2025-03-27
In 2024, I was brought onto a show as a "fixer". The CG supervisor said afterward that I reminded him of The Wolf from Pulp Fiction. "You give him a problem to solve and you get out of his way." Personally, I prefer to work collaboratively, but I appreciate the reference nonetheless.
Dylan's Playtime Adventures holds a special place in my heart. To start, I was on the proof-of-concept team where I had the distinction of being the animator who finally "cracked" the style of the show. My real contribution came over a year later however.
The show was having some major technical challenges, some known, many as-yet unidentified. I was brought on to help rescue this show by finally figuring out how to make their big branding moment - the Ribbon effect - possible. I created a process to make this effect orders of magnitude easier. Then, I trained a small team of artists on how to use the new process effectively and together we were able to clear their 4 month backlog in about 4 weeks. I then moved on to identifying and addressing a dozen other technical and process issues, many of which could just as easily tanked the show.
I was let loose on this show. I was a blur of productivity. I created new software plugins for the animation team, wrote as-yet-unwritten technical documentation and style guides, I introduced new note-taking procedures, I took measures to boost team morale - I uh ... I played the kazoo in review meetings every time a shot was approved - I assisted other leads in other departments in their creative problem solving scrums ... it was a blur. I was a blur. I'd never been given so much latitude. But it paid off.
The upshot was that this show, which was at serious risk of not going to air at all, was able to get completed on schedule by a team who was still standing and still smiling. Then, it was nominated in the "Best New Series" category at Kidscreen in 2025. Phew!
copyright 2025 Will Postma
make cool stuff | solve hard problems
