kylesdreamspace

[kylesdreamspace]

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[kylesdreamspace]

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[kylesdreamspace]

Just in time for Valentine’s Day

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[kylesdreamspace]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxycY45iUPk)

[kylesdreamspace]

2017 goals

Its been a long time

Yo! Long time no read. I know it's been a while since my last blog, and there's a lot of reasons why that is which I won't get into. A lot of negativity and ruminating about the past few months was done and I'm at the point now where I want to push forward. I've also talked about it a lot in my inner circle and I'm simply tired of relieving it.

I want this to be a positive post because there's so much to look forward to next year and I've missed writing blogs for you guys (as well as myself). They're still great ways to organize my thoughts and I'd like to jump back on in anyway I can. 

The run down

So I'm writing this blog to formalize my 2017 goals and bring you up to speed on what I will be doing. It's a lot so I'll try to breakdown everything as best I can.  There's 3 main things I would like to talk about: the direction of my primary Youtube channel and my personal work, the birth of my secondary YouTube channel, and my openness and aggressiveness to collaborate and complete freelance projects.

Primary channel and personal work goals  

Alright let's get to it. Here are my goals: 

Expand my content creation to include in-depth tutorials relating to creative software

Create the animated equivalent of a  vlog series called "the corner" featuring an animated puppet of myself speaking about news, entertainment, personal stories and so on

Get back to production on a short film (~5 minutes) 

Learn Toonboom and incorporate it into my workflow.

Release more varied animations (short stuff around 10 seconds that are like bursts of creativity)

So as you can see there's going to be a lot of changes to my channel. This all comes at a price though which is probably going to be less frequent uploading of web-series (or total hiatus). Web-series take a long time to make and I now have an understanding that it's not profitable for me at this point to make animation my primary source of growth for YouTube. Of course there will still be original animations, but it won't be on a regular schedule like it has been.

I plan to forgo web-series for 2017 (aside from the first three months due to the project being complete) in favor of producing really tiny animations and to focus on making a nice short film. Now the tutorial content and "the corner" will fill in the gaps of animation and they should both be fairly easy and quick to produce while maintaining the quality I want. So in simple terms: more simple and easy to produce content more frequently and less medium and high end animations. 

I've learned that when it comes to Youtube I have to go with the flow, and this is where it's taking me. This is not to say I'm doing this stuff to just grow my channel (of course that plays a part), these are things I've actually wanted to do for a long time, but just couldn't figure out how. All of the changes going on my primary channel are things I love to do. I'm just finally able to bring them to you in a way where everybody wins.

The good news is that with the extra time I'll have, it will go into producing a real personal short film. Something I haven't done since I finished 'Quiet' two years ago. It's something I'm genuinely excited about especially now that I don't have to spend as much energy and resources putting out YouTube content. The pivot is real. Also, incorporating Toonboom into my workflow will allow me to get some serious productivity gains.

YouTube x2

The next big goal of mine is to launch my second YouTube channel. This channel will be for let's plays and videogame related stuff. For the past month I've been working, tweaking and recording tests to get into the groove of making these videos, but I may be getting ahead of myself. What's the purpose of these let's plays? 

When I originally made my first channel, I wanted it to be a catch-all for animation, videogame stuff and a bunch of other things. With time I realized it may be better to spin-off the videogame part into its own thing and create synergy between the channels. This allows me to avoid potential copyright strikes on my main channel, enables better focus by splitting the content up, and gives me another platform to boost my presence, while doing something I love (playing videogames). I also had most of the equipment already so I thought it'd be a good time to jump in. Making the content is really quick and I can upload something everyday. 

So far the recording process has been very tough, but I'm excited to press on and see where this goes. I'll be launching the channel in January with a play through of Pikmin 3 for the Wii U. I hope you'll join me on these playthroughs.

 To collab or not to collab

So finally the last thing I'd like to talk about is collaborations and freelance projects. This is a topic I've been meaning to talk about for a while and even though my thoughts on the subject aren't completely refined, I do have some projections and goals I want to achieve regarding this subject. 

