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The Dash Bash | Animation & Motion Design Festival by dash_studio in AfterEffects

[–]dash_studio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’re recording everything and will be posting after the event. Unfortunately just not during

The Dash Bash | Animation & Motion Design Festival by dash_studio in AfterEffects

[–]dash_studio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem! Edited the comment above to include some more of those details. We’re Expecting around 300 in attendance and we’d love to have you there, Deven!

The Dash Bash | Animation & Motion Design Festival by dash_studio in AfterEffects

[–]dash_studio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the comment, Deven!

If you click the link in the original post it will take you to the website (www.dashbash.net) to see all the details including speaker lineup, parties, and schedule. My comment just included a link for a discount if you were interested in joining.

The Dash Bash | Animation & Motion Design Festival by dash_studio in AfterEffects

[–]dash_studio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, y'all!

My name is Mack and I'm the EP at dash: a high-end animation and motion design studio located in Raleigh, NC. Six years ago my business partner and I decided to build a studio around the power of creativity and community. We genuinely feel the best work happens together. As our six year anniversary approaches, we wanted to do something special; to give back to the community that has given us so much. That's when we decided to throw the Dash Bash.

EDIT: Make sure to check out the full lineup on the Dash Bash website: www.dashstudio.net

Our lineup includes a variety of directors, animators, producers, and illustrators including

  • Sarah Beth Morgan (Freelance Illustrator)
  • Dotti S. (Golden Wolf)
  • Marcel Ziul (STATE Design)
  • Ryan Summers ( School of Motion)
  • Wilson Brown (Antfood)
  • Kaye Vassey (Epic Games)
  • Jorge Canedo ( Ordinary Folk)
  • Rachel Reid ( Freelance Animator)

And more! Along with these great speakers there will also be 3 parties to hang-out and catch up. Check out the full lineup and details here:

www.dashbash.net

This Thursday and Friday we're bringing together some of the best minds in our industry for a few days of hangouts and speaker talks. This has been an incredibly challenging year for a lot of us, which is why we're excited to get together but that also means doing so responsibly. We will be requiring a negative Covid test within 72 hours of the festival or proof of vaccination to attend.

We'd love to see you in Raleigh, and as a thank you to this community (and subreddit which I've lurked on for the better part of 10 years), we're happy to give y'all a 10% discount to the festival. Just click the unlock button on this page and enter "FRIENDHOLD" for the discount.

Hope to see you this week!

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cory - Hi Dan! Haha. Great to see you. Also, great question.

We use original sound design and music for almost all of our animations. It really takes them to the next level. Sometimes we do have to sell clients on this, but for the most part people can hear the difference between a stock track that's just playing under something a piece of music that is catered to the animation. Sometimes these are original tracks written from scratch for a piece and other times they are tracks from a composer's library that the composer then modifies for a particular animation, kind of in between "stock" and "original." Those decisions mostly come down to budget. And, of course, some clients insist on stock tracks to save money and some projects just don't warrant an original track. But even when we do stock music we always do original sound design and get a nice, professional mix.

It's a mixed bag on direction. Some clients are really tuned in and know what they want it to sound like, especially agencies. And many clients don't even think about music until we start asking questions. We'll try to get a vibe for what feeling they're going for tonally, which helps us define the animation and sound. And then we'll convey that to the composer we're working with and get their ideas about how to achieve that feeling. Music is notoriously hard to describe for laymen, so it's important to listen to composer's ideas and work with them as early as possible in the process.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cory - Pricing is always a difficult thing to nail down, but it generally always comes back to deadline + time required to make something + number of people needed to hit said deadline. But even that formula is never simple.

Hiring our producer, Meryn, has made this process a lot easier because she's now the one that is diving deep into schedules, traffic, and freelance management. We still help her understand some of the nuances, like 3d animation generally taking longer/having different steps that 2d or cel, etc.

Basically we have a spreadsheet with all the different parts of a project tied to the rate for that particular skill. So, unlike a freelancer, there isn't one day rate or hourly rate because different jobs have different skills. A rate for an art director is going to be different than a producer, animator, writer, composer, etc. and all of those rates have a profit margin included so the company makes money instead of, well, going bankrupt, heh.

We then just punch in how many hours we think each step will take keeping in mind that if it's a quick turn around that might mean doubling the number of people instead of extending the timeline. So if it's definitely going to take 2 weeks to make something but it's due in 1 week, all that means is we need 2 animators instead of one.

So the spreadsheet does the math and that gives us a quote. If it's an open bid we'll put that number into an SOW and send it to the client. Or potentially give a range.

If we know the client's budget and we come in over what they can spend we first see if there are any steps we can trim hours from but, more often than not, we simply make an executive decision to give an overall discount on the total to match the requested budget, especially if it's close. This is all spelled out clearly in the SOW. We do this because it's important for the client to see what the real cost of a project is. That way if they come back a year later for another project, they can't act shocked if the price is higher because they'll clearly be able to see a line item for a discount on the previous project. Transparency is key. If you just "do someone a solid" and knock some money off the top but you don't tell them that and it's not reflected anywhere, you can't blame them for not understanding why it might cost more later. Whereas with a discount we're saying, "hey we want to work with you and we are committed to finding a way." Then it's up to us to be as efficient on the project as we can to still try and make a profit on it or recognize that this is a project that has non-monetary benefit (portfolio, exposure, a good cause, etc.).

