October 26, 2023 • 29 mins
As artists we should probably avoid the trap of hero worship – but what about becoming fans of the artists we find around us?
Today's episode is the first in the SPILLT Searchlight series where we introduce you to our favorite people in the industry that you should be a fan of too!
Taylor Cox's tale is one of constant improvement, a little struggle, and an unwavering dedication to his craft. We talk to him about his early industry days, the challenges he continues to face, and his never-ending pursuit of work that fulfills him.
Take a deep dive into the creative process of a passionate animator and the significance of role models in the industry. Taylor Cox's career journey is a testament to the joy of staying true to oneself and the rewards it reaps. He shares how his love for video games (especially KIRBY) in the work he collaborated with us on Adult Swim: Suck-It Smash.
Taylor also sheds light on how he bridges the skill gap, making his interactions with clients enjoyable and keeping his creative spark alive.
Taylor spills the tea on his dream assignment, how he would stir change in the industry, and his insightful thoughts on the hiring process for the new Zelda games.
Spoiler alert: you could be the next guest on the SPILLT Searchlight – email us at play@spillt.com and tell us why everyone should be your next biggest fan!
––> Connect with Taylor Cox:
• Taylor's website
• Instagram
• Twitter
Join the creative conversation on all things animation and motion design:
- Send us a message and be a part of the show
- Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
- Email us at play@spillt.com
Check out our studio website for Spillt's latest and greatest work!
Until the next time, SEIZE THE PLAY!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I feel like right now I have started level two.
It feels like you've seeneverything and I have to get up
every morning and do it againand, again and again.
But the next 10 years are goingto look very different.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You've heard it before right Never meet your
heroes.
You know there's a danger tostaying out to the stars worse
being someone whose work youlove but one of the biggest
problems is that you actuallymiss out on the gems that might
already be laying at your feet.
Instead of worshiping heroes, Ithink it's better to find
people to be fans of.
We tend to trade our heroeslike their baseball cards, we
(00:39):
compare their work like statsand rankings and we don't even
really think of them as people,just a goal.
But one of the things that Ilove is finding someone in the
industry to support as theirfirst fan.
Being a fan of someone inanimation or motion design means
that you root for them, yousupport them and you might be
the one who's leading up,striking that friendship up in
the first place, and that'sexactly what we're doing here in
(01:00):
the Spilt Searchlight series.
Now, this isn't a spotlight ofpeople we've already heard, who
have been celebrated or hadmillions of interviews.
This is where we root forpeople that we think you should
get to know, maybe even hire.
And someone I've always rootedfor is Taylor Cox.
I met him ages ago at MoGraphMentor when he was really trying
to push himself in the industry, and what I've always admired,
(01:23):
if not actually even been alittle bit jealous of, is his
incredible dedication to pushingfor the work he wants to do
rather than the work that hegets assigned.
Take a listen to this interviewbecause it really shows you
what a relationship over theyears can feel like when you
find someone that you admire,support them and see them grow
in the direction they've alwayssaid they wanted to.
(01:44):
And that's what we want to hearfrom you as well.
Do you know someone out therethat we should be supporting,
that we should be shining oursearchlight on?
And I have been an incrediblefan from the sidelines of you,
taylor, and I think you'veprobably.
(02:04):
If I look back at my list ofpeople who have been in my open
office hours, you probably areat the top of the list of people
that I've sat down worked withDemo Reels over the years more
than anybody else.
I think I've seen two, three,four iterations of Demo Reel
over those nine years since thatclass.
Yeah, probably, so that soundsright.
Yeah, I don't know if you stillhave your old Demo Reels up,
but I'm always amazed by theprogression Taylor makes year to
(02:27):
year to year on his Demo Reels,and not just because it's
really great work, but because Ifeel like they get closer and
closer to the person that I'vecome to know, and I think that's
incredibly rare.
I want to take you back, taylor,because we have had this like
long standing, like kind ofcadence, and talking to each
other.
You mentioned MoGraph Mentor.
I'd almost like to put you backinto MoGraph Mentor era.
Taylor Cox, what were yourchallenges back then?
(02:49):
As somebody starting theindustry, who pre everybody,
having patrons and schoolemotion becoming an established
standard?
Mograph Mentor was this kind oflike neat, weird idea that I
don't think a lot of peopleunderstood right at the
beginning, but you dove in asone of the first people who
moved through it.
Can you think back to that time, like what was in your head
that you thought was a challengethat you needed to solve to
move forward in your career?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, well, at that point I had been working in
motion design for three, fouryears.
I mean, I was not fresh, I hadbeen doing this for a while.
There's that iriglass quote thateveryone loves to bring up
about that kind of realizationwhere your taste and your skill
and the separation between thetwo it was around that time
(03:35):
where I became more aware of themotion design community at
large, seeing more of the studio, seeing what people were
actually doing instead of kindof my little bubble of freelance
work that I had been doing fora little bit, and realizing, oh
gosh, I'm not nearly as good asI thought I was.
My storytelling ability is notgreat, my technical animation
(03:58):
ability is not great.
I've been getting by on AndrewKramer tutorials for four years
now, and so it was that momentof realization the chasm between
where I was and where I wantedto be much larger than I thought
it was.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Taylor, I'm going to throw this question out to you
now because I think this is oneof the hardest questions you can
ask an artist.
If you had to describe yourselfin three words as an artist,
how would you describeyourselves before people go rush
off and take a look at yourwork while they're listening?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So I'm going to say something that sounds incredibly
hokey cheesy.
I'm just going to own it.
I'm sorry, but if we're goingto put it on three words, just
let's have fun.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I like that.
I like that I was going to say.
If I had to pick one word, theword I would have used was
joyful, because whenever I lookat your work, I know what you
can do, I know what your tools,your skill sets are, I know what
your interests are, but I justfeel like there's a sense of joy
that radiates out of your demoreel or when you post personal
work.
That, I think, is somethingthat is true to you as a person
but also really rare to findfrom a demo reel.
(04:59):
Like how do you ever do that?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So, as far as for a demo reel, how do you do that
Practically speaking?
It's a lot of personal work andit's not just when I say those
three words let's have fun, likeif I'm pitching myself really
as a freelancer wanting to workwith somebody.
I want that to kind of be thewhole experience, like when
we're just in a group, slap,chat, talking notes, talking the
(05:24):
mundane.
I want that to be a goodexperience for people.
I try to liven it up If I tryto have fun with that up to a
certain point, because I realizethat can get a little
irritating if you take it toofar.
