eureka!

One of my favorite feelings is when, during the creative process, somehow everything completely and unexpectedly fits together and just plain works - completely by surprise.

For months, I have been working on and off on my reel. For a motion designer, a reel is the equivalent to your portfolio. Its a 2-3 minute edited compilation of your work, and since what we as designers do is package things, it is also necessary to package yourself. I don't know if its common for other designers or not, but I find it impossible to be my own client. With an outside client, there are deadlines, approvals, budgets. With yourself, deadlines slide, and work can be put aside and on hold for other things. And worst of all, you always come up with new ideas that you like better than the last.

The opening animation to my reel has haunted me for months. After designing and animating countless versions and designs, I somehow stumbled on the right thing over the past couple days. It turns out it came from pulling different parts of about 5 different versions, and somehow, they fit together like seamless puzzle pieces. It was a lucky break. Don't get me wrong, its not breakthrough work or anything, but after months of versions that I was never happy with, it feels like I've conquered a huge hurdle. Another thing I'm happy about is that in using parts of several versions, it feels less like all those versions were wasted efforts. I also get a kick out of knowing that parts of it were designed and animated in all kinds of places, including on planes and trains during travels here and abroad.

Still a long way to go, but a significant step...finally.