How to start a collab

This is how I took a surface pattern created by Lara Mascareño, my creative partner in the #DistantCollab Instagram Challenge, during the first 2020 lock-down and transformed it from a static design to a looping animation.

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In ealy 2020 there was a call on Instagram to join the Distant Collab challenge. Participating creatives filled out a form to be paired with each other to collaborate virtually on whatever projects they chose. In the midst of a global pandemic and lack of creative social interactions, I decided that this would be the perfect challenge to take part in.

I was paired with Lara Mascareño, a Venezuelan pattern designer and illustrator based in Gran Canaria. As I loved her pattern designs, I suggested to animate one of her creations. We decided to work on the bugs on a pond pattern she had created in 2019.

It was a lot of fun figuring out how I wanted all the characters to move, how much animation was too much and what was not enough.

_{Illustration by Lara Mascareño, Animation by Sonja Geracsek}

I wanted to keep the original calm and mellow atmosphere intact but breath life into it, in the form of animation. I also wanted to integrate the pattern part of the design into the animation and keep it repeatable, which you will see in the video below.

New challenges help you grow and develop your creative journey. By taking on this collaboration, I was able to work with a whole new design style, discovered the world of surface design and collaborated with an artist I have never worked with before. It challenged me to look at animation from a different perspective, solve a new problem and create a passion project when passion was hard to come by.

A new avenue

Distant Collab kick-started my live streaming journey and with that the live streaming series Animation Co-Lab. Through animating Lara’s design I was able to share my process on my YouTube and Twitch channels and show how I animate various projects and approach certain situations.

It also elevated some of the anxiety I felt about showing my face online and speaking to an unknown audience. I went on to create two more live streaming series’ Shut Up & Draw, where I try to improve my illustration skills without too much talking, and Work Watching, where you can watch me work on various client and passion projects.

Personal Network

This journey was the spark that lit the fire under me to collaborate more with other artists and get involved in the larger creative community. I sought out artists and illustrators from my community who’s work I admired and approached them about a collaboration. Connecting with your creative community creates a bond that will last past your initial contact. I realised that I felt more connected to them and engaged more with their content, as were they. We weren’t pixels on a screen any more, we became real people to each other that were more interested and proactive about helping each other succeed. To top it all off, we both got fresh content out of it, to share on our social media platforms. It was a win/win situation. I was more motivated to get started on new work, because it meant transforming someone’s art from still to animated, gaining a new friend in my community and making fresh content to share online. Collaborating with others holds you accountable for not only starting a projects but also finishing it. You are no longer the only person benefiting from the project being seen through to the end but you are also bringing joy to someone else’s life.

So, go out and find an artist you admire, drop them a DM or an email. Go bold or go home!

– Sonja

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Great explained tips that every motion designer should know. Thank you :)

Great teaching style; very clear and thorough. Some very high level best practice advice in here too. Looking forward to the other two lessons in this series and the other classes by Sonja.

Great tips which can shorten the path for beginners to become faster animators.

Learned loads of helpful tips and tricks to make my workflow much more efficient - thank you!

This teacher is one of the reasons to use Skillshare!

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Great contents and value in your channel ! ;) I have to recover the old streams on the motion side !

Love your stuff! I would love to see some short-form video content from you in the vein of tutorials or showcasing your workflow.

I love what you do.

Really enjoying these live streams!

Really cool to be learning new things watching you Sonja. Keep it up!

Thanks for sharing! It's so great to see other people's workflows, and that tip about the multiple passes to get the hand-drawn effect is really helpful!

Thanks for the Stream. Good work, as always. It is a lot of work just for the setup of the animation.

That was a nice process to watch! Thanks for sharing.

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