Overcoming "Oh, I'll never be THAT good!"

ORIGINAL UGLY DESIGN!

NOT SO UGLY DESIGN (Which took a LOT of trial and error to get to)

I think it's pretty safe to say we've all had a moment in our lives where we've looked at something and said "wow...I'll never be THAT good". I thought this at practically every moment I saw an awesome graphic and it sucked.

That extremely ugly design up top was one of my first ever design work ideas, yep, it was THAT bad. I have no idea how I even thought that may work but lucky for me, I quickly decided that "shit, this is damn ugly". That's always the first step;

Teaching yourself what works and what doesn't, this doesn't just apply to design but all mediums. Look at other peoples work and learn, have an opinion on their work too. I mean surely there are gonna be designs that you don't like, so why not improve on them? think of ways to improve and give back. This to me is called 'Moving forward'.


I'd also say, teach yourself. There really aren't any shortcuts... if you wanna be good, do the time and push yourself.

Pushing yourself is key, I often find with myself that stick to a comfort zone that will get me a decent result but nothing AMAZING. I make it my goal to have people say "woah" when they see my work, most times I fail at achieving this but it's what pushes me to learn that bit further.

Practice! Practice! Practice! I cannot stress this enough. Too many times I've heard people say they wanna do this and do that and how they'll never get to a certain level, well obviously you're not gonna get there if you sit on your arse playing Destiny all day.

Don't get let down when your work doesn't look like the work of Spielberg. Honestly, the amount of times I've completely dropped a project because it doesn't look good is uncountable. Even to this day I try to avoid doing it and still end up with the same habit. This often happens when I try push myself and fail. What I fail to realise in that state of stupidity is that I haven't failed, I've just found a way not to get to my goal. So you pick yourself up and try again, start again completely if that helps.

This is a strange one but I'd say take some time off when you can, gather some inspiration... this is what is gonna separate you from other designers, the more you can create using your imagination and inspiration the more unique you become. Seriously the amount of times I've come up with stuff that no one else has done while i've taken time off is crazy. The more you see, the more you can put into your imagination for later. THERE IS AN IDEA IN EVERYTHING YOU SEE.

Even still, I don't see myself as a great motion designer but I feel like I'm learning and am indeed improving. Don't be too hard on yourself either, I mean no one can run before they can walk except maybe Bruce Lee but y'know what I mean. It sounds corny as hell but you seriously can achieve greatness just by putting in the work and effort.

Alright guys,
Stay Inspired, Stay Caffeinated.
Adeel

Why I left visual effects for Indie Film Making

For a long time now I've been trying to get into the doors of visual effects. I remember deciding that I wanted to be a compositor two years ago and I'm not too sure why I chose this. I guess I was pretty good at it, a way to make a buck as they say. I made it my life goal to become a VFX supervisor in the future and even attended a full blown VFX course at Escape Studios. 

Two months after having completed the course I suddenly decided, nope... Visual effects aren't for me. Instead, I've decided to pursue a career in motion graphics and advertising. 

So why'd I make this choice so suddenly and abruptly? Well because I love indie film making way too much. Wait what? You love indie film making so you quit VFX and went to motion graphics? How does that make any sense? 

Okay, let me essssplain. I like to create, I love to create... I love to create things from scratch and make them look beautiful, I love meaning and I love story. I feel like with my compositing career I would have constantly done jobs FOR people, for countless hours and made things look the way they want it to look. And yes the same can be said about motion graphics but it's that ability to completely create something that is yours, your design and just being able to present that as your own ability. 

I've always loved deeper meanings incorporated with animation. I realised not too long ago that I wanted to make films, not a few shots for someone else to create their dream or vision. I wanna go out with my camera and film something, bring it home and edit the way I want. I feel like with motion graphics I can teach myself abstract ways of constructing meaning through beautiful imagery. I can use animation and design to tell a story one day. 

That's what design is isn't it? Conveying something to an audience using abstract imagery. 

