Building Real Value in Animation: More Than Just a Final Product
Transitioning from a skilled practitioner to a business owner isn’t straightforward. While you may have honed your craft over time, running your own business or launching something from scratch requires a completely different set of skills, many of which aren’t taught in traditional creative training.
The topic of Universal Basic Income (UBI) has come up in recent years, offering a compelling lens to view creative work through. It’s a bold concept. One that would require a huge cultural shift, especially in the Western world. But if implemented, it could help meet society’s basic needs, reducing stress for a significant portion of the population. People would no longer be forced to chase income purely for survival. Instead, those who wanted to create, innovate, or build businesses could still do so. Motivated not by scarcity, but by choice.
And what does this have to do with value in animation?
I was listening to a conversation with Simon Sinek on the Diary of a CEO podcast, and a key idea stuck with me: the importance of valuing the journey of creation, not just the end result. In today’s culture, especially with the rise of AI, the focus is all about speed and output. What do I get? How fast can I get it? AI thrives at delivering results instantly. But that skips the part where the human learns, evolves, or develops through the process.
Imagine someone handing you a rose. You might say, “That’s pretty,” and set it down. Eventually, it loses its colour and fragrance and wilts away unnoticed.
But now imagine you grow that rose. You prune the bush, fertilize the soil, water it consistently, and protect it from bugs. After months of care, it blooms. Your appreciation of that rose is entirely different, it’s layered with meaning, effort, and presence.
This is the same with animation, or any creative work. Honouring your craft means valuing the time it’s taken to develop your skills, your mistakes, your learning curve. None of that comes from a single-sentence AI prompt. It’s earned through practice, persistence, and reflection. And that is the value you bring to the work.
Doing your best is something only you can define. But when you add your best to your work, others feel it. That’s the true value that lasts. It’s not just about what you make, it’s about what you put into it.
Want to see the result of years of hard-earned animation craft? 👉 Check out our Behind-the-Scenes series on YouTube