Brought to you by Fable–Ideas in Motion is a series streaming live on select Friday afternoons on YouTube. It's a space for real conversations with seasoned creators about motion, design, life, learnings, and more.

In this episode, join Adiran and up-and-coming CVLT Productions Creative Director Dino Qiu as they chat about career direction–a creative career can present many paths, and whilst navigating, it's easy to run into challenging game-time decisions. So, they dive into tactics to help weigh options when they're presented and talk about strategies that cultivate a balance between making and managing. In conclusion, the world needs more plumbers.

Stream the episode here.

Where to find Dino Qiu:

• Website: https://dinoqiu.com/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinoqiu/

• Behance: https://www.behance.net/Dinoq

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinoqiu

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Live

(01:16) Intro

(01:52) Dino’s reel

(02:47) Welcome to the show

(03:02) Growing up in China and inspiration

(04:25) Storytelling and Manga

(07:46) Balancing school and artistic pursuits

(09:44) Making art official

(14:13) Shifting roles

(17:56) Day in the life of a creative director, making vs managing

(20:22) Expectation vs. reality

(23:43) Soft management

(32:10) Keeping skills sharp

(34:00) Fostering a team

(39:24) The value of mentorship

(40:35) Friends and modern mentorship

(42:32) Breaking the linear model

(46:26) AI

(50:33) Engineering and computer science

(53:32) Mentorship vs online tutorials

(55:24) Career moves and finding a studio match

(57:11) Clients who want endless options

(1:02:00) Creating vs. managing

(1:03:34) Favorite project

(1:05:07) Is it ever too late?

Don’t miss a beat–more incredible guests with ideas to boot coming soon.

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Let us know what topics you’d like to see covered, your thoughts on the episode, or anything else!