I take my job seriously but Idon't take myself very seriously
.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I think that's a perfect reason to explain why,
when we got this call from AdultSwim as soon as that idea was
awarded to us and I was like, ohmy gosh, samantha, I have to
introduce you to you the firstperson I thought I was Taylor,
because I would love to knowwhat you thought of getting that
phone call.
Because the title of Samantha'spiece for an adult swim was
called Suck it Smash, which ishilarious and silly and a little
(06:01):
bit weird.
Essentially, it was supposed tobe pure fun and the added
wrinkle that was supposed toemulate like an 8-bit or 16-bit
side-scrolling video game.
And if the other thing youreally need to know about Taylor
is that half of what I think,what I see from his personal
work, lives directly in thatsweet spot.
So it's that reason why Ialways tell people on your demo
reels or when you show work orwhen you're on LinkedIn or on
(06:21):
Twitter, showing people, yourpersonality really does pay off
and that idea of Taylor is fun.
He has a huge amount of joy.
He does video games.
He's not afraid to get weird.
Sometimes that, literally, wasthe checklist of who could we
find that could do those fourthings.
So I'd love to know what didyou think when you got the call?
That, yes, we might finally,for the first time ever, get to
work together, but that it was athing called Suck it Smash.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I mean, it was just laughter, to be honest.
And to add one more thing thatwas told to me when you pitched
the project to me.
He said Suck it.
Smash is going to be inspiredby old video games and whatnot.
And then this idea that thecharacter was inspired by, like
Kirby, the old Nintendocharacter Kirby, which I love.
(07:05):
How delightfully absurd thatcharacter is Like.
There's like a whole deep loreabout this little pink puffball
that just devours everything itsees.
So, like the whole package wasjust like this is perfect, this
is hilarious.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
This is amazing.
That's what I love about adultswimming.
It's occasionally you get thesecalls from clients where
they're like we don't have a tonof money and it's not a lot of
time, but also we just want tosee what you do.
If we just said, go makesomething and pitch us and this
couldn't be a more perfectdistillation of what I know from
Samantha in terms of, like thevisual look, the theme of it.
(07:38):
Again, it influenced by KirbyIf they made a adult swim
animated show, this would livein that kind of world but also
just like a little bitdisgusting, but in a cute way.
Was there anything scary?
Was there anything that you'relike oh man, this is a challenge
that I have to figure out sometechnical hurdles, or it's a
creative opportunity to dosomething never done.
What was your kind ofmotivation once you're like,
(08:00):
okay, I've got the job, Now Igot to go make this thing.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I don't want to oversell it, but the word I
think of coming out of thatmeeting was just harmony.
Honest to goodness, I walkedaway from that meeting and
almost every day that I wasworking on this project of like
we're working together well,this all makes sense.
There was a flow to it, andthat's not something that I
would take for granted, that'snot something that happens all
the time, but it just felt likeall of the right pieces were in
(08:25):
place as far as direction andwho was working on it and who
was steering it.
It was pretty special, to behonest.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I also was doing a station ID for adult swim called
World War S'mores.
My team was looking at the jobthat you and Samantha were doing
and we kept on scratching ourheads like how are they going so
fast?
We couldn't understand.
It felt like in the course oftwo to three weeks from the
moment like it got greenlit andyou were on board.
It went from being some kind ofsketchy storyboard drawings
(08:54):
that were thrown together inanimatic to here's the character
and how I think it can move toit's done.
It didn't make any sense justbecause we were still kind of
like getting some charactermodels done and doing some
rigging tests and we're like howin the world is this happening
this way?
How do you move so fast on thisproject, taylor?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I cannot give you an assesial like ABC.
This is how it worked.
It was clarity of direction.
I mean, we just were able tohit the ground running.
There was no sort of ambiguityabout what we were trying to do.
So, yeah, again, it just worked.
Like I wish I had somewonderful eternal insight to
like glean from all of that,which is sometimes things work,
(09:36):
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Is there anything in the way that Samantha
storyboarded or directed youthat helped you cut some corners
or avoid some kind of technicalhurdles Like how did you guys
figure that out?
Because at least a couple ofshots from what I remember
should have had some headachemoments.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Well, so at the outset, Samantha had already
done a little bit of prep workfor both of them, like, oh, this
is kind of how I want thecharacter to be shaped, and a
start on material whatever.
And she was very humble aboutit.
She's like, you know, this isjust kind of a start and I get
into that project.
I'm like I don't actually needto do much more to this.
Like you know, we can push thematerial a little bit more and
(10:11):
we can push the rig a little bitmore.
But I was delighted andsurprised by like this is all
very workable, and so I didn'thave any headaches there at the
beginning of like, okay, I'vegot to reimagine this, or you
know, this isn't up to snuff, sowe need to start over.
It just wasn't that way.
She really, both in terms ofher storyboarding and just that
little bit of prep work she didwith that character, got us so
(10:34):
far down the road.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Taylor, I love hearing that about Samantha
because as a first time director, I'm sure there was a decent
amount of trepidation of how doI take a job that I pitched,
that I don't know how to animateor I don't know how to use
cinema 4D, but I know it needsto be done.
How do I move it forward?
It sounds like the two of you'srelationship worked so well
that she could kind of drive thecreative vision and collaborate
(10:55):
with you and it seemed like shehad full trust in terms of you
taking on character animation.
Can you tell me a little bitabout, like, how you came to
being comfortable doingcharacter work?
That's not something that yourun into with motion designers a
lot, much especially when youstart talking about doing it in
3D.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So I've done a little bit of 3D character animation,
and almost all of it up to thispoint has been primarily
personal stuff, just fun stuffthat I wanted to do because I
find myself much more inspiredby characters than necessarily
circles and squares and lines.
You know, if you have any sortof storytelling in your heart,
(11:30):
you've got to do something withcharacters, you've got to get
someone else to do it, and so Iwould enjoy just putting
together a little rigs for thesesilly, little, simple
characters, like I remember.
One of the first ones I did wasthis like fun Christmas tree
project years and years ago.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That was like one of the first demo reels you kind of
showed me was that and I waslike more of that.
Please do more of that.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, I just spent a solid week learning how to
create a little espresso rig forwhat I needed each and every
single part of this tree to doand how to blast doing it, and
for this project.
