Now im not someone that spends allot of time online these days, and even less floating around Newgrounds, but something i have noticed lately is how many people want to make a living out of flash, and how most of those people seem to think the only way is to put flash ads into your work and then on top of that make something that that will appeal to the mass audience, like video game parodies or whatever.

Now i dont know how to post this blog without sounding like an arrogant twat, but im going to post it anyway.

Fact is ive been making more then enough money doing flash work for almost 6 years now (discounting the 5 month period last year with no job and no internet connection, preventing freelance work). And its not hard to do. Im not a great flash animator, hell, im not even a good flash animator, my skills are average are best, but thats not always what employers are looking for. My first flash job was making banner ads, it wasn't always the funnest job in the world, and sometimes i found it down right frustrating, but it always paid the bills, and eventually, after a few years, it was paying the bills with over $300 a week left over to spend. I didn't get the job because i was a frame by frame wizard or a great artist, i got it because i could do the work, and do it quick, which in the world of online media, where an ad's turnaround might only be 2 or 3 days, including any changes and multiple resizes (the standards being 300x250, 728x90 and 160x600 with all variations between). I wasn't living in the city either, i was in a small country town, you will find these places everywhere, no matter where you live. And so, as my first piece of advice, seek these places out, show them your show reel, and focus not on how good you are, but rather how fast you are and your ability to make a dead line.

Now since then i have changed jobs, i got a job in a warehouse of all places and thought i would be stuck there, happily, this has turned out not to be the case. See, this is a small business that has never known anything about marketing, i showed them what i was capable of doing in flash, a little animation based around there products, and low and behold, im now working on all there marketing, now im no marketing genius, but i know how to use gradients to make things look nice, and wouldn't you know it, sales are up on the products ive been working on. And now, due to this, im designing the OSD for a media center, something ive never come even remotely close to working on before, but because i know how to animate and have done a bit of web work, learning about what makes something easy to use, i seem to be ideal for the job. So thanks to flash, ive gone from being a warehouse worker to a marketing director and head of R&D. So theres my second piece of advice, think outside the box, look for places that NEED your help and skills, but don't know it yet because sometimes you will be surprised what can come out of it.

On top of that ive been putting myself out there, doing freelance work, everything from short promos for musicals to commissions from models on Model Mayhem, it all pays and its all fun. But i had to seek that work out, you cant just sit around waiting to be discovered, not in this world.

Of course, some people want to just be animators, and work on movies and whatnot, and thats fine. I personally hated being a cog in a factory, a slave to a project that someone else will grab the credit for (the reason i left the original flash banner job), because unless your working your own projects thats all you will ever be, a cog in a machine, going around and around but never moving anywhere.

Im to ambitious to go back to that, hopefully i will never have to work for anyone aside from myself again. So what are you going to be? The cog in the wheels of a train, just turning in place, or the train driver taking passengers on a journey to there next destination?

That said, time to lighten the mood. Song of the week. The Hilltop Hoods - The light you burned and . The Hilltop Hoods are an Australian hip hop group that have been putting out awesome songs for a number of years now. Since most people that read this are outside of the country, i thought id feature them this week. You get 2 for the price of one this week, lucky you.

.
/* */

.
/* */
This is the end, my only friend, the end.

By the way heres a new screen from The Telescope, yeh, i can balance full time work, freelance work, and personal projects. I miss having a life but them's are the breaks.