That's not to say VFX take away from film or meaning, not at all... In fact I believe it gives a lot to film. I'm just way to brainwashed with this idea of creating meaning through weird shapes and animated imagery. 

I mean there's something so rewarding about coming up with several different ways to make one statement. Making a statement through beautiful pieces of art. 

I live off of indie cinema and watching movies like 'The Fountain', Eternal Sunshine, Her, Vanilla Sky, A Scanner Darkly and Half Nelson to name a few. It's movies like these that stray me away from Hollywood and into a world that exists only in my mind. A place where I can create anything without pleasing audiences, a place where I make things for myself using the tools I know to construct, hey if I need VFX to tell a story I will use VFX to tell a story. I just don't think I belong there at the moment. 

I just wanna make poems in the form of imagery and sound, I wanna make worlds that people can relate to in some way. I want people to feel and understand, I'd like to convey emotion from something that essentially cannot be touched or manipulated in any way. Most of all I want to create because it's what I do and keeps me going, going a motion graphics route will allow me to play around with aspects like colour, sound, shapes in order to construct a story in a stylistic way one day. I will one day create a film that has a meaning to every single shot. I want to be able to select stylistic pieces that construct together to form something more than a pack of heroes killing giant aliens from the sky.

Yes working in motion graphics won't get me making stories, but hey we've all got to make a living somehow and at least it'll teach me to make something absolutely spectacular in the future, using both design and meaning which I promise I will do one day. I'm gonna make something amazing. No matter what job I'm pulling at work, I'll always be a film maker.

Stay Caffeinated Guys. 

Adeel.

Why Her by Spike Jonze really spoke to me.

So for almost half a year, after having watched the trailer to Spike Jonze's 'Her' I was absolutely determined to watch this film. I watched the film pretty much on the release date and man... even still I find myself thinking about the ideas of it and just how beautifully constructed the films message is. I realised after my second viewing of the film how it was never about Theodore falling in love with his computer, Samantha.

Instead, the film focuses on the moments you share with remarkable people in your life. It focuses on an incredibly lost mind, by the end of the film you have two completely lost minds. It was exactly this aspect of the film that really got to me. I found that I sometimes felt like Theodore while alone at my desk or laying, I felt lost and not entirely sure what I wanted and I felt this predominantly throughout my teenage and now adult life. This feeling of being lost has always been associated with me by friends and family. I guess there was always good reason for that, to be honest I live in my head 90% of the time and hey I enjoy it. Anyway! back to the film! So one day Theodore decides to upgrade his OS into an artificial intelligence called Samantha, well he falls in love with her... and man it's so beautiful to see them grow. As Theodore once says in the film "There's something so incredible about sharing your life with someone" and that, that right there is when I truly felt Theodore had some sort of direction, something he wanted, something he was sure about.

I couldn't help but understand that, there really is something about sharing your life with someone and when Samantha Says "I can feel the fear you carry around, and I wish there was something I could do to help you let go of it, cos' if you could I don't think you'd feel so alone any more." I just understood, I guess that's because I have an amazing girlfriend who does just that for me but also the fact that I came from something dark before, we both did and well... "the past is just a story we tell ourselves" I realised that after I found someone who truly got me, someone who was there for the moment, someone who just made you forget about everything you came from regardless of the mistakes and crap.

There's an interesting thing Amy Adam's character says towards the end of the film. "fuck it". I've always been worried about just about everything and I've always been bad at relationships, always worried too much and not been exciting enough or even outgoing, until yeh... "fuck it" and now here I am three years strong. Yeh sure I still feel lost and occasionally alone at times but in a good way, I'm happy. You're only here once and if you're gonna waste your time worrying then please just stop, walk out that door and do stuff... do what you've always wanted to and from doing exactly that you'll find yourself in amazing places. I'm no expert but what I think Spike is trying to say is just a giant arse "FUCK IT" and he's telling you to be happy, the film isn't really about Samantha being a computer, the film is about Theodore just not caring any more and following what he loves, even if it doesn't end well... just keep going.


and with that,
Stay Caffeinated.
Adeel.

Also... Arcade Fire... thank you.