been encouraging signs following the various people I have spoken to about my work. It's quite frightening that I don't have a regular income any more, but I've been quite good at limiting my spending and am way under budget, which is nice.  ​

The other thing that's been nice is to just have the time to work on my own projects and development. A few days ago I posted a work-in-progress of my self promo, and it's coming along nicely. I've been able to interact with the design community much more now that I have a freedom to set my own schedule, and although I've got a long, long, long list of skills to learn and tutorials I to do, I've enjoyed being able to get through a good chunk of learning without stressing myself out by allocating the 3 hours between finishing work and going to bed to doing extra work in the hope of getting to the level that I want to be at.

That's the tricky balance for me as a motion designer, I'm constantly feeling as though I must do better, I'm very aware of the fact that there are many, many people out there better than me so I'm always pushing myself - I know I'm not bad but sometimes I can feel quite inadequate as a designer. I think that the most important thing is that I continue to do this for the right reasons, the reason I started in the first place - because I love doing it, and one day I might be as good as the designers I look up to (although I am fully aware of the fact that once I get to the level I think I want to be, I'll no doubt want to be even better). But that's part of the fun of of it

​I'm relieved that I'm not quite as lazy that I used to be, I used to be very aware of the fact that I had to work very hard to fight my laziness, but I think that part of me has been beaten into submission - mostly due to the fact that when I get stuck into a good project I just can't stop, and those times keep me going when I'm lacking motivation. I think I'll be OK.

My Motion Graphics Adventure...

So, my first post! I thought I'd keep this blog as a more informal and personal alternative to the (much more successful) blog, www.motional.net. I did feel like it was my baby, having conceived the idea and pushed it through the initial phases but in reality it was funded by my old employers, First Image, as a way to increase their interaction with the Motion Graphics community and keep them in touch with the cutting edge of design.

​It also probably wouldn't have survived without the help of one of their fantastic designers, Lisa who manages the day to day running and is responsible for 80% of the inspiration posts there.

Still, I remain as an external contributor and a voice in how it goes forward, so I'll be posting plenty more in-depth articles and cool animations, designs and illustrations that I find around the web, so you'll see those here too. I might even post the odd old ones that still get plenty of hits.

​So apart from all of that, I'll post my motion-graphics related thoughts that wouldn't fit in with Motional, but I feel like I can fill your eyeholes with anyway - including how my ever-so-slightly nerve-wracking adventure into freelancing is going (which has only just recently started, how exciting!)