Kook Ewo has worked on the title sequences for Splice, Silent Hill and Fracture, among many others.

We are trying something new here at FYM! Google Moderator allows anyone with a Google account to log in, post questions and vote up or down other questions if you like or dislike them. This allows you, the reader, to finally be in control!

We have an upcoming interview with Title Sequence Designer and Director, Kook Ewo (Splice, Silent Hill, Fracture), and we need your help! If you’re not familiar with his work, go check it out (http://thefrenchtitle.com) then come back here and post some questions and vote up or down other questions you like or dislike. Now is the time to finally ask a professional in the biz what you’ve always wanted to know! I’ll send him the top ten highest rated questions submitted (along with our usual questions) so start posting and voting now!

The deadline for posting and voting on questions is one week so get them in before July 9th! You will need a Google account in order to access the site. If you do not have one (and don’t want to create one) you can Direct Message me on Twitter (@fuelyourmotion) or email me the question at john@fuelyourmotionogrpahy.com and I’ll post the question on the board. Only serious submissions will be accepted.

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Anyone in the motion graphics or visual effects industry knows this is the truth, and with social networks popping up left and right on the internet, the methods of promoting yourself are no exception; but what does this mean for the more traditional methods of promotion such as the business card?

These days we are not all sitting around the conference table ogling each others business card like in the movie American Psycho. With the way the internet and technology in general has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few decades, we are jumping on our laptops, tablet computers and smart phones connecting to wi-fi hubs in every corner coffee shop and 3G and 4G networks virtually everywhere else for business and for pleasure. We are consuming more online data than ever before, and with this new technology comes new ways to promote ourselves.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to many. Newspapers and magazines felt the crunch as traditional paper subscriptions were dwindling, but they found a new resurgence online and through apps for various devices such as smart phones and the Apple iPad. Burning your reel onto a DVD and mailing it out to companies is a thing of the past as online video sharing sites and personal websites become the method of distributing your reel, as I mentioned in my previous article, Get Your Video to the Masses; and, with more people using online search to find what they are looking for versus more traditional methods, websites such as Reel Roulette (Spin the Wheel on Reel Roulette) allow anybody to quickly search through many reels in a very short period of time allowing more content consumption with less work.

So, what does all this mean for the more traditional methods of promotion such as the business card? Are business cards obsolete, being taken over by online promotional methods, or is there still a  place for them in this digital world? To find the answer, I asked some movers and shakers in the motion graphics and visual effects industry this same question.

Nick Campbell / GreyScaleGorilla.com and CreamyOrange.com (among many others)

“I think that biz cards are DEAD for people in creative and technology driven industries. They are a hold over from another age. If people REALLY want to get your info and you made a personal connection, they can put your info directly on their phone or ask their friend about you later. They could even follow you on twitter directly from their iPhone. THIS is the way I connect. Not in a heap of cards on my dresser when I get home from an event.” He goes on to add, “If your in a creative business and under 40, lose the cards.”

Eric Alba / 24LiesPerSecond.com

“I would say that Google-ing my name is good. But if someone with a more common name it might be difficult to find them. As far as social network/services, I wouldn’t rely on that to promote my self/business. But I have found LinkedIn to be a good way to find people in terms of searching for a skillset/business.” He adds, “My business cards have helped if only in face to face situations and I’m networking or don’t want to write down a number… [They're] part of a bigger machine of promotion which includes my work web site and word of mouth.”

Brad Chmielewski / DigitalHitchhiker.com

“I feel like the business card is most useful in social or networking event. You don’t want to have take a break from the conversation to pull out your phone, follow that person on twitter and get them to follow you. I take their business card, put in my pocket and then re-visit it tomorrow or later in the week when I’m in front of the computer. It’s also a great leave behind, if that person follows me on twitter when I first meet them in two weeks they may have forgotten who I was. But with the business card at least they think of me again when we are not together.”

Oscar Dante Beckman / OscarDante.com

“I think that business cards are a really important way to promote myself. Also I feel that business cards shows the person you are giving it to that you are more serious, not only saying your Twitter or Vimeo name.” He goes on to say about using Google search, “It’s a great source to find information and people. However it’s easy to get lost in the woods of information.”

Zack Lovatt / ZackLovatt.com

“Handing somebody a business card carries a certain weight with it, even to the point of giving an appearance of professionalism. Does it hearken back to the older days where cards were king? To be sure, but from what I’ve seen in the design industry (and, to a lesser extent, the visual effects field) is that as so few are doing the business card thing simply having one is enough to make an impression, and from a networking angle, that’s the whole point.” He also adds, “Cards aren’t a one-stop solution; you need to follow them up with adequate branding, self-promotion (and these days) an online identity and so on; they’re a piece of the larger puzzle, a stepping stone, as it were. My cards boast no skills, no software and no industry; they’ve got a logo on the one side and contact information on the back. By my reckoning I’ll have given all this information to a person prior to handing them my card.”

