Can I trust you if I can’t see you?
How our animation team made remote work… work
We got the amazing opportunity to create a second series of short animations for Giphy Arts, with a newly assembled team of our choosing. Giphy’s goal is to showcase new Caribbean talent on their platform, and we welcome partnerships that seek to grow Caribbean animation.
But how do we make remote work actually work while onboarding a new team using new software, onto our tried and true pipeline, all on a short timeline? Here are some methods we used: remote brainstorming, team leadership and weekly meetings. We think that they worked pretty well to build trust at a distance.
Remote Brainstorming
Nothing beats a lively in-person brainstorming session. You can visibly feed off the energy in the room. Recreating this energy online definitely takes work, but it helped that in our case, everyone on the call was excited about the project.
Our first brainstorming meeting lasted close to 3 hours though it felt like 30 mins. The ideas and suggestions just kept coming. We followed a democratic system where each person voted on the ideas that compelled them the most. This approach was a win for us because we wanted their creativity to shine through, and the majority would be working on an idea they genuinely favoured. Of the many ideas that stood out, we chose to explore Jamaican Folklore played out as a Deck of cards.
Remote guidance for the new team
A remote team can’t function effectively without a shared vision. Even though we agree on the big idea, how can we be sure we’re all seeing the same thing?
In our case, the animation director, art director and line producer functioned as team leads. They ensured that the artists were working toward the same objective, and held everyone accountable to strict internal and external deadlines. They often provided references and even drew pieces to share a common vision. Team leads must be discerning and adjust how they communicate with each individual, as different people need to be guided according to their unique ways of thinking.
Remote Weekly Meetings
Keeping everyone aligned is… fun! OK maybe not. But alignment and communication definitely keep the project together so we can flag and correct issues as we go.
We started weekly meetings to ensure that communication flowed and everyone was on the same page. We used a peer review format, where each person presented their progress and received critique and suggestions. This was to encourage collaboration, as individuals could learn from one another and draw upon the diverse skill sets within the team. It created an environment where ideas were refined, challenged, and enhanced through collective input. This process helped to streamline and improve the quality of work, as well as foster a sense of shared ownership and accountability. Ultimately, the department heads made the final decision on the next steps.
Building Remote Trust
For a creative production team, the camaraderie and energy of working together in person is unmatched. So it’s hard to trust whether you can get the results you want while working remotely. However, there are ways of consistently building trust into a remote working pipeline. It involves being very deliberate and intentional about achieving not just the results, but also the collaborative culture you’re seeking to build. We were happy to get feedback from the team confirming that we provided good guidance and that they’d look forward to working with us again on future projects.
Remote Results
In the last 30 days, we have received over 30 million views on Giphy and 3,000 views on Instagram. We are incredibly grateful that Giphy saw the importance of fostering an opportunity that would bring global exposure to Caribbean creators. And thank you to our viewers! We hope to continue creating content that you enjoy.
Keep an eye out for more updates on our ListenMi Views blog and our @listenminow social media platforms. If you have any questions or comments regarding this or any other projects you’d like us to discuss in upcoming posts, kindly share them below. We’re excited to unveil what we have planned!
Project Credits
A big shout-out to the team! 👏👏👏👏👏
- Jenille Brown- Storyboard, Rough animation
- Shaquille Crosse- Background artist and Rough Animation, SFX
- Kymani Gayle- Background artist
- Gashwayne Hudson- Storyboard
- Djet Layne- Clean up animation and SFX
- Ariana Lyn- Character Design
- Kenia Mattis- Producer
- Joelle McFarlane- Compositor
This post was contributed by Jadia Lattery and Kenia Mattis.
Jadia is ListenMi’s operations coordinator. When she’s not busy supporting the team on projects, she’s aimlessly scrolling through Tik Tok to see what trend she can jump on next!
Kenia is a co-founder of ListenMi, a storytelling company developing animations to inspire, entertain and bring people closer.
Give this post some👏 👏👏 and keep in touch to see more of the team’s work on Twitter & Instagram.
