I powered up on unemployment! Anyone who has been “unemployed” for a month or more is familiar with the difficulties. When the going got tough, I would google “How to Survive Unemployment” and found plenty of articles. But I quickly realized I’d rather THRIVE than just SURVIVE. I’ve always marveled as the metaphor of pressure turning coal into diamonds, but it get’s abstract when you want to power-up yourself and become a diamond.  I’m not made of coal.  And rocks merely survive, plants merely flourish, animals follow instinct. What do human’s do? How can be become dazzling as diamonds? Hopefully we realize that unemployment (or any tough period) isn’t the end of the story, but a beginning of what could be one of the best periods of our life.

40+ Hours a Week

If we want a job, finding a job is now our full-time job. This is common knowledge. But for me the power up came when I contacted studio recruiters, found our what they want me to be, and worked 40 hours a week pushing myself to meet their expectations. In my case, this meant meeting deadlines and pushing each new animation to a higher level than the last.

Collaborate!

That’s my new favorite word, and a true power-up. For me, the more collaboration the better, so I found several people who dreamed of vocal acting and recorded with them. I consulted with other artists and even people from other disciplines while building projects. I asked for opinions and feedback on my work and relished the opportunity to improve. Working with people is the most fulfilling! It’s the thing I miss most about working in a studio. So any time I can collaborate, I relish it. [Update : Though brief, I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to work as a generalist with Maxwell Products on some animated marketing videos, with Farr’s Fresh on some character designs & poses, with my great friend Chris Oatley at his awesome online academy, etc. These experiences have renewed my conviction that collaboration is the way to go!]

Make a Progression Plan

Success comes from making goals and reaching them – common knowledge again. So why aren’t we all millionaires and Olympians? We could all reach that level of greatness simply by discovering their footsteps, adapting their plan to our situation, finding mentors, and following through. Practice will make “perfect” if our goal is to improve with each repetition. But here’s the WARNING: We will likely doubt our abilities to reach greatness.  As great artists before me, I more I stick through those times of “can I really do this?” the more I meet people’s enthusiasm toward my work. Planning has equipped me to explore continually greater heights. Download my Free Power-Up Worksheet to begin your own progression plan.

Re-energize For Productivity

Time management transformed my abilities not only at Rhythm & Hues, but also in the many months since. I am so passionate on the subject that I chose it as my upcoming guest post on paperwingspodcast.com. But if we aren’t careful, time management may become wasteful.  When planning our time, we can choose two types of activities : those that take energy and those that re-energize. Mixing in re-energizers can maximize productivity. For example, for a few months I sketched about 3000 facial expression from Mark Simon’s book as a way to pass the time playblasting my animation. Because animation takes a long time to perfect, the quick, successful (or even non-successful) sketches gave me a boost of accomplishment and made my facial animation better to boot!

Eating Healthy, Meditation (prayer/pondering/whatever-you-call-it), sunshine and exercise are also great energizers. Oh and I love to read – that’s one of my favorite energizers when I have time. But we have to be careful. While many people consider internet surfing to be a re-energizer, it sucks my energy away. So I personally highly limit the amount of time I spend on the internet. And because of this, I have more energy and more successes. In short, some activities might appear to re-energize when they actually do the opposite.

The End Of My Story

Though I have not yet reached the end, and employment will be a new beginning, I am having the time of my life. My demo reel is night-and-day different, I have climbed personal mountains, and because of these things I am confident I will be so much more valuable to the next studio. My new digital picture book has excited collaborators every step of the way and is positioned to sell successfully. And hopefully, my words help someone else out there, hoping to power-up during unemployment or any difficult period of life. I can’t wait to hear about YOUR successes!

It’s possible for the middle of the story to be just as amazing as the beginning and end, even if unemployment is in the title. It all depends on how we write.

Download the Power-Up Worksheet
Please share your success stories in the comments

I first had the idea for the book when I was working on Alvin & The Chipmunks 3. I wrote the idea down followed by a sketch. It came into my head as an animated series, then a short film, then finally an innovative picture book. Here is the success story, my sources of inspiration, and a resource for your own innovations. Feel Free to skim through, explore the sections that interest you, and even purchase a copy of my book to see the results of this exciting journey.

Why not a short film?

I could list many reasons : limited time, limited resources (the story would take at least half hour do do it properly!), other projects I want to do, etc. But number one reason was my desire to maximize quality+profitability. I’ve seen too many great artists create too many great pieces without hardly receiving monetary compensation.

