We are our own worst critic which can sometimes be bad but can also be good. It’s bad when you’re always tweaking and trying to make it perfect. Never shipping or releasing your product, animation or design. But it can also be good when you notice you are stuck in a design rut. Others might not notice your work becoming stagnant, they just chalk it up to your style. This is where you have to come in and push yourself passed your weaknesses and improve. Next time you don’t think your work is up to snuff, ask if it’s just you being a perfectionist or if it’s because you’re stuck in a routine. The more you find yourself falling back on your safe methods, the more it will just become repetitive or stale. If you don’t spot it early, it will be even more difficult to break from it a year from now. Put your mind and energy into pushing what you’re creating not just making sure it’s perfect, get out of your comfort zone. You might find you like it.

You might be surprised at how many late nights I spend moving a few keyframes back and forth trying to get a video perfect. Or maybe you’re not surprised because you’ve seen my updates online at all hours. I hear a lot of similar stories from folks, toiling away at their computers trying to get things just right. There is always one more thing that needs to be done or fixed. But is it really ever going to be perfect? What we need to realize is that nothing is perfect and that perfection, is just an illusion. You’ll never finish anything if you are always trying to make it perfect. Instead we should focus on simply doing our best everyday and forget about trying to make it flawless. Do the best you can with the time and skills you currently have. It might not be perfect but don’t let that stop you. Learn from this one and move onto the next project.