Fat Cat

Check out the blog for Fat Cat Animation Studios of Canada.

There studio has a hand in many a cartoon, and they are constantly producing demos, or pilots for ideas, which I would guess means they encourage a high level of creative input from their staff.

These guys really illustrate the work hard party hard philosophy I often talk about. There is no way a group of people this big all have so much in common that they just naturally all want to socialize together. But there is one thing they all have in common, they are producing animation together.

In my career I've been lucky enough for there to have been two periods of time where my workplace was really kicking and achieving great things. I don't think there is any coincidence that at the same time those workplaces were made up people willing to put in the effort to bond and enjoy letting off steam together as well as work hard together. That emotional investment translates into a bigger care factor about the work, a motivation beyond a pay check.

I think out of the Brisbane animation courses our course dose OK here, the fact that the class do all of their subjects together in one group is a big advantage we have over the university structures. But I do think there is room for improvement. There are still clicks, little clusters who distinguish themselves from the group because of a particular social inclination or sometimes because they like a different kind of animation to others. Also we get a small group of loaners each year, who just don't want to mix beyond the essential at all. Its obviously not something that can be assessed, or forced upon students, but you can mark my words. A group who make the effort to bond, focus on the things they have in common, communicate outside of class, will learn more and become better animators. The little things that happen around class, a group going to see a movie, gathering at a pub or cafe for some conversation, even hanging out together in a lunch break and sharing of yourselves, these things form a valuable grease between the cogs of a studio or class. Employers and teachers who don't encourage this sort of thing do so at their own peril.

Anyhoo, enjoy the blog, maybe there are some ideas here for things you guys can get up to outside of class :)