Working Faster?

[Vincent Veidt]

Howdy, again. I'm hoping some of you fine people can help me out. As many of you know, I've been working on a music video for some time now (maybe ten weeks), I'm really excited about the project, but I'm already behind schedule and it's taking forever. Other than adding a lot of dialogue (which is the most common recommendation I've gotten), how can I go about working faster without sacrificing overall quality? Now might be a good time to mention I'm a detail freak...

[Vincent Veidt]

I suppose I've got another question to tack on there, do you think it's worthwhile to work faster if the result is diminished quality?

[Tim Fielder]

Denny,

This is my first post on this site. So you've got an advice virgin here:-) Anyways, what I find is to be open to different visual and work techniques to save time. For me Integrating 3d renderings and cutout animation was the answer. Take a day or so to really think about a technique that can allow you to move faster. Creating art...whatever that means...always involves a form of compromise. But I prefer to use the term BALANCE. In the end what you desire is something that best represents what you want the audience to perceive. As a requirement for this you have to sort of disconnect yourself and try to see through someone else's eyes. When you are honest about that, what works stays and what doesn't work goes. Only then can you decide if working faster will get you what you want. Yeesh that sounded pretentious.

[Elliot Cowan]

I think it's extraordinary that you had 10 weeks to make it!!!!
Here's my feelings about commercial work - do the best job you can and make sure your effort is proportional to the amount they are paying.
This is not to say you should do a half arsed job if they're not paying much, but it means they should be getting Corman and not Spielberg.
If you're really enjoying it, then I think it's ok to give them some extra love.
You may be slaving your guts out over it but once it's finished nobody will give a shit about it except for you and your pals (I'm commenting on the nature of these things not the quality of your work).
No-one will thank you for doing it cheaper or doing more work for the same amount of money.
Others may disagree - I'm curious to hear.

How do you work faster for the same quality?
You can't really.

[Niko Anesti]

This is what a colleague said to me once when I was comparing working faster with lower quality or working slower with better quality. The thing is, in animation, shortcuts are necessary, actually. I guess it's a bit different for a music video, but reuse things if you can, simplify things, or even making the animation a but more limited. If you use these in a manner that it isn't obvious to the average viewer, it can help. It depends, though. If you're working for a deadline, definitely use shortcuts. If you're working for yourself, do what you want and don't worry about the time. In the end, the majority of viewers don't look as far into the visual aspects as we do. We could spend hours working on something that only appears for a mere second or two, but unfortunately, the viewer doesn't care. I finally learned I was doing way more than I had to when viewers favorite parts of my animations were things like non-sequiturs that were never meant to even be funny. So instead of toiling for hours on something no one will notice, I may use some of the shortcuts in that scene to get it done quicker. I'm not saying animation should be made up of the bare minimum (because it seems like it's headed that way already), but sometimes it can come in handy.