Low productivity in the Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida building?

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I found this article written by Joseph Gilland:

Today a young up-and-coming animation artist might ask one of the old-time animators (like me), Hey, do you ever animate while you are text messaging someone, downloading music to your iPod, updating your Facebook, checking your e-mail, reading an article on the AWN web site, and watching a movie at the same time? Hey, I am not exaggerating, this is something I see every day in the animation workplace and, quite frankly, I think it is something that is costing the animation industry untold millions of hours and dollars of lost productivity, not to mention the loss of creative talent that is being diluted by this relentless barrage of digital input.

I first began to really notice the phenomenon of digital distraction back in 1998, when we first moved into the state-of-the-art four-story Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida building at the Disney-MGM Studios. I was amazed to learn at the time that every single workstation in our new building came with full cable television, broadband radio and Internet connections. It seemed like a really nice perk, and I certainly didnt complain, but I couldnt help thinking, werent we supposed to be working? Was cable TV really necessary? Would this complete connectivity with every available form of media entertainment be a good thing for productivity? As the head of the special effects department there in the subsequent years, I certainly found out the hard way how all of that media availability affected the productivity of my crew. Within a week of moving into the new space, the majority of artists had brought in small televisions, as well as DVD players, and of course the standard small stereo systems and ghetto blasters were already at everyones desk.

First thing every morning, a substantial number of artists in our crew would watch the morning news on television, as they had their coffee and morning snack. And then, I watched aghast as a surprising number of artists began to watch TV throughout their workday. The television was always on, whether playing network programs, or films on DVD, and I immediately began to see the difference in day-to-day productivity between the artists who had their televisions on all day and the artists who didnt. A subtle difference at first, but it was undeniable. Being entertained while supposedly working was not good for productivity, and I addressed it with my crew, suggesting that we have a certain amount of time during the workday designated as no TV time. There was a little bit of grumbling, but for the most part, it did not seem like a big deal at the time. But then I began to notice an increasing number of artists were spending a great deal of time on the Internet, answering e-mails, checking their stocks, chatting, and/or just plain surfing the Net. Unbelievably, I actually came upon artists who had their music playing, the television on, and were surfing the Internet, all at the same time as they were supposedly drawing and animating, working towards our departments weekly quota of over 100 feet of beautifully polished, high-end special-effects animation.

Keep in mind that this was still a traditional hand-drawn-effects animation department for the most part, with the exception of two 3D-effects animators and TDs who worked exclusively on computers around the clock. Although we primarily worked on a traditional animation desk with light table and disk, each animator now had a computer as well, in the form of a Disney Scene Machine -- a digital pencil test shooting machine, built around a Mac computer. All of these were set up with complete Internet access. It was all the rage to check out the latest web sites, and there was supposedly a lot of research that could be done, to assist us in doing our jobs well. It was like having a vast library of resources at your fingertips. Of course the Disney studio actually had a terrific resource library -- you know, the kind with actual books in it -- as well as an incredible collection of movies and cartoons, but the immediacy of the Internet was seductive, and fast, and readily available, without having to take the trek up to the library, or going to the bother of actually cracking open a book.

Link: https://www.awn.com/animationworld/anim ... istraction

[Kyle]

Distraction is indeed a pretty big roadblock in ones goals. I bought an animation desk recently, and I feel bad for not using it more often, and its primarily because of my addition to just being an internet npc rather than putting the work in. Granted, I'm not getting paid, its just a hobby I want to learn. but its still something I need to learn some discipline to do.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Yes, that's why many authors prefer to write on word processors that is only good for writing, and can't do anything else.

One has to wonder if the studio in Florida could have lasted a little longer had they produced more work in less time.