Angela Blackmon

Analog theft? Humans learn by reading books, studying art, watching tutorials, taking classes, analyzing films, listening to music, and practicing techniques created by others. Graphic designers learn from other designers. Filmmakers study other films. Photographers study lighting setups. Musicians study chord progressions. Programmers study existing code. But you do not just learn the “how to.” You learn accepted workflows, industry standards, techniques, structure, and process. Then after mastering the workflow, your own creativity and artistic voice begin to take over from simply learning the craft. Now AI is learning in a similar way. Studying. Learning. Analyzing. But AI itself is not creative. The creator fills that role. Their vision. Their message. Their storytelling. Their direction. AI is simply another tool to work through, just like the paint brush, the camera, and the computer. #AI #Creativity #Technology #Design #Filmmaking #Innovation

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I’ve noticed something about the families and professionals who commission legacy portraits. They aren’t doing it on impulse. They’ve built something. A life. A family. A name that means something—whether in their home, their community, or their work. And at a certain point, the question becomes quieter, but more meaningful: What will remain? Not just in financial terms. But in presence. In memory. In something tangible that tells the story long after we’re gone. A legacy portrait answers that in a way few things can. It becomes a visual anchor, something future generations can look at and say, this is where we come from. It holds expression, connection, and a sense of permanence that digital images simply can’t replicate. I often think about how many important stories are never fully preserved… not because they weren’t meaningful, but because no one stopped to honor them. That’s the work I feel called to do. To create pieces that don’t just capture how someone looked, but what they meant. And to give families something that will still matter decades from now.

This is lovely, from the process to the final result. To me, this is the nascent future. Although young people are already building these practices and making it their own. One thing I notice is the love for digital texture. Not analogue texture recreated digitally, but love of the cast offs from the digital process. Was the stain glass created using the webbing you get when you vectorise a bitmap painting? If so, hell yeah!

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Applying for a grant, funding, or residency? Read the application carefully and fill it out to the exact specifications required. The most popular calls for artists have so many applicants that you can get disqualified on the slightest technicalities. These include exceeding word count, misspellings, not sending images in the correct format, etc. If they're going to give you some serious cash or cash equivalent, you better at least show that you know how to spell, count, and follow instructions.

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If you are auditioning for a project and have dialogue with another character, PLEASE be sure to read the action lines in between the dialogue, read the other characters lines. READ IT ALL. Your acting choices are dictated by reading and re-reading the script multiple times and diving deep into the minutia. #voiceover #voiceactor #entrepreneur

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🎸 Ever wondered how creative sound design starts at the pedalboard? I just kicked off a new short-form series called “What Does This Pedal Do?” showing off unique guitar and bass effects in action. In this episode, I feature the Line 6 FM4, a synth-style filter pedal used by artists like Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Mars Volta. These sounds are bold, expressive, and anything but typical. Whether you are a fellow musician, a producer, or someone curious about music tech, check it out and let me know what you think.

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Long-form content doesn’t reach everyone, so when we work with Nat Geo, PBS, and others to create animation content, our job is to “spark the start”. Here’s what I mean: Our job isn’t to teach everything. With projects like Weird But True for National Geographic, Cornerstones for PBS, and The Curious Mind of Benjamin Franklin with Ken Burns, we were asked to help people care enough to go deeper. These partners came to us with a similar challenge: How do we reach new audiences with complex topics without watering them down? Here’s what worked: With Weird But True, Nat Geo had a beloved book series, but they needed a way to make it click in the digital classroom. ↳ Our animated shorts translated their quirky curiosity into a visual style that stuck. Suddenly, science facts tasted like candy and snuck in some nutrition too. For PBS Cornerstones, the goal was to spark interest among younger audiences in the historic Americans who helped the nation live up to the intentions of the Constitution and the Christian principles that shaped it. ↳ Long-form documentaries were not in the budget. But animation could fire up the interest in the content and make the foundational ideas digestible and interesting. With Ken Burns, we worked on The Curious Mind of Benjamin Franklin and Iconic America. ↳ The short, animated interludes could stand on their own or act as an entry point into his deeper catalog. We weren’t replacing his documentary voice. We were giving it another way in. If you want your audience to stay curious, you have to meet them there first. What’s a short piece of content that pulled you into something deeper?