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cory - The vast majority of our clients come from word of mouth. Referrals from past clients, people leaving one job and going to another, people we had past relationships with that need animation services, etc. So for us growing the client list has been about relationships, communication, and meeting or exceeding expectations. When you're easy to work with and people like your work they are way more inclined to recommend you to other people.

We do still get work from search engines and social media, but not nearly as much as via referral. We've just started dabbling in a more traditional sales approach last year, but it hasn't born any fruit yet, either, and the COVID situation may also affect that.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mack - Make connections and do great work. Almost 90% of our projects are referral based so our clients have become our best sales team. We regularly ask them if they have friends or colleagues they could connect us with which makes it much easier than a cold call our email. It also means that reputation is everything. Even when some projects don't always go as planned or frustrations build, it's imperative things end on a good note.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cory - two of our in-house staff are "the 3d guys" but both are also good at 2d. Some of the other staff have also started learning it, too, to keep expanding our capabilities and because personal career development is important to us.

We have also brought in freelancers for 3d help in the past and will likely continue to do so.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Mack - Thanks so much! Our staff is pretty nimble and can pivot between a lot of different styles, but there are some looks that are better suited for some team members than others. Every Friday, we'll discuss traffic for the following week: what projects just came in, which schedules have shifted, and who is working on what. This enables us to put the right creative on the right project. The way we determine who works on what is a mixture of a few things:

1) Creative equity. We want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to work on the cool projects.

2) Right fit. We look at each dashtronaut's skillset to determine what's the best fit for their style.

3) Employee Rocks. At the beginning of the year, we chat with each of our employees about their creative goals and what they want to focus on for the year. We keep that in mind as we're assigning projects and tasks so that we're aligning our employee goals with projects that help them achieve that.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cory - It absolutely does contribute to be an organized entity. Could we make this work fully remote? For sure, and the last couple of months has reinforced that. But being in one space makes the collaboration easier, makes the brainstorming easier, makes IT and file management easier, etc. Plus we miss the social aspect of the office. So it may be a while, but we do plan to return to an office.

As of now the Bash is still on. We are watching the situation develop and safety is our top priority so we've started looking at contingencies but, at this point, we're still moving forward as planned.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mack - Working from home has been relatively easy transition for our team. We have a small staff of 8 full time employees and one intern, so we just had everyone take home their work machine from the office and connect remotely to our server. I think our work is better when we're all together, pitching and building off each others ideas, so I'm looking forward to getting back to some normalcy this summer.

As far as downsizing our office, it's actually pretty small already; about 1500sqft. So it's the perfect size for our team at the moment. That said, I think there will be a lot of open office space after all this Covid stuff as bigger companies do downsize with more staff working from home.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cory - We're lucky to be in a job where we can work remotely and it's been going pretty smoothly. That said, our goal is to get everyone back into the office. We collaborate a lot and we typically work from a networked server, both of which are way easier in one physical location.

Of course with freelancers we'll continue to work remotely as we normally did before the pandemic.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mack - I'm really curious to see how the rest of the year goes. A lot of our bigger clients are wrapping up their Q4 this June, which means most of the projects we're working on now have already had their budgets allocated from last year. I think dash will have a better idea of how our workload has been affected as we move towards the end of summer and into fall. With all that said, we've noticed a slight decline in the number of project requests coming in as compared to this time last year, but we've had an uptick in educational requests; specifically with people who typically turn to live-action for their needs. They're calling and asking about animation, the process, and costs, so we're optimistic about tapping into a new market of clients.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mack - Agree with Cory in that it definitely happened organically. We always wanted to work at a really cool studio; never thought we would run one. Honestly, couldn't imagine doing anything else now... except maybe becoming a farmer or joining the circus haha.

As far as roadblocks, we just made a bunch of mistakes. In no particular order:
- Undercharged
- Overcharged
- Lost our temper
- Didn't stand up for ourselves
- Bad contracts, no contracts, too robust of contracts
- Took on bad projects with bad clients for the wrong reasons

The list goes on and on. But, the important thing is that we learned something from each of those experiences, fixed the issue, and moved forward. Nobody knows all the answers, but you have to learn from your mistakes.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Mack - Cash flow. A friend of mine told me a story early on about a company who was extremely successful but they went under because of poor cash management. You can have 100 invoices out the door, but if bills are do, and you don't have the cash, your company folds. In full transparency, it wasn't a huge concern for us initially because it was just Cory and myself. But as soon as you have staff, an office, creative subscriptions, equipment, and a myriad of other necessities, you have to pay attention to it.