Mars Sanford / MarsSanford.com

“Personally I like having the business card on hand for events.  I always prefer to add/follow right there in the moment, but if the conversation isn’t heading that way, its a good thing to leave someone with. I don’t think they need to be as jam packed with info as they once were, as Nick pointed out over a year ago!”

John Kostrzewski / JohnKostrzewski.com

“I personally don’t think business cards are dead at the moment, but they are on the way out fast. Apps such as Bump on the iPhone have shown sharing information is as easy as bumping two phones together, and everybody has an email address, Facebook account, Twitter name or some other social media account to connect through. As time goes on, the simplicity of handing someone a card with your information on it will be replaced with a simple bump of our phones, a friend request online or a drag and drop of our contact information on our potential clients name. A Google search isn’t always accurate, especially if the search is for someone with a name as crazy as mine, and even a business card doesn’t help in that respect as they will have to type out what’s printed on the card. Why not make it easier for them by giving them a link they can click on or one “Accept Friend” button to push. The idea of a business card is to make it easier for the client to find you, after all.”

The Verdict

It would seem business cards aren’t completely dead and still have a place in promotion of yourself and your business, but don’t be surprised when the time comes when they are completely obsolete. As technology continues to advance so will the method of promotion; and just like newspapers, magazines and other forms of traditional media the push is going online. It’s important to remember, as was mentioned repeatedly throughout this article, that business cards are just a small part of the bigger promotional machine. It’s only a device that shows people where to go. It’s up to you to give them a place to go, and have what they are looking for.

If you choose to promote yourself using a business card and are looking for ideas on designs for your cards to set them off from the rest, here are a few more cards from people in the industry that might spark your creative juices. However, it’s good to note that ideas don’t have to come from people in the industry at all. Flickr has a great set of photos called The Business Card Pool that features many great designs from people in many different industries, and websites such as Designrfix.com has a series of posts that will inspire as well.

Justin Younger / JustinYounger.com

Michael Blank / BlankSight.net

Seth Hay / OrangesDesigns.com

What do you think? Are business cards completely gone from your promotional efforts? Are they a waste of time and money? Please, share what you think and tell us what methods you prefer over handing out business cards.

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The brain child of Nick Campbell (GreyScaleGorilla.com, CreamyOrange.com, MakeCoolShit.com) and Trevor Turk (TrevorTurk.com, AlmostEffortless.com) and coded by Joshua Schaible (JoshuaSchaible.com), Reel Roulette follows the idea of Chat Roulette and even some earlier websites such as Hot or Not with simplicity and ease of use. What it has over those other sites is beautiful design and, moreover, great content for the motion graphics designer and an easy way for them to promote themselves and their work.

The idea behind Reel Roulette is a simple one because it was designed with simplicity in mind. In fact, this idea of simplicity was what pushed the entire design of the site from the beginning. Trevor Turk writes on his blog about the design process, “After pondering this over a couple of beers at the Ginger Man and spending some time on Chat Roulette looking for Piano Improve Guy, we decided that we should put something together. Something small. Something quick.” Thirty-two hours later, the three entrepreneurs were looking at Reel Roulette, the culmination of all their hard work which started with a simple idea on the plane ride to SXSW.

Welcome to Reel Roulette

If simplicity is what they went for, simplicity is what they came up with in the end. Right when you enter Reel Roulette you are greeted by a simple welcome page and given two options: upload your own reel and show off your work or spin the reel wheel to discover new great talent. You choose what to do and you are off on your journey of motion graphics discovery.

Spin the Wheel

When you choose to spin the wheel you are shown a random reel, a short creator bio with website and the options to vote for the reel or move on to the next one. No more wondering how to rate it on a five star scale or leaving a detailed comment on what to improve for next time–leave that for the other websites. Here, it’s just love it or leave it. It can’t get any more simple than that.

Simple Sign Up

When you choose to sign up you simply fill out a short form including your name, website and short description; add your Vimeo reel and you are done. Again, it’s as easy as that.

It’s a great, simple and fun idea that allows motion graphics designers another way to get their reel out there and allows them a way to easily see what others in the industry are up to.

All of it, of course, is for free so you don’t have a reason to at least check out ReelRoulette.net if you are a motion graphics designer, want to see some great MoGraph reels or some clean and simple web design.

Update!

Just yesterday (April, 14th), Nick Campbell and the Reel Roulette crew released an update for the website that allows a search of all the reels by location, software or specialty which is a great feature to narrow down what you are looking for; and they also added a top 20 allowing you to see the highest rated videos at that time! You can hear more about it on Nick Campbell’s blog, GreyScaleGorilla.com, or just visit the site and play around with it. These are two more great features adding to an already great website.