That lent itself perfectly forwhat we were trying to do this
glorified gumball that we weremaking that had to be gelatinous
(12:14):
and expressive, and all thesejust fun sorts of things.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
So one of the things that I've always been friend,
jealous of and impressed at thesame time is that for me, I've
always struggled investing inpersonal work because I always
felt guilty that that was takenaway from my professional work
and because of that, anytime Iwould look to make a new demo
(12:38):
reel, I never felt like itreflected who I wanted to be.
So I would go like up a lot ofpeople listening years without
updating a demo reel.
But when I started open officehours, one of the first people
that came to talk to me was youand we've had this really great
relationship or cadence of everyyear to 18 months.
It felt like for a long run youwould check back in and be like
(12:58):
I got a new reel, tell me whatdo you think.
And I was always like, almostlike I had my hand in my fist
like, curse, you again, taylor.
You did it again.
But it's been so exciting for me, almost like someone who is a
fan of a band you see in a barthat you're like man, I love
these people.
I could see them on a stage infront of an arena.
I want to follow them for therest of their career and support
them.
I've always felt that way aboutyou and I was thinking about
(13:21):
that partially because I'm a fanof you, but another part is
like I'm fascinated and alwayswondered how do you find the
termination and confidence to?
I think over the years I'veseen at least three or four
major demo reel that releasesfrom you where it feels like
you're leveling up 10X everytime.
How do you, how do you do that?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I don't want to use such a negative word for it, but
I don't think there's any otherway to put it.
It really is frustration.
It's not that I necessarilyhave a lot of time to be pouring
into these personal projectsand cranking a new reel out,
because I don't, but you doclient work for a solid year and
(14:08):
90% of it, as we all know, islike I don't necessarily want to
show this to other people orthis isn't me, and I hit a
threshold, seemingly every 12 to18 months, where I'm like I
need to make some stuff.
That's me or otherwise.
I can't do this much longer.
My soul is starting, it'sstarting to run dry, and so that
(14:29):
frustration kind of kind ofturns into a little rocket
booster and I'll have two tothree months where I'm just
pouring over new projects, newideas, learning things that I
wanted to learn but I haven'thad time to do.
I think that's primarily it.
I mean, I guess I'm happy I'vebeen able to channel it into
(14:50):
something positive, but it hasbeen a sense of frustration
that's driven that.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That's great insight.
I appreciate the honesty forthat, because it's not a cool
thing to say a negative emotionis something you use for fuel.
I feel like in our industryeverybody always tries to
present it as like be your bestartist and be true to your inner
self.
But a lot of times it's eitherfrustration or fear, falling
behind or not knowing where youfit amongst your peers, or maybe
(15:17):
having a big long-term goalthat you want to achieve by the
time you retire that you feellike you're not taking a single
step towards.
This might be me channeling myown feelings a little too much.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I mean to get maybe even a little too deep on this.
I don't think most of us setout to do corporate client work
with our art all the time, andthere's certainly nothing wrong
with that.
That's what puts food on thetable, et cetera.
But you hit these points fromlike I can't do another text
(15:51):
blast.
I can't do another lower third.
I can't do another text line orvideo.
None of that is true.
I'm happy to do all that, butyou feel that way sometimes and
you just you've got to unleashsome of that pent up.
I got to do what I feel trueabout what I feel I've always
wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
So yeah, I appreciate it.
I've always resented the factthat this phrase is what you use
, like I've got to make a living, because I think it's really
difficult, especially in motiondesign, where you're really
close to doing what you want todo but it always feels like
you're a half a step away fromlike.
I think you and I are verysimilar we both love character
animation, we both love videogames, we both have jobs where
you probably get close to whatwe thought it would have been
(16:32):
like to do those things, butit's still not exactly.
And I feel like there's a verybig difference with making a
living with your art and livingas an artist.
But those two words are soclosely related that you just
kind of just let them just kindof mesh into each other when
they could be further from twoseparate things that you have to
kind of balance and reconcileor just come to terms with the
(16:55):
compromise.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, compromise and balance are big parts of it, and
you have to come to terms withthat.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I mean the words you're using.
You know like fun you said thebeginning adventure, what we
call play.
Those are the things that getus through the hard times or the
times where you don't knowwhat's going to happen.
Right, I love the fact that youbasically just gave everybody
permission to go and play somevideo games.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Go, have fun, play right what this has looked like
in my life.
My wife, about six months ago,bought an old pop-up camper for
a thousand bucks on FacebookMarketplace and spent months
restoring it and refurbishing itand putting it back together,
just so we could go camping more.
And just the amount of energyand creativity that she put in
(17:38):
that project and what that hasmeant for our lives and how much
it's expanded our horizons.
That sort of energy rechargesme, much more so than spending
four weeks on the box.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I feel like we have to reclaim the term artist in
the industry.
Right, there's a lot of peoplelike to say I'm not an artist,
I'm a designer, or I'm atechnician, or some people might
say bricklayer.
But if you're spending any timedoing this work, I think there
is a certain amount of personalresponsibility that you do have
to say I am an artist.
Part of it is learning, part ofit is application, but the
(18:11):
other part of it is creatingmoments to be bored or moments
to hear things in quiet.
That, if all you've been doingis sitting on the box just doing
the stuff that you know youhave to do for clients, you
don't have anything cool in yourhead.
You need to have that.
What would your dreamassignment be as an artist
working in motion design?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I am going to ZIG, where I thought I was going to.
Zag, I would love right now towork with Guillermo del Toro.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yes, great, I love it .
Tell me why, because I don'twant to presume.
What would the reason be forthat?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I mean just all the things about him in general.
I feel like that speaks forhimself, for itself.
But I feel like he right now iskind of our cavalry leader in
animation and I would love to bepart of that passion and that
energy and also he just seemslike such a lovely person, he
(19:02):
also swears better than anyoneyou'll ever meet.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
The few weeks I had working with him.
I've been chasing those fourweeks ever since they happened.
What's the next step for you asan artist, Taylor?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I read this wonderful interview with the director of
the new Zelda games and hetalked about his hiring process
for these insanely innovative,groundbreaking games,
particularly Breath of the Wildand the newly released Tears of
the King, two games that justblew away people's expectations
for what you could do in a videogame.
(19:34):
And so he was asked about okay,how did you put together a team
for this game?
And he said well, obviously weneeded great engineers and great
artists, great programmers,things like that.
But almost what was moreimportant to me was I wanted to
know what they were doing withthe rest of their time.
We weren't looking for gamers.
We weren't looking for videogamers.
(19:56):
Obviously you needed to befamiliar with it to do the job,
but we were looking for do youdo boating?
