 Welcome back to this Friday. That means for new animators. And today we're going to talk about effort. Today was actually a day for another FNA, but then I saw a clip and I thought, that is really something I want to talk about as I'm changing my plans. And if you're new here, my name is JD. I have a channel that focuses on lectures like these. I do acting analysis clips. I do animation analysis clips, review reviews, product reviews, animation news, all kinds of things. So if that is something that is of interest to you, feel free to subscribe and hit that bell button. So you don't miss any of my uploads. Now, why did I change my plans? I saw this clip by Alexander Sofchenko. And if you watch this, it's super cute. It's just generally a really cute, well-known animation. But then you can switch over and it has a breakdown of the shapes, the arcs, the direction of the movements, the energy. I'm going to put the link in the description so you can watch the whole clip and you can watch the whole breakdown because it's absolutely fascinating. And when I was watching this, the thought that came to mind was, am I putting that much effort into my shots? And I know that the question, do you really put that much effort into your animation is a very accusatory question. And to answer for myself, yes, depends. So the reason why I want to make this clip is that it is really an FNA for new animators as you start your animation and you're going through tutorials, you're reading things, you might even watch some of my stuff on my channel. You have to think about your arcs and the pop and the silhouette and just all those details that come with crafting a piece of animation. There's a lot to think about. Sometimes it can be almost overwhelming of keeping track of so many things. And on top of that, you got to think about character motivations. Once you pass the body mechanics aspect, there's just a lot to do. And as anybody does animation, you quickly realize animation is really difficult to do. And on top of that, sometimes you just don't have time. So the reason why I answer with it depends. For me, I try to obviously put all that thought into every animation. But for anybody who has done animation on their specific schedule, you know, you just can't always get to it. Either you just run out of time. There's too much to put into a shot. So you have to focus on the things that are really selling the shop. There are many variables that will change how you have to approach a shot or how much you can put into a shot where the focus has to be. Big differences between doing something at home with unlimited time versus for someone with a schedule. And for me at work, it changes all the time. Sometimes I'm on shows where there's really not that much time. And this is because it's the end of a show and you just got to put whatever you can in there and do the best you can. And as everybody knows, when the deadline looms, sometimes you just run out of time. It doesn't mean that you're going to put no effort into it, but you have to make choices where you're going to put your time in and what is really important, what is less important, or you get to it if you have the time. But you do always put 100% of your effort into that. But there's a huge difference between doing something where there's a deadline versus, like, for instance, I did character tests for Space Jam 2. Obviously, I can't talk more about that project. But I was doing tests where the schedule was slightly more relaxed. Of course, you had a deadline, but it wasn't the same as here's your shot turnover. You got two or three days. Let's go. Let's finish this. Like I said, it was just a bit more relaxed where you could explore a character and do some character tests. Again, I can't say more. So when I was watching that clip by Alexander, it just reminded me of that time when I did those tests. And I just absolutely loved it because you do really think about each movement, each pose, the flow, the timing, the spacing, and why do you do this? Why is this anticipation there? Where is this line leading to? Where do you want the audience to look? There's a purpose to every frame that you're crafting, which brings me back to why this is in F&A. I'm just starting with Animation Mentor class. I have potentially new Academy classes in maybe two months. I mean, anywhere around the world, there's always a new semester starting. There's always a student that will start a new shot and will be overwhelmed with all the material, all the things they have to pay attention to and might potentially lose track of the objective and the drive to put all that into the shot. So this F&A is less about a tutorial or a step-by-step demo or anything. It's more a reminder. It's a reminder for myself. It's a reminder to anybody who is doing work right now or is about to get to work on their shot to really think about what is needed to make that shot really work. And again, there are many reasons why you can't do it. You don't have the knowledge yet to do all that, obviously. You don't have the time, you don't have the means, you don't have the rig to put in extra flourishes. I'm not saying that you are a lesser animated because you're not doing it for whatever reasons that you have that you can't do it. It's more kind of a post-it note that sometimes I do, I put that on my screen and it just has certain elements, silhouettes, appeal, pose, timing, sometimes just a reminder that when I work on something, don't lose focus of that. It could be a specific thing for your shot, character motivation, sometimes you just need that little post-it note as a reminder. And that's why this F&A is a bit different. It's not, like I said, the tutorial, it's more a question and a reminder for myself and maybe for you that when you are working on your shot and especially given what's going around in this world and we're pretty lucky as animators to do what we do, within the animation world, of course it's hard. It's hard to do things and the stress and the situation, the politics and contract negotiations and the mechanics and just the technical aspect of course it's hard, but an animation job compared to the rest of the jobs in the world is not hard, it's not, it's really have a very spoiled job. So to me, it's always a reminder as well that given what I can do, that this is a job I get paid for, you do want to put in 110% and really put in that extra effort, just because you want to make the shot look good, but also because you're aware of the type of job you have and how good you have to have that job. And it's also a reminder just for students as you do your work to look at your classmates and the other fellow students and you are looking potentially for the same job and it sounds really cutthroat but it is like somewhat competition. It's a weird word to use but you have to look at what are other people doing and what do you need to do to put your reel and your shot and everything on the same level or better than other people to get the job that you want. So the question, do you really put that much effort into your animation is for many reasons. You need to put that effort because you want to grow, you want to learn more, you want to push yourself to become a better animator. You need to put that effort in there so that your shot and your reel stands out amongst the competition. And also you can put that effort in there because you are aware of what kind of job you have that it's awesome and you want to do the best you can, you want to take advantage of that time because you know other people don't have it as well and you just want to make sure that you appreciate the time and the situation where you're in and at the job that you have to just do the best you can. But if you need help, of course I'm going to segue into this, if you need help for that to focus on, like what are the sections that need more effort? Where do I need to put the effort in? Like what do I need to focus on? I have workshops, of course, you can sign up at any time. I can help you with your shots and if you like that type of content and you don't want to miss anything, feel free to subscribe and hit that bell button. And if you have any questions about this, I know this was kind of a different FNA. Let me know in the comments, what do you struggle with? Where do you feel like you're lacking focus for that effort? Or what are your ways of really concentrating and putting that effort into what needs to be done? I'm just curious, it would be interesting to have kind of a discussion in the comment section. Was this a bit of a different FNA? So in the spirit, I'm going to take this and this goes right there on my monitor and I'm going to concentrate on putting in even more effort and that's it from me and I will see you in my next upload.