Improving as an Animator: Failures are GOOD

I’ve been loosely animating in my free time for close to 10 years. 

I remember how great it was to finally get a tablet and my torrented animation software to start learning how to animate. The tablet was one that required you to look at the screen and draw on the tablet off screen.

Which took me a long time to learn how to properly use. But I wasn’t ready to drop money onto a big tablet yet because, that can be expensive and I have a belief that you should try something on the cheaper scale to see if it still retains your interest.

I practiced and I was finally feeling confident enough to do a cartoon called Dawns Light.

This might of been one of the worst animations I have ever tried to do along with the best thing I have ever done.

It is complete garbage, there’s no question about that, the cartoon style literally switches between scenes, the designs for the characters switch between location, the colors get better, the backgrounds improve a bit. 

It’s all over the place, but it’s a pivotal moment in my hobby and passion.

1. I finally released a cartoon for the first time.

2. I knew I wanted to do better next time around.

A lot of people are a little worked up about bad cartoons or bad stuff they release online. I think it’s vital to make sure that when you find that confidence to release something, to maintain it.

“Hey I finally released that cartoon! I dunno if it’s that good though.”

Comment section completely burns you and the view count is below 100. 

You know what? You make something new, don’t dwell on anything that wasn’t good, you will enjoy looking back at what you did and where you have come. There are a lot of artists and creators that share what they have created in the past compared to what they do now.

This is inspirational for a lot of creators out there and it’s important to not look at failures or amateur projects as a stopping point.

Look, I get it, the internet is composed of 98% jerks and trolls. I can’t tell you it wont hurt when people say they hate what you did or you’re stupid for trying this.

What I can tell you is that you will improve if you keep working and plow past the negativity, look at it as a “I can’t wait to prove these haters wrong” and you will see some impressive improvements.

How will you be able to tell you’ve gotten better? By look at your old “failures”.

I don’t really consider my first animation a failure, because I have gotten better from there, I guess I would consider it a stepping point.

Keep perfecting your crafts my friends!

Cheers

Alex Vogt