 Welcome back to another FNA and today I want to talk about the state of when you can't see your shot clearly anymore. We can call this animation blindness, this could be an animation haze, animation fog, sometimes you call it a ski blind or a shop blind, you have shop fatigue, whatever term you want to use, but there comes a point where you've looked at your shot for so long, you just can't see anymore what works and what doesn't work. That is common, that happens all the time, as a student, as a professional, and I'm going to give you five tips on how to fix it. So like I said, this is super common because there comes a point where you're going to be so invested in the shot, you're looping it over and over and over and you're just focusing on just the foot or the face or fingers and you just start to forget what is going on around it and that kind of haze or blinders you have for that shot, for that moment, that's going to lead you to the trap of not seeing the bigger picture and seeing all the other things that you need to fix in your shot. That's what I'm going to talk about today, but if you're new to this channel and seeing this for the first time, I'm my name is JD and I do animation like these, I do animation reviews, I do animation analysis clips, I do acting analysis clips, I do river views, product reviews, all kinds of stuff, you know at the beginning is the pitch, this is what the channel is about, browse around if you like it, subscribe and if you don't, just keep watching, maybe it's something that you will gradually fall into and maybe subscribe at the end, that's totally up to you and as always, that's the pitch, let's get to the point. So when you get snow blind on the shot, tip number one, mirror the shot. That's right, it's an oldie but Goldie. Back in the day, you had mirrors, I had to kind of do it like that, it's very cumbersome, you didn't have a software solution, which is exactly what you do nowadays. So depending on your software, you can go and flip your image horizontally, you can have a hotkey for flipping it, you can put your shot into any kind of software and flip it. So whatever you do, just move that image around and it really helps because it's just something just almost feels, everything feels wrong, but it's just such a refresher because you're so used to seeing things go from left to right, right to left, lean in a specific way. You flip this around and go, what is this? I've never seen it like that. Ooh, this looks wrong. That's tip number one. Tip number two, sound simple, but it always works, take a break and this break can be short or long. So you worked on something, just go take a walk, go have a lunch break, go so do some exercise, read a book, whatever you want to do, just forget about the shot, come back to it and just that brief pause or a longer pause is going to go, oh, I'm seeing this now for the first time again. Yeah, this needs to be fixed. Do you feel like I don't have the time to take a break? Trust me, it's better to take a break, wait a bit and come back to your shot and force your way through it because it's just not going to work. Tip number three, show your shot to someone else. There's a good chance that you're going to have friends on me nowadays. It might be more remote. You have to email the shot maybe somewhere or do a Zoom session or something. We're back in a day. You might be in class, you might be somewhere in the lab, you have someone around you or at work you have a co-worker, but show your shot to someone else. It's a fresh pair of eyes. They don't know the history. They're not invested in it. They can just go, this is wrong. This needs fixing. And sometimes you want to work on like a full-body mechanic shot and you just fix the legs, the feet, foot roll, compression, all that stuff. And you forget about arms, the chest or the head and you just do just the legs, you loop, loop, loop, loop, loop, loop. And then you show it to someone and it goes, dude, that head is off. And then you look and you kind of almost that jolts you back into what you're talking about. And then you see that you completely missed this. So this just comes to the point where you need a fresh pair of eyes because you're just too focused on this and you need, we need this to open up to really see the bigger picture. Tip number four, work on something else. So there's a potential situation where you actually have multiple things to work on. So as a student, you might have a shot where you have notes and maybe an older shot that you still want to revisit and you have notes from someone else from a while ago or you work in a current shot and then you have something brand new where you think what ideas you should flocking or some layout takes or something, but just work on something else. And if you say you have a body mechanic shot, go into have a close-up lip sync shopping. So like, however, the more different it can be, the better, because you're focusing on something totally different. And you go back to your old shot and it's like, oh, yeah, yeah. And now I'm seeing it differently because I was focused on something completely different. So switching back and forth really helps, especially like mentor friends, they submit all the shots in Sundays. And as they wait, they probably have another shot to work on. So then they're fresh, working on this, they get the notes from the mentors, get back to the old shot. So that switching back and forth just refreshes your eyes. And tip number five, you open up your shop, but you actually add a different shop before and after. Now, if you work on a sequence, then it's going to help to actually use your own shots because it's a shot in sequence. So you take your shot, whatever it's before and after, so you have a better sense of how it cuts into your current shot and how it cuts out of your current shot. Now then again, since there are all your shots, you still might get used to all of them. So what I would recommend is that you take the shot you're currently working on, but then put a totally different shot from somewhere else. And there are a lot of shots online there, grab that, put at the beginning and put something else at the end. So when you watch someone else's work, you're just, what is all this? And then it suddenly cuts into your existing shot. And now you will really know, A, if you're beginning works, if something is jarring or confusing, how the flow is into your shot, you go, Whoa, what is this? Oh, no, this is wrong. And the same thing as it cuts out, is there an idea that you start at the end of the shot that doesn't have enough resolution, then we cut out or something again, jarring or popping or confusing towards the end. So having completely different elements before and after is definitely helping as well. Now this given being an FNA for new animators, this is definitely more in the student realm. Or if you work at home, because this is your own stuff, it's a bit different at work. So let's say you're an animator and you have a lead and a supervisor above you, while you show it to your leads, that lead fresh eyes, right? New notes. And then you should supervisor fresh eyes, new notes. And then it goes to where it's up the chain up to the client or whoever is in charge. And you get always new fresh eyes, new ideas, new perspectives. And that's just a faster process. So once you're at work, it gets a bit easier. Also, you have the pressure of deadlines because you don't want to miss those deadlines and you don't want to get laid off because you don't do the work. So I feel like the moment I'm at work, the deadline pressure and just the work pressure in a way forces me to make more precise decisions. I feel like I'm not noodling. I just know this is due Friday. So what are my instincts telling me? What are my sell me any to this, this and this. And then let's go. Versus if I do stuff at home, I'm like, maybe bring this up on the big screen. Let me know. Let me see. And then I just waste time just looking at things and I get used to things. So I feel like for me, at least there's a big difference between animating at home and animating at work. There you go. Five tips. If you do have other tips, and I'm sure you do, because everybody's workflow is different. Let me know in the comments. I'm curious about a massive list of tips and tricks for people watching this and reading the comments. That is that. And if you feel like those five things are helpful and you want me to give you all those tips for your shots and other tips for different things, I have workshops, you know, the pitch you can sign up at any time, link in the description with all the information. So if you want me to help you, you can sign up. Let's work on this together. 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