Hello fellas,
It has been some time since my last post like this. I'm happy to say that I finally got things back on track and things can go on going.
There are a lot of exciting things to go through, so lets get going.
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Get paid
I've been a bit on the fence lately about this subject. Should I talk about this or something a bit more uplifting. After careful evaluation and a couple of "events", most notably being allegations against VICE magazine for exploiting freelancers, I decided to write about this one first.
If you are a creative content creator of any kind, being visual artist, motion artist (animator), musician, author, journalist etc. , you probably already heard of (or ran into) people asking others to do work for them for free. They make forum posts or send direct messages to artists pitching a vague idea of their project and hope to hook some unsuspecting or inexperienced practitioners. A general trend with them is that they never offer any payment for your work. They may offer things such as exposure or procedural monetary compensation once the project has been completed and financially successful, but never upfront payment or an actual working contract.
I may be just preaching to the quire, but it is a thing that cannot be stressed enough: If you are an artist of any kind and a complete stranger is asking you to do work for free, reject it!
No, the promised exposure is not sufficient payment for your work. It sure as hell will not bring any food on the table.
No, no payment after completion. This may be a viable practice for commissions for your fans, but not in mayor business contracts
No, the prospect of a future possible employment is not enough. Promises don't pay the bills and even then, nothing is guaranteed.
No, "experience" is not enough. Experience does not keep my house warm and it may be completely arse anyways.
Your work and talent is valuable. Every artwork you work on does not take 30 minutes, 2 hours or even 20 hours.
It takes these 20 hours plus all the years before!
You do not just spontaneously suck out talent out of your fingers. Your state and skill as an artist are the result of hard practice. Without the previous studies and projects, your current projects may not even be possible ability-wise.
You never ask a carpenter, plumber or construction worker to do his job for free. Hell, even people at MC Donalds are getting paid. There is no debate about wherever of not they should be paid. They do a job and they receive compensation. Full stop.
Art is the same deal. At least it should be.
Unfortunately, people (either young, naive and obscurely selfish or shady talent seekers) have a certain degree of success with hooking artists into such exploitative business relationships. This is why we have this state of affairs. The other one being that artists do upload their work for free on the net. This gives some people the wrong idea about the value of their craft.
If somebody is unwilling to pay for your services, odds are he does not really value it to begin with. A suspicion that tends to be confirmed on a regular basis by them acting out aggressively towards artists asking for payment or extra information.
Either way, once somebody is requesting your services, its time to ask for a price, because you are worth it.
Full stop
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Livestream announcement
That's right, livestreams are back, baby! This week, I have something super exciting, as I will work on an animated concept trailer in After Effects!
Come along and glimpse over my shoulder alongside the production!
This sunday 18 CEST
SUPER PREMIUM HOLY SHIT WELCOME BACK 6 HOUR STREAM
I will also have a big announcement during the stream. Don't miss it!
That's it for now and thanks for reading.
Best wishes
BB