Hello everyone! This is my first blog for this website, talk about pressure. I understand the online marketing world a bit having worked in it for a few years now, so I know the blog is the cornerstone of all online marketing. I actually went to school for media arts and animation with a focus in games, but through workplace experience I had to learn the ins and outs of so many other disciplines, including marketing, namely social media marketing.
I knew I had the around the same skill set more or less as my peers who graduated with me. We all could operate Photoshop, After Effects, Animate, Premiere, 3ds Max, ZBrush, and so on. We all could hop into other similar programs and figure them from what learned from our core curriculum. I wanted to stand out and have knowledge my peers did not so I could offer more to my clients and potential employers. We were told to have a single focus and aim for a job in that area. What this meant was after becoming adept at every aspect of the industry, the last two semesters were spent honing in what you were best at in hopes of landing a job, not a bad concept. In fact we had to create a separate demo reel focused on just that one focus, called a focus reel.
That was too limiting to me as an artist, while I did focus on Visual Effects and Motion Graphics for school, I wanted to know how to do it all. So while everyone did just one final focus project over the last two semesters, I did twenty-one focus projects to make sure my reel had great content. These two terms were the most freeing because we were allowed to progress just our focus project and build our portfolios. I took this time to watch a lot of tutorials and learn other aspects not covered in detailed during our entire academic career.
I was hired by the same company that I interned at a few weeks prior to finishing my last semester. I was fortunate enough that this company wasn’t large but had large clients. This meant every member of the team had to wear many hats to get projects done by deadlines. Here is where I really honed all of my skills and even picked up new ones. I became proficient and advanced in programs I had barely ever touched before, like Power Point and Adobe Audition. Over the next three years I learned so many other aspects of the industry, including marketing, understanding analytics, advanced web design, and so on.
I formed Lava Panda Studios before graduating with my teammates from school. We have a game we have been working on for years now that is almost ready for release and we needed a company to release under. I however, always wanted to grow this business into what it is now, helping our clients through innovative methods frame-worked from already successful industry standards. This allowed me to provide higher studio quality to clients, but also charge lower rates than studios.
It has been an interesting road so far and I am excited for this next step. I will get better at this blogging as I go. Hopefully you will be joining me along the way!
Recent Comments