If they can do it better, work with them.

Ever since secondary school I always remember being the guy who thought I could do it all by myself. Back then all I did was make movies and I tended to do them all alone. As I went off to college I became even more cocky with the way I believed I could do pretty much everything in film. Mostly because I had the will to learn it all. Then came university and that's where everything started changing. Again, all my projects I did alone and hey I got decently graded for it but I found that all my friends were making these amazing pieces together as teams and that was interesting to me. It almost just told me to sit back down and wear boots my size.

It took me a while to get adjusted to this idea but pretty soon I was hearing "yeah, he's so awesome with sound", "OMG Thomas is such an amazing cinematographer" and then there was me "Adeel is the VFX guy in the class" and you know... I was good with that. In a lot of ways this is what steered me into VFX and motion graphics, I enjoyed doing it and well I was pretty good at it too.

So, as time went on I began working in peoples groups as the "VFX guy" and man that is really where my best work came from. Because, the cinematography was amazing, the sound was awesome and well that aided my VFX work and vice versa.

So there it began, I started incorporating people in my own projects, work got a lot better from there. Yes, it's good to be good at everything but someone will always be better than you. Don't see this as competition but use them, work together and make something better.

For example, those two drawings at top... this was meant to be an independent project of mine and well I can't draw... clearly. However! my brother can. His drawing is on the right and mine on the left. Now my project has become our project and it looks 200x better than anything I could have made alone.

and with that,

Stay Caffeinated guys,

Adeel

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

Keeping Motivated and Finishing Things

I've always struggled with motivation and in all honesty I hardly ever finish anything I start. So many times I've written something or started an animation project that just will never see the light of day after about a days work. Why I'm like this, I honestly have no idea. A lot of the time I have this amazing image in my head and when I try to recreate that, it just doesn't work out the way I wanted and I just stop half way.

So! I am attempting to commit myself to two thing from now on. One of which is this blog, I don't imagine a lot of people read this but to be honest it's more for me than anyone else. Days like today where I'm not feeling to great it's nice to just write and hey if I help someone by doing so, super.

My other commitment is something I call the '30 Days of Motion Design' and it's quite literally what it says on the tin. I've decided that I will be making an animation at least everyday until I have 30 really really nice bits of motion graphics work. I am so committed to this because I honestly think it's about time I found a job and made a move with my career. I didn't get the Cartoon Network job and that's okay, I learnt a lot from it. They were even nice enough to give me a few pointers for next time, claiming my work was more geared to VFX and film rather than motion graphics. Which makes sense! I mean I come from a VFX background and the interview was so unexpected. I honestly don't think I was ready for it but I needed it. So yes, I am now trying to make a giant pile of work for my next Motion Graphics reel.

I think it's actually going pretty well, I'm on day 10 now and I don't feel like I've learnt much in terms of technical stuff but on a more creative
basis. Something I've always struggled with was the actual design of a graphic, I mean my technical knowledge is pretty good and sometimes I get lucky with the design work. When I decided todo the 30 days, I knew I had to step away from constantly learning technical aspects but instead, using the technical to make something effective for design. So it's definitely time to teach myself the design part of it all. 

My tip to you guys is to stop settling. It's one of the hardest things for me... the will to move forward and not stay in one place. It's definitely not easy but I personally feel like we should always look to move forward and not stop or settle, even after you've reached your goal... move forward.

"poor man thinks for the weekend rich man thinks for the years ahead" and that's not even talking about money, because money has never bugged me... like my favourite poet Taylor Mali says

"If you have this (head), you follow this (heart) and if someone tries to judge you based on this (money) you give them this (the finger)." - Taylor Mali (What Teachers Make)

Straight up. When I quote "rich man" no I don't mean money, I mean the one that has truly lived life to their complete fullest, one that never stopped experiencing. The way I see it is; in order to create success from nothing you must be willing to move forward and work when everyone else wouldn't. 


"I'm on a blood buzz, yes I am, I'm on a blood...buzz" - The National


Stay Caffeinated Guys,
Adeel.

What Motivates Me.

For as long as I can remember computers have facinated me, somehow I always knew I'd do something in one field of computers or another. A more techy job essentially. I was set on this goal from the moment I installed a video game on my Windows 95 desktop PC. 800x 600 the good ol' days. 

It wasn't till my teenage years where I really discovered the realm of art and film. I grew up watching these fictional realities and I guess it just stuck with me as a way to tell stories. So teenage Adeel becomes pretty in touch with his feelings and goes through a pretty rough time at school. He begins to use his knowledge of computers to just express himself through any medium he could. I dunno there was always something about making stuff that took me away a little and I guess I just stuck with film and man when I was 15 I made loads! I have this one video on YouTube that has over 100,000 views?!? What?! That's crazy! I guess back then everything I made was solely for my own satisfaction. Not to please anyone or anything. Just simple ways to express myself or even escape a little. 

"I can't tell you the secret to success cos' I don't know it. But I became successful when I stopped making for other people and made for myself" Ed Sheeran

So like all things, I aged and I'm almost 22 now. I stuck with film as an expressive art form for when I'm really feeling something. Otherwise I'm planning on going into advertising. One day I'll be a creative director and make a bunch of cool stuff with a massive team. 