The Top 20 Reels

The Simple Search Window

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Video sharing sites such as Vimeo, YouTube and Creative Cow are popping up left and right all over the web, and this is great news for you. These websites get thousands of views a day by industry professionals and individuals looking to find people to help them with their projects, and allow you a place to communicate with them. Even if they aren’t looking at your work with an idea of hiring you, that’s another pair of eyes on your video and another person who will have your name or project in their head.

Of course, there are pros and cons to these sites such as cost, compression applied to your videos and the community that surrounds the website; however, as long as you know what to expect ahead of time, and prepare properly, you will be able to bypass many of the hurdles.

Creative Cow

Thousands of industry professionals and novices alike visit Creative Cow a day which already gives this website two of its biggest pros wrapped in one: a professional community. You will get great feedback on how to improve your reel and work plus eyes of people working in the industry will see the work you put out. If they like it, there’s always the possibility they may contact you for a job. If you follow the link I provided and click on “Upload Instructions” they will tell you how to export your video so that there’s is no compression added to the video! Oh, and did I mention it’s free! There really is no reason you shouldn’t upload your video to this site.

There are at least three videos you need to check out while you are visiting Creative Cow. They not only will show you amazing work, but how videos rendered in different formats are handled by the Website. Justin McClure, whose wide and varied body of work can be seen on his website, JustinMcclure.tv, and who can be followed on Twitter;  Jim Chappell, whose amazing reel and work is displayed on his website, JimChappellCreative.com; and Rodion Rusu, whose reel, title “Glow”, should be changed to “Shine” because it does just that, all have amazing work that needs to be seen.

Vimeo

Another great site that is solely dedicated to uploading and viewing video, Vimeo is chock full of people currently in the industry and those aspiring to be who will look at your work as well as comment and tell you how to make it better. There is a basic membership to this site which is free, but you are only allowed one upload of an HD video per week (which is reasonable) and your video gets compressed (though it still looks better than most), but a small fee of 5 dollars a month ($59.95 a year) will get you unlimited HD uploading and better quality video (2 pass). It’s a very good site to upload to, and there’s no reason not to use at least the free option.

While you’re on Vimeo, you should check out these great Motion Graphics reels. Each of them displays great work with amazing editing skills which only further heightens their spectacular reels: Andrew Cornett, whose work you can also see on his website, Amotion.tv, and can be followed on Twitter, has a great reel with a lot of variation in style and design; GKaster, whose full body of work can be seen on his website, GKaster.com, displays some eye-opening work with Cinema 4D and After Effects; and Eric Sanderson, whose work can be seen all over the web including on The Motion Exchange, has a great reel with a large variety of work and some slick editing.

YouTube

The community surrounding YouTube is somewhat sketchy at times, but the amount of views YouTube gets in one day is staggering. The name itself is widely known around world as a place to go for videos so it makes sense to upload your video here as well. Also, the quality of the video has gotten better since they added the HD upload option, and there is no limit to the number of videos you may upload as well which is a huge bonus. Oh, it’s also free as well. You won’t find a lot of other industry professionals commenting on this site, but you may find someone who’s interested in your work and wants you to work on their project.

Three great reels to check out here are by Diana Paez, whose work can also be seen on her website, DianaPaez.com; Noah Shulman, whose website, NoahShulman.com, contains his full body of work; and Facundo Sanchis, whose reel is best viewed on his website, FacundoSanchis.com.ar, since YouTube cut the music for copyright issues (a negative of the site, but it doesn’t happen a lot).

Your Website

A website is always a good idea because you will look more professional, and it’s a central place that has a URL that will not change where people can view all your work, find out more about you and get all your contact information. Another great reason you should have your own website is because there is no compression on your video except what you choose. Your videos will show up how you want them to. Of course, this method does cost the most amount of money requiring hosting and domain fees and either the knowledge to create a website, the money to pay someone else to do it or a little bit of both if you purchase a template; however, the benefits are well worth it.

Every professional motion graphics designer who is trying to get his or her name out there will have a website and their reel either prominently displayed on the home page or with a link to it clearly visible. The idea is to make it as easy for your viewing audience as possible to find exactly what they need.

There are a lot more video sharing sites such as Blip.tv and Mevio, and by all means you should use as many as you can, but the ones I listed are among the best. Don’t be afraid to try other sites out, but make sure you know their upload guidelines so your video will look the best on their site.

The bottom line is to start using all the services available to you in order to get your video to the masses. It’s all a part of networking, and it’s going to get your name out there. The more places you post, the more eyes on your work, the more people will have your name in their heads, and that, my friends, is always a good thing.

