Rocketpanda goals for this 2024
Rocketpanda
An Italian animation studio specializing in motion graphics, illustration, traditional animation and 3D.
What shall we expect from Rocketpanda this year? Our founder + Creative Director Riccardo Albertini gives us some insights into Rocketpanda's future.
Hi there! I'm thrilled to welcome you to my first article. If you're here, you probably already know a bit about us—our love for pushing boundaries, our passion for all things creative, and our irrepressible spirit of adventure. But today, I want to take you on a deeper dive into the world of Rocketpanda. From the highs and lows of 2023 to our bold plans for the future, so, grab your favorite beverage, cozy up, and let's dive into the wild and wonderful world of Rocketpanda!
How was 2023?
To be honest, if I said that 2023 has been a fantastic year without any hiccups, I would be lying. It has certainly been a year that ended on a positive note, a year of personal and financial growth, but it has also been a challenging year, filled with unexpected events that were exhausting and demanding.
As we enter the new year, we aim to improve by learning from the past.
Fill the gap between the team and the followers
As a studio, we're often viewed as a single entity, but we really want our people to be involved and be recognized for being the amazing individuals behind the incredible projects we have the luck to work on.
I personally care about this on a very high level, since the individuals I've encountered along the way are Rocketpanda's greatest asset.
Now ask yourself, who is Rocketpanda? Do you really know who we are? We want to make sure it will be easier for you to associate a face to a specific part of the process and to do so, we are planning to publish more valuable content on social platforms that will include each one of us. Connecting to a studio is good, but being able to connect to actual people is even better.
More BTS and tutorials
Because we all love them, RIGHT? We feel like sharing is the best thing the motion design community does: the early after effects tricks, the crazy 3D workflow tips, the “how to not go crazy on an over complicated shot” guide… we’ve all been there looking for that tip out of need or simply happen to enjoy a 30 seconds reel full of pure mograph knowledge and expertise.
We’ve done this quite a few times but we want this to be a regular part of our feeds for your viewing pleasure and to give back to all those people that have, at least once, helped us with a bit of their knowledge.
Also, creating highly detailed behind the scenes, not only makes for an interesting post for the community, it also shows what it takes to achieve a result like that and no, it’s not done by just pressing one button.
Events, where the community lies
Budgeting trips to events and hiring a person that can finally take care of the planning (among the long list of other things she does) has surely helped in deciding where to go this year.
It’s such a privilege to be able to go to motion festivals and meet the people you chat with on Instagram and LinkedIn in person, sharing motion facts, beers, and nerd jokes.
While we’re at it, let me tell you we already booked our seats for OFFF in Barcelona and Pictoplasma in Berlin, will we see you there? If you’re around, feel free to approach us, we’re pandas, but we don’t bite!
Let’s meet!
Speaking of meeting, the plan is to host more live events at the studio and beyond! You may already be familiar with motion bits, our motiongraphics workshop series, more live events are being cooked, we hope you will manage to show up for some motion chat.
Speak at an event
We love what we do, and it's evident in the passion we pour into our work. We believe there's always room for growth, and time only makes us better. If we could start to share our love for design and animation in front of an audience of enthusiasts, this would be the perfect moment to do it.
How incredible would it be to bring the joy and passion we experience in the studio every day to a whole audience of individuals who cherish and appreciate the same kind of creative world?
It may not happen this year, but this is definitely the time to start gathering the right contacts and let the world of events know that a small studio based in northern Italy is eager to share.
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Explore AI
AI is coming, let’s brace for impact!
It would probably be too superficial not to explore AI because “AI is bad, hooman is good”, technological advancements are probably here to stay and shape the industry anyway, artificial general intelligence is one step closer, so let’s try to take what is good and use it to our advantage.
yes, AI sucks, I know, but it does not suck entirely. There’s plenty of useful uses of AI that can help you along the process. For example producing a nice rough voice-over can be done very quickly with Eleven labs software, prototyping ultra quickly is achieved through the real-time generation on Krea and everyone knows how to polish their Linkedin articles.
These will be assistants to our work, we’re not replaceable yet.
Smash the comfort zone (but don't kill it!)
We opened the new year with the most “out of the comfort zone” project coming from the previous one: Mectron, that project proved ourselves we were able to do more than what we thought we could.
This year, we want to enjoy a sweet little dip in this newly acquired skill and happily splash in the comfort zone, gently swimming towards the next new skill to learn.
I get the “get out of the comfort zone” thing, I totally understand it and it makes sense: it really works as fuel for your growth, but as a studio we also need some time to let this new tool to settle and seamlessly and effortlessly become part of the workflow.
Meanwhile, dipping toes into new apps, techs, and styles is a must to stay innovative and ahead of the curve, ensuring our designs remain fresh and captivating.
Graphic design where art thou?
Several years ago, frame by frame animation took motion graphics by storm and became an essential part of the process, until it became something essential: each animation had to incorporate traditional animation at least once.
Don’t worry, we still love how great frame by frame can be, it’s essential, but we kind of miss the good old days of motiongraphics where shapes were dominating the screens and everything looked so sleek and colorful.
We aim to capture that essence and bring it up to 2024 standards, ensuring our works can achieve excellence without relying solely on frame-by-frame animation.
More studio activities
Lastly, we enjoy spending time together, we introduced a few regular activities to make work a nicer place to live in.
To channel this inner movie critiques impulse, we will spend one evening a month watching a movie together, picked from a curated list.
Finally, after everyone has enjoyed a relaxing weekend and faces the challenges of Monday, to lighten the mood, I propose starting our Monday meeting (our weekly routine) with these three things:
Finally, since nobody’s perfect, we are also working to become a better team in pair with a team of coaches.
See you later!
Phew! That’s a lot of stuff to be taken care of, but hey, that's just how we roll at Rocketpanda! As we look ahead to the future, we're filled with excitement for the adventures awaiting us. And you know what? We're not just in it for the work; we're in it for the fun too! So let's buckle up, brace ourselves for whatever comes our way, and let's make some memories together. Here's to facing challenges head-on, achieving remarkable milestones, and sharing plenty of laughs along the way.
To start a new project just email [email protected] so that we can make the magic happen. Thanks.
So much truth spoken! I particularly vibe with the point about graphic design. I've been trying a bit too hard to become an animator, but you just reminded me of what makes us special as "motion designers" and that design mentality should always come with us in whatever creative journey we embark on.