So what motivates me? 

Well the simple answer is my future. I wanna live in a pretty nice house with an amazing family and hey if I can get there with doing what I love, I think I've had a pretty successful life. It's also that fact that motivates me, I just love making stuff. I often find that I can't sleep if I feel like I've just wasted a whole day not making anything. It sounds silly and pretty cliche but I wanna leave a mark for after I die. I wanna make beautiful films and beautiful pieces that maybe one day will help a younger Adeel pretty lost in school. What motivates me is wanting to one day teach and pass on what I know... Teach people to make beautiful things and no not esthetically beautiful pieces but pieces with meaning and heart. Otherwise you just have a pretty picture with no personality. Thats what motivates me, living happy, and one day leaving a mark for people to carry with them hopefully.

"A poor man plans for the weekend. A rich man plans for four years ahead."

No I don't wanna be a millionaire, I wanna be rich in knowledge and creativity. I want to be known for what I do and use that to help the people that really need it. 

Stay Caffeinated Guys,

Adeel

Why I wrote RED?

Not too long ago I released a short animated film called 'RED'. The film follows a toy robot and his journey to the tree of life. RED falls in love with this idea of the tree as he sits directly opposite a painting of it. He is captivated by this painting and seeks to find it.

You may ask, since he's moving around and has feelings for this tree... clearly he must have some life in him, so why? why search for the tree? Well, I can't really give you a straight forward answer to this unfortunately. What I can say is that the film is in many ways a fairy tale, a fairy tale within the mind of a toy robot. Whether RED went on this journey or not even I cannot say, I'd personally like to think he didn't and it was all set in his mind, in the mind of a lifeless object.

So why? I guess I didn't realise it until recently but in many ways RED is based on every bit of wanderlust I have in my self. I sit at my desk all day creating fictional realities because I feel somewhat limited within mine.

For those of you who have seen the film Blade Runner by Ridley Scott

"I have… seen things you people wouldn't believe… Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those… moments… will be lost in time, like [small cough] tears… in... rain. Time… to die…" The film was quite heavily inspired by this one line, this idea of being more human than human in a sense. Being able to look beyond from where you are. All those memories that will eventually get lost or never heard by anyone. 

Whether the tree actually exists doesn't matter, RED is about our ability to escape from the world into something truly beautiful. We live routine lives and not often are we given this chance to "see things people wouldn't believe", we live robot lives almost everyday and we rely on escape, we rely on our minds a lot of the time. In many ways RED being a robot is a metaphor for routine, being trapped in a plastic body and not completely feeling human a lot of the time.

"don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men!" -Charlie Chaplin 

The tree represents our ability to dream, our goal. The journey is all the beauty our minds allow us to envision, it represents the amazing moments we do have while travelling to our goals, those brief moments of happiness. 

Essentially RED "dies" at the end of the film, he finds what he believes to be the tree of life. In all honesty I intentionally made the tree look incredibly different from the painting, my reasons being is that it was never the tree RED was searching for. Instead, it is the reality that we settle with until it's "time... to die...". Things will never be the way you imagine it in your head but sometimes the moments we settle for in our lives always feel like more.

If you haven't seen the film or just wanna rewatch it, here's the link; 
https://vimeo.com/94875483

Stay Caffeinated Guys,

Adeel

My interview at Cartoon Network

Soooooo! Today was a pretty big day for me. About two weeks ago I went to a university reunion with my friend Steven, here I was introduced by my teacher to an ex-student who did the same course as me. I was told she worked at Cartoon Network and they were looking for Junior Motion graphics designers. Whey. She passed on my work and within days I got an email from the senior designer asking for my CV. 

"No. Damn. Way." I thought to myself. I went home adjusted my cv to look super schmexy and bam it was gone. A day later I got another email inviting me to an interview. Interview was today. And well I don't even know what just happened. 

I personally feel like I didn't get the job due to my work being a bit too "filmic" but that's just me, in no way did they hint that in the interview. 

I was introduced to the senior designer and creative director. I was pretty much shitting myself but trying to look like I was pretty confident. 

They asked me about my background and were very heavily interested in my experience. Quite frankly they were more interested in my experience than my actual reel which I found odd but it must make sense to them. I began to explain my projects individually one by one to both of them and Yeh it was going okay. Until! 

I was suddenly asked "can you show us stuff you're particularly happy with in terms of typography?" 

Shit. Type and Adeel just don't go. Well it's more that I haven't completely learnt about it and not fully mastered. I literally only had two pieces of work that consisted of any sort of type and it just looked so bad and not up to par with my actual design work. 

They both watched my short film RED and were pretty impressed with the shots. The creative director said I have an eye for VFX and shots to which in my head I died a little. That was nice. Also! If you're reading this The Effect, Cartoon Network have seen the music video I did for you guys. Love me. LOL. 

Being my first professional interview it was a pretty interesting experience. I crapped myself the whole way through but I'm glad it's done and now I'm awaiting my results. If I don't get in, I'll just try harder next time.

Pray for me. 

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.