So I entered the Australian Doritos 'You make it, we play it' competition which basically requires you to make an ad for Doritos and the winner gets theirs on TV. (See my entry here).
I did it with a friend and given our other commitments we were sort of forced to do the whole thing in the weekend leading up to the competition closed (not including the prior weeks of writing, storyboaring etc), but that being said I think it turned out pretty damn good. A lot of people who watched it said we had a chance of making the top 10 but to be honest I never thought this was the case, not because I thought our entry was crap just because we had some tough competition. And friends tend to be polite about this sort of thing.
But I get an email yesterday from Doritos saying "your creation didn't make the Top 50". This was a massive blow to me. Anyone who has seen the other entries (*instructions on how to do this are at the bottom of the post) will know that you would be hard pressed to find fifty entries that aren't just some wanky kids playing with their handycam.
I really don't care that much about not being in the top ten, and if it were just that I would let it be and move on to another project, but being put below this sort of half-assed crap is just insulting.
Due to work and university commitments I rarely get the opportunity to animate these days, so when I do I put a lot of soul into it. But this has been a clear indicator to me that what I perceive as quality work, and the way I view my own work, is contrary to everybody else's opinion. It seems as though I would get better results if I took a cheap video camera and filmed my brother acting like a dickhead.
Because of this, I'm stopping doing any sort of recreational animating. All the projects I am working on are indefinitely postponed, and the only time I will use Flash is for work, which mainly consists of making graphs and never anything creative.
I'm not being melodramatic (or trying not to be) but this whole incident has been a massive blow to my confidence, and I really don't feel like putting effort into anything like this for at least a few months.
I'm sure most of you won't care and to a lot of people this will just sound like someone having a bitch because they lost a competition. But I think I explained myself pretty well.
*How to view the other entries:
1- go to the Doritos Australia site
2- click "vote now"
3- click "all entries"
PS: The reason my entry isn't posted on NG is because there are a lot of filters which make it lag as an swf. Otherwise I wouldn't make people go to youTube.
JamesKnox
Stop whining and keep making flash.