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amadeusgame · 2 months

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The World's Longest And Most Sentimental Development Log (Marketing Retrospective)

It's been a month since the demo release, and Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz has just reached 100 wishlists on Steam. I'm incredibly grateful for the support and interest.

Because this has been the month following a major release, most of my efforts have been focused on communications as opposed to development. I still want to discuss these efforts, both as a retrospective for my own reference, and in case anyone else finds it enlightening. This was meant to be a short and to-the-point marketing discussion, but it accidentally... and inevitably... transformed into something incredibly long and sentimental.

The long and short of it is that I've had an overwhelmingly successful month by my standards. Discussing marketing means I have been analyzing why that is. In doing so, I slowly became aware of just how much of my entire life has been building up to this.

I originally planned to mention other things in this update... discuss the recent demo livestream, announce an upcoming "100 wishlists" celebration... but those no longer really suit the tone of this update. I will post about them another time. I wasn't prepared to celebrate 100 wishlists this quickly, anyway! I had no idea I would get that much in the first month! I'm not ready to make that announcement! I would like to do something appropriate for this milestone, so please give me some more time to put proper thought into it.

You can reference here for the livestream video and other resources: https://linktr.ee/amadeusgame

I don't expect very many people to read the rest of this. But I am writing it anyway because it's important for me to express. And if you got anything out of the Amadeus demo, you probably got the fact that I am a bit of a long-winded and sentimental person. Bearing that in mind...

On Marketing Amadeus

Overall, I tried a lot of different things—many of which flopped—based on the question "what kind of communications would I like to see, as an audience?" Some combination of all of these somehow worked. I don't think it is particularly useful to try and pinpoint what specific individual things made Number Go Up the most, because the real takeaway was that I put enough messages out in enough places that over 100 real actual human beings came across them and were interested in what I am making. That number is probably tiny to people trying to earn a living in games, but as someone just hoping to get my art out there... the number 100 is significant and motivating.

I am happy to share the things that I've tried, and my impressions of how well they worked for my situation and purposes. Before that, though, I must stress that having assets to share in these communications in the first place was an invaluable step, especially since visuals and aesthetics are a very core part of my game.

Creating Marketing Assets

(When uploading a game to Steam, there are approximately 8 million different aspect ratios and dimensions you need to create branding assets for, so I chopped that source poster up into different pieces and spent about a week just making different combinations of them to suit various needs.)

Again: I was not thinking ahead to the Steam page when I drew this in October, not really. I was just drawing something that I wanted to draw, inspired by art that inspired me. If I hadn't indulged that desire and "procrastinated" a bit, I wouldn't have the assets to advertise the game when it came time for launch! This is something that I've experienced again and again throughout the process of development: making things for fun, doing things on impulse, taking breaks and indulging whims... many of these activities somehow end up being essential for the game. If I had refused that self-indulgence to focus on Important Development Stuff, I wouldn't have the cool piece of art I needed to successfully advertise the finished game on launch. Moreover, the final art in the game would not be as good, because I wouldn't have gotten ideas about art direction from making this poster.

(Also... I wouldn't have had as much fun making the game. Since this game's budget is $0 and all of my free time, it REALLY matters that I am having fun while making it.)

Even more important than these visual assets, though, was the trailer. How many games have I checked out just based on the trailer? I recently purchased Raging Loop on Steam, a game I have been considering for months, because I finally watched the trailer and realized "okay, this game is me-core." The trailer is so important. It's not about how pretty the trailer is; it's about whether the trailer shows me a game that I, in particular, want to play. I don't know who my audience is, but considering my goals and inspirations, I think it is something along the lines of "hipsters who love some combination of Umineko, werewolves, and unique aesthetics." So I needed a trailer that would connect with those people. A trailer that, if I watched it, would make me realize hey, this game is me-core.

Making a trailer is its own skillset, though! Completely separate from game development. Communicating something in video form is different than communicating it in another medium.

Fortunately... I have actually done a lot of just-for-fun video editing projects very recently! I edited together a "trilogy" out of roadtrip camcorder footage I took, and also put together the video for an audio-visual collab album. I already have tools and a workflow that I like to use.

I am developing a game, but it has helped me so much to have experience making a stupid trilogy of camcorder footage roadtrip videos.

I worked on those video editing projects because they were fun. I had absolutely no ulterior motive. In doing so, I still gained an important skill that transferred directly to marketing Amadeus. As someone who has always struggled to focus on just One Thing, it's incredibly affirming to realize that having done a lot of random stuff is actually really helping me as a solo game developer. I feel like I've finally found an art form where this is an important skill, and not a hindrance or distraction.

