By Ann Koffsky
As I mentioned in my last post, one of the real benefits of working with people, as opposed to freelancing on your own, is often those people know stuff. If you’re lucky, and they’re willing to share, then you get to learn something new. Fortunately, I’m lucky. I’m learning all kinds of new things as Behrman House’s newest editor.
The most obvious example of this is how I recently learned Adobe’s animation program, Flash. When I was out on my own, learning new skills was an uphill battle—I had to find an online course, or a decent “For Dummies” book. But now I have a person, by the name of Jeremy Poisson (Behrman House's digital guru), to show me new skills. He’s the one who taught me to use Flash.
This is a much better way to learn something: first he sat with me for an hour and showed me how to use the program. But the best part was that whenever I got stuck on something, I was able to call him and ask: “Jeremy why is the layer not lit up? Why is my keyframe in the wrong place? Why did the files I just worked on for 3 hours disappear—help!” Jeremy was so much more helpful than asking google or a Dummies book, which is what I was stuck with as a freelancer. He’s nicer, too.
So I got to animate! I’ve always wanted to animate. My illustrations have always focused on movement—hopping frogs, jumping penguins. I have a definite affinity for things flying freely through the air. And now I know how to actually make something DO that, and to a western tune from Mama Doni, no less.
Come see my dancing alef bet here:
Alef Bet Song
Isn’t that cool? I made that! Wonder what I’ll learn next…
Alef Bet Song App will be available in the iTunes stores October 2015. Want to find out more? Contact us now!
