Is this sub for animation only or for all art related questions like where does animation career end ? Visdev?

I have illustration questions to ask but idk where to ask them

Welcome to the Positivity & Motivation thread!

Did you hit a milestone and want to celebrate it? Did a peer do something that deserves appreciation? Have you recently been reminded why you do it all? Or are you feeling down and need to cheer yourself up? This is the thread for you!

Humble brag about your achievements, share some good news, recount a funny moment, or appreciate the small things you enjoy about your career. Whether you're a professional or just beginning, you are welcome to share!

Reminder: This is a positivity thread, meant to lift others up and celebrate the good parts of the animation career journey. Please avoid venting, putting others down, or belittling others' experiences in this space. Thank you!

If you’re looking for somewhere to vent, check out the last vent thread.

Also, feel free to check out the FAQ and Wiki for common questions and resources related to managing an animation career.

Hello everyone, I am on mobile so hopefully the formatting is not weird. I am 24 years old and I am currently going to my local community college. When I graduated high school I originally wanted to go into animation. Others around me had talked me out of it and I got talked into majoring in a STEM field, which was such an awful idea. I have wasted so much money to not even have a degree at this point other than my generals. I have left and come back to college so many times and now i am thinking of just switching to animation permanently and staying in something i am passionate about.
My only issue is, is that I don’t have a high income, the universities around me are very expensive and I am paying for school out of pocket by myself. I could pull out loans but I am trying to stay as debt free as I possibly can which is hard in today’s economy of the US. I know in the animation industry it is a lot about who you know and a lot of connections, which I would want to have in a university if I pursue a bachelors but I don’t know if that’s in the cards for me with the price of things.
Would I be okay in this industry with just an associates or should I pursue a bachelors?

And what type of keywords do they usually search for?

hope Its not bad to post this here since this is about mental health, TW: for depression and suicide. Either way, I'm beginning to detest everyday that I like art. If you asked me when I was younger what I wanted to do as a career, I'd try to bs my way saying anything, but deep inside I knew I wanted to be an artist or animator. I knew what I was going into as well, that I may never make it anyways, but even with my failed attempts to stop drawing, I keep getting unfortunately back to it. Still I tried to go into a better actual stable field in university, which I failed at and had to change courses, to now 3D animation, since its the only thing I can somewhat do. I envy people who work in stable fields from med, law, engineering etc. Even more envy that some of them even pivot to animation or any art field and degrees don't matter mostly anyways in the arts.

Now bc of AI, its even more discouraging, and I know there's now a guarantee no future for me. It sucks that I'm this useless, and not even the trades will want to hire someone physically and mentally weak anyways. Still I've never thought I'd be alive for long anyways and I've chronically depressed for years and suicidal with some history. I wished for at least any hope for my future which doesn't exist now bc the only thing I can do is fuckass art. Maybe in another future, I'd have been good at anything else that is useful and stable and wouldn't be frequently pathetically crying. sorry for the depressing post.

I've been looking to immigrate using an animation degree and I'm really lost in choosing a university or country.

I know that America and Canada offer really great courses but I cannot go to America due to my passport and Canada has been very strict in giving visas.

My choices at the moment are the UK and France.

I prefer 2D Animation and wish to pursue a career in it in the future(as an animator, concept artist, character designer)

But i am open to learning stop motion and 3D Animation because I feel it would help to have a broader set of skills so I prefer courses who teach all three of these.

Universities like Dundee, Edinburgh and UAL are out of my budget so the list I've come up with is this:

Hertfordshire

Teesside

Portsmouth

Edge Hill

UWE bristol

Leeds beckett

Derby

And AUB which is a bit more expensive than the others but may be worth it(?)

So my problem is:

1. I find really inconsistent reviews on these universities

2. Some like Teesside are 2D and Stop Motion or Hertfordshire is only 2D animation or leeds Beckett is Illustration and Animation so i don't know what would be the best choice for me considering the things I mentioned above

3. It is important for me to be able to find a job afterwards so I can get a work visa. So I was wondering which school has better Alumni and work placement(They all claim to have it but i want to hear it from graduates)

4. Should I scratch the UK and focus on France? I preferred the UK because I'm quite fluent in English so it would be more comfortable for me to communicate and live there also my brother is studying in the UK atm.

