I was having trouble connecting to one of my students via Zoom. The student texted me to let me know he was having trouble getting on as well. I tied connecting with a personal meeting ID but that failed as well.
Back at Elite Animation Academy, Todd West thought it might be an issue with a new server that was set up. Ultimately through trial and error we found that the problem was with Zoom itself. Over 44,000 costumers were blocked out.
My student and I usually sketch together on Zoom and he has the option to see my sketch in progress. We decided to simply stay connected by phone and then share our sketches when they were complete via email.
This work around was fine but I couldn’t sketch and hold my iPhone at the same time. I decided to tie together a bunch of rubber bands and rubber band the iPhone to my ear. At first the rubber band set up was too tight and it felt like my skull might pop. Then I tied in a few more rubber bands to make it more comfortable.
This was a low tech solution to a high tech problem. The class went off without a hitch. By the time my next student got online, the Zoom connectivity issue had been resolved.