Posted on Aug 25, 2008

I got another one of those demands where some outfit working on a new Web site or something else asked me to "partner" with them and work on their Flash animations. Like many others, they were very complimentary. And like many others, they asked me to do it for free for a cut in future profits, because, you know, their projects are great! When I was still wet in the ear, as an entrepreneur, I did participate in some work for future glory type of projects. I got burned. It's not even that I never got paid. It's more to do that people who ask you to work for free tend to be more demanding than people paying you... So a lot of time is spent on a project that doesn't pay my bills, for the glory of being frustrated and asked to contribute even more. People assume that because you have these animation skills that you don't have enough of a brain to figure out what to do with them. Well animators are like writers. They all have a project tucked under their beds. I'd rather work on my own animation projects and not get paid, than someone else's. The other thing is that they always want you to share their risks by becoming a partner with them. If I am to work on animations for any outfit for free, I want to own 90% of that outfit, as opposed to 10%. Animation is labour intensive. You can't just whip up something in minutes. If animation was so easy, especially frame by frame Flash animation done by hand, there would be more animators in the world. So I declined the invitation to work for free. It's not the first time. There is something about respecting people talents and time that many promoters don't understand. Maybe one day, they will get it.