So... well, I suppose this means that I have no useful advice for other developers. I want to be honest about my experiences, and my experiences are that I only was able to prepare good marketing assets for Amadeus because I did a lot of for-fun art projects outside of game development. From my perspective, this is amazing news: it tells me that allowing myself space to be an artist and a person outside of this project has actually helped make the project itself better. It tells me that there are no downsides to being experimental and giving time to other projects too. But to anyone reading this hoping for some advice on putting together marketing assets, I'm sure it's the least helpful or relatable thing in the world. I'm sorry about that.

Getting the Word Out

Once the demo released, it became a matter of presenting the materials I had in the right ways, and in the right places. This is what I have been spending most of my waking hours doing this month. A non-exhaustive list of everything I've tried:

E-mailed all of my professors from grad school whose courses influenced my compositions for the game in some way. (This wasn't so much about the numbers, it was just motivating to get nice comments back. :D)

Joined a few Discord servers for communities dedicated to indie game developent; tried to engage in meaningful conversations there and check out other games while also sharing my own work. (I'm asking others for a favor, to take a look at my work, so I try to check out theirs too in return.)

Posted the trailer on the Visual Novels subreddit. (This flopped.)

Posted weekly* on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and a few other places. (This has been the bulk of my ongoing communications; see below!)

Posted on a forum I joined last year to discuss music composition.

Found and followed a lot of other indie game devs making things that interested or excited me.

Shared it in a Discord server I moderate** as a "creative mod." (I host monthly art-focused events, curate spaces for sharing art, etc.; see below.)

Shared it with basically all of my friends! Especially friends who are also artists and creators!

To sum, I used every single available avenue to talk about it. But I really need to expand on the two points bolded and asterisked above. I have something additional to say about them, and I cannot overstate how much it matters.

*Weekly Posts

As indicated, ongoing weekly posts on various platforms are the meat of my marketing. I post regularly, but it's really important to me to not just post the same stuff all the time and annoy everybody. I try to highlight different aspects of the game each time, use different framing, and do a variety of weird and silly stuff. Some things perform unexpectedly well and others are complete flops. But I think it's been key to not be afraid of failure and just try things. That way it's still interesting to the people who already checked out the game, while hopefully reaching new eyes too!

(Full disclosure, however: sometimes I will do something that has 0 chance of doing numbers, just because I think it would be a fun thing to post. Since I am completely self-motivating on this project, I have to do things that are self-indulgent, or I will burn out. So, hypothetically, I might be compelled to, say, post a photo taken on an Instax analog camera of the game hooked up to a CRT TV.)

(Step 1 of marketing is to have fun and be yourself?)

BUT ALSO!

AND THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS POST!!

I only have any sort of audience on these platforms because of other, unrelated things I've been doing for years. I met a LOT of people on Twitter and Instagram through cosplay and Tales of Symphonia speedrunning, who stuck around somehow. I met some people on Tumblr from recent Ghost Trick ROMhacking, and others from Homestuck meetups in 2012. I met people on Discord from a forum about video games I joined in 2006. I was already connected with a lot of like-minded people to share my game with! I know—I KNOW—that this is something that is only easy to say in retrospect, but: doing stuff and meeting people over the course of a lifetime has added up. I hope that this will continue to be true, and maybe some people who find me through Amadeus will stick around for whatever comes after, once I've fully completed the 5-episode story I have to tell here. And I will see it through.

So, please bear this in mind when reading about how I promote my self-indulgent game every week on Instagram. I did not attend Anime Expo 2015 in order to build an audience for the visual novel I would make 9 years later. I was just meeting and connecting with other cosplayers, because I thought I would still be doing cosplay indefinitely. But many of those connections have persisted over the years, and some of those people are interested in my game. None of this seemingly-unrelated life experience is wasted. In the words of one of my teachers from grad school, "it's an accumulated life." I have ended up somewhere unexpected, and I did not plan to end up here, but all of those past experiences were still a part of getting me to where I currently am.

**Discord Server Mod

I want to highlight this particular place where I've promoted my game, because it's important in a way that connects with basically all of my rambling above. I want to make it clear that absolutely everything that went well this past month started so much longer ago than that.

In this point, I am not saying "step 1 of indie game promotion: simply have been a creative events moderator on a Discord server for years first!" as this is incredibly useless advice. Hear me out for a moment.

About 2 years ago, there was no "creative events" moderator on this particular Discord server. It was mostly a space to talk about video games with friends. You could also post art there if you wanted, and you might have gleaned a react or two.

Also about 2 years ago, I began to think very deeply about my relationship with art and the internet. When I was a tweenager, there was this video game forum—a forum that migrated to the Discord server in question recently—where you could post your art (usually video game fanart, but could be anything), and the moderator would always engage with it and provide meaningful, thoughtful feedback. That space is one of the biggest reasons I drew so much when I was younger, and worked so hard trying to learn how to draw and shade and color better, because I wanted to have my efforts praised, and I knew they would be.

2 years ago, I desperately needed a space like that again. Lacking one, I decided to pick up the torch left behind by the moderator from my tweenage years, and become the person who would always, always provide thoughtful engaging feedback when people posted their work there. Literally some "be the change you want to see in the world" shit. I knew that someone else doing that for me fundamentally altered the course of my life, so I wanted to try and be that for others if possible. More selfishly, I hoped that this would also create the much-needed space for me to share my work and get feedback and responses, too.

Now, about 2 years later, that channel is pretty active. People regularly share their creative works, and it is one of my favorite places to post my own stuff because people are really good about engaging with each other's stuff there. It's been one of the most important places for me to share progress on Amadeus, because that external motivation helps a lot. And once the demo came out, I have absolutely no doubt that this server was a significant proportion of the initial support and momentum it received on launch.

I did not even have so much as a delusion of being a game developer when I made these changes in the Discord server. I was working in IT and considering applying to music school. I just wanted to build a community around art.

So, why am I writing about my 2-year journey as a Discord mod in my development update about marketing? Hopefully it makes a bit more sense now. I'm really trying to emphasize that the marketing I did this past month didn't start last month. It started 2 years ago on this Discord server, it started in 2006 when I joined that video game forum. Really, my marketing efforts have gone as well as they have because—whoops, I am tearing up writing this—I have made a lot of incredible connections in a lot of communities over the years, and now that I have something very important to me that I want to share, they have really helped support it. I've had some friends go so far above and beyond what I would ever ask them to do in sharing my game, and that kind of support just... I can't put a number on it; it's invaluable.

In Conclusion

Go to conventions and meet cosplayers. Speedrun a 6-and-a-half-hour-long JRPG from 2003 on Twitch. Join a forum and when it migrates to Discord, organize art events and comment on other people's work. Draw self-indulgent stuff and make silly roadtrip videos scored with Logic Loops. Make 90% of a ROMhack of a Nintendo DS game. Get completely obsessed with other visual novels on itch.io and write essays in their comments.

My name is Leo, and my marketing advice is You Only Live Once. I hope this helps. Have a wonderful evening and I look forward to presenting you with a more coherent update next month.

#amadeus: a riddle for thee #indie game marketing #devlog #indie game dev #visual novel

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scalamore · 6 months

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PSA/Thoughts on “Use of AI in manhwa”

I try not to go on messageboards because they aren’t very productive, but I do like to read certain people’s thoughts on various updated manhwa it gets lonely in my echo chamber

But what really annoyed me, is there’s a thread on one of the subreddits, there’s individuals, who know NOTHING about the art process, are accusing Hayeon-nim of using AI art in this series.

Again, uneducated accusations like that are all over Reddit, so that’s why I avoid them most of the time. I don’t have all day to educate people,

But I do want to address AI art in general, because people are quick to assume something is “AI art” and it’s extremely insulting to actual artists.

AI art = completely created by an algorithm, a machine. A person enters in a prompt, and an image is generated. It’s not art. It’s a collection of data pixels created from a machine. In the mainstream, people are quick to jump and accuse someone of AI art if the Hands are weird, because AI can’t completely replicate hands yet. That is a complete generalization.

What people don’t understand, is the existence of “assets”. This is a term referring to the pre-set images that a human creates, for the sole purpose of making other artist’s lives easier. Webtoon artists are always on a time crunch, publishing 80+ pages of full color comics a week, so they rely on such assets to make their workflow smoothly. We’ve all seen it: the flowers on the background, lace, ruffles, frills, castle-nim, the food on the table, jewelry etc.

The thing is, the majority of these assets were created by a human being for use by other human beings. All (or supposed to be all) of the assets on the CSP asset store, is created by a person. The software encourages artists to make and upload their own assets, so they can earn “clippy points”, so they can purchase other assets. (Otherwise you have to pay a membership fee). Other Korean asset sites like acon or postype have fancier, unique assets for a fee (depending on what you’re looking for, a set of assets can range from free to $200+!).

That is to say, as a fellow artist im VERY familiar with artist styles and if a certain series uses assets. Some series, like Marionette or Siren, use so many assets that I personally can’t handle, because my brain can’t enjoy the series because all it registers is ASSET. ASSET ASSET.

ALL ROFAN MANHWA USE ASSETS in one way or another.

