Throughout our team collaboration, the three of us—all working as directors—had to deal with creative differences all the time. Since it’s feels really different compares to working in a company, I think I would better write down some important notes for myself.

First of all, Assign Clear Roles First is way more necessary than I thought.

Since we all had director roles, we sometimes disagreed on creative choices. Looking back, we should have decided who was in charge of what from the beginning. For example, one person could make final decisions about layouts while others gave suggestions.

After that, Talk openly and often also helps a lot. We learned to ask for each other’s opinions regularly. Being careful with how we worded feedback helped prevent arguments. When designing characters, I made several versions based on real actors. The team picked their favorite, and we improved it together by adjusting facial features and clothes.

The Third thing will be: Be willing to compromise. Some disagreements couldn’t be solved easily. Even after showing reference films and explaining my ideas, we still didn’t always agree. I learned that finishing the project was more important than making every part perfect. It was hard to let go of some ideas, but it helped reduce stress.

The last thing I can think of is to try to plan weekly tasks early next time.

At my animation internship, the team assigned specific shots to each artist every day. A lead animator would check if the work met quality standards. For future projects, set clear weekly goals will be necessary to avoid schedule problems.  

And we also need to stick to the plan; once tasks are assigned, let teammates do their work without interruption. The understanding of different work styles is a unavoidable fact.  too many check-ins often happen when people work differently, not because work is late.