Meet Kaleb Sullivan

We were lucky to catch up with Kaleb Sullivan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Kaleb with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

Since I work for myself, I had to learn to become my own boss and sit over my own shoulder and remind my employee(me) that “hey, your projects due Friday”. That skill doesn’t come naturally.

I have found the most effective way to keep my projects on time and myself accountable is to set hard deadlines. At first, I had to be a little lenient with myself until I learned how long it realistically took me to complete a project. But once I figured that out, I had to start holding myself accountable to the deadline.

I love this quote from the author Robert Collier. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.’ So, my secret is discipline and repetition. I set a realistic schedule and hold myself to getting something accomplished every day.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

My name is Kaleb, and I am an animator from Georgia, creating independent cartoons for a worldwide audience. I first started learning animation and filmmaking with only a camera and Legos. Over the next few years, I made dozens of short films, learning hand drawn animation and later computer animation. After graduating high school, I got my first animation job creating short cartoons for a YouTube channel. That same year I also started university, pursuing a degree in Computer Animation.

When I graduated, I became an entrepreneur full time making ads, interstitials and YouTube videos for other channels. In my free time I would make videos for my own channel. Over the last couple years, I have been blessed with an enormous amount of growth on my own channels, allowing me to allocate more time to making more original animations.

Now, I am hard at work expanding my cast of characters, optimizing my pipeline and expanding my business. This year I hope to release a pilot for an animated series to film festivals and online audiences.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The ability to teach yourself and do your own research is vitally important. If I have a question, I google it. I look through research papers, blog posts, tutorials or anything else I can find. Being able to teach yourself makes you extremely valuable both in the work force and as an entrepreneur.

Learn the whole pipeline, not just your role in it. I am first and foremost an animator. That is what I am best at and what I know the most of, but I also have very good knowledge of the rest of the production pipeline. That makes me more valuable as an artist because I can wear multiple hats. More recently, I’ve been learning more about the business side of filmmaking. Most of the people I’m going to be working with are going to be businessmen, not artist. Learning about their struggles and needs makes me a better team player. Plus, it helps me run my own business.

Read more. I always have a book I’m currently reading. Whether for information or pleasure, it doesn’t matter. Reading helps get me away from the screen and fills me with new ideas. If you are in a rut or experiencing a block, go read. Something will click and you will be raring to go again.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

As a single artist earning a living by making animations for the internet, my biggest obstacle is time. Animation takes a long time to make, and social media wants more and more content faster and faster! Now, I could sit and bewail the fact that the algorithms reward quantity over quality, or I could learn to animate faster. It clicked for me when I realized that I was animating like I was making a movie when instead I should be animating like I’m making a TV show. TV has very demanding schedules with small budgets for hours of content. Social media takes this a step further with smaller budgets and tighter turnarounds. In order to survive I have to make things much simpler without losing the appeal. I think a good case study for this is South Park. Their episodes are made in one week. Obviously, not all projects and styles can be crammed into a week, but learning how they optimized their production pipeline is incredibly interesting.

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