You Just Never Know
A very good friend of mine, “Anne,” will be attending the premier of her new video game in the upcoming months, and we are all very excited for her. This will be the 3rd video game she has starred in. She is even on IMDB, the Internet Movie DataBase, for all of her work in the video game world.
What does she do?
She’s a motion capture actress. She puts on a spandex body suit covered in, essentially, ping pong balls, and acts out the movements and moments in the video games that are later turned into specific characters. One of her characters even has blogs about it all over the web, and she's been turned into two different Funko POPs!
She never dreamed she’d be doing something like this, and it is the coolest job many of us, her lucky friends, could imagine.
Why do I tell you this? I write this because I want to remind you of a few important things:
There are amazing opportunities out there that you’ve never heard of before.
I had no idea you could make legitimate money as a motion capture actress, or even in the field of video games in general, before Anne took this opportunity. It had just never crossed my mind. Motion Capture Acting hadn’t ever entered her mind, either. However, it is a really interesting and fun job, and she is doing something she is good at, loves, and gets to leave her mark on something that will last. When I watch certain parts of the games she is in, I truly see her in the movements, and that is undeniably cool. There is a whole universe of jobs out there doing all kinds of neat things: underwater archeologist, air balloon tour guide, living statue at a hotel in Vegas – everything thing that is done needs a person to do it. Keep your mind open to the broadness of the opportunities out there!
Even if you have moments when you think your degree is “in a useless field,” don’t give up on it.
Anne’s got a drama degree. When she graduated, she wanted to be on Saturday Night Live or, at least, work in a theater. She instead initially found herself working in doctor’s offices and felt like her degree wasn’t serving her well, and then the opportunity to be a video game actress doing motion capture came along, and her mind was changed. The things you have learned in school can be useful in ways you hadn’t expected, so don’t give up on yourself or the things you have learned and skills you have acquired.
Life and your career can take you places you never expected, if you are willing to take leaps of faith.
Hey, it bears repeating – Anne never expected this really cool opportunity to come up. But it did. And now characters she has acted out are on the cover of a video game box. She didn’t know what to expect when presented with this opportunity, but she took a leap of faith and gave it a chance, and it worked out really well from her.
Keep your mind and heart open to the opportunities that are out there. Keep listening for them. Cool things are coming for you.