- I get a lot of emails from people asking me questions, advice, opinions, & things to pic my brain. I remember when I was trying to break into the business and days I tried to get into contact with professional animators. This was a hard thing and I found out that a lot of the people were basically..... how should I say..... a.holes.
- I told myself that if I ever made it that I would be open to guys trying to make their way (one of the reasons I wanted to teach). It doesn't take that much to extend yourself a tiny bit because everyone has a dream and they are trying to reach it. Animators are not famous people, so why not try to help if you can. Granted that there are some emails that come across the wrong way. "hey..can you look at my Demo Reel!" No lead up, No hello...just beginning with a question. I don't ignore these emails, instead I try to help them send the right emails so they can get the response they want. If you never learned any kind of business etiquette, then how would you know the right and wrong things to do. This applies to sending anyone a letter, email, or thank you to someone who works in ANY professional environment.
- With that being said, one of the things I try to tell young guys is that you should build a relationship with the person before bombarding them with questions and advice. This is one of the reasons I wanted to try and do these AnimationChat's. It is a nice open way to talk and be yourself with a group of peers who are all interested in the same thing.
- #AnimationChat is a place to talk shop and make some new friends! Look for the updates on Twitter (twitter is basically the fastest and easiest way to get the word out there)
Hope to see you there
Jamaal B
