Open Source, Bellwethers, and Animation

There is a famous aphorism which states: “If you love something, let it go.” While it can be true that letting something go might be an ultimate end of affection, it can also be true that this act may be the very thing that kills it. Particularly, if that thing you love is a bird, and the thing that kills it is the hawk maliciously waiting outside your apartment window. When you let something go to be free, it is not always quite enough to simply “release it into the wild”. It must also be prepared to adapt and be set forth properly with leadership and upkeep.

The act of committing art to becoming open source is very much the same. It is a choice that is often both revered and avoided in the artist community. A typical artist who spends a considerable amount of time bringing hard, sought after content into the world will most likely have the disposition to seek compensation for that time and effort spent. However, the artist that goes against this grain will often find this method to be unsustainable due to the nature of the open source’s common lack of a return profit. While this can be problematic to many artists, particularly to the un-established, it can have a tremendous effect on both the art community culture and the artist via means of non-monetary value.

After many productions, vast amounts of production work and assets can get archived, never to be seen or used again. From animation rigs to pipeline tools, once the project reaches the end, regrettably so do many of these assets. Rather than retain or archive production resources and intellectual property, I propose studios and artists freely release a selection of these elements to the creative community in what I will call a Bellwether. This method would go beyond just releasing an asset for free by creating goals and a clear intent as well. When a Bellwether is created and distributed, it will find new life outside the production, helping other artists, students, and studios alike, making the original creator a leader and trend setter in the industry. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a Bellwether as, “[O]ne that takes the lead or initiative; [L]eader.” And, as “an indicator of trends.”