Looking for some insight from writers and animators on an idea. I've been working on a sci-fi novel for nearly five years now. I've wanted it to be as big, thoughtful, and deep as Dune or Hyperion. But I have no clue how to start marketing the thing.
My husband wants to become an animator but doesn't know where to start. He's currently building up an art portfolio to enter animation programs in the future.
However, the reality is that my husband and I are both isolated in creative projects that aren't moving quickly as either of us would like. We both deal with a lot of fear and motivational issues.
But that got me thinking: I have lots of film experience and education, including some animation (Adobe Animate/Flash, Maya, 3ds max, SFM, UE4), but I haven't animated in a decade.
Meanwhile, I want to upgrade my skills by learning Blender. My husband should also be learning Blender. So okay, we should sit down together and learn blender from Coursera or YouTube courses, but that only goes so far unless there's a project that we can learn from.
The first chapter of my sci-fi novel has been revised over a dozen times to the point that it's polished like a film script. An animated short made out of it would be pretty engaging 10-15 minutes. I think people would love it, and they're get really interested in reading the rest of my novel.
I also drew a whole bunch of scenes from my novel, and there's some really fascinating trippy visuals that I think people would love seeing played out in some sort of a 30-60 second trailer. But that might not have quite the same impact as a chapter that I've surgically engineered to get people interested in the rest of the book, disturbing cliffhanger included.
But the crux of this plan is simple: We teach ourselves Blender animation by spending a year or so learning everything we need in order to deliver a high quality, head turning animated short. And we do that by making the short step by step and learning as we go (albeit after some Blender courses and further development).
At the same time, it seems like this would probably be a year long commitment from the two of us for my own creative vision. I don't want to take up too much of my husband's time and effort because I really want him develop and execute his creative vision. That said, I'll be all hands on deck when the time comes to execute his vision. Anyways, I'm wondering what people think. Overly ambitious or cool sounding project?