Do you do hiking?
Do you do woodworking?
What are you doing with yourspare time?
That is, recharging your mindand your creativity.
And you have to put togetherthat sort of team in order to
get a breath of the wild and atears of the kingdom, where just
(20:19):
the imagination on display andthe creativity and the
resourcefulness and like allthis sort of stuff that into
these games blows my mind.
You just ask yourselfconstantly how did they do this?
Because these weren't justgamers sitting at a computer
making a game.
These were people with livesand people that do actual
(20:40):
adventuring.
So I have been thinking moreabout my creativity and my
career in terms of how muchadventure am I putting into my
life?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
You did a great job kind of putting all of us as
listeners into your head backwhen you started MoGraph Mentor
earlier in your career and Ilook forward to right now today,
sitting in this room as anartist that's been working in
motion design for a long time.
It's had a good career, thatpeople know who you are, that
you have a recognizable kind ofstyle or voice, Like I can tell
when something's at Ailer CoxPeace.
(21:11):
Same question.
But today, what do you feel areyour biggest challenges as a
motion designer working in theindustry at this spot in your
career right now?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Since we keep bringing up video games.
I feel like right now I havestarted level two.
We've gone through level one,we've done the whole thing Again
.
I've been doing this for 10years.
It feels like you've seeneverything and I have to get up
every morning and do it againand again, and again.
(21:42):
But level two is different.
It's like I'm looking to okay,am I going to do this for 10
more years?
And so the next 10 years aregoing to look very different
from those first 10 years.
And so it's coming to groups,both with what these challenges
(22:04):
are going to be artificialintelligence or the changing
industry from a studio model,economic model we're in a big
period of transition and wedon't know where that's going
and then also life stages.
I have a nine-year-old and aseven-year-old and they're going
(22:26):
into middle school soon.
I've got to balance all thesenew parenting emotions all at
the same time.
So I feel like I'm startingover all over again, in a sense,
where I'm getting up everymorning and doing the same thing
, yet I'm getting up everymorning and facing totally new
challenges.
I realize this is a cop-out.
(22:47):
To say that my biggestchallenge is the challenges.
I love it, that's great, butthere's that sense of unknown,
that it's familiar territory,but it's very much not.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I mean it's a weird thing to be through, because
there's not a lot of people wecan look at that have gone
through what we're going throughin this industry, because it's
still so young, it's still sonascent.
I'm a big fan of BruceSpringsteen and he said he's had
these multiple moments in hislife where it's like there's a
good run, where every single dayeverything is new and life
gives you a new challenge, a newperson, a new reaction, a new
(23:22):
tool, a new goal, and thenslowly, over time, you wake up
one day and it's just more ofthe same.
It's just more of the same andthere's never anything new.
You can do one of two thingsyou can either try to recapture
that or you can settle into it,knowing that it's not one arc,
it's a series of waves, andthat's the only wisdom I can
(23:43):
think of that.
I've been searching for peoplewho have been through this as
creative careers.
Right, if you could close youreyes, what would be the one
thing you would change foryourself about the industry?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I've been thinking about this and I still am
struggling with my answer.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Would you change a choice you made?
Would you change somethingabout the way the industry is
structured?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I mean, the first thing that comes to mind are a
lot of practical things likeIt'd be nice if we had a union
in healthcare and things likethat.
That's the kind ofconversations that happen
surrounding my job in myhousehold regularly is the sort
of stability elements.
But we all know what we signedup for when we decided to do
(24:29):
this those of us that decided togo freelance.
The word stability keeps comingto mind.
But it's not just a matter oflike.
It's not just, oh, I wish I hadX amount of things per month.
I wish I had this covered orthis covered or this covered.
The most difficult thing thatI've had to navigate in the last
(24:52):
10 years that I wish I couldchange is that feeling of
volatility.
You do get used to it to acertain extent.
You learn to plan for it.
You learn that you know if youhave really good season doesn't
necessarily mean that you can goon a cruise next weekend, like
it's.
You've got to pace yourself andbe measured in your approach.
(25:13):
So it would do me a lot of goodas I was as I am getting older
if the volatility would go downa little bit.
I also wish that there camewith that more opportunities for
us, as artists, to explore ourvoices and to explore narrative
content, to kind of findourselves every once in a while
(25:37):
again with the kind of scarcitymindset that we often have to
live under.
We don't allow ourselves thoseopportunities, we don't pursue
those opportunities, or we'rejust so burnt out that when we
do get a free moment, we can'tmake it happen.
So, in my magic wand waving, wewould all have the energy and
(25:57):
opportunity to kind ofrediscover the things that made
us love this to begin with andexplore where those
possibilities can take us beyondjust 15 second.
You know Instagram ads.
Does that answer your question?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I mean people won't see the video, but I've been
shaking my head the entire time,I think the moment you said yes
, I got into this entireindustry from a completely
different industry because Ilove character based
storytelling.
That's cliche.
Does that sound like cartoons?
I love cartoons and video gamesand I was hoping there'd be a
way into a career and a lifefilled with that that didn't
(26:37):
have as much gatekeeping andabsolute atrocious work life
balance that I've witnessed fromother people ahead of me.
I thought motion design lookslike you can get the best of
both worlds.
You get a taste of that andmaybe, if you work hard enough,
you could specialize that andyou get a bit of notoriety for
that in a field that doesn'texclusively do that.
(26:57):
But that struggle of when youget the time, finally that's
open.
You get a weekend to storyboardan idea or write something, or
you get a free night whereyou're not trying to finish to a
deadline or answer calls orlook for work or handle the
things your family needs of youto even have the valuable
(27:18):
reserves to give it the energyyou thought you would have when
you got started, the energy thatit deserves to fuel you for
what you do.
I think that's what a lot ofpeople listen to will be not in
their heads to as well.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
I don't want to paint the picture either that the
reality of what we do is somehowunfulfilling, which is not the
case either.
I mean, we get to do reallycool stuff and get paid to do it
, and that's a fantasticprivilege.
But at the same time as I go onlong walks outside and let my
mind wander and start gettingall high on the clouds, you
(27:57):
can't deny that craving forsomething more, for something
true to connect with people andyourself on a level that's
beyond just selling a product,and I think a lot of us feel
that pretty deep to our core.
So if motion design couldreally embrace and expand
somehow, and it's hey, we makegreat commercials, but we don't
(28:20):
have to just make greatcommercials.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That's it.
That's the first SpiltSearchlight episode.
We love Taylor and we love it.
