Why Start Your Own Creative Projects?

Learn, experience, and satisfy your creative side are just some of the benefits of taking on your own personal projects

Josep Bernaus (@josep_bernaus) is a 2D animator. He’s worked on animation series and advertising campaigns for clients like the BBC, CNN, and TVE. However, he has never abandoned his personal projects, which hold an important place in his life and, he believes, should be important to any creative, artist, illustrator, photographer.

Josep shares three reasons why personal projects are so important and what attitude and expectations we should have for them.

1. Learn and grow

It’s a chance to practice new techniques, improve what you know, experiment, and play. You can try using watercolors, draw shots with crazy actions, or draw a fantastical landscape you’ve thought up. There’s no pressure because you’re your own client, and you can learn a lot by asking for feedback from friends and acquaintances.

2. Build your portfolio or CV

A good personal project can open more doors than a professional one. All projects are learning material for your showreel or portfolio, as everything personal conveys interest, passion, and enthusiasm in the profession. Keep in mind that others will see your projects and think you want to keep creating and improving, even in your free time; every effort pays off.

3. Satisfy a whim

When you carry out a project, you respond to what the client asks you as they have a broader vision of the project. Sometimes you can propose the actions that you consider best, but they are not always well received. These small ideas can be satisfied with personal projects so that when the client asks you for something, you will not be mentally distracted.

If you are creatively satisfied, it will be easier to carry out the tasks they ask of you.

What can you do to achieve the above points?

Once you graduate from college, expectations, dreams, and illusions are very high, you see incredible projects by great artists or important studios, you end up falling in love with them, and take them as inspiration to make your own.

You rush to create under that impulse, but you may be discouraged if things don't go immediately to plan. That's completely normal. To do that, you have to understand that every idea, every project, has a kind of battery with different stages. In this case, Josep Bernaus divided it into stages of an idea to be developed with animation, but you can apply it to any project:

The size of each stage is not representative, and the project can last two weeks, two months, a year, whatever. The important thing is that you have an idea, excitement, energy, and expectations. Be aware of this and dedicate the necessary energy to each part of the project. Do not get stuck in any phase, because otherwise, you will burn out in the middle of the project.

Keep things short at the beginning, as there is less risk of the battery wearing out. Organize yourself well so that the demotivation does not come in the first stages of your project; take advantage of the time, impose a deadline, and finish on that date.

The key is to start, finish, let go, and move on.

In his Domestika course Animation from Scratch with Adobe Animate, Josep Bernaus teaches you how to tackle small 2D animation projects, create your own characters, and make them the protagonists of funny stories based on your ideas.

You may also like:

- 5 Free Tutorials to Spark Your Creativity.
- Books to Inspire Your Personal Projects.
- 5 Courses to Get Your Project or Personal Brand Online.