Besides the examples of assets I mentioned above, another type of asset is the 3-D model type. Some artists, like Cierra (artist of “Beatrice”) use complete adult body 3D models to help speed up their drawing process and to ensure decent anatomy.

Utilizing 3D Assets, by referencing or tracing is not AI art. It is a person using any available resources to speed up their work process.

So back to Hayeon-nim. She’s a professional artist. She’s under a time crunch. So of course, she’ll utilize both brush and 3D assets. Just like when other artists use them, I’m confident I can identify 95%+ of the assets that she uses.

In Season 2, she utilized quite a bit of various hair assets that annoyed me (sorry hayeon-nim), but that has toned down quite a bit in Season 3. However, she started using more hand assets in season 3. From eyeballing it, i think one is a 3D model from the CSP store (avail for purchase), and the other is from another source that I’m not familiar with. But it’s definitely an asset. Based on S1 and S2 art, she is a professional and is capable of drawing hands. But on a time crunch, it’s just more efficient to use a pose-able 3D model.

The discussion on Reddit was from Ch 88, regarding Lehan’s hand:

A reader, i assume for clout, posted that they counted 8 fingers. The ensuing discussion proceeds to escalate, and accusing her of resorting for AI art, and many say “it’s clear its AI-generated” after “a closer look” and trying to justify their reasoning.

To quell my annoyance at people pretending to be experts when they aren’t, I wanted to say “no it isn’t.”

in my mock up here, there are 5 fingers. People forget knuckles and tendons exist. Im fairly confident this is a 3D asset pose-able hand from that unknown source, that was modeled to hold the cigarette, and she just left as is for the sake of time.

The hand is fine.

It’s not an AI hand. It’s extremely rude and degrading to post off-model images, proceed to get clout at the expense of others, fully knowing manhwa artists are working inhumane hours to provide those very same people entertainment. It’s also super disrespectful to accuse professional (or even hobbyists) artists of AI, when they tried their best to draw something nice, spending hours/days on it and is accused of not even drawing it at all.

What a great way to spread more hatred and demotivation around :(

Time for me to avoid those comment sections again haha

#your majesty please spare me this time #rupelali #manhwa #rofan #otome isekai

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383designstudionyc · 6 years

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I recently had the opportunity to meet with one of my former students who had just graduated from FIT. As we caught up, she asked me a series of questions about working in the industry. One of them was (and I’m paraphrasing somewhat), “How do you ‘hustle’?” We both chuckled, but I knew what she was talking about. I recall watching a talk hosted by FIT with designer and self-proclaimed hustler, Dapper Dan, and costume designer for the Netflix series, “The Get Down”, Jeriana San Juan who also referred to herself as a hustler. Both recounted stories of their unusual paths into the world of fashion and how they leveraged their resourcefulness to create a lane for themselves that would help advance their careers.

Today’s fashion job search (any job search really) can sometimes feel like a hostile environment if you don’t learn to embrace it, be flexible and become a bit of a hustler. More importantly, you have to get creative with searching for a new gig, as creative as you would be in your work because these days, opportunities lie in some unexpected places.

So how does a newbie get their hustle on in this new-fangled job market? Here are some tips that I find have worked (and still work) for me.

“I grew up in a working class family. . . . Nobody had high hopes for me. But I was a hustler.”—Mark Cuban

1) Start by developing a hustler’s mentality: Historically, a ‘hustler’ has had a negative connotation. But in more recent years, a ‘hustler’s mentality’ is equated with persistence and resourcefulness, pushing forward when others might quit, finding solutions using unlikely methods and leveraging some of today’s newer, untraditional platforms to bring attention to and promote your brand. Many of today’s ‘disruptors’ have a ‘hustler’s mentality’ in that they see an opportunity to do something differently when others are content with or can’t see past the way it’s always been. They’re innovative and think outside of the box. In fact, for some, there is no box, and they can convince you of the same.

For us, that could mean showing how your skill set can benefit other job functions or other industries. How many times have big businesses hired CEO’s and VP’s from industries that have nothing to do with theirs? But they knew that their ability to manage and grow a business would be beneficial to them no matter the industry. Maybe you’re approaching a company with a way to solve a problem. A colleague of mine recently read about some production issues a company (whose products she used) were having. She found the CEO on LinkedIn and reached out to her noting how she’d had similar issues in her last position, gave a few suggestions on how to help solve her problem, and noted that she would be happy to head up a team to put these processes in place.

For me, my skills and ‘hustle’ have allowed me to work in apparel design, textile design, graphic design, product development and production. It’s also helped me establish a successful digital design training business (where I’ve trained individuals and companies including Jones Apparel, PVH and GAP), and after many years of applying and talking to people, an adjunct position at FIT.

