An Introduction.

Who am I and what is KZanim?

Hello everyone and welcome to my little corner of the online world.

I’ve spent a couple of days over-thinking and stressing about how I should introduce myself, how to get people to start engage with KZanim.

I was considering the importance of the “first” post and how it can make or break people’s perception of me, so I decided not to do it at all.

However, after waking up, in the middle of the night, from a strange dream… it suddenly hit me. “This won’t be an amazing post because it’s my first”. Just like with almost everything else in life, and more importantly, just like animation. Everyone gets better at anything if they keep trying.

It’s going to be a long post, so….

First things first, I want to say that if you don’t care about animation, you shouldn’t spend more of your time reading any of this.

On the other hand, if you are interested in animation, I suggest you keep reading.

So, who am I?

My name is Konstantinos Zacharakis, and I am a Greek 27 year old currently living and working as an animator in mobile games, in Finland. But I’ll have to take this story further back for you to get where I am coming from and how I ended up here, writing this post.

I was about 12 when me and my brother, got our hands on a Sony PlayStation magazine. We were big time gamers at the time…

Some I can remember that made an impact in my life are tomb raider, resident evil, crash bandicoot, god of war, Hitman, GTA , Fifa and, of course, Pro evolution.

Anyway, in this magazine we read some interviews of animators, artists and QA people. I remember having this long conversation of how awesome this could be… making games and playing them as your day job. (keep in mind we were pretty poor) The possibility of me becoming an animator didn’t even cross my mind. Even though I thought about it a lot, it seemed so impossible that I just forgot about it.

Growing up in Greece I never met any animators or anyone who was involved with the most fascinating industry.

Fast forward, a few years later, when I was really into playing music in bands and dreaming of being a rockstar, at 18 I finished school and went for my mandatory army service. There I had a year to contemplate my future choices. I knew that music couldn’t provide a comfortable life financially and I always loved sketching and creating ideas. Therefore, I decided to study Graphic design. My idea of the particular career was that I’d be making album covers for bands and magazine covers with beautiful women. Unfortunately, it was nothing like that. I was working for about 6 months in an advertising company at a very bad period for the Economy in Greece. I was earning about 200€ per month. This wasn’t sustainable and I was forced to move back with my parents, working as a waiter for about a year.

That is when desperation and mild depressive thoughts about my future led me to the decision of breaking out of my comfort zone like never before. I tried to escape all my problems for a better life.

I thought I would love to do children’s book Illustrations, and so I applied to study in the UK. I realized that if I studied animation, I could still do that, and so I switched my focus. How lucky?

My 3 years of studying were horrible. I don’t want to get into details because you’ll probably run out of tissues and if you’re reading this in a public place it gets embarrassing.

The course was really good, but it was more of a generalists course than an animation focused one. My main problem at the time, was that I had no funds from any government and I had to work at factories and other part-time jobs, while studying. Of course, once I knew what animation was, NOTHING could stop me.

After finishing University, I started finally focusing on animation and trying to learn as much as possible. I put my first show reel together and applied everywhere. I got a few calls, did a few tests and interviews and 6 months after graduation I got a job offer from the company I am currently working for, Nitro-games.

I moved to Finland and faced more difficulties at work than I could imagine. I will save these stories for later though because I can feel this is getting a bit too dramatic.

So moving on. What is KZanim?

Since I started on my animation Journey, I never stopped trying to improve and being amazed by this art form. I am thinking about it every day, reading and constantly studying after work. I am taking courses and trying to find other activities that will be beneficial to my animation skills and understanding of life and movement.

I follow a lot of people in the industry, who share their knowledge, and have helped me along the way (they still do). In Addition to that, I recently started watching some amazing animators streaming their work on twitch (not professional work because of NDAs). I started feeling grateful that people like them exist and decided that I can do that as well. In my own, unique, awkward and crappier way. And maybe, just maybe… someone will get something out of it.

I will start blogging, streaming and having a social media presence where I will document my journey to become better. Or rather, my process of sucking less everyday.

Needed a nickname because my name is hard to pronounce and KZanim was my first idea that made sense . I will post things that I believe are valuable for animators. Also create some content and have KZanim as an extra motivational cog pushing me to be accountable and keep evolving. I won’t write from the perspective of a top animator, simply because I am not one (not yet at least). 

I will share my personal work, personal opinions and a lot of things that are always animation related. Most of all, I will give an insight in the unglamorous side of animation. Software crashes, sudden windows updates, restarts, blue screens, frustration with shots but most of all passion and dedication to go through all this.

aologize for the length of this first post and I hope you have enough information now if you decide to join me on my adventure to get better at animating. Let’s do it together! Two thirds of young people abandon their career aspirations by the age of 20, but we won’t!

Thanks for reading all this and, again, welcome to KZanim.

Share this with people who love animation or will possibly like it.

I wish someone told me about it earlier.