Digital Hitchhiker

This week at LooseKeys, we celebrated Chicago Craft Beer Week...

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:51:55 -0500

This week at LooseKeys, we celebrated Chicago Craft Beer Week and had a couple more beers than you typically see on our desk. With all the events every night, it meant that I needed to take some quick naps during those renders.

Working With Artwork That's Been Provided

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:46:56 -0500

There are times when it’s freeing to just animate, when you don’t have to think about the design or style and just execute the vision. You’d think that someone providing you with the artwork to animate seems great and that it would save a lot of time. That was my initial thought with one of the latest projects I’ve been working on.

I was given a handful of characters that had been modified a bit but they are mainly just stock artwork that the client has been using in all their marketing. Nothing wrong with that, especially when you can find something that works for your brand. The characters have a really neat look and it’s different then the style I’m often doing.

Going into the storyboards and animation I thought I’d be moving a lot quicker on this video but it’s been a bit of a headache. The main reason is it’s not built how I would typically design characters to be animated. So working with the files has taken a lot of time to set up and then adjust. I guess it’s selfish of me to think everything needs to be set up how I would work, but I will say I don’t think any time was saved here. This experience has made me recognize the importance of making sure that I spend the time to clean up my own files when building my artwork.

Although time was saved by not having to develop characters, it took longer to figure out the artwork and make it work for animation… which it was never built for.

It was nice to work with a different style of artwork but at the same time there is something lost for me in this video. I like how it’s turning out but it doesn’t feel like a LooseKeys video to me. There is more of an ownership when I’m able to create and build everything, or at least work with someone else to build it from scratch. I know that not all jobs can be done that way and that’s fine but I now know that artwork provided by the client does not necessarily mean a faster moving or a smoother moving project.

Where Is My Time Most Valuable?

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:40:44 -0500

Over the last couple months I’ve had a handful of freelancers in to help out on a number of projects.

There are a couple reasons to bring freelancers in, maybe it’s a project you can’t do yourself; whether it’s beyond your skills or you just need an extra set of hands with the amount of work that needs to get done. Either way, it’s more than you can handle and you need help. We’ve been in the too much work to do camp at LooseKeys for a while now and it’s awesome. I have to say it’s a pretty good feeling when everyone is liking the work you’re doing and they want something similar for their business.

Even with all that extra help, it doesn’t mean that we’re necessarily working faster. The new people who come in don’t always know our work flow or style, so it takes time to get them up to speed. Then I have to take a step back from doing the work and become more of a “Mr. Manager”. Now my time is split between handling clients, making sure these freelancers are doing what I needed and trying to find time to get some design or animation done myself. On paper this sounds fine, other people are picking up some slack and you can focus on something else. But here’s where I’m still learning and growing; in being able to give up control. No matter what was getting done by someone else, I had things that I wanted to do on projects so I ended up re-doing or changing what they had done. I could of just articulated to them what I wanted to see happen but I felt like I was going to be faster at it then them. Which added a lot of extra stress to my plate. The reason they were there was to help, so I didn’t have to worry as much about that job.

So, did the freelancers really help relieve some of the work load? First, I have to think about where is my time better spent? Is it animating and designing? Or is it being the manager, project coordinator and creative director?

In most cases, with the right people helping on a project, it’s the creative director. The right people, that’s the answer. Making sure you bring people on who can do the work is key but that takes time. It takes time to work with people and learn about them and find out where their skills are best applied.

I learned a lot from the last crazy month or so. Everyone works at their own pace and what I get done in a day doesn’t mean someone else is going to be able to do the same. I also learned that I need to let go of some of the responsibility and trust the people that come in to help out that they are skilled enough to handle the task. Heck, we’re not doing anything all that complicated over here. At this point at LooseKeys I do have to micro-manage all the projects but in order to move forward in the future I’ll have to take more of the creative director role and guide projects in the direction I want them to go. The right team of people can make some great work but someone has to have the map and the leadership to move it all forward.

Expensive wine means good wine right? Credits: Client:...

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:24:00 -0500

Expensive wine means good wine right?

Credits:
Client: NakedWines.com
Production Company: LooseKeys
Creative Director: Brad Chmielewski
Producer: Brad Chmielewski & Maeve Price
Copywriter: Natalie Mueller
Director of Photography: Sergio Salgado
Steadicam Op: Jerry Boonyaratanakornkit
Boom Operator: Jake Williams
Animation: Brad Chmielewski & Jake Williams
Composite: Brad Chmielewski & Jake Williams
 Editor: Maeve Price
Software: Premiere, After Effects, Cinema 4D & Mocha

I Love LooseKeys

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:01:00 -0500

I Love LooseKeys

Type Tuesday #188

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:40:00 -0500

you to use and enjoy. I hope you like what I have picked out this time. Be sure to comeback next week for another great set.

