Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director • Hacker News Board

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#21

Post by jazzcomputer » Sat, May 03, 2025, 8:24 AM UTC

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #9

jazzcomputer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came across a game studio a few years ago here in NZ that does it right. I worked in a hot desk place that housed their studio in a space - they were never working past 5.30, had amazing staff reviews (they did them in a space where I could overhear them), have a good IP, good wage packages, excellent internal mentoring, a good gender split, recruit diverse staff. I'm pretty sure there's a few other studios here to…

If you're willing to share their name, I'd love to take a look at their games and support a positive place.

Runaway Play

I also hear good things about Dinosaur Polo Club

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#22

Post by mnbbrown » Sat, May 03, 2025, 8:45 AM UTC

JohnScolaro wrote: post #17

What a fantastic write-up. As a Brisbane native and software developer I often feel similarly to the author about Brisbane's software dev scene. Brisbane so often feels like a backwater, with the big dogs down in Melbourne and Sydney, and the 'peak of industry' in the US. I'd love to move to Seattle and work for Amazon or something to get 'relevant industry experience' but what I'd really love to do is make a go of i…

As someone who’s from Brisbane but spent the last 7 years in London you’re 100% correct. Brisbane is the best city in the world. I’m excited to eventually move back.

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#23

Post by polotics » Sat, May 03, 2025, 9:06 AM UTC

Wow the money shot of this I think is the quote:

"...Or at least have a bit more financial security to show for it. My designs have generated roughly 2 billion dollars for the people lucky enough to be cashing in on it. Not bad surplus value for someone on an 88k salary."""

88k AUD is less than 60'000 USD, and as this art director worked one year on this, the raw ratio of wage earned to this is 0.00003, so 0.003 percent. Sure there were other people involved, but even if this art director's year of repetitive strain injuries is only worth one percent of the value of Bluey, then still it managed to capture only 0.3 percent of the value. This 99.7% makes the 30% Apple-tax on developers look good. I think it shouldn't.

The lesson for me is: creative endeavours are meant to die in our society.

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#24

Post by namdnay » Sat, May 03, 2025, 9:18 AM UTC

polotics wrote: post #23

Wow the money shot of this I think is the quote: "...Or at least have a bit more financial security to show for it. My designs have generated roughly 2 billion dollars for the people lucky enough to be cashing in on it. Not bad surplus value for someone on an 88k salary.""" 88k AUD is less than 60'000 USD, and as this art director worked one year on this, the raw ratio of wage earned to this is 0.00003, so 0.003 perc…

But if Bluey (like most shows people will work on) hadn’t been a huge success, he would still have kept his 88k

That’s the inherent trade off in a salaried position - you are trading potential wealth for guaranteed security

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#25

Post by z2 » Sat, May 03, 2025, 9:38 AM UTC

namdnay wrote: post #24

polotics wrote: post #23

Wow the money shot of this I think is the quote: "...Or at least have a bit more financial security to show for it. My designs have generated roughly 2 billion dollars for the people lucky enough to be cashing in on it. Not bad surplus value for someone on an 88k salary.""" 88k AUD is less than 60'000 USD, and as this art director worked one year on this, the raw ratio of wage earned to this is 0.00003, so 0.003 perc…

But if Bluey (like most shows people will work on) hadn’t been a huge success, he would still have kept his 88k That’s the inherent trade off in a salaried position - you are trading potential wealth for guaranteed security

Not at all familiar with animation or the broader industry but could they have at least offered the potential for royalties or some sort of sales based bonuses?

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#26

Post by 2muchcoffeeman » Sat, May 03, 2025, 9:53 AM UTC

phinnaeus wrote: post #18

JohnScolaro wrote: post #17

What a fantastic write-up. As a Brisbane native and software developer I often feel similarly to the author about Brisbane's software dev scene. Brisbane so often feels like a backwater, with the big dogs down in Melbourne and Sydney, and the 'peak of industry' in the US. I'd love to move to Seattle and work for Amazon or something to get 'relevant industry experience' but what I'd really love to do is make a go of i…

I lived and worked as a dev in Seattle for 8 years before moving to Sydney. I want nothing more than for Australia to have a thriving tech scene but I haven’t seen much progress in that area since I moved here 5 years ago. I still love it and have no plans to go back. I just wish there was more opportunity here and not so much constant pressure to move back to the US for increased salary and challenge.

Australia in some ways is the opposite of the US. Too much regulation and not enough effort to help people start businesses. It really needs to change and they’re missing a big opportunity to make the start up scene better. Just as long as we don’t do it while throwing out sensible regulations.

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#27

Post by 2muchcoffeeman » Sat, May 03, 2025, 9:56 AM UTC

z2 wrote: post #25

namdnay wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if Bluey (like most shows people will work on) hadn’t been a huge success, he would still have kept his 88k That’s the inherent trade off in a salaried position - you are trading potential wealth for guaranteed security

Not at all familiar with animation or the broader industry but could they have at least offered the potential for royalties or some sort of sales based bonuses?

I believe most of the value of Bluey is captured by the BBC. The whole thing is a real shame for Australia. We’ve had a couple of the best children’s entertainment ever: Wiggles and Bluey. Don’t know why they didn’t negotiate a bigger piece of the pie with Bluey.

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#28

Post by andrepd » Sat, May 03, 2025, 9:57 AM UTC

polotics wrote: post #23

Wow the money shot of this I think is the quote: "...Or at least have a bit more financial security to show for it. My designs have generated roughly 2 billion dollars for the people lucky enough to be cashing in on it. Not bad surplus value for someone on an 88k salary.""" 88k AUD is less than 60'000 USD, and as this art director worked one year on this, the raw ratio of wage earned to this is 0.00003, so 0.003 perc…

A certain 19th century German thinker wrote abundantly on that issue :-) It's not just creative endeavours.

The fact that access to capital is not evenly distributed means that those who don't have it have to surrender their surplus value to those that have it.

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#29

Post by namdnay » Sat, May 03, 2025, 10:00 AM UTC

z2 wrote: post #25

namdnay wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if Bluey (like most shows people will work on) hadn’t been a huge success, he would still have kept his 88k That’s the inherent trade off in a salaried position - you are trading potential wealth for guaranteed security

Not at all familiar with animation or the broader industry but could they have at least offered the potential for royalties or some sort of sales based bonuses?

For star voice actors or an animator who has already made their reputation on other shows maybe?

The interesting question would be “if at the time they had offered him 40k and points, would he have chosen that?”

Re: Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director

#30

Post by lukan » Sat, May 03, 2025, 10:11 AM UTC

JohnScolaro wrote: post #17

What a fantastic write-up. As a Brisbane native and software developer I often feel similarly to the author about Brisbane's software dev scene. Brisbane so often feels like a backwater, with the big dogs down in Melbourne and Sydney, and the 'peak of industry' in the US. I'd love to move to Seattle and work for Amazon or something to get 'relevant industry experience' but what I'd really love to do is make a go of i…

"I believe Brisbane is secretly still the best city in the world"

Personally the 3 times I visited Brisbane, were all in all quite neutral for me, not great, not bad. But friends had way worse experiences and when I found a iconic backpackers book, "No shitting on the toilet", I had a good laugh about those passages:

"A friend of mine would never leave a place until he’d had a good time there. Another friend would not leave a destination until he had learnt something encouraging about the people and their culture. Both are currently stuck in Brisbane."

So .. I would have been stuck there as well. So please no offense about your home town. I love Queensland. And Bluey. And would give your hometown a chance again. But I do know people who never ever want to go there again. (But it also has been some years.)