I’m not the first who set out to create a profitable project like Misfit Supers.  There are innovators like Jason Brubaker who created his reMIND books while working at Dreamworks, Lora Innes and her successful Dreamer comic, my former mentor (director) Mike Gasaway who create Little Mikey the Vampire Monkey and other books on his path to directing a movie, and William Joyce who led the Moonbot artists to create the wildly successful Morris Lessmore App (which doubled as an academy award winning short). And speaking of William Joyce, take a look as his creative impact on both illustration and film. You’ll see why I was inspired to choose this direction. Oh, and I can’t forget Ryan Woodward’s Bottom of the Ninth – first animated graphic novel ever – with the success of Misfit Supers I hope to explore projects like Ryan’s in the future.

Motion Pictures or Pictures Of Motion?

Even though end project would not be a short film (yet), my approach was much the same. Animation pre-production greats like Brittney Lee, Chris Oatley, and Pascal Campion produce artwork endued with all the qualities of great animation (posing, weight, balance, etc). Considering my background as an animator, I hoped to reach the same caliber of story driven art. So I filmed extensive reference footage for every possible action in the story and sketched many options per idea. I treated every composition as a scene from a film and every layout as a group of storyboards. As a result, many people have commented on its “cinematic” appeal and I even recently had a rep from an animation studio chase me down, wondering where she could get a copy to show their director.

Storyboards or Picture Books or Graphic Novels?

I’m not the first animator with interest in picture books, nor am I the first to create a picture book with comic elements. David Weisner’s award winning books are heavily influenced by graphic novels.  The Paper Wings Podcast has created a supportive community of illustrators and writers who also cross these borders. They led me the great comic theory books by Scott McLoud which led me to David Chelea’s Perspective! comic.  To better understand visual story and film language, I purchased the amazing Storyboard Secrets course by the personable Sherm Cohen – to discover that he began his successful career as comic artist. The more I learn about comics, illustration, and film, the more I realize see the power of understanding them all together  – the animation genius Hayao Myazaki is ultimate proof of this realization.

Freewriting or Story Structure?

I like to let my imagination run wild and free as much as the next creator. But unless we can, as Brian McDonald says, “see the footprints in the grass” our stories loose their power. In fact, I used Brian McDonald’s books Invizible Ink and Golden Theme (the most empowering story books out there) to workshop my story. His books are among my favorite screenwriting books, which also include Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat! (for marketablibilty) and Robert McKee’s Story (for in depth story philosophy). I believe these books, Brian’s especially could provide a necessary foundation for any storyteller. I will soon be “running” another story marathon using their techniques to create successful stories for future projects.

Prose or Poetry?

I hoped the use of poetry would not only raise the appeal for youngest audiences, but delight seasoned readers as well.  It also hearkened back the days when I was creating my bachelors in English, Art & Communication at Weber State University. Those were some of the greatest days of my life (met my wife there!) and I believe the work I did there prepared me just as much as my work in animation. It lit my fiery passion for learning and collaboration – two of the most beautiful words in the English language.

Drawing or Painting?

To quote my great friend Chris Oatley, “Great paintings happen before the paint.” For that reason, solid drawing and character design was second only to story structure. With the aid on Tom Bancroft‘s unparalleled character design books, Mark Simon‘s facial expressions books (I’ve sketched about 1.2 books so far), and even my latest discovery of the stellar drawing videos at Proko.com, I pushed my drawings further than ever before. Building on those drawings, I gathered extensive research images and studied the techniques in James Gurney’s painting books to bring the characters to full-color life! Look at the image of the first time I sketched the characters compared to a final image … it took a TON of drawings to discover to the qualities I was searching for:

Creative or Business?

Sometimes creatives and business people seem to repel each other, but in my experience it is possible to be the best of friends. My friend Zach Smith –  entrepreneurial genius and co owner of StartDoingBusiness.com – was actually the reason I started this project. He loved my idea, showed me how it can make a profit, and has blown my expectations away – every step of the way. Another business friend, Chef Shaun Bucher, guided me through the publishing process. And finally, my pharmaceutical/business friend Nate Stout, who’s been with me since the beginning of my animation journey, has been my constant sounding board. While simultaneously creating this book, I’ve also enjoyed helping to create his skin-care business, Apotheterra.

Quit or Continue?

To tell the cold, hard truth, this project felt too ambitious at times and there were several moments where I felt like just going back to animating. But having all these amazing inspirations I’ve listed above, and support from my family, my friend David Wilson, Sam Kirkman, Lee Wiley, and others from the aforementioned Paper Wings Community, the choice to continue was easy! On October 15th 2012, we kicked a year of unemployment by sending this book to the digital publisher. In the following weeks, I’ve received hearty praise from private reviewers And in the months to come, with your help, I believe we can make Misfit Supers a huge success.

Wait? Was this a behind-the-scenes-article, a promotional piece, or just a huge thank you letter? It was all of the above, I couldn’t have reached this level of success without standing on the shoulder of giants. And I won’t be able to continue successfully without YOUR HELP.  What can you do? You can buy the book, share the news with your friends, leave questions and positive reviews in the comments below, or all of the above. Thank you for you support and here’s to the future!

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