School of Motion Podcast

Our Podcast has always been interviews, but in this episode we're going to shake things up. This time Joey will be flying solo, giving you his most tactical, actionable Freelance tips that you can start using right now. Some of these tips are from our course, Freelance U, and others are from our first book, The Freelance Manifesto, which you can look forward to adding to your summer reading list in June of 2017. Whether you're a veteran or just starting out by the end of this episode you'll be a more confident freelancer. You will get Joey's best tips on finding Freelance work, impressing your clients, and getting paid to do the work that you love. Keep a notepad handy, you'll want to write these down. Check out this episode on our site: http://www.schoolofmotion.com/better-freelancer-right-now/

If you don't already know who Chris Do is, you need to. He is the CEO of Blind, a studio which he founded 21 years ago that's still going strong today. He's also the creator of The Futur where he teaches MoGraphers like you how to be a creative entrepreneur. He has a TON of experience in the creative industry, and he's more than happy to share his wisdom with you. Our Industry is changing in big ways. Joey and Chris tackle some hard truths about the future of our industry, including why right now might not be the best time to start a studio. They also give you step by step instructions on how to land killer freelance gigs, and even tell you how to get hired at Blind. This interview is PACKED full of tactical, actionable advice that you can use right away.

Imagine a world without After Effects. Every time you sit down in front of the computer to animate you have to write code. Not just a few lines like you do with most expressions; hundreds of lines with variables, if-then statements, pixel dimensions, and crazy math formulas for your eases. This nightmarish way of animating has been, until very recently, the sad reality for app developers. Airbnb has a new way of animating. Lottie, a new open-source tool, is a game changer for App developers and the Motion Designers that work with them. It takes your animation from After Effects (with a little help from Bodymovin') and spits out all the code you need, ready for use on a variety of platforms. In this interview Joey talks to Salih Abdul-Kareem and Brandon Withrow of Airbnb. They dig into all the details of how Lottie works, why it's needed, and the role of Motion Design at a company like Airbnb. Check out the show notes: http://www.schoolofmotion.com/after-effects-to-code-lottie/

Producers do more than budgets. They are the conductors of the MoGraph orchestra... they do the dirty work so the artists can give total focus to their craft. They have to master the art of telling clients "no" without saying "no," they have to read the tea-leaves when it comes to budgeting and scheduling. And, of course, they are often the gatekeepers to getting booked as a freelancer. Our guest today makes Producing look easy. In this podcast episode, Joey talks with Erica Hilbert, Producer Extraordinaire at The Mill in Chicago. She knows all about the art of wrangling a project; keeping everything on schedule and under-budget. This interview is a real eye opener for any artist who has never stopped to think about the importance of the Producer and what our lives would be like without them. Dont forget to check out the show notes! http://www.schoolofmotion.com/the-conductor-producer-erica-hilbert-mill/

Motionographer does a lot for our industry... They inspire us, interview industry professionals, educate us, and put on the amazing F5 Conference. In this interview Joey talks to Motionographer Co-Founder Justin Cone about their Patreon campaign and the latest project Motionographer is heading up, The Motion Awards. Justin and Joey get deep into the nitty gritty about this new award, why the industry needs it, and what makes it different from all of the other award shows out there. Justin also offers his wisdom on what makes great design, well, great. We'll give you a hint, it has nothing to do with originality. If you want more than that you'll have give this one a listen. Don't forget to check out the show notes below for links to all of the studios, work, artists, and resources mentioned in this podcast. http://www.schoolofmotion.com/enter-the-cone-zone-the-motion-awards/

Cinema 4D is one of those apps that you start learning and never stop. Frankly, most of the apps we Motion Designers use fall into that category. EJ Hassenfratz has built up a reputation as an amazing C4D artist and teacher. His tutorials have been featured on GreyScaleGorilla, he has presented for Maxon at various conferences, and his work shows that he can also walk the walk. Joey had the pleasure of chatting with EJ about the tutorial scene, how they both learned Cinema 4D, and the challenges of learning such a massive app (not to mention the challenges of understanding the 3D workflow in general). EJ is gentleman, a scholar, and a beer enthusiast. We hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did. Make sure to check out EJ's work and more at EyeDesyn.com! http://www.schoolofmotion.com/cinema4d-ej-hassenfratz/

Lilian Darmono is an Australian / Indonesian-Chinese artist living in London. To say she has a diverse background is an understatement. She is not only multi-cultured and well traveled, her illustration style is a constant exploration of new styles. Yes, she tends to be on the cute side of things, but why not? Sometimes we just need to say "awwww" and feel a bit fuzzy inside. In this interview, I tried to dig into Lilian's talent to find out her secret... how does she combine colors so masterfully? How does she (seemingly effortlessly) jump from one style to the next? Lilian speaks very candidly about her career as a designer and illustrator and how being a woman has shaped that experience. She doesn't hold back, and I think this conversation has an incredible amount of wisdom and actionable strategies in it. http://www.schoolofmotion.com/nobody-born-designer/

Want to know what it takes to be a pro at sound design? To say that Frank Serafine might know what he's talking about is probably a huge understatement. Frank has been around doing sound design since before many of you were born. He's seen technology change they way that things are done, not just in audio, but in film also. In this epic chat, Frank and Joey geek out over how he developed sounds such as the Light Cycles in Tron, massive Spacecraft in the Star Trek movie, and many others... all without the benefit of ProTools or other modern bells-and-whistles. He has a TON of great tips on how to become a sound designer, whether you just want to add sounds to make your animations stand out or maybe even do it as a pro. Take a listen. http://www.schoolofmotion.com/frank-serafine/

Ever hear of Houdini? No, not the magician, the software by SideFX. Joey got a chance to have a very nerdy talk with the super genius Christopher Hendryx about his work at Disney as an FX Animator. Christopher was the lead artist in charge of Elsa's ice magic on a little film you may have heard of called Frozen. He created a very flexible and powerful rig in Houdini to create the effect, and shares a lot of insight into how he goes about making the insane visuals that he's responsible for. He also talks with Joey about why Houdini is turning out to be the "software of choice" for FX, and how one might go about learning it. Prepare yourself, things are about to get real nerdy. http://www.schoolofmotion.com/an-interview-with-the-brilliant-chris-hendryx/

Matt Frodsham is a Cinema 4D Black Belt. His reel is full of weird and wonderful work, much of it completed with his friends at the incredible Berlin-based Zeitguised. His work is abstract, provocative, playful, and extremely polished. Check out his reel to see what strange places his mind has been whilst sitting in front of an insanely powerful multi-GPU computer-beast with Cinema 4D opened up. https://vimeo.com/121924175 In this episode Joey chats with Matt at length about his experience working with such an amazingly creative group of people, how he (and Zeitguised) balance doing work for the reel versus work for the meal, and about how he deals with burnout. The goal of this interview was to paint a picture of what Matt's career looks like, and hopefully you leave inspired and ready to go get funky and weird with your own work. http://www.schoolofmotion.com/matt-frodsham/