The first thing is collaborations. I've long been a solo artist and I'll keep on seeing myself as one, but I think I've grown enough at this point to be comfortable in approaching collaborations. Let me qualify this quickly so I don't give out the wrong impression. By collabs, I mean very short, fun pieces of art between myself and at least one other person, preferably an animator or voice actor.

When I say collab, I don't mean me working on your music video for free. That may sound a bit harsh and abrupt, but I have to be so I don't get emails asking if I can be someone's slave for 4 months.  Anyway, something I've wanted to do is collab with fellow animators. While I haven't set anything into motion yet, I would like to have done at least one or two collabs before the end of this year- hopefully more, but I there's a lot of stuff I have to do before I'm ready to commit to that.

The last thing on the list is freelance projects. I spent a lot of time last year preparing a pipeline for taking in more freelance projects. I've gathered a little team of on-call animators and I've mentally prepared myself to tackle freelance however I can going forward. This is a big change in mentality for me, but the perk is that no matter my situation, I'll always be available for freelance. Whether it's if I'm working at a company or not, I've set my time up to accommodate freelance projects as they come so you'll definitely see more work from me for other people this year.

It's gonna be a journey

There's a ton I've tried to unpack in this blog and some of it is still a work in progress, but I'm very excited for the opportunities that come my way this year. For the first time in my life, I believe I am more flexible and able to tackle any challenge that comes my way. The hardest lesson I had to learn in 2016 was how to adapt to changing circumstances. I was very strict in how I did my work and set up my life for a large part of my life, but now I believe I'm ready to seize any opportunity that comes my way. I hope you'll look forward to the stuff I make in 2017, and I promise to write some more blogs!

[kylesdreamspace]

Time to get in the holiday spirit!

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJh8ygFonWo)

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Check out my youtube!

youtube.com/kylesamuels1

[kylesdreamspace]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH94ztVaPfw)

Follow me on the youtubes!

[kylesdreamspace]

Mini me learns to skateboard

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A change of pace

Hello world

So I've been writing these blogs for around a year now. In the time since I've started I've really grown to love the format as it has been a means for me to dump whatever is on my mind bi-weekly. It has been a great source of expression for myself and I am very happy to have incorporated it into my life.

That said, there are going to be some changes now. I will be taking myself off of the bi-weekly format. Originally, when I started writing these blogs, I gave myself a time limit to write them so I can get them done. Since I've made it a habit and am now comfortable with expressing myself via these blogs, I feel I can remove the pressure of my self-imposed deadlines. The reason I am doing this is because for the past few months given how busy my life is, and how long it takes to write, edit and upload these blogs, I haven't put out the most interesting content. I feel like I have a lot to say and have felt myself just writing halfheartedly so I can make my deadline instead of taking the time to write something passionately. I don't want to be a creature of habit for the sake of doing so and I think now is as good a time as any to say that I should break that habit. I'm hoping that removing these deadlines gives me the freedom to write some really, really great content and while I imagine the blogs will happen less frequently, they'll be far more well thought out and meaty. Something you can really sink your teeth into. I have a lot to say and I want to be able to express it in a way that is engaging for you, the reader without having to sacrifice any content because of whatever time constraints I've placed upon myself.

I hope you can understand and thanks for reading. See you next time!

[kylesdreamspace]

The funny thing about life...

Introduction

Before starting to write this blog, I came to realize that the last few blogs I've talked about dealt a lot with my life or just life in general. I guess that's my subconscious slipping in some form about me wanting to have a life. Never the less this is going to be a continuation of my shorter blogs as I'm still in vacation mode.

A taste of success

Let me preface by saying that last month, and the beginning of this month have been my favorite parts of this year. I have not only been able to relax in a way that I haven't done for years, but I have done many things to improve my mental health, personal life and have had some very exciting news about my work. Let me quickly touch upon these areas.

When it comes to my mental health, without getting into the nitty gritty and details of my life. I've had problems saying what's on my mind for certain things for one reason or another. None of the topics I spoke about were particularly racey, but they always caused a bit of hesitation on my end, which made me feel like I was bottled up- or at least my feelings about certain things were bottled up. This past month I have began making the necessary changes in my life so I feel unafraid to express my feelings (of course it doesn't mean I'll just blurt out my first impression or won't take a diplomatic approach to what I'm feeling). I have to say, it feel- Ls liberating and amazing to be able to do this.

When it comes to my personal life, the truth is I haven't had much due to a lot of work I did in the past, along with all of the animation work I did which takes up an incredible amount of time. Luckily for me, I was able to get a library of work done that has freed me to be more social. How has this manifested? Well, I was able to see Dave Chappelle, one of if not my favorite comedians ever- live. Yup, it was an amazing experience to be able to see him live, especially since that was the first time I really went to see any celebrity for anything. That's not all though as I have been able to go out and meet a ton, and I mean a TON of new people. I'm always looking forward to meeting new people and starting new relationships, that's always been an exciting part about life for me, and for the longest time I was unable to do so. Fortunately for me, I have been able to jump back into the saddle and it feels great!

Lastly, the exciting news. So if you follow me you know that a music video I worked on called 'Just' was released a few weeks ago. At the time of this post, the video has about 60,000 views. The exciting part is that, the rapper, Ka and myself were propositioned by the creative director of adult swim so that they can show the video to a wider audience on TV. Basically, my art will be on FREAKING TV! That's something I've always dreamed about and it's finally going to happen. When is it going to happen?

Sunday September 18 @ 1:30am or so. Give or take.

The specifics will be sent to me soon, and I'll probably put up a status on twitter about it, so if you're interested in seeing the video on tv live, you should follow me on twitter. As a bonus, after the video is on tv, it will be put on the adult swim Facebook page for everybody to see as well. Talk about a double whammy! Ok I promise not to use that word again, but you can imagine just how happy i am and the kind of doors that will open for me because of this opportunity.

All in all it's been an amazing few weeks and I really hope to keep the momentum going for the rest of the year. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!

Oh and P.S.

How to Be Successful season 2 is scheduled to premiere September 22nd. Don't miss it!

[kylesdreamspace]

On Vacation

Salutations

Hey everybody, you know who here. This is gonna be a tiny blog. I'm pretty much on my "vacation" right now and have enjoyed relaxing after a very, very long time of not doing that. Unfortunately I haven't gone anywhere and am pretty much just staying home, but it's not all sleep and dreams. I'm also beginning to work on my 2017 projects now! I figure it would be the wise thing to get a leg up on my content while I am able to because I would imagine the latter part of this year will not be kind to my free time. I've got pretty much all the content I want for next year planned out and I am slowly chipping away at it. I'll talk more about it in a few weeks though as I don't want to give away too much now.

Animation Stuff

So if you follow me anywhere you may have come across a barrage of posts by yours truly because something very special happened in the past week. Two- count them, TWO films I made came out. A while back I was commissioned to make a music video for "KA". A very talented, Brooklyn based rapper. I managed a small team of very talented animators and they helped me complete a very nice music video called "JUST" that you can watch here:

Also, there was a short, but very nice article written about the video and you can read that:

Here

But that's not all! I also released a new animation called "In Space" that you can watch:

Out of all of the films I've made, this is my favorite. All of that being said, I hope you enjoy the films because a lot of work and love went into making them! It's also a very rare occurrence to have to 2 films I made shown in the same month, so if you're a fan of my content, there's a lot to see of it!

I'll see you next time~

[kylesdreamspace]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeKc7jpCbqQ)

An astronaut misses his chance to be rescued.

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[kylesdreamspace]

It's here! You can watch my new film "In Space" on my youtube RIGHT NOW!

