Reusing the Reusable
Hemmy.net recently posted several images showing how Disney animators have reused animations over the years. The pictures were very interesting and entertaining to look at.
I’ve never noticed this before, but it makes perfect sense why they would do it, and I think we could all learn a little bit from it. As Mathias Meyer talked about on his blog, if in the course of your work you’ve had to do something twice, automate it.
For example, if you’ve had more than one customer ask for the same type of Flash slideshow, then there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. Tweak the slideshow you’ve already created. Keep a directory of files that you could possibly reuse, and when the need arises, resurrect the desired piece and reuse it.