Sometimes, all you need is a constraint. The fear of the blank page can stop you really fast from starting something. Here are some challenges and contests you can do now to help you get creative without the hassle of thinking what to be creative about.

5 seconds project

Starting a new project can sometimes be daunting. Starting a 5 seconds project tho isn’t that much of a commitment and can be pulled off in an evening of work. Yet this can still make a good piece in a demo reel. The five seconds project is ran by Nick Campbell, the guy behind Greyscalegorilla.

Animation Sequence Project

Start with a square, end with a square. In 10 seconds. A lot of really interesting results have came out of this basic challenge. This can also be a good challenge to fill up a demo reel.

CgSphere

Even tho it’s not about animation and more about 3D, the experience is still pretty interesting. Start with a basic 3D setup containing a sphere and just get creative from there. The gallery is also really impressive.

MotionWorks Experiments

Recently Motionworks started this little series of posts in which they name a couple of random effects or techniques and you have to make something cool out of it.

Do it yourself?

If none of the above fits your needs, you can always just do it for yourself. Here are some examples of what you can do to find something to spin your creativity around:

• Find a random word in the dictionary
• Take a sentence in a song or a movie
• Mimic a painting
• Caricature something happening in the news