If you take a look at his work,go over to his website at
Taylorcoxstudio, follow him onInstagram and hit him up on
Twitter.
He's always posting new thingsand he's done work for places
like Marvel and Microsoft and anendless array of personal
projects.
Now, if you have someone youthink we should be a fan of,
(28:46):
send us an email over at play atspiltcom.
Let us know if there's a newartist or if you're the artist
that we should be putting on thenext searchlight.
Well, that's it for us now, asalways.
Thank you so much for listening.
We really hope you're enjoyingthese and seeing the range of
things that inspire us and getus just excited about motion
design and animation, andhopefully you'll be a bigger
(29:09):
part of the conversation.
Thanks so much for listeningand until next time, seize the
play.
I feel like right now I have started level two.
It feels like you've seeneverything and I have to get up
every morning and do it againand, again and again.
But the next 10 years are goingto look very different.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You've heard it before right Never meet your
heroes.
You know there's a danger tostaying out to the stars worse
being someone whose work youlove but one of the biggest
problems is that you actuallymiss out on the gems that might
already be laying at your feet.
Instead of worshiping heroes, Ithink it's better to find
people to be fans of.
We tend to trade our heroeslike their baseball cards, we
(00:39):
compare their work like statsand rankings and we don't even
really think of them as people,just a goal.
But one of the things that Ilove is finding someone in the
industry to support as theirfirst fan.
Being a fan of someone inanimation or motion design means
that you root for them, yousupport them and you might be
the one who's leading up,striking that friendship up in
the first place, and that'sexactly what we're doing here in
(01:00):
the Spilt Searchlight series.
Now, this isn't a spotlight ofpeople we've already heard, who
have been celebrated or hadmillions of interviews.
This is where we root forpeople that we think you should
get to know, maybe even hire.
And someone I've always rootedfor is Taylor Cox.
I met him ages ago at MoGraphMentor when he was really trying
to push himself in the industry, and what I've always admired,
(01:23):
if not actually even been alittle bit jealous of, is his
incredible dedication to pushingfor the work he wants to do
rather than the work that hegets assigned.
Take a listen to this interviewbecause it really shows you
what a relationship over theyears can feel like when you
find someone that you admire,support them and see them grow
in the direction they've alwayssaid they wanted to.
(01:44):
And that's what we want to hearfrom you as well.
Do you know someone out therethat we should be supporting,
that we should be shining oursearchlight on?
And I have been an incrediblefan from the sidelines of you,
taylor, and I think you'veprobably.
(02:04):
If I look back at my list ofpeople who have been in my open
office hours, you probably areat the top of the list of people
that I've sat down worked withDemo Reels over the years more
than anybody else.
I think I've seen two, three,four iterations of Demo Reel
over those nine years since thatclass.
Yeah, probably, so that soundsright.
Yeah, I don't know if you stillhave your old Demo Reels up,
but I'm always amazed by theprogression Taylor makes year to
(02:27):
year to year on his Demo Reels,and not just because it's
really great work, but because Ifeel like they get closer and
closer to the person that I'vecome to know, and I think that's
incredibly rare.
I want to take you back, taylor,because we have had this like
long standing, like kind ofcadence, and talking to each
other.
You mentioned MoGraph Mentor.
I'd almost like to put you backinto MoGraph Mentor era.
Taylor Cox, what were yourchallenges back then?
(02:49):
As somebody starting theindustry, who pre everybody,
having patrons and schoolemotion becoming an established
standard?
Mograph Mentor was this kind oflike neat, weird idea that I
don't think a lot of peopleunderstood right at the
beginning, but you dove in asone of the first people who
moved through it.
Can you think back to that time, like what was in your head
that you thought was a challengethat you needed to solve to
move forward in your career?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, well, at that point I had been working in
motion design for three, fouryears.
I mean, I was not fresh, I hadbeen doing this for a while.
There's that iriglass quote thateveryone loves to bring up
about that kind of realizationwhere your taste and your skill
and the separation between thetwo it was around that time
(03:35):
where I became more aware of themotion design community at
large, seeing more of the studio, seeing what people were
actually doing instead of kindof my little bubble of freelance
work that I had been doing fora little bit, and realizing, oh
gosh, I'm not nearly as good asI thought I was.
My storytelling ability is notgreat, my technical animation
(03:58):
ability is not great.
I've been getting by on AndrewKramer tutorials for four years
now, and so it was that momentof realization the chasm between
where I was and where I wantedto be much larger than I thought
it was.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Taylor, I'm going to throw this question out to you
now because I think this is oneof the hardest questions you can
ask an artist.
If you had to describe yourselfin three words as an artist,
how would you describeyourselves before people go rush
off and take a look at yourwork while they're listening?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So I'm going to say something that sounds incredibly
hokey cheesy.
I'm just going to own it.
I'm sorry, but if we're goingto put it on three words, just
let's have fun.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I like that.
I like that I was going to say.
If I had to pick one word, theword I would have used was
joyful, because whenever I lookat your work, I know what you
can do, I know what your tools,your skill sets are, I know what
your interests are, but I justfeel like there's a sense of joy
that radiates out of your demoreel or when you post personal
work.
That, I think, is somethingthat is true to you as a person
but also really rare to findfrom a demo reel.
(04:59):
Like how do you ever do that?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So, as far as for a demo reel, how do you do that
Practically speaking?
It's a lot of personal work andit's not just when I say those
three words let's have fun, likeif I'm pitching myself really
as a freelancer wanting to workwith somebody.
I want that to kind of be thewhole experience, like when
we're just in a group, slap,chat, talking notes, talking the
(05:24):
mundane.
I want that to be a goodexperience for people.
I try to liven it up If I tryto have fun with that up to a
certain point, because I realizethat can get a little
irritating if you take it toofar.
I take my job seriously but Idon't take myself very seriously
.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I think that's a perfect reason to explain why,
when we got this call from AdultSwim as soon as that idea was
awarded to us and I was like, ohmy gosh, samantha, I have to
introduce you to you the firstperson I thought I was Taylor,
because I would love to knowwhat you thought of getting that
phone call.
Because the title of Samantha'spiece for an adult swim was
called Suck it Smash, which ishilarious and silly and a little
(06:01):
bit weird.
Essentially, it was supposed tobe pure fun and the added
wrinkle that was supposed toemulate like an 8-bit or 16-bit
side-scrolling video game.
And if the other thing youreally need to know about Taylor
is that half of what I think,what I see from his personal
work, lives directly in thatsweet spot.
So it's that reason why Ialways tell people on your demo
reels or when you show work orwhen you're on LinkedIn or on
(06:21):
Twitter, showing people, yourpersonality really does pay off
and that idea of Taylor is fun.
He has a huge amount of joy.
He does video games.
He's not afraid to get weird.
Sometimes that, literally, wasthe checklist of who could we
find that could do those fourthings.
So I'd love to know what didyou think when you got the call?
That, yes, we might finally,for the first time ever, get to
work together, but that it was athing called Suck it Smash.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I mean, it was just laughter, to be honest.
And to add one more thing thatwas told to me when you pitched
the project to me.
He said Suck it.
Smash is going to be inspiredby old video games and whatnot.
And then this idea that thecharacter was inspired by, like
Kirby, the old Nintendocharacter Kirby, which I love.
(07:05):
How delightfully absurd thatcharacter is Like.
There's like a whole deep loreabout this little pink puffball
that just devours everything itsees.
So, like the whole package wasjust like this is perfect, this
is hilarious.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
This is amazing.
That's what I love about adultswimming.
It's occasionally you get thesecalls from clients where
they're like we don't have a tonof money and it's not a lot of
time, but also we just want tosee what you do.
If we just said, go makesomething and pitch us and this
couldn't be a more perfectdistillation of what I know from
Samantha in terms of, like thevisual look, the theme of it.
(07:38):
Again, it influenced by KirbyIf they made a adult swim
animated show, this would livein that kind of world but also
just like a little bitdisgusting, but in a cute way.
Was there anything scary?
Was there anything that you'relike oh man, this is a challenge
that I have to figure out sometechnical hurdles, or it's a
creative opportunity to dosomething never done.
What was your kind ofmotivation once you're like,
(08:00):
okay, I've got the job, Now Igot to go make this thing.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I don't want to oversell it, but the word I
think of coming out of thatmeeting was just harmony.
Honest to goodness, I walkedaway from that meeting and
almost every day that I wasworking on this project of like
we're working together well,this all makes sense.
There was a flow to it, andthat's not something that I
would take for granted, that'snot something that happens all
the time, but it just felt likeall of the right pieces were in
(08:25):
place as far as direction andwho was working on it and who
was steering it.
It was pretty special, to behonest.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I also was doing a station ID for adult swim called
World War S'mores.
My team was looking at the jobthat you and Samantha were doing
and we kept on scratching ourheads like how are they going so
fast?
We couldn't understand.
It felt like in the course oftwo to three weeks from the
moment like it got greenlit andyou were on board.
It went from being some kind ofsketchy storyboard drawings
(08:54):
that were thrown together inanimatic to here's the character
and how I think it can move toit's done.
It didn't make any sense justbecause we were still kind of
like getting some charactermodels done and doing some
rigging tests and we're like howin the world is this happening
this way?
How do you move so fast on thisproject, taylor?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I cannot give you an assesial like ABC.
This is how it worked.
It was clarity of direction.
I mean, we just were able tohit the ground running.
There was no sort of ambiguityabout what we were trying to do.
So, yeah, again, it just worked.
Like I wish I had somewonderful eternal insight to
like glean from all of that,which is sometimes things work,
(09:36):
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Is there anything in the way that Samantha
storyboarded or directed youthat helped you cut some corners
or avoid some kind of technicalhurdles Like how did you guys
figure that out?
Because at least a couple ofshots from what I remember
should have had some headachemoments.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Well, so at the outset, Samantha had already
done a little bit of prep workfor both of them, like, oh, this
is kind of how I want thecharacter to be shaped, and a
start on material whatever.
And she was very humble aboutit.
She's like, you know, this isjust kind of a start and I get
into that project.
I'm like I don't actually needto do much more to this.
Like you know, we can push thematerial a little bit more and
(10:11):
we can push the rig a little bitmore.
But I was delighted andsurprised by like this is all
very workable, and so I didn'thave any headaches there at the
beginning of like, okay, I'vegot to reimagine this, or you
know, this isn't up to snuff, sowe need to start over.
It just wasn't that way.
She really, both in terms ofher storyboarding and just that
little bit of prep work she didwith that character, got us so
(10:34):
far down the road.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Taylor, I love hearing that about Samantha
because as a first time director, I'm sure there was a decent
amount of trepidation of how doI take a job that I pitched,
that I don't know how to animateor I don't know how to use
cinema 4D, but I know it needsto be done.
How do I move it forward?
It sounds like the two of you'srelationship worked so well
that she could kind of drive thecreative vision and collaborate
(10:55):
with you and it seemed like shehad full trust in terms of you
taking on character animation.
Can you tell me a little bitabout, like, how you came to
being comfortable doingcharacter work?
That's not something that yourun into with motion designers a
lot, much especially when youstart talking about doing it in
3D.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So I've done a little bit of 3D character animation,
and almost all of it up to thispoint has been primarily
personal stuff, just fun stuffthat I wanted to do because I
find myself much more inspiredby characters than necessarily
circles and squares and lines.
You know, if you have any sortof storytelling in your heart,
(11:30):
you've got to do something withcharacters, you've got to get
someone else to do it, and so Iwould enjoy just putting
together a little rigs for thesesilly, little, simple
characters, like I remember.
One of the first ones I did wasthis like fun Christmas tree
project years and years ago.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That was like one of the first demo reels you kind of
showed me was that and I waslike more of that.
Please do more of that.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, I just spent a solid week learning how to
create a little espresso rig forwhat I needed each and every
single part of this tree to doand how to blast doing it, and
for this project.
That lent itself perfectly forwhat we were trying to do this
glorified gumball that we weremaking that had to be gelatinous
(12:14):
and expressive, and all thesejust fun sorts of things.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
So one of the things that I've always been friend,
jealous of and impressed at thesame time is that for me, I've
always struggled investing inpersonal work because I always
felt guilty that that was takenaway from my professional work
and because of that, anytime Iwould look to make a new demo
(12:38):
reel, I never felt like itreflected who I wanted to be.
So I would go like up a lot ofpeople listening years without
updating a demo reel.
But when I started open officehours, one of the first people
that came to talk to me was youand we've had this really great
relationship or cadence of everyyear to 18 months.
It felt like for a long run youwould check back in and be like
(12:58):
I got a new reel, tell me whatdo you think.
And I was always like, almostlike I had my hand in my fist
like, curse, you again, taylor.
You did it again.
But it's been so exciting for me, almost like someone who is a
fan of a band you see in a barthat you're like man, I love
these people.
I could see them on a stage infront of an arena.
I want to follow them for therest of their career and support
them.
I've always felt that way aboutyou and I was thinking about
(13:21):
that partially because I'm a fanof you, but another part is
like I'm fascinated and alwayswondered how do you find the
termination and confidence to?
I think over the years I'veseen at least three or four
major demo reel that releasesfrom you where it feels like
you're leveling up 10X everytime.
How do you, how do you do that?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I don't want to use such a negative word for it, but
I don't think there's any otherway to put it.
It really is frustration.
It's not that I necessarilyhave a lot of time to be pouring
into these personal projectsand cranking a new reel out,
because I don't, but you doclient work for a solid year and
(14:08):
90% of it, as we all know, islike I don't necessarily want to
show this to other people orthis isn't me, and I hit a
threshold, seemingly every 12 to18 months, where I'm like I
need to make some stuff.
That's me or otherwise.
I can't do this much longer.
My soul is starting, it'sstarting to run dry, and so that
(14:29):
frustration kind of kind ofturns into a little rocket
booster and I'll have two tothree months where I'm just
pouring over new projects, newideas, learning things that I
wanted to learn but I haven'thad time to do.
I think that's primarily it.
I mean, I guess I'm happy I'vebeen able to channel it into
(14:50):
something positive, but it hasbeen a sense of frustration
that's driven that.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That's great insight.
I appreciate the honesty forthat, because it's not a cool
thing to say a negative emotionis something you use for fuel.
I feel like in our industryeverybody always tries to
present it as like be your bestartist and be true to your inner
self.
But a lot of times it's eitherfrustration or fear, falling
behind or not knowing where youfit amongst your peers, or maybe
(15:17):
having a big long-term goalthat you want to achieve by the
time you retire that you feellike you're not taking a single
step towards.
This might be me channeling myown feelings a little too much.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I mean to get maybe even a little too deep on this.
I don't think most of us setout to do corporate client work
with our art all the time, andthere's certainly nothing wrong
with that.
That's what puts food on thetable, et cetera.
But you hit these points fromlike I can't do another text
(15:51):
blast.
I can't do another lower third.
I can't do another text line orvideo.
None of that is true.
I'm happy to do all that, butyou feel that way sometimes and
you just you've got to unleashsome of that pent up.
I got to do what I feel trueabout what I feel I've always
wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
So yeah, I appreciate it.
I've always resented the factthat this phrase is what you use
, like I've got to make a living, because I think it's really
difficult, especially in motiondesign, where you're really
close to doing what you want todo but it always feels like
you're a half a step away fromlike.
I think you and I are verysimilar we both love character
animation, we both love videogames, we both have jobs where
you probably get close to whatwe thought it would have been
(16:32):
like to do those things, butit's still not exactly.
And I feel like there's a verybig difference with making a
living with your art and livingas an artist.
But those two words are soclosely related that you just
kind of just let them just kindof mesh into each other when
they could be further from twoseparate things that you have to
kind of balance and reconcileor just come to terms with the
(16:55):
compromise.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, compromise and balance are big parts of it, and
you have to come to terms withthat.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I mean the words you're using.
You know like fun you said thebeginning adventure, what we
call play.
Those are the things that getus through the hard times or the
times where you don't knowwhat's going to happen.
Right, I love the fact that youbasically just gave everybody
permission to go and play somevideo games.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Go, have fun, play right what this has looked like
in my life.
My wife, about six months ago,bought an old pop-up camper for
a thousand bucks on FacebookMarketplace and spent months
restoring it and refurbishing itand putting it back together,
just so we could go camping more.
And just the amount of energyand creativity that she put in
(17:38):
that project and what that hasmeant for our lives and how much
it's expanded our horizons.
That sort of energy rechargesme, much more so than spending
four weeks on the box.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I feel like we have to reclaim the term artist in
the industry.
Right, there's a lot of peoplelike to say I'm not an artist,
I'm a designer, or I'm atechnician, or some people might
say bricklayer.
But if you're spending any timedoing this work, I think there
is a certain amount of personalresponsibility that you do have
to say I am an artist.
Part of it is learning, part ofit is application, but the
(18:11):
other part of it is creatingmoments to be bored or moments
to hear things in quiet.
That, if all you've been doingis sitting on the box just doing
the stuff that you know youhave to do for clients, you
don't have anything cool in yourhead.
You need to have that.
What would your dreamassignment be as an artist
working in motion design?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I am going to ZIG, where I thought I was going to.
Zag, I would love right now towork with Guillermo del Toro.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yes, great, I love it .
Tell me why, because I don'twant to presume.
What would the reason be forthat?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I mean just all the things about him in general.
I feel like that speaks forhimself, for itself.
But I feel like he right now iskind of our cavalry leader in
animation and I would love to bepart of that passion and that
energy and also he just seemslike such a lovely person, he
(19:02):
also swears better than anyoneyou'll ever meet.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
The few weeks I had working with him.
I've been chasing those fourweeks ever since they happened.
What's the next step for you asan artist, Taylor?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I read this wonderful interview with the director of
the new Zelda games and hetalked about his hiring process
for these insanely innovative,groundbreaking games,
particularly Breath of the Wildand the newly released Tears of
the King, two games that justblew away people's expectations
for what you could do in a videogame.
(19:34):
And so he was asked about okay,how did you put together a team
for this game?
And he said well, obviously weneeded great engineers and great
artists, great programmers,things like that.
But almost what was moreimportant to me was I wanted to
know what they were doing withthe rest of their time.
We weren't looking for gamers.
We weren't looking for videogamers.
(19:56):
Obviously you needed to befamiliar with it to do the job,
but we were looking for do youdo boating?
Do you do hiking?
Do you do woodworking?
What are you doing with yourspare time?
That is, recharging your mindand your creativity.
And you have to put togetherthat sort of team in order to
get a breath of the wild and atears of the kingdom, where just
(20:19):
the imagination on display andthe creativity and the
resourcefulness and like allthis sort of stuff that into
these games blows my mind.
You just ask yourselfconstantly how did they do this?
Because these weren't justgamers sitting at a computer
making a game.
These were people with livesand people that do actual
(20:40):
adventuring.
So I have been thinking moreabout my creativity and my
career in terms of how muchadventure am I putting into my
life?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
You did a great job kind of putting all of us as
listeners into your head backwhen you started MoGraph Mentor
earlier in your career and Ilook forward to right now today,
sitting in this room as anartist that's been working in
motion design for a long time.
It's had a good career, thatpeople know who you are, that
you have a recognizable kind ofstyle or voice, Like I can tell
when something's at Ailer CoxPeace.
(21:11):
Same question.
But today, what do you feel areyour biggest challenges as a
motion designer working in theindustry at this spot in your
career right now?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Since we keep bringing up video games.
I feel like right now I havestarted level two.
We've gone through level one,we've done the whole thing Again
.
I've been doing this for 10years.
It feels like you've seeneverything and I have to get up
every morning and do it againand again, and again.
(21:42):
But level two is different.
It's like I'm looking to okay,am I going to do this for 10
more years?
And so the next 10 years aregoing to look very different
from those first 10 years.
And so it's coming to groups,both with what these challenges
(22:04):
are going to be artificialintelligence or the changing
industry from a studio model,economic model we're in a big
period of transition and wedon't know where that's going
and then also life stages.
I have a nine-year-old and aseven-year-old and they're going
(22:26):
into middle school soon.
I've got to balance all thesenew parenting emotions all at
the same time.
So I feel like I'm startingover all over again, in a sense,
where I'm getting up everymorning and doing the same thing
, yet I'm getting up everymorning and facing totally new
challenges.
I realize this is a cop-out.
(22:47):
To say that my biggestchallenge is the challenges.
I love it, that's great, butthere's that sense of unknown,
that it's familiar territory,but it's very much not.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I mean it's a weird thing to be through, because
there's not a lot of people wecan look at that have gone
through what we're going throughin this industry, because it's
still so young, it's still sonascent.
I'm a big fan of BruceSpringsteen and he said he's had
these multiple moments in hislife where it's like there's a
good run, where every single dayeverything is new and life
gives you a new challenge, a newperson, a new reaction, a new
(23:22):
tool, a new goal, and thenslowly, over time, you wake up
one day and it's just more ofthe same.
It's just more of the same andthere's never anything new.
You can do one of two thingsyou can either try to recapture
that or you can settle into it,knowing that it's not one arc,
it's a series of waves, andthat's the only wisdom I can
(23:43):
think of that.
I've been searching for peoplewho have been through this as
creative careers.
Right, if you could close youreyes, what would be the one
thing you would change foryourself about the industry?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I've been thinking about this and I still am
struggling with my answer.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Would you change a choice you made?
Would you change somethingabout the way the industry is
structured?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I mean, the first thing that comes to mind are a
lot of practical things likeIt'd be nice if we had a union
in healthcare and things likethat.
That's the kind ofconversations that happen
surrounding my job in myhousehold regularly is the sort
of stability elements.
But we all know what we signedup for when we decided to do
(24:29):
this those of us that decided togo freelance.
The word stability keeps comingto mind.
But it's not just a matter oflike.
It's not just, oh, I wish I hadX amount of things per month.
I wish I had this covered orthis covered or this covered.
The most difficult thing thatI've had to navigate in the last
(24:52):
10 years that I wish I couldchange is that feeling of
volatility.
You do get used to it to acertain extent.
You learn to plan for it.
You learn that you know if youhave really good season doesn't
necessarily mean that you can goon a cruise next weekend, like
it's.
You've got to pace yourself andbe measured in your approach.
(25:13):
So it would do me a lot of goodas I was as I am getting older
if the volatility would go downa little bit.
I also wish that there camewith that more opportunities for
us, as artists, to explore ourvoices and to explore narrative
content, to kind of findourselves every once in a while
(25:37):
again with the kind of scarcitymindset that we often have to
live under.
We don't allow ourselves thoseopportunities, we don't pursue
those opportunities, or we'rejust so burnt out that when we
do get a free moment, we can'tmake it happen.
So, in my magic wand waving, wewould all have the energy and
(25:57):
opportunity to kind ofrediscover the things that made
us love this to begin with andexplore where those
possibilities can take us beyondjust 15 second.
You know Instagram ads.
Does that answer your question?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I mean people won't see the video, but I've been
shaking my head the entire time,I think the moment you said yes
, I got into this entireindustry from a completely
different industry because Ilove character based
storytelling.
That's cliche.
Does that sound like cartoons?
I love cartoons and video gamesand I was hoping there'd be a
way into a career and a lifefilled with that that didn't
(26:37):
have as much gatekeeping andabsolute atrocious work life
balance that I've witnessed fromother people ahead of me.
I thought motion design lookslike you can get the best of
both worlds.
You get a taste of that andmaybe, if you work hard enough,
you could specialize that andyou get a bit of notoriety for
that in a field that doesn'texclusively do that.
(26:57):
But that struggle of when youget the time, finally that's
open.
You get a weekend to storyboardan idea or write something, or
you get a free night whereyou're not trying to finish to a
deadline or answer calls orlook for work or handle the
things your family needs of youto even have the valuable
(27:18):
reserves to give it the energyyou thought you would have when
you got started, the energy thatit deserves to fuel you for
what you do.
I think that's what a lot ofpeople listen to will be not in
their heads to as well.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
I don't want to paint the picture either that the
reality of what we do is somehowunfulfilling, which is not the
case either.
I mean, we get to do reallycool stuff and get paid to do it
, and that's a fantasticprivilege.
But at the same time as I go onlong walks outside and let my
mind wander and start gettingall high on the clouds, you
(27:57):
can't deny that craving forsomething more, for something
true to connect with people andyourself on a level that's
beyond just selling a product,and I think a lot of us feel
that pretty deep to our core.
So if motion design couldreally embrace and expand
somehow, and it's hey, we makegreat commercials, but we don't
(28:20):
have to just make greatcommercials.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That's it.
That's the first SpiltSearchlight episode.
We love Taylor and we love it.
If you take a look at his work,go over to his website at
Taylorcoxstudio, follow him onInstagram and hit him up on
Twitter.
He's always posting new thingsand he's done work for places
like Marvel and Microsoft and anendless array of personal
projects.
Now, if you have someone youthink we should be a fan of,
(28:46):
send us an email over at play atspiltcom.
Let us know if there's a newartist or if you're the artist
that we should be putting on thenext searchlight.
Well, that's it for us now, asalways.
Thank you so much for listening.
We really hope you're enjoyingthese and seeing the range of
things that inspire us and getus just excited about motion
design and animation, andhopefully you'll be a bigger
(29:09):
part of the conversation.
Thanks so much for listeningand until next time, seize the
play.
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