There are a lot of moving parts to a video production skillset. I feel a bit like a developer with a large tech stack that’s continually evolving. I'm always learning new tools, dropping old workflows, refining existing ones, and I find it useful to track all of this.

So I thought it would be useful to start tracking it publicly, so others can benefit and see how these things evolve over time — and to force me to think about all of this more responsibly. 2024 is my first year of starting this. Hopefully I'll do one of these each year.

Right now, my primary tools are:

Tools that I’m tracking though are below. These may come in at any time and change things.

These are the primary skills I've worked on and have now that I employ in my daily work. With each one you'll see a rating for myself (e.g. 8/10). This is to give clarity on how much improvement I practically need in each area this year, not an objective rating. Obviously we can always improve.

Current rating: (5/10)

Improvements: I would like to improve my knowledge of cameras & grading. It’s still very shaky.

Current rating: (10/10)

Improvements: None needed this year (but still so much to improve in future)

This is the bread and butter of any motion designer's work and I'm glad to have tackled After Effects in depth. I feel pretty confident in this area and don't really need to make any developments for now with the style of videos that we're creating this year.

Current rating: (5/10)

Improvements: 3D Compositing (Cinema to After Effects) and Redshift Render settings.

I've developed some workable skills with Cinema and Redshift. It's allowed me to create some pretty good renders, but I do lack some of the core skills that a 3D artist has, notably modeling and animation. However, before working on those, I need to really get my compositing workflow and render settings down as this is most pressing to creating a good workflow for my team.

Current rating: (4/10)

Improvements: Auto Layout, Asset Management, References, Plugins, General Design

I rely far too heavily on our brand designer Tom Parkes to help design frames. Usually time I devote a bit of time to designing something in Figma the video I'm working on always improves massively.

Current rating: (7/10)

Improvements: I would like to develop a more discursive, engaging, and opinionated style of scripts, either by myself or with my colleagues.

The ability to break down complex topics or meet with multiple stakeholders and end up with a concise and aligned script is no mean feat. It's also the most important thing to get right before embarking on creating a video.

A large part of my role at Glide is actually being a presenter in some shape or form. Knowing how to deliver well to camera and on voiceovers is really important, as it sets the primary tone for the video. Doing it myself also means that I can move fast without having to wait or organize production for other people.

Current rating: (7/10)

Improvements: I recently discovered PromptSmart Pro — a teleprompter app that listens to what you say and moves the script accordingly. I want to get more comfortable with this and talk more freely and openly to camera as it will mean I need to spend way less time practicing/memorizing a plan for a script.

As well as improving this core skill set, there are a couple of other new things I need to add.

We're moving to DaVinci Resolve slowly at Glide. It's a fantastic system and they look like they've really nailed cloud management and collaboration. I'm weary of local projects for collaboration. As our team workflows expand, I want to join this trend. However, moving all my motion design to Fusion this year seems unfeasible.

As a tech company, we need to move fast, and video is quickly becoming our main channel. More and more of the team are becoming video creators, but not necessarily video producers. I want to make sure that I'm fully on top of all the different ways I can empower my team, speed up aspects of the pipeline, and benefit from new technologies to enhance our videos. There's a lot to track, and sometimes I forget about certain tools. So, I want to make a practice of bringing it all together, for myself, and others.

Parts of my workflow, like ACES, compression types, AOVs, file types, color spaces, monitor specs, and final output for delivery, still seem complex to me. My goal is to write a concise article on these topics to secure a basic understanding and keep my workflow organized.

So here's a short list of all the improvements I want to make this year.

🟡/🟢 = in progress/done