For part two of our new mini-series, Making Money in MoGraph, I’m talking with someone who does something that not to many of us in this industry do - 2d technical directing. It’s just one of the many different and less than conventional ways that people who work in motion design can make a living.

Zack Lovatt is a technical director with a truly diversified income stream. He writes and sells scripts in After Effects as well as working directly with studios to help streamline their process and improve their efficiency. Having started out as an artist before transitioning into his current role, Zack knows quite a few ins and outs of this industry.

In this interview, Zack and I talk about what it’s like being a 2d technical director in motion design and how he diversifies his income through various types of work. We also discuss our predictions for the future of writing scripts for after effects. Furthermore, Zack is really upfront about his profits and losses which he shares publicly on his website and we dive into that too.

In this episode:

What it means to work as a 2d technical director in this industry
The future of creating and using After Effects scripts
The role that creating passive income streams can play in supplementing your income as a freelancer
How and why you should keep close track of your bookkeeping and why you may want to share it publicly

Quotes:

“It’s the idea that anything that you don’t want to spend an hour doing manual finicky work, you can probably write a script to do that. I see a lot of value there and that is something I see growing; just everyday accessibility to these more technical approaches.” [10:13]

“Having multiple sources of income is very important. I think passive income, or as passive as you can get, is also very important, especially in the freelance gig economy where you might not have work for three months. So even a trickle coming in on the side is more than nothing. The issue there is telling people to start writing scripts or learning plug-ins with the assumption that you’re going to retire is unrealistic.” [21:59]

“A lot of people are like, ‘choose your rate and stick to it.’ But, in practicality, I never found that to be true. It's choosing your rate, stick to it unless you can’t, in which case be flexible because having some work is nicer than no work.” [31:25]

Links:

Find Zack Online

Aenhancers After Effects Forum

Episode 31: Adam Plouff - Battleaxe - Making Money in Mograph Part 1

Find the full show notes here

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032: Making Money in Mograph Part 2 w/ Zack Lovatt - Technical Director

Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business

032: Making Money in Mograph Part 2 w/ Zack Lovatt - Technical Director