It’s been a fantastic 7 months.
Since deciding in the October of 2020 to create a youTube channel teaching people about Blender and open source software, I am 29 videos in, most of which are getting multiple hits now, I have 56 followers, which is a pretty good start from my perspective as I assumed I’d be lucky to get three and I am also making a podcast with a friend all about Education in Colleges and Universities and how good it is (or isn’t) around the UK for people trying to get into the VFX and games Industries.
I’m busier than I have ever been because at the same time as doing this I am still managing to hold down a full-time job with a wonderful firm, Space Digital in Manchester – although we are all remote for the time being – (www.wearespace.com) and have a family and life to fit in around all this as well.
But, do you know what? I consider myself more blessed now than ever before. However, at the start I didn’t feel that way.
I made the first video and felt drained. The recording did not take too long, but the editing did. Plus the additional things that made up the edit such as the titles and the end roll and the body and the title itself all seemed to take an age.
It was a bit long, to tell the truth, and it had a lot of content – probably too much looking back at it, I could have made it into 4 videos had I thought about it, rather than 1.
Then the next week I did another one but now a lot of the hard stuff was done from the first one, plus I found it quicker to do the edit, as I made less errors. Second time round I had been more aware of what I should and shouldn’t do.
By the six one, I found myself having fun with it, joking around and then deciding to leave some of the less irritating jokes in. I started to feel the rhythm as I cleaned the sound, pulling elements from the old ones for the start and finish as well as refining some of the titling methods.
29 videos later and here we are. I wouldn’t say I’m a well oiled machine at this, but I do feel that the engine’s not stalling as much. One a week for 29 weeks. Occasionally I miss my Friday noon deadline as work can get in the way and to be frank that does come first after the needs of my family. But 29! A total watch time of my stuff is now 95.7 hours!
It seems that hard work suits me, more so than I thought it would.
And after some consideration I realised this:
If you really want to do something, you can do it. Don’t over think whether you should do something; that way leads to mental walls and paranoia. If you want to write, get to the keyboard or grab a pen and write. If you want to paint, grab the brush, watercolours and a canvas and paint something. And then do it again. And again. And again, until it does not feel like an attempt, a difficult thing to attain, but becomes a part of who you are. Something that expresses who you are, that expands on the person you want to be, that is not only achievable but achieved.
I am now considering the content for number 30. And for 31 as well – good to be ahead of myself.
So, if you have something that you feel should be a part of your life, be it walking, or running, or singing, or dancing, or writing or blogging or indeed anything that is mentally and physically good for you, stop thinking about it and try it. If you hate it, you can stop, but if you enjoy it, if you feel enriched by it, then do it more.
Stop thinking, more doing.
Trust me, it’s worth it.
GENVFX 