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This week my favorite animation comes out, In Space! I absolutely loved making this one

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[kylesdreamspace]

Life and other musings

Intro

Hello everyone. I'm back! It's been a little while since the last blog but the reason for that was due to the craziness of my last job which recently wrapped up. For those that don't know I worked as a Pre-College Activities Coordinator for the School of Visual Arts from April until the first week of August. Not only that, but an extra interesting tidbit about my life is that I had been working with the school in (mainly the admissions office) in some capacity since 2008. With the end of my job as an Activities Coordinator also came the end of my time working with the school. Not out of malice or anger, but out of a need for change and to spread my wings and go forth into the artworld. SVA has been a huge part of my life and I have accumulated so many wonderful memories and experiences, but I felt it was time for me to go out into the creative field and make a name for myself. With the end of my job at SVA opens a whole new world of possibilities for me and a new chapter in my life, one in which I hope you will all join me on.

Spread my wings

So when I say "make a name for myself in the creative field" what exactly do I mean? First off, I do not mean that I will forgo creating original content. Making short films and animations is a passion of mine that I intend to continue until I can't. There may be pauses and hiatuses in the future, but I have no intention of stopping. What I mean with that quote is that I want to envelope myself in a creative industry where I work directly with other creative people while getting a nice paycheck to fund those personal projects, and anything else I may need in my personal life. In short, it means working a full time job where the skills I've accumulated end up bringing me financial stability. I've done the starving artist thing before, I've done the 'work a job to get money and do your stuff on the side', I've done freelance and everything inbetween, but now I'm in a position where I have to be a lot smarter about how I spend my time and what I can do to accumulate wealth where I can.

It's not just about the money though, but if I were honest that is about %50 of the reason. The other reason is that by working in a creative field, I will be exposed to more creative types that may appreciate the work I make in a different way- where there is an understanding of the kind of struggle and perseverance needed to make your own work and try to live off of it. I would hope that finding comradeship through this venue can help increase the reach of my own content (while continuing to go through other avenues such as film festivals, networking and so on). In releasing all of the art that I have made these past few years, one sore but important truth I've learned is that I need to find people who are passionate about what I do. That's not to say my friends and family aren't passionate about me as a person or don't like my work, but I need to find more people with a passion for what it is I do. I believe that will be the difference between me creating content as a hobby versus actually living off of the characters I create. That stuff takes time though, but I think in order to get that avenue of my life kick started, I have to stop avoiding the creative community as I had been doing, and become part of, learn and grow from it.

Where do we go now?

You would think that with my verbosity in this blog that I would have a crystal clear idea of what I'm going to do next. If you think that, you would be wrong. I have no idea where or what it is I'm going to do. I have a clear idea of what I do not want to do, and hope that I can build from there, but when it comes to creating a path for the future, I only have a few ideas in my head:

One day I would like to pitch/ sell a cartoon

I'm split on going to California or staying in New York

I would like to build enough of a financial cushion for emergencies or to help family if possible

I would like to continue growing my brand

These ideas have been floating in my head for some time and I have been trying to find a way to string them together in a way where I can chip on them little by little each day. It's a long process, but I am finally able to start putting these ideas into action now. I think an important mental note I have made out of all of this is to not get stuck or feel like I have to stay somewhere if it doesn't improve my situation. That has happened to me in the past and I do not recommend it. Going forward I would like to be more in tune with these ideas and to follow my gut and be unafraid to pursue my goals. That takes a level of conviction that I feel I am close to obtaining while also being flexible enough in life and grasping a larger perspective about the interplay between the various elements in my life and how all of that information prompts me to act. I think if I'm aware of these ideas than I'll will be setting myself up to really achieving all that it is I want to do.

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in these musings but I think the most important thing I can do right now is relax for a bit. I've worked really hard and spent a lot of time creating and planning and so on that I haven't been able to get lost in life's little detours. At the very least I think it might be time for me to cool it for a little while, so when the next problem rears it's head I'm 100% ready to take it on.

[kylesdreamspace]

August is a very nostalgic time for me. Brings me back to throwing hand balls at people for fun

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