My first stab at animation

[SymphonicX]

Absolutely... Completing a tutorial project is the seed... Do enough of em and you will certainly develop a real impressive set of skills. Totally. my confession here today, to the board but hopefully not my employer - is that I have literally NO frickin' idea what I'm doing. I've not studied from anything, neither film making nor graphic design, no courses, books, nothing. I've done it all through eye, and ear. I've been making telly for quite a while now so have built up an eye for what looks and feels right, and what doesn't. And that's all you need really - is the ability to look at something and say "no, that's not right" and then re-work it til it's done. Only amatuers "settle" - never settle. it's always gotta be the best you could do at the time. And things like After Effects can help you really develop a sense of colour, and what's appropriate - I've used photoshop non-professionally for over a decade, and it was only until I started training in After Effects did I realise small but very useful tips on how to manage colour properly in a composition - never ever use the top right hand corner of the colour picker....!! (Ie: stark, bright red) - little things like that change a piece of work from amatuer to professional in no time at all. The key is always subtlety. Same with editing - if they've noticed that I've made a cut, then it's a bad edit, if a colour or graphic is too prominent, it's badly done. It's all about balance. It's like what they say with script writing - write your whole movie then delete the first 20 pages - less is more. that's my graphic design/filmmaking/editing class 101 (subtitled: Fish out of Water) - lets just hope the boss doesn't see this hahaha

[MikePizzoff]

Symphonic, I had no idea you were in the business. Quite a few of you guys on here. Anyway, your story gives me hope! I can't afford to go to a prestigious film school or university; I'm just getting my associates in communications at a community college (which is taking forever) - everything I've learned filming/editing/composing/etc wise has all been self-taught and I've always worried that it will hold me back.

[SymphonicX]

depends on what the industry is like in Phillie - but over here it can be very much "it's not what you know, it's who you know" and those kinda people love work-hungry, young, and relatively cheap individuals who do a great job - I got work experience in a company and went from there, begged for a job etc etc