Meet Daniel Munoz

We were lucky to catch up with Daniel Munoz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Daniel, thank you so much for making time for us today. We’re excited to discuss a handful of topics with you, but perhaps the most important one is around decision making. The ability to make decisions is a key requirement for anyone who wants to make a difference and so we’d love to hear about how you developed your decision-making skills.

Through self-reflection and focused questioning, I’ve come to realize that the only way I can truly feel comfortable in my decision-making and creative growth is to learn how to ask myself the right questions. This might seem like an easy task, but it wasn’t for me at first. Yeah, it’s easy to ask myself, “Am I feeling creatively fulfilled in my current job?” and if the answer is “No,” maybe I’ll think searching for a new job is the answer. While it may be a solution, that’s usually not enough to build enough comfort in my decisions. Maybe you’re a veteran at making great spontaneous decisions for yourself; that’s not me. I need to really feel it’s the right decision, and to do that, I have to dig deeper to build comfort in turning those thoughts into actionable decisions. That’s where learning to ask myself strong focus questions can help guide my thought process in creating actionable tasks when attempting to achieve my creative goals.

What are good focus questions? These questions should go beyond the obvious and force you to think about the why, the hows, and the what-ifs. You start with the obvious. “I’m not feeling creatively fulfilled in my current job” and branch off from there:

“What is it that I’m seeking to feel creative fulfillment?”
“What am I currently doing that is working towards that fulfillment?”
“How can I do more of that?”
“What events/classes could I attend to help?”
“What jobs could I apply to that would get me closer to that fulfillment?”
“If I left my job, would I be able to support myself for a couple of months to focus on skill development?”
“Is there someone I can reach out to learn from and gather information?”

The list can go on and on, but the idea is if you ask yourself more focused questions, you’re allowing yourself to engage in creative problem-solving and building hypothetical yet practical answers/scenarios that can create a path of possibility. If you can visualize the path with more clarity, it will be easier to make decisions that will move you forward. So ask yourself the right questions.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

For over 8 years, I’ve been a Motion Designer & 2D Animator. I use the power of design and animation to bring creative visions to life. Not everyone can visualize their ideas, and that’s when Designers and Motion Designers come in. That’s special by itself, but what I truly enjoy the most is the collaboration and journey I experience with the clients and team members to achieve their goals. At the start of 2024, I made a decision to leave my salaried job as an Associate Motion Director to pursue my own creative goals. Along with that decision, I created a 2024 motion demo reel to showcase that you’ll be in good hands with me if you were to inquire about working together to make great work. You can find the demo reel on my website.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

While my journey is forever growing, I will say that these three qualities will work in actualizing most of your goals: skill development, being your best critic, and building a presence. While these three qualities might take years to build comfort in, they get you where you want to be. The obvious is always to build on a skill you wish to make a career out of, whether that’s developed through a University, Community College, online learning communities like Skillshare, Domestika, Udemy, YouTube tutorials, etc. Learn the skill! If you have the skill to handle the job and perform well, it will only make landing a job or building clientele easier. So take time to really build on a skill.

Being your worst critic is usually what people would say, but to be honest, I’m not a fan of that term. I’d say become your best critic. Allow yourself to see your flaws as a growth opportunity for your next project. Every project you do will naturally make you better as long as you can see both what you’re doing well and what you think could have been better. A good way to practice becoming your best critic is to ask yourself after every project, “What did I do well?” and “Was there something I could have tried to push my work further?” I also recommend finishing projects even if they aren’t perfect, especially when you’re still developing the core skills. The more you make and try different techniques, the bigger your creative arsenal will be.

Once you’ve got those two down, then you approach what might be the most difficult to some: building a presence. Today there are so many ways to go about building a presence. You can do it through social media, cold emailing, networking events, etc. It might seem daunting, but social media is a great start. It’s how I started. Just post! Post your work, whether it’s “eh” or great; eventually, you’ll receive some sort of traction. Building websites today is also pretty easy. Unless you’re becoming a website designer, no one is going to be judging you on your skills to develop a website. They want to see your work, whatever that might be. Meeting people can be scary, but networking events can definitely help you build comfort in developing that skill. You don’t have to be amazing at it, but a simple “hello, I’m blah blah,” will get any conversation started in a networking event. People want to meet talented people. It’s that simple. Talent attracts talent. The hardest part is leaving your comfort zone. But always remember at some point you were probably uncomfortable doing what you’re comfortable with now. Allowing yourself to be uncomfortable will allow you to view areas of potential growth for yourself. You never know who’s going to help build a path for you, but you owe it to yourself to find out.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I’m always looking for new partners to collaborate with! I love learning about what others are passionate in creating, and being a part of making that happen through design and motion is so rewarding for me. If you’re looking to bring your ideas to life through motion and design, whether it’s a lockup for your youtube videos, or fully animated corporate videos, then please head towards my website and see if i’m a great fit for your project.

Dannypixel.com

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Dannypixel.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dannypixel
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannypixel