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May</li><li>preparing an application for a coaching certification</li></ul>All of these tasks were stimulated by the productivity urge.I was overloading myself. Also, I noted with more than a hint of regret that many of these quests to be productive were putting undue pressure on others to be productive too.It was time to be less productive.I set about culling my list.<h1 id="47d5">Forgiveness</h1>Let’s be real for a second. There’s a pandemic out there. We’re all in quarantine. A lot of people have lost their jobs and even those of us lucky to still be working have all but lost the structure to our days and weeks.News cycles are punishing. Everything takes more effort. Energy levels are low. Mood can be low too. It is not a time to overload: it is a time for self-care.That can actually mean doing less. And that is ok.I began cancelling things. I cancelled the webinar on remote working. My friend who was organising it with me immediately said thank you.I postponed the second work-related webinar. Two work colleagues agreed it was a good idea.Launching the new Medium Publication is still an ambition, but I am taking my foot off the gas with that. It can happen later in the year. I forgive myself.I am also taking the pressure off myself to write at all. I still get huge enjoyment out of writing for Serious Scrum, but my inspiration is lower, and that is ok: it always ebbed and flowed. I forgive myself for my lower rate of publication.

Illumination is a new project for me. I have no idea how much I will write here and, you know what, I forgive myself for that uncertainty as well.Writing this feels confessional and unusual for me. It is not how I normally write. But it feels good. As I write, I forgive myself for over-sharing.I hope others will recognise something in my story and perhaps begin to forgive themselves for doing less too.<h1 id="87bd">Distraction</h1>It’s probably fair to point out: I didn’t cancel everything.The meet-up in May was a request from a friend and the topic is one I’ve written ab

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out already, so I’m going to continue with that. My friend did ask me this weekend if I was still ok to do it, and I had an opportunity to say no. For once, I didn’t automatically dismiss the idea of saying no. I forgive myself for thinking about saying no.Also, I continue to be inspired to apply for a coaching certification. This is a long-term ambition of mine, and there is no time-sensitivity to the application process. I choose to take that pressure off myself now, and I also choose to forgive myself for taking my own sweet time with it.I allow myself these distractions because they are meaningful to me.Also, without the overload of other tasks, I can do these at a pace that makes more sense to me.<figure id="20f5"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*IiUm2PXzVt6r4zhg"><figcaption>Flight Safety Instructions</figcaption></figure><h1 id="e2b3">Moving forward, one step at a time</h1>You do not have to be productive.You need to care for yourself so that you can care for others. Watch out for the to-do list and that feeling of being a little overwhelmed. It can creep up on you.Forgive yourself for taking on less. It’s ok.Forgive yourself for your low energy. It’s ok.Forgive yourself for your low mood or for those days when you don’t want to do anything at all.It’s ok to not be ok.Flight safety instructions tell us:<blockquote id="a104">“If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person.” (Source: <a href="https://activerain.com/blogsview/2535480/put-your-own-oxygen-mask-on-first">Active Rain</a>)</blockquote>Self-care means that, rather than feeling pressured to be more productive, you might need to go out for a walk instead.By taking on less and looking after yourself, you will put your figurative oxygen mask on. This will help you to breathe better.First things first. Breathe.If you can, cancel the things you don’t need to do right away.It’s ok. You can forgive yourself.</article></body>

What Is Stop-Motion Animation?

The beautiful artform that films only seconds of footage a day

ParaNorman — stop-motion in action. Gif: Via Giphy

Stop-motion animation is a beautiful, artistic, labour-intensive, form of animation.

It uses physical objects, such as puppets or models, which are moved and photographed.

The models can be as simple as Lego toys, or as complicated as the puppets used in Corpse Bride, which had gears and mechanisms in their heads so that their expressions could be moved with an allen key:

‘The mechanical faces are a lot more sophisticated, explained director Mike Johnson, who makes his feature debut on Corpse Bride. It enables us to get much more expressive performances than you could with replacement animation. A little more subtlety an eyebrow can just ease a few frames longer. Little paddles and gears allow us to get the tiny increments. Put an Allen key inside an ear and Victor smiles; put it inside the other ear and he frowns.’

— 'Corpse Bride’: Stop Motion Goes Digital; Bill Desowitz, awn.com, 16 Sep 2005

These figures are then imaged, frame-by-frame, as they are moved incremental amounts by hand.

When the still images are put together (at a rate of around 24 frames per second,) it generates the illusion of movement.

In order to create smooth-looking movement, the positioning of the models from one frame to the next has to be both minute and precise.

Stop-motion is a supremely stylised and skilled form of animation, which always leaves me in awe at the dedication of those working on it.

In order to work as a stop-motion animator, you have to love your work.

There’s just no way you’d work all day for circa three seconds of footage otherwise.

‘Yes, its slow, meticulous and painstaking. Or, as actress Helena Bonham Carter observed in Toronto, All animators are anal because its all about the detail. And when youre shooting two or three seconds of footage a day, one frame at a time with a still camera for 50 weeks, thats about as detailed and labor intensive as it gets.’

— ‘Corpse Bride’: Stop Motion Goes Digital; Bill Desowitz, awn.com, 16 Sep 2005

A small, non-exhaustive, list of stop-motion films I love:

(In case you want to check ’em out, and appreciate the beauty that comes from all that work!)

ParaNorman
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Corpse Bride
The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! (Also released under the title The Pirates! Band of Misfits, because the ‘scientists’ title was deemed inappropriate for the US market… make of that what you will!)
The Boxtrolls
The Shaun the Sheep Movie

Witch-Hunts and Fear: The Emotional Maturity of ParaNorman

Fear makes you do terrible things…

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