2) Develop your personal brand: If you’re starting a business and want to get new clients, you’ve got to market and promote the business so people know who you are, what you do, what you’re about and why they should choose you over so many other people. The same is true for your personal brand (YOU)! Yes, recruiters help to get you in front of potential companies, you are your best advocate. If you think about it, you’ve probably already done this with your signature method of design. This time, you’re developing a signature for yourself.

Put some of your work out there (see tip #4), start a blog about something with which you’re knowledgeable, write an article on LinkedIn, or use YouTube to demonstrate your expertise. I can guarantee that most recruiters and hiring managers are checking you out (at the very least on LinkedIn) before they call you, so give them some positive and informative material to help reinforce why you’re the expert you say you are!

3) Engage with your network: Of course we all know networking is important, but just becoming connected with someone on LinkedIn isn’t enough. In fact, it’s become very impersonal. But it doesn’t have to be. First off, take the time to write a sincere note to the person you want to connect with. Don’t just send the generic ‘Hi, I’d like to connect with you.’ And once you do connect, please don’t just automatically email them with a pitch. People are happy to support and help out those they like and trust, so allow them time to get to know more about you.

This also might be a no-brainer, but take some time to get offline and meet people in person. Ultimately, no matter how great the resume, people want to hire someone they like and feel they can work with. So get out and meet people in person. Let them see how great you are and why you’re not only knowledgeable but easy to work with.

One great way to do this is to find a meetup group. There are a ton of fashion specific meetup groups on Meetup.com that are open to anyone who’s interested. But don’t just stop with fashion groups. Check out some of the career and business groups, even some of the more social groups if you can make the time. Think about doing a presentation at a meetup. It’s a great way to make sure everyone there gets to know you and your background, and you can casually mention that you’re available to consult on a project or open to new opportunities. Almost everything is a game of numbers. The more people you meet and communicate with, the more opportunities come your way.

4) Bring your portfolio into the digital age: I know there was a time when it was taboo to make your work public for fear that someone will steal your ideas. But times have changed! I’ve gotten several leads for freelance gigs and new students who wanted to take class with me just by having a portfolio on Styleportfolios.com or because they liked an Instagram drawing I did. There are so many more places where you can upload an online portfolio (including Behance which works seamlessly with Adobe products), and creating a website is so easy these days, many people opt to self promote that way. Whatever you decide, you need a digital presence. And don’t worry about putting your entire portfolio up. A nice smattering of some great pieces that demonstrate your skills is enough to get someone interested.

5) Keep your LinkedIn profile up to date (with a picture) and then use it! For some people, I have to even take it a step further back and say, “Sign up on LinkedIn and create a profile.” LinkedIn has become one of the best and most used business, social networking sites on the internet. So if you’re not using it, you’re losing out. I remember I was following up on a referral I’d gotten, and I was trying to setup a meeting to speak to HR to come train their staff. When she finally called me back, I didn’t even finish my pitch about myself and my company before she cut me off and said to me, “Yeah, I looked you up on LinkedIn to see what you were about. I liked what I saw. Why don’t you come in next week?” Is it possible I would have gotten that meeting without my profile? Maybe. But I’ve always believed I may not have even gotten a callback without it.

6) Put as much design into your resume as you do your portfolio: I was debating this one a bit with a colleague, but I strongly believe in a visual and well designed resume. She felt it was just a way for people to distract from how little experience they have, but I disagree. I mean, you have to find ways to standout from the crowd and what better way to do this than with a resume that’s as beautifully designed as your portfolio. Plus, let’s be honest. We all like to see pretty things, and a well designed portfolio AND resume is eye catching. And we’re creatives, so why wouldn’t your resume look like a work of art? Keep the old one (the text-only version) in case it’s requested to upload to a database, but make sure you have your visual resume ready to email and/or to hand out when you’re meeting a recruiter or in your interview.

Check Pinterest for some great ideas for formatting or download a template from Adobe Stock.

7) Remember your existing connections, and I don’t just mean your colleagues: Yes, of course, you should reach out to existing and past associates but think about other people or institutions that could be helpful. Does your school have a career or alumni office? For example, if you’re an alumni of FIT, they have a career office that you can visit (as well as free job boards), and it’s available to you no matter when you graduated.

Many schools not only have alumni groups thru the institution, but they also have a LinkedIn Group. I know my school does, and I have seen people postings for job openings as well as job leads. Are you a member of a sorority or fraternity? They’re also great ways to get leads. My father told me when he first moved to NY, he had just graduated from college with a degree in education but no connections whatsoever to help him get into a school. He got his first teaching assignment after meeting another teacher at a fraternity meeting who put him in touch with the right people.

