CG Artists: Let Your Team ‘Add Value’
by Anthony Filice on October 5, 2009
in Articles
Creating a perfect harmony amongst CG Artists in a team isn’t an easy task, you as the leader have to be careful you don’t go from creative mentoring to creative stifling. Having a team of talented CG Artists at your disposal can be a powerful thing, if you use it correctly.
All your team should benefit from accolades you may accumulate as a project evolves, your team isn’t a tool for YOUR work to be noticed, a team is used to achieving the common goal.
It’s often the case that Artists struggle with the transition from an Artist to Senior Artist, Lead Artist, etc, this is because, all of a sudden they become responsible for others in addition to themselves.
I think the biggest struggle is excepting that the CG Artist has to give up a lot of the ‘Art’ in order to manage the team, this is where creative mentoring can go horribly wrong.
Creative mentoring should should be such that your helping the individual/s develop their skill set while working to towards the common goal.
Often this isn’t the case, once an Artist has been promoted into the leading role, they make the common mistake of holding on to too much creative responsibility which in turn has been taken away from the team.
If you have been promoted in this role, it’s your responsibility to be the creative mentor but to also identify the qualities of the CG Artists in your team.
Once these qualities have been identified, you need to make best use of their creativity talents, give and take advice from them.
All this will be to guide your team and the overall project to achieving the best possible result.
Important thing to remember, GET TO KNOW YOUR TEAM!
If you’re not bonding with your team and they don’t take notice or respect you, it’s probably your fault.
To create perfect harmony within a team, you must let your team express their worth and let them participate in ‘adding value’.
If you believe in your team they will reciprocate…try it.
Look at the bigger picture, ‘you are all working on the same project’ you have to leverage and make best use of the CG Artist in your team to achieve the best possible result.
So…
Let Your Team ‘Add Value’.
Some thoughts on what has been said about Lead / Senior artists feeling they need to give up some of the ‘Art’ to manage a team and be responsible for others.
I agree in that you have to give up some of the ground-level ‘art’ tasks but I do think that the more ’senior /managerial’ position can offer greater creative possibilities. Outside the CG industry I’ve assisted with a number of collaborative arts projects where artists or craftsmen from different fields have combined their skills to produce a piece of artwork or host an event. I do think that if questioning ‘giving up the Art’ is an issue when moving into a Leads position, approaching the role from the angle of managing or guiding a collaborative project can help to retain the creative desire and motivation that the individual is afraid of losing.
This approach is that essentially you have the skills of your team; a number of artists at your disposal. Not many of us have the skills to be the complete CG package and we all approach ideas from slightly different angles. By identifying, utilising and encouraging each team member’s skill set, a Lead can potentially pull together these skills and hopefully steer the team to produce a final product that as individuals may not be achievable.
Going back to what was said about ‘getting YOUR work noticed’ - why not try to treat it as ‘getting YOUR TEAM’s work noticed’? - For me the creative rewards can be just as satisfying if not greater than showing your own work. If you can guide your team to producing something special then any decent management/client will respect you as a Lead and more importantly your team will feel proud and to be part of your team and motivated to excel in the future.
Very Well said Jonathan, I agree with you 100%.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts
Anthony
Hi.
I agree with Jonathan 100%.. every time i talk about work with clients, even friends for that matter, i always make sure i mention its the team thats produced, not just me. I feel very comforted knowing i have a great team behind and always push to get them noticed.