CREATIVE SLUMPS AND HOW ANIMATORS CAN AVOID THEM

It’s crunch time. You’re arriving early, staying in late. But just until the last deadline. Until you provide this final item, but, looking back, this has been crunch time for as long as you can remember. There’s always one more enormous project between you and being able to relax completely. What is this high-stress, always-on work style doing to you?

Creators and creative slumps have had a relationship since the dawn of time. Whether you are an artist, writer, singer, poet, developer, or even an animator, NO ONE can escape the brunt of burnout. No matter what the scale of your project is, personal or work-related, if you hit up with a time crunch, you are bound to burn out at one point or another.

While many to almost all students and employees face this slump, this poison has slowly started to choke various animators too.

ANIMATORS AND BURNOUTS

Animators include a wide range of artists, including storyboard artists, character artists, 3D animators, 2D animators, riggers, and so many more. With hours of work for one tiny detail, many animators spend months on the shortest projects to achieve a perfect output.

It is no new news that working on the same thing over and over is bound to tire the artists at one point. One thing to be noted is that there is nothing wrong with this. It is entirely natural.

What matters is how much you can create before you burn out. An artist’s success is not measured solely based on his skill but on how long they can work without facing a slump.

Now that you know what burnout is, let’s see how you are a victim.

High Expectations

One assassin of creativity is escalating expectations. Now high expectations, whether put on you by your seniors or by yourself, tend to sap out creativity at a point. Most animators take up jobs in the animation industry due to their passion for it. When given tasks that go above one’s creativity spur, it tends to turn their hobby into a job which then sucks out the creativity and motivation of the creator. 

When tolled up with high expectations, one compares his productivity and creativity with the extent of the demands. At one point, we feel that what we are creating is not good enough because, in the end, while we are our biggest motivators, we are also our most prominent critics.

Heavy Workload

Taking up your passion as a job can be a bane as a boon. Animation is a tedious job, and when the long hours of effort meet significant product demand, animators are bound to burnout. Having multiple projects at hand tends to restrict the creative flow. Instead of focusing on one project, the creator divided his attention among various projects.

Lack of Break

It is hard to create all the time. Every creator needs a good break from time to time. If you are working on a project for 10 hours at a stretch, you are bound to fall into a creative slump. Long work hours do not only limit your creativity but your productivity as well.

Work-Life Imbalance

While your hobby might be a big part of your life, you need to know where to draw a line between work and personal life. Many employees feel that their work slowly starts to seep into their lives through emails, client calls, or maybe regular overtime at work.

PREVENTING A BURNOUT

It is said that prevention is better than cure, and the best method to deal with burnout is to avoid it in the first place. As the strains of chronic stress and overwork lead to burnout, our first line of defense is to draw a clear border between work and personal life. Creating this barrier may be difficult in an industry where email, social media, and communication technologies strive to keep us constantly linked to our job.

Set Limits

Begin by confining your working hours and activities to your workstation or home office. Having a different physical place where you work allows you to depart when you’re finished. When you leave your desk, this should help you leave work worries behind. Define what constitutes work for you. Answering emails and tracking down bills are also work, but they frequently intrude on freelancers’ time. Job stress and an increased risk of burnout accompany work activities that spill into your time.

Choose the right employer

Your capacity to develop healthy working habits depends on your employer’s support and encouragement of a non-toxic culture. Your employer’s offices can provide a workspace more clearly separated from your personal life than a home office. Still, your capacity to disconnect from work might be heavily influenced by employer expectations.

Take proper breaks

Taking a break to breathe is essential. Make sure that you get up from your seat and relax both physically and mentally after every 2 hours as we do at Incredimate. It is necessary to stand up and get moving, especially for animators, since they spend hours sitting in one position. This not only rejuvenates you physically but also gives you a well-deserved mental break which ultimately refreshes your mind and pushes you to work better.

Take out time for your personal life

Living your life outside of work might help you reignite the spark you felt when you first started animating. Because many animators began their careers by turning a pastime for animation into a job, completing passion projects outside of work might help them recall why they started in the first place.

Take out time to do what you like. Spend time with your family, go out with your friends, watch movies or read books which will ultimately spark your creativity and help you perform better at work

Finally, BE KIND TO YOURSELF!

To overcome burnout, animators must recognize that they are through a difficult period in their animation job and personal lives. Animators should make an effort to be kind to themselves.

Taking the time to comprehend your circumstances will allow you to forgive yourself for whatever mistakes you may have made in the past. This will help you progress, and you may see that it is part of the learning process to become a better animator.

It can also assist you in avoiding making the same mistakes and encourage you to adopt better coping techniques while working on an animation project with a customer.