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If you’re familiar with the Adobe MAX conferences, you probably know what they are all about. However, if you’re like me, and you only think you know what the Adobe MAX conference is, it’s time to make plans for your next chance to attend.

This year, I talked quite a bit about the Adobe MAX conferences. Sure, they were coming to Los Angeles Convention Center. Sure, Adobe is a sponsor of my user group in Hollywood. Sure, I’ve been in a couple of Adobe groups myself. But when the opportunity to go to the Adobe MAX conference session came up, I thought that it wouldn’t really be for me. After all, I’m really good at all of that, so it’s not for me, right? Wrong.

Adobe MAX is not just a chance to sit in sessions and learn about a specific application of a tool or scripting device, it’s a chance to meet the masterminds behind the Adobe product you are particularly fond of. It’s an opportunity to listen to some advanced users talk about what new ideas and new resources are out there which you may have overlooked. And, perhaps more importantly, you’ll have a chance to sit with people who — like you — use and have a specific affinity for Adobe software.

Flash, Javascript, and AJAX

The heart of the conferences at Adobe MAX this year are dominated by Flash, JavaScript and AJAX. There is no doubt that more designers will be looking to coders to deliver our content to the world on mobile devices. While as designers, animators and compositors, we will need to consider the possibility of content that is accessible by Flash, and those Flash developers will have to start considering us non-coders.

Introduction of Adobe Flash Catalyst

Adobe has already started to consider us code-newbies. Today, Adobe announced the launch of Adobe Flash Catalyst. In this morning’s session, we discussed the ever changing definitions of participation and collaboration. And, while some of us are designers at the core, we need to consider the potential of a wider audience and how we can ensure our designs flow from our desks to the code writers’ labs.

Flash Catalyst allows Photoshop or Illustrator work to move directly into interactive prototypes without having to write any “real” code.  It can be published as is, or move into the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing with Flash to build simple interactive content or huge RIAs. If you can use Photoshop, chances are you’ll have no problem with Flash Catalyst.

Beta Release of Flash CS5

Also announced today were beta release news clips (and videos) of Flash CS5. Of course, once Adobe says “CS5″, it doesn’t matter if you are using Flash or any other product in the store, you know that the community goes crazy. Tomorrow, Adobe has more in store for their community of MAX’ers and the rest of you who couldn’t make it.

MAX is about community

Adobe is there for us, talking about work, talking about fun, talking about what’s ready to show, and; Adobe is listening to what their community of users is saying.

Forget about what you thought Adobe MAX was. It’s difficult to understand without being there. You still have 2 more days to grab a session pass and come to a panel discussion. After that, you’ll have to wait until 2010 for your next chance. This is more than connecting with the applications, it’s meeting people from South Africa, Korea, and Kansas City who all like to do the same stuff you like to do — and are really, really good at it.

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Content Creation

These days, the web is filled with incredible amounts of video content. In every medium, from journalism to entertainment, the number of creators and consumers has massively increased, and a majority of video content is provided by the general community. Corporate production companies and mainstream media outlets are now feeling the pressure from their new competition. Some would call this, “The rise of the amateur.”

Quality vs. Quantity

When it comes to video, web is the king of quantity. Creating video for the web has become increasingly easy. With millions of content creators now producing their own video for the web, a bulk of it is very poor quality.

In today’s saturated market, well-produced quality video content is extremely important in order to float atop the infinite sea of online videos. Creators are recognizing this and spending more time and money on producing their videos to separate themselves from the masses of amateur content. This is still not enough. Businesses, start-ups and bloggers are now contracting professionals to produce and polish their content to be consumed by the masses.

Motionography is very important for content providers to be successful. A lot of them just don’t know it, or would rather cut corners. Millions are spent on marketing campaigns and social media gurus are paid ridiculous salaries. Yet, somehow one forgets what makes these videos so popular in the first place: a visual message worth sharing.

The Motionographer’s Role

This new market is a starving beast. Our role is to help turn this average content into quality content by feeding the struggling creators with slick motion intros, engaging infographics, beautiful animations and everything else necessary to establish distinct video content on the web.

So what can we do?

Never settle for mediocrity, and always strive to learn more. Pass your knowledge onto newcomers in this industry, and educate current and prospective clients. Drink plenty of whiskey water. Also:

Stay informed and ahead of the market.

• Keep an eye on Mashable’s Video lists.
• Read Advertising Age & AdAge’s MediaWorks
• NAB 2009: TV Production in the Age of YouTube

Be inspired.

• Check out FYM’s Curated Series
• TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

Check out these recommended job boards:

• Motionographer Jobs
• Mograph Jobs Forum
• Krop
• CGnews Job Board
• Behance Network Job Board
• Coroflot Job Board
• MediaBistro Job Listings
• Mandy Film/TV Jobs

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