Going Back to My Comfort Zone

Coming out of college with a science degree (chemistry major) while doing animation stuff often creates a misunderstanding of what I’m capable of. Many people would say:

You wasted your college time.

You don’t know the basics.

Just get a proper job using your degree.

It’s just a hobby, right?

Honestly, almost all of them are true. I’m just messing around and denying my faith as a scientist. Lol.

Nevertheless, here I am. A motion graphic designer with a not-so-creative portfolio, almost zero basic knowledge, and a very talented mentor.

Yes, a very talented mentor.

In my early days as a motion intern (I wasn’t even good enough to be a motion junior, so you can imagine how bad I was), it took me almost a whole day to create one animation. It wasn’t because I didn’t know how to do it, but because my mentor said:

“Not smooth enough, try tweaking it.”

Damn! It felt so smooth to me, but it still wasn’t good enough. Full of frustration, I tried to tweak it. Many times.

Day after day, I wasn’t improving. The problem was always the same.

“It’s not smooth enough.”

Again? Come on.

One day, I asked him:

“How would I know if it was smooth enough?”

To which he replied:

“It’s part of the experience. In the long run, you will feel it too. Just watch lots of good references.”

God damn!

But even after watching good references, I still ran into the same problem.

“Not smooth enough. Again.”

Even as I’m writing this, it still happens.

I’m not writing this to show how badly a science major is doing in another field. I just want to express my gratitude towards my mentor.

He has lots of patience with me, even when my problems were almost always the same.

As an apprentice, I always want to be better than him, and when I look at his work I feel envious.

“Why is his work so good and smooth? I want that too.”

Maybe, while I was spending 4 years of my life pursuing a college degree I wouldn’t use anyway, my mentor was doing what I’m doing now: grinding his time away for smooth animation. He has a 4-year head start, and that’s why he became my mentor.

For me, getting a good mentor is a blessing when it’s a new field and you’re starting from scratch. They’ll help you grow faster, give lots of advice, and, of course, lots of corrections too. But it’s part of the process, and part of the fun too. Making mistakes is good. Having a mentor while you’re trying a new thing is also very good, because you can have productive discussions based on their experience. Just grind away until they give you that one sentence:

“Okay, it’s done. Go on.”

At the time of this writing, I’ve been promoted to junior motion graphics designer. It took me a month and thousands of revisions (honestly, that’s an exaggeration) and, of course, countless advice from my mentor. If he hadn’t helped me, I might have been kicked out by now.

Well, just a quick tip from me:

Do what you love for the rest of your life, and hopefully, you’ll have a good mentor who is willing to help you get better.

Maybe it won’t work for all of you, but at least it worked very well for me.

P.S. I’m still wondering, and a little scared. My contract is going to expire soon, but hopefully I’ll get a new one.