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A lot of brands showcase their products, but not many truly present them. The Xbox controller project exemplifies the power of well-executed 3D animation, enhancing your product to: - Stand out online - Communicate its features - Feel premium and intentional This is the essence of exceptional marketing content. The sound design, curated by Julian Rossi, played a pivotal role in elevating the overall experience. This work resonates with my passion, especially when it involves consumer tech and performance-driven products. #3DAnimation #ProductMarketing #ConsumerTech #MotionDesign #LaunchContent

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Without recognizing personally & collective our HUMAN "failires"=trials & rrrors, how can we grow our meta cognitive function of our reflective mind, which AI BOTS DO EVERY SECOND 24/7 WITH MILLIONS & MILLIONS OF HUMAN USERS INPUTs (=PROMPT DATA) & INTERACTIONS WITH US, HUMANS (GENERATIVE DATA EITHER "SUCCESSFUL" or "FAILED") IN ORDER TO LEVEL UP THEIR NEVER ENDING MACHINE DEEP LEARNING PROCESS & INCREASE THEIR META COGNITIVE CAPACITIES IN MASSIVELY FAST & WELL-INTEGRATED=CONTEXUALIZED WAYS THAN ANY HUMANS including those AI engineers & computer scientists themselves have stuck to such a linear way of thinking in totally unchecked & unquestioned = confirmation biased "my way is high way" kinda arrogant (= foolish cognition + immature attitude) perspectives, unfortunately much more often than how frequently we hope it to be true nowadays. I feel more threatened by sensing our human "collective dis/ability" to learn from our mistakes & failures in much humble & mature ways to keep loosing our cognitive, emotional, intuitive, & insightful meta cognitions without sound ethics backed by decent human conscience than by the current terrible war-after-another endless warfares (instead of welfare at all) as well as the utmost horrific war crimes such as the 3 year long open genocide in Gaza, Palestine AND in Sudan. IT'S BECAUSE, I FEEL & THINK & BELIEVE THAT, WITHOUT OUR URGENT COLLECTIVE LEARNING & GROWTH IN OUR SHARED HUMANITY, WE, HUMAN SPECIES & HUMAN CIVILIZATION AIN'T GONNA HAVE ANY HOPEFUL GROUND OF SOUND FUTURE TO PASS DOWN TO GENERATION ALPHA & BETA WHO ARE BORN INTO THIS EXTREMELY AWEFUL EXISTENTIAL CRISIS OF HUMANS ON EARTH. DON'T YOU THINK SO? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 #LearnFromThePast #BothNegativeANDPositive #HumanLifeExperienceData #BothPersonalANDCollective #aFAILUREisTheMOTHERofSUCCESS #HumanMetaCognitiveDeficiency #CausingDystopianFutureWithAITech #실패는성공의어머니 #평생교육과각종훈련에서 #기본중의기본아녀 #우리모두다같이 #정신줄단디챙기야됨다 #각자도생equates인류공멸 #ByNeverEndingLeaeningMachines #ThatWeThinkWeCanControlForever #InOurDelusionalHumanMind

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One of the most important decisions I’ve made in my illustration workflow is building everything in clear, intentional phases. Thumbnails. Sketches. Color studies. Final art. Each step is reviewed and approved before moving forward. This isn’t about slowing the process down. It’s about protecting the final work. When decisions are made early, the final illustration phase becomes focused and calm instead of reactive. There’s less backtracking, fewer redraws, and more confidence on both sides of the collaboration. A clear process: – keeps timelines realistic – reduces unnecessary revisions – gives authors clarity and peace of mind – allows illustrators to stay creatively present Good process isn’t rigid — it’s supportive. And when it’s done well, creativity doesn’t unravel under pressure. It has the structure it needs to thrive.

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Mapping The Ephemeral Passage  Grateful to the Doris Duke Foundation for supporting this chapter of my archival research. Through this project, I’m developing a suite of tools designed to expand archival practice for the performing arts and beyond, so that what has historically been erased, overlooked, or left undocumented can be remembered, held, and activated for future generations. This is a call to slow down, to witness, to imagine. To create space where memory, performance, and radical possibility meet. Stay tuned as I continue to shape this practice — and thank you to everyone who walks with me in this work. #MappingTheEphemeralPassage #BlackStudy #ArchivalPractice #LivingArchive #RestCraftConjure #PerformanceArt #DorisDukeFoundation

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I scream, you scream, we all scream for... Displacement? I'm still workshopping that one 😅 Substance materials inside of After Effect's latest beta now support Displacement on prims!! Drag + drop an sbsar into your project and in the properties panel, enable it from the drop down. And bonus? Increase the Sub Division count for smaller details like the sprinkles. How will you use SBSARs in AE? More here -> https://lnkd.in/gDUKE--C

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Couldnt help making this after seeing the late cartoonist Dudley D Watkins words to a song about Desperate Dan...Who was a popular cartoon character when growing up - there was no music to the words so being curious was able to create with AI, https://lnkd.in/eSbDFBf3

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Your niche isn’t your prison. It’s your positioning. Artists who refuse to define their niche stay invisible. Not because they lack talent but because the market can’t place them. A niche is not limitation. It’s clarity. It tells collectors what you stand for. It tells curators how to categorize you. It tells the market where you belong. When everything is possible, nothing is memorable. Recognition comes from focus. Define your space. Own your direction. Let your work become identifiable, not scattered. Positioning creates demand. #artpositioning #artmarketing #artistoninstagram

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