8) Do your own thing: I have always been a proponent of spending time in the industry and learning all you can, making connections with whomever you can before you go off on your own. But with the resources available to designers today and the opportunity to learn and reach more people thru social media, who says you can’t step out and do your own thing? I remember speaking with a co-worker who once did sales for Fubu when they were just starting out. He talked about how great of an asset it was NOT to have somewhere there saying, ‘You’ll never be able to produce that!’ They didn’t know any better, but it allowed them to partner with their factories to figure it out and to do things that no one else was doing at the time. When nothing else seems to be working, it may be time to step out and do your own thing, OR

9) Do something else creative: Here’s where you get to not only be a creative but also get creative about what your role can be. Often we get stuck on titles or what a Creative Designer is supposed to do, but who’s to say you can only design apparel or that the skills you use as an apparel designer aren’t beneficial in other areas and can’t be as equally creative and fulfilling.

Do you love designing trims or adding functionality to your garments? Maybe you should also be looking for a job is in Innovation? Love the process of research, shopping and watching the runway? Maybe you need to be in Trend or Forecasting. There are a plethora of other creative fashion jobs that we often don’t even think about, but they’re necessary and need people to fill those positions.

Or how about designing the look for a new luxury or lifestyle brand, or revamping an existing one? The possibilities are endless if you can think past what’s been done and see your creativity in a different light. And let’s not forget that other industries regularly hire people from outside their own, so think about how you can carve a niche for yourself in Tech or some other growing business.

10) Never stop learning: There is no guarantee anymore that you will get a job, or if you do, keep that job. But what you can do to help solidify your ability to keep working is to stay relevant, and the only way to do that is to continue to learn, grow and keep up with the current technology.

My husband has a phrase that he likes to use: ‘Forever the student.’ Your education doesn’t stop once you’ve left school. In fact, the real education has just begun. You’re constantly learning the industry, how it works, how people work in it, and now, the constantly changing technology that’s being used within fashion. And now that AI is here, one of your next challenges is learning how to solidify your creative place in a newly developing fashiontech world. That may mean going back to school or taking a class to learn new software. Whatever it is, stay abreast of what’s next and don’t wait to embrace it.

I know this was rather lengthy, but companies work and hire people so differently now, it’s important to have options for approaching your job search. There’s no one thing anymore that works for everyone or every company. You don’t need to use every one of these tips, and I’m sure each of us have our own tricks of the trade that work, or you’re developing some new ones. What I do know is that I’ve kept all of these tips in my arsenal over the years, consistently followed them (maybe not all at once, but always at least one tip), and I’ve never NOT been able to find work when I wanted it. I hope they’ll be as beneficial to you as they’ve been to me. And feel free to share your tips that work or some ‘out of the box’ ideas that we can all try.

The Art of the Fashion ‘Hustle’ I recently had the opportunity to meet with one of my former students who had just graduated from FIT.

#career #fashion design #fashion industry #featured #job hunting

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1000wordresearchreport · 7 years

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Reply From Draw With Jazza

I did get a reply form jazzy but he said he get some many replies everyday he cant answer them all. he have given me a list of question that he gets asked the most and his replies to them, they are what I'm looking for in this chapter but they will be very usefully throughout the rest of my report

Dear Student,

I really like to support students and used to be able to answer interview and survey questions but unfortunately I get so many requests for responses along with my normal emails that I am unable to assist any more on an individual basis. I have created a list of past questions and responses which I will send you and I hope they may be of some assistance to your research. Apologies for the generic answer but I get hundreds of emails every day and time constraints make individual interviews impossible. I realise that your questions may not be answered by these documents but this is the best I can do to try and help in some way. Also here is a link to an online interview I did http://www.federationstory.com/drawing-has-never-been-so-interactive/ and I have linked in the questions below to a few autobiographical and relevant videos on my channel. All the best with your project!

Jazza

1. What was the first Job you ever had? Target as a checkout assistant

2. Did you always want to be an artist/animator? Yes- although not specifically animator sometimes I wanted to be a director, sometimes a musician

3. Was there a turning point in your career? Moving away from game design and starting the YouTube channel

4. Did you have a mentor or someone that inspired you? Christopher Hart when I was young. Also Adam Phillips.

5.You’ve got a large following on YouTube but how did you start out? and did you ever think you would have such a large following? Have a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNDY6FWGgmE No I never thought it would get this big but now I find my goals increasing all the time

6. A) Are you surprised that your making a living from Youtube? and not only you but so many other people? B) Do you find that your channel on Youtube allows you to make a comfortable living? People who make a living from Youtube often don’t make it from ad revenue but have to find other ways to support themselves. I have a shop that sells digital art products and that allows me to be a professional Youtuber/Artist and this is a really important support to my channel. I used to take pretty much any freelance work I could get in the beginning- as another way to earn a living, although now I find I have less time for freelance. I am an author and have my first book (on Character Design) commercially published at the end of the year, as well as contributing to other publications. I do still take on occasional freelance but mostly larger commercial projects

7. What do you feel makes you different from other artist on YouTube? That I put my face and personality in my channel a lot. I try and have a community and be informative as well as fun, spontaneous and entertaining.

