236: Your Job Is to Fall In Love

[Colin Rowsell]

Your Job Is to Fall In Love

There are plenty of good storytellers who have spent years mastering their craft. But the difference between good artists and great ones often comes down to enthusiasm. Colin Rowsell shares his experience at an animation conference last year, where a former Muppeteer reminded attendees what storytelling is all about: getting really, truly, goofily excited about the world you've imagined.

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[Jon Etheridge]

Excellent article, Colin. True on SO many levels.

 

[ParadoxBG]

Amazing. Brought a tear to my eye. I like to think I'm like that with my own projects, and that's why they tend to get good responses.

But I think you can fall in love with any project. As creators, I feel it's one's duty to try I call this the 'Andrew Carnegie' approach to art.

 

[hamster mk 4]

Quite possibly the most inspiring thing I have read on the escapist. It makes me realize the missing element in my job search is the ability to show that I can fall in love with some one else's project.

 

[Lady K]

This definitely brings up a good point. Like with any good thing, it is easy to forget how simple yet complex the most basic things are, such as learning to love what you do, not just focusing on doing what you love. My current writing project is still in it's baby steps, but I'm excited. Very excited~

 

[Cosplay Horatio]

I feel the same way with previous projects and films I've made. If I didn't love everything about them myself then I wouldn't do them at all. If I even tried to do something I don't love then it would be worthless despite how much expense and time is put into it.

 

[GrinningManiac]

Is it wrong that when he was talking about "Castle Adventure" and said it was done in ASCII graphics, I thought of Assassin's Creed II?

"Not bad" I thought

But excellent article, true to the bare bones

 

[SteveZim1017]

wonderful article.

Too often we find ourselves getting caught in the mire of the day to day and let the funk of it pull us down. When this happens to me I know that I will at least once think of this article and the Muppets and hopefully remind myself of why I'm doing the things I do. So Thank you!

 

[Littlee300]

Passion for your work? Hmm, that is something I want, and I only have when i am doodling.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

This topic seems to be determined to fight its way to the forefront of my mind on a regular basis, and it always makes me contemplative of where I am, and where I want to go. Without diving too deep, I keep finding myself divided between the two sects--the childish sheer ebullient fun of what I would, could, should be doing, versus the devastating moroseness of the facts that have to continuously come to term to get anything at all accomplished in this very unimaginative culture.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Holy crap, Castle Adventure. I REMEMBER THAT GAME!

Do-do-do-dooo... do-do-do-dooo....

Excellent article. If you love what you do, it shows, truly. You can teach technical excellence, you can teach attention to detail, but you can't teach that passion that'll push someone to reach for the next level.

[small]Now only if I could find a playable port of that game....[/small]

 

[Nurb]

I loved reading this article, but sadly, making games for the love of the game is getting ever-rarer in the corporate gaming age.

I still have the opinion that selling your small development team to a massive publisher is selling your soul; you might have more money, but it's no longer 'your game', and it's ultimately got to pass the "is this making the most money possible for the publisher?" test... and eventually, should they feel you've outlived your usefullness, your team is unemployed.

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[the_tralfalmadorian]

This article demonstrates exactly why the escapist is so much better than every other gaming website. Where other websites have quantity and constant coverage, the escapist has quality, love, and intelligence.

 

[Insanum]

"I positive attitude may not make you feel any better, But it will annoy other people enough to make it worth the effort" - That is my mantra.

At the end of the day, If you have a love of what you do, It doesnt make work, Feel like work. There are the fortunate few that can do this.

The thing is, Being told Falling in love with your work is good, And actually doing it are two different matters. Being less of a pessimist & more of an optimist means that you'll walk with more of a spring with your step.

I Suppose a hint of immaturity does go a long way after all.

Good article.

 

[AquaAscension]

Did anyone else actually send a "cyclops list" to the e-mail listed on the article or was I the only one actually moved to do something somewhat silly by the article?

Anyhow, much agreed. This whole idea of love is... well, it's simple but we make it complex don't we? This definitely reminds me of a passage in a book entitled Possession in which the characters begin to talk about something very close to love and then start to talk about it in terms of how intellectualized it is and they say something like "we know everything about love, but we just don't know love at all." Sometimes intellectualization just gets in between yourself and the passion that ought to be spent on a project. Anyhow, sorry, that's terribly off topic.

 

[maantren]

Thanks guys for all the good feedback - this was one of my favourite pieces to write Yup, send your thoughts and Cyclops lists my way, it's always great to see what others have found to spark them... Jon, I think Apocalypse Lane is the ultimate example of holding out and making the world work the way you want it to

Cheers

Colin

 

[Vortigar]

Awesome article. Putting into clear focus some stuff that's been whizzing about my head on love and determination for your job or hobby.

Also:
Xenon 2!
Must've played through that sucker a couple dozen times when I was young. On one of those pain to the eyes green/black cga machines no less.

 

[DemonicVixen]

I would love to create my own game if A) i new where to start, with so many ideas buzzing around its a lot to handle B) i had the time and C) if i had the decent software and knowledge of that software to go with it.

I love having ideas, thinking of what my games or video's would look like, but the actual creating is too awkward and difficult that my ideas just never come out. Right now im planning to make some Sims 3 music videos using clips that i will be "video camera" taking from my game play. I have purposly created two different sets of Sims and lives just to follow so that i can video them doing whatever they do best and using the video's to create a new video for a song of any choice depending on the clips and my mood.

 

[insectoid]

There is nothing so great as being able to enjoy what you are doing so much so that you don't even realise that you have been working on it for 8 hours and forgot to eat lunch. I really envy people that are able to find a spark of joy in absolutely everything they do - life must seem awesome.