I Got An Eye On You

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:11:00 -0500

I Got An Eye On You

Perennial Artisan Ales Beer Dinner

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:46:00 -0500

Perennial Artisan Ales Beer Dinner

My Mediocre Superpower

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:09:27 -0500

A fun question I’ve heard people ask many times is, if you could have a superpower, what would your superpower be? It’s a neat ice breaker and you learn a bit about the person who answers. I have a couple picks; one is teleportation (across short or long distances, like NightCrawler) or Size shifting (the ability to increase or decrease my size, like Dr. Henry Pym). Not your typical superpowers of flying or super speed, but still pretty fun ones.

The other day I came across an interview that Sarah Lacy did with Andreeseen Horowitz and one of the questions she asked towards the end of the interview was, “What would your Mediocre Superpower be?” It’s a pretty interesting question since most people have a quick canned answer for their normal superpower. It seems like it would take everyone awhile to think about what their mediocre superpower would be but I had one right way. Being a terrible speller, my mediocre superpower would be the abilty to spell any word correctly, the first time.

What would your mediocre superpower be?

Treasure

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:04:00 -0500

Treasure

Even Cavemen Have To Work

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:59:43 -0500

Even Cavemen Have To Work

Working The Knight Shift

Mon, 20 May 2013 03:34:22 -0500

Working The Knight Shift

Pufferfish

Sun, 19 May 2013 07:49:00 -0500

Pufferfish

Grabbing A Beer

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:38:36 -0500

Grabbing A Beer

Hello Panda

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:51:00 -0500

Hello Panda

Chicago Craft Beer Week Kicked Off With Beer Under Glass

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:08:00 -0500

Chicago Craft Beer Week Kicked Off With Beer Under Glass:

Last night Chicago Craft Beer Week kicked off with one of the best events of the week, or rather 10 days. The event was Beer Under Glass at the Garfield Park Conservatory. I love beer events when they are in locations that you aren’t typically allowed to drink. Its what makes the opening ceremony of the Craft Brewers Conference great every year and its another thing that makes Chicago Craft Beer Week so much fun.

This years event was even bigger and more spread out than last years. Which made it less crowded feeling… [ READ MORE ]

Keep The Cash Flowing

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:21:17 -0500

Money is often one of the hardest things to deal with when you’re working for yourself or running a business. Whether it’s trying to get paid by clients, or its dealing with paying your subcontractors; I’ve been on both sides of this and it sucks, from whatever position you are in.

Being a freelancer or subcontractor and trying to get paid from a client is one of the least fun things to deal with, especially when invoices are overdue and you are constantly trying to get a hold of them. You did the work and all you want is for them to pay you. Its frustrating. You think, Why’d they hire me if they couldn’t pay, and don’t give me that crap about waiting for your client to pay you first. Really are you running your business on the edge like that? Is that extra couple thousand dollars really going to sink your business?

Yes, all valid points and all too true…

I said to myself from day one that I didn’t want LooseKeys to be the business that says I can’t pay you till I get paid. I’d say I’ve done my best to live up to that… don’t think I’ve used that line on any freelancers yet. But holy crap does it take a long time to get paid especially from some larger companies. After working with some of these larger places you realize that sometimes checks are only written once a month and if your invoice wasn’t in at the right time you’re going to wait another 30 days. And sometimes projects linger on way longer than initially budgeted, with small changes happening for months before they are finished which means you don’t get paid on that project fully until a lot later than you had planned. Sometimes projects get killed or delayed part way though the process and you get left on the hook paying out of pocket for subcontractors.

When those sort of hiccups happen it can put a strain on paying your sub-contractors, no matter how well you planned. And you find yourself, using the I’ll pay you when I get paid line because the bank account is low, you have to make payroll and those subcontractors get pushed to the side, even though they were critical in getting the job done. When this happens you’ll have the freelancer asking you where their money is while you’re trying to get the money from the company you were hired by so you can pay yourself and them. I’m sure your client is trying to get money from their clients too. It’s this big stress issue and when you’re stuck in the middle, it’s awful.

As a result of being on both sides of this now I’ve learned to be a little more polite and forgiving when I’m waiting on payment. I hate getting those emails so I’m sure the client hates them too. I now understand that every company struggles every once in a while to get paid by clients. There are times when something goes wrong or they just forgot, so it’s good to check-in on an invoice but don’t hound people, it makes them not want to work with you down the line.

This week at LooseKeys we sort of got hooked on the Spider-Man...

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:46:00 -0500

This week at LooseKeys we sort of got hooked on the Spider-Man pinball that is over at Bomkamp. Whenever we’d have a render or when we were wrapping up for the day, Jake and I would jump onto the machine and play a few games. After playing enough this week I think we finally have a sense of what we’re doing and our scores are starting to improve.

Beer Under Glass

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:33:00 -0500

Beer Under Glass

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:22:00 -0500

Beer Under Glass