8. What do you wish you had known before you starting uploading videos to youtube? Be careful how much work to set myself. I tend to underestimate the time it takes to do things and take on too much.

9. Is there anything you dislike about the platform (YouTube)? I wish it was easier to report stolen content.

10. Tell me about your process from idea to implementation? I come up with a lesson plan or script, then I film/record, then I do a rough edit and beyond that I add assets such as video footage or images, finally I polish the edit, render and upload

11. Do you use social media as part of your strategy? Yes I use Twtich, Facebook, Twitter

12. What are some of your biggest achievements? Building a large audience, collaborating with reputable companies, Interviewing talented artists, writing a hard copy book soon to be published in the US and a grant which you know about from Screen Australia and Google

13. What does a typical week in your life look like? Up at between 6-7am, off to the office where the magic happens. I have a schedule planned out about a month ahead which involves the days I am recording and the days I am working on supplementary projects. I don’t finish until 6pm usually, then I try and get to the gym and see baby Jazza.

14. Would you say creative block is an obstacle for you? if so how do you overcome that? Long answer-This should help answer your question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh17KFLbuEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqzFpUbbhuc

15. Do you have much time to work on personal projects? NO NO NO, I wish I had more time, …. I try and work on things I love and also that work for my business

16. What are some of you favourite tools and software that you use?

I use Adobe Flash (now Animate CC) for my animations, which is good in that it can be used to create interactive mediums like games/apps as well as animations. ToonBoom is an animation specific program that is quite popular, and though I have not used it very much I plan to do more work with it in the future. I use Adobe Photoshop for my Digital Paintings and image editing.. I use a Wacom 24 HD which is a high end LCD tablet for professional use. I talk a bit about tablets here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pqmDjGQmJA

17. Do you get much work outside of your channel? Yes but most of my work comes initially from my channel or from my website but usually from my reputation that is mainly built through the channel.

18. Have you ever turned away work? If yes why? All the time- pretty much every day. The reasons are usually a combination of: 1) Unrealistic budget expectations (want me to work for free or almost free) 2) Unrealistic project expectations (feature film/music video) with little understanding of the amount of work involved 3) Strange project that I do not like or I consider inappropriate (I won’t work on obscene or adult content) 4) I am already booked up (which I am for at least 10-12 months usually)

19. What do you like to do in your spare time if you get any? I enjoy a game of Dota, some nerdy role playing with mates, spending time with baby Jazza and my wife.

20. What advise would you give to someone trying to start their own channel? Work hard, be consistent, have integrity, release what you consider to be quality content

21. Pepsi or Coke?

Coke

22. How did you go about getting into the industry? -Did you have connections or was it a case of putting your work out there as much as possible? I draw constantly- then became professional through YouTube: Have a look at this video- basically I kept putting my work out there, Newgrounds and obviously YouTube helped a lot with this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNDY6FWGgmE

23. What advice would you give to a young animator trying to get into the industry? Becoming a professional animator is not an easy road. There is no one way or sure fire path to success but one thing that you must adhere to is hard work. People who treat it like a profession even when they aren't being paid and try consistently, taking every opportunity to improve their skills, have the best chance of success. Remember it takes doctors and lawyers 6-8 years of daily study and it’s the same with art and animation. Keep practicing, put yourself out there in the animation community and be determined (and a bit thick skinned)

24. Do you prefer working as an independent freelance animator or as a professional at a studio? - Why do you prefer (whichever you prefer)? I have never worked for a studio, just run my own. I have toured some as I may need to set up larger one day and have been interested in how the larger studios work, but I don’t think I would enjoy animating one particular segment repeatedly. I like being part of the whole creative picture.

25. How did you find the transition from aspiring animator to professional? -Did you face any problems you hadn't anticipated? I had to get a handle on the business and legal side and it is not my strong point. Copyright releases and IP contracts, terms and conditions, deposits- now my wife handles most of that end which is a relief.