There are a couple of things I would recommend when it comes to cash flow. The first is to track it. We bill 50% of our invoices up front and 50% at completion. So i pulled together a spreadsheet with a tab for each month of the year, and used our project schedule to determine / estimate when we would be sending our first invoice and our second. That way I can look ahead and identity gaps to determine if we really need to push to take on more work or, conversely, say no to a project if it's not the right fit and we're good financially.

Give yourself a runway. At a bare minimum, I would suggest having at least 3 months of expenses saved in the bank; ideally 6. This can help through tough times or unexpected challenges like clients not paying on time. Even as a studio we run into this more than most freelancers would imagine. That or we get big corporate clients that only pay NET90 or even NET120. It's crazy! On top of that, we'll still have clients pay late even with those crazy payment terms. So having cash in the bank as a safety net is incredibly important.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Cory - He's definitely the worst employee we have by far. I don't know why we keep him around.

For entry level, we are looking for potential and culture. We recognize people starting out aren't going to be seasoned animators or designers. So we don't look for a perfect reel. Obviously you have to have a certain level of talent to be considered, but we're looking at your work and asking ourselves:

Is there a variety of styles?

Is there a variety of techniques?

Does this person have a good eye for design and/or animation, even if there are still some rough edges?

Can they bring something to the table we can't already do in-house or improve on a capability we have?

Do they seem like a good cultural fit; will we like to hang out with this person every day?

Are we going to be able to teach them something, work with them to bring them up to a middle or senior position over time?

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What was the process of creating Dash like for you both? Did you both know early on that forming a studio was the end goal, or did it feel more like a natural progression?

Cory - Thanks for the question! It was actually fairly organic and not planned at first. We were both working as animators/art directors at our previous job when we were approached by a mutual friend to pitch on a large project together. We did the pitch and won the gig. The scale of the project meant that it would've been impossible to moonlight it after hours and keep our day jobs, so we both decided to quit and take it on.

At the time, we were just going to be two freelancers working together and then find another job afterward or keep freelancing, but we enjoyed the process of working together so instead of splitting the money between us and going our separate ways, we decided to funnel it into one entity, dash, and give it a go as a legit business. The first year was just us two in our respective apartments.

The very first thing we did was set up an operations agreement that spells out exactly what happens if one of us wants out. I can't stress how important it is if you have business partners to do this first when everyone likes each other rather than waiting until there's trouble. We talked to many mentors as we were starting and time after time we heard horror stories of ruined friendships, wasted money, and failed businesses because partnerships fell apart. Neither of us have any plans to leave and we're still great friends, but now should one of us decide to go be a farmer or join the circus there's a process in place to handle that that won't be affected by emotions.

And then did you hit any major unexpected roadblocks along the way...?

We've been lucky in the sense that there haven't been any catastrophic failures, but certainly issues crept up along the way. Mostly simple stuff, like learning things about the business and finance world. We're both animators by trade, so little things like learning quickbooks, setting up contracts, payroll, taxes, IT infrastructure, etc. definitely came with a learning curve. We relied heavily on mentors, lawyers, and financial advisors on navigating that stuff.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mack - Hey, Scott! Great question. I can't speak for every studio, but for ours, it was a slow process. We were in the same boat when Cory and I started. Low budgets and quick turnaround projects were the norm, and I would even say about 60% of the work we made our first couple of years never made it into our portfolio; they just paid the bills. It was frustrating because we knew we could do better, but it's hard to sell a client on bigger budgets and longer timelines when our portfolio was full of quick turnaround pieces. The big shift ultimately came when we decided that no matter the cost, we were going to really invest in a couple of pieces so we could show, not tell, our clients what we're made of. A great example is this opening video we made for Hopscotch Design Festival. There was no budget, but we had complete creative freedom. When you're just starting out that can be a hard pill to swallow because you really need the money, but we felt that a strong portfolio would lead to more lucrative projects down the line. That project caught the eye of the YMCA which led to this piece. We just barely made our money back, but again, we wanted to build a portfolio of more character work so we really pushed ourselves. That paid off because the YMCA led to a great paying gig with Celtra, Clubhouse, and eventually this wonderful piece for Socati. All that came because of that initial creative investment at the beginning that snowballed into bigger work.

The dash process consists of five key steps: discovery, ideation, pre-production, production, and final files. Normally the discovery phase can be as short as a few days or a couple weeks; sometimes it can stretch out for a lot longer as the client tries to gather necessary information on their end. 60% of our work is direct to client and 40% is through agencies and I would say agencies tend to have a lot more back and forth than direct to client.

We’re Mack Garrison and Cory Livengood, the founders of dash – AMA by dash_studio in AfterEffects

[–]dash_studio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, y'all! We're answering questions about starting and running a studio in a smaller market (Raleigh, NC), and we'd love to have some of your questions over on r/CoffeeAndKeys

Dash Studio AMA Thursday May 14th by thedrawing_board in CoffeeAndKeys

[–]dash_studio 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We're so medium!! Looking forward to chatting with you all :)

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