26. There has been some speculation that CGI is leading the way for animation and that 2D will become irrelevant. What are your personal opinions on this? No I don't think 2 D will become irrelevant. I think new tools will make producing animations more accessible though.

How did you first get started with art? Have you always been into drawing? I have always been in to drawing (since I can remember)! Art has been my escape, my way to tell stories and create characters since I was a child. I was sometimes quite lonely at school and I was bullied a bit when I started high school, so at lunchtimes (and even during class I admit) I would often sit by myself and draw.

How old were you when you first made the transition into digital art? About 12 years old when I started playing around with early versions of Photoshop and Flash, I got my first tablet at 13.

How have things changed since then in terms of technology? When digital art emerged as an option I knew I wanted to jump on board. I got my first tablet and didn't look back. Obviously since then software and tools have come a long way! However right now things are moving on again and I am so excited because on the channel I have just begun to create 3D art in virtual reality. It's an exciting time! There will be more development in the software and tools for VR art (in the same way as there was with digital art) and no doubt that this is just the beginning.

When did you realise you’d be able to draw for a living? I had dreamed of writing a 'How To Draw' book since the age of 12, but it's not until recently that I have been able to make a stable living in the art world. I began to feel confident about making an OK wage about 3 years ago, when I began to get some reasonable freelance jobs, mainly as an animator rather than solely an artist. It wasn't stable but it was suddenly paying the bills. The problem was animation is very slow work and there was only one of me, so it was always going to be limiting in terms of making a stable wage. I had to convince my wife that it was worth turning down freelance on occasion to keep focusing on my YouTube channel, where I could see building a reputation and better potential for growth than one person animation. The YouTube channel eventually brought the offer of my first published book 'Draw With Jazza- Creating Characters' and even a children's television art show.

How did you get started with your YouTube channel? Before YouTube I used to work as a Freelance Flash Game Designer, but the Flash Game market was taking a nose dive. I had already started doing little art tutorials on YouTube, at first on a channel that contained a mixture of stuff (music etc), because I am usually working on creative projects of my own, but I noticed the art tutorials were quite popular. That is when I decided to start Draw With Jazza and see if it would grow into anything. It was lucky I did, as earning money in the Flash Game market was getting more and more difficult, Draw With Jazza began to grow and gave me the next direction in my career just in time, as I could no longer support myself with Game Design.

How quickly did success come there? You could say both quickly and slowly! I think a lot of people who start a YouTube channel want to see automatic viral videos, the reality is it take a lot of channels years to build an audience (it did mine) and the ones with the initial viral hits often don't go on to be long term successes. My channel definitely wasn't viral and it took a few years to get momentum, but then it grew quickly. In total I have been on YouTube for about 4 years and after year 1 I had about 5,000 subs, it took 3 years to reach 100,000, now at the beginning of my 5th year I will hit the 1 million mark and I am so excited about that.

What do you think is your secret, and how do you keep things fresh? I love art and I make content that I would be interested in watching. Although I pay a bit of attention to what is popular, popularity is not the main driver for my content choices, as I feel when you do that the content gets 'fake' and lacks quality. I really believe in making videos that I have enjoyed making and I hope the fact that I believe in what I am doing, comes across! It's not just about art, but also about showing your personality and letting people in. I definitely only do what I believe in. I'm not saying every video is perfect! Every now and again I make a video and I think 'that didn't turn out so well', and sometimes I still have to release it, as doing three videos a week doesn't leave me much room for error. Ironically sometimes the ones I'm not so proud of are really popular videos. You have to be willing to put yourself out there warts and all. My art challenges (left hand drawing, blindfold etc) don't show my best art (that's for sure) but they are very fun to make and popular content.

What would be your advice or top tips for anyone looking to get started in digital art? The same as my advice for any beginner artist, practise, work hard and don't be too tough on yourself. I think most people expect to be good quickly, or maybe when you look at developed artists they make it look easy and then you compare yourself to that. It took good artists, not hours, but years and years of practise. You need perseverance and patience with yourself.

Are there any mobile/tablet apps you’d recommend people should use for drawing on the go, and why? There is Photoshop Sketch and an Illustrator equivalent but I forget what it's called. I personally work a lot on the go but I run Photoshop off my Windows Tablet, that is capable of running the full program. A lot of people like using Sketchbook.

What would a good beginner’s setup be? For digital art you need a descent tablet of some sort, and it doesn't need to be expensive, but get one made for art. You can get started with a basic Huion or Wacom tablet (even picking up one second hand from ebay if necessary). The tablet will need a PC or Laptop with Photoshop or similar on it. There are way more expensive 'tablets' that aren't really made for art and won't give you the same results as a cheaper option, made with artists in mind.

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