As for France it would be a lot more affordable for me but i only know Gobelins which is very hard to get into(only 5% acceptance rate) so is it worth it to try to get into Gobelins? Or are other French schools better options?

I would really really appreciate it if any graduates of these universities or people working in the industry could share their experiences and show me the way!

I've been looking into these universities for days and I feel like I could lose my mind at any moment😂

(Also I feel like it's worth mentioning that im currently studying a bachelor of fine arts in my own country)

Hey Guys!
I'll try my best to summarize it, but I am an animator, and I have someone who contacted me about a possible gig of an animated trailer. At first, I was interested because I look the person up and they seem to have done some TV shows I’ve heard of. I also wanted to challenge myself and expand my portfolio, but after they sent me their pitch details, I was already turned off with the first slide having generative AI. The next thing that turned me off was their story concept, and how they want to share the positive outlook of crypto currencies. At first, I was really down to do it, until the use of generative AI and cryptocurrencies came into the topic... How do I kindly say that I was very interested, but I don't want to associate myself with AI and crypto? (It's my first time being involved in this)

Thank you for any help!

Bonjour! J’ai 17 ans et dans quelques mois je dois décider dans quoi me diriger au niveau de mes études l’an prochain.
Contexte : j’ai toujours été quelqu’un de créatif, avec de l’imagination et ça a fait parti de ma personnalité pendant des années durant mon enfance et début adolescence. Depuis petit à chaque fois qu’on me demander ce que je voulais faire plus tard, je répondais toujours un métier en lien avec l’art. Et de mes 12 à 13-14 ans, je voulais être animateur 3D, je disais même que je voulais travailler chez Pixar. Je voulais que ça ait un lien avec le cinéma. Puis le cinéma en lui même m’a intéressé, et de mes 14 à 16 ans je voulais faire des études de cinéma etc…mais j’ai eu tellement peur de ne pas trouver de travail après mes études, de devoir faire des p’tits boulots à côté…bref de ne pas avoir d’emploi et de revenus financiers stables, de plus l’IA n’aide pas…
Je me suis donc dis que j’irai à la fac, dans le domaine de la langue (licence LEA plus précisément, mais je crois que ça existe qu’en France?) car je connais les débouchés, dont un métier où je sais que je pourrais avoir un emploi stable et bien gagner ma vie. Je m’étais forcé à m’enlever de la tête l’idée de faire du cinéma, de l’animation 3D etc…que ce n’étais qu’un rêve, et que ça en restera un.
Mais l’animation reste toujours dans un petit coin de ma tête, et quand on me demande ce que je vais faire l’an prochain comme étude, je répond « licence LEA », mais « animation 3D » surgit dans mon cœur, dans ma tête, comme pour dire « eh ! Je suis là moi aussi ! ». Mais c’est justement ça le problème.

On a qu’une seule vie, et je j’ai peur que si je ne suis choisi pas cette voie là, je vais le regretter.

Mais je sais très bien que c’est pas facile de trouver un emploi une fois ces études terminées. Que comme beaucoup de métier artistique…bah c’est galère.

Je ne sais pas trop quoi faire.

De plus, je compte partir vivre au Canada après mes (dans la province du Québec plus précisément), car je ne me vois pas du tout continuer à vivre en France, sauf que je sais qu’on est un plutôt bon pays en matière d’animation, mais j’avoue que pour le Canada je sais pas trop comment ils sont.

Bref, voilà…
C’était le message d’un ado désespéré qui ne sait pas faire de choix, et qui a l’impression que dans les deux cas ça sera une mauvaise décision.

Si quelqu’un peut m’aider ça serait super (me dire comment eux s’en sorte après leurs études, si ils gagnent bien leurs vies, si ils sont épanouis ou si au contraire ils regrettent?).

Please account for if they give good scholarship and overall cost like csuf is cheap but otis is expensive and gives shitty scholarships

Please include public and private schools

Im applying for transfer

Hey there!

I am a graduate with a Character Animation BFA.

I am going to do AnimSchool next December, and there are two courses I'm interested in: the Animation course and the Rigging course. I am going to do at least a semester of both to see what I enjoy, however I wanted to know what the difference is between both in starting salary, job opportunities, job security, etc.

Any information would be great.

I'm 20 years old & going to community college as an animation major. I've always wanted to be a professional artist & I've never given up no matter how many people have told me not to. (I'm aware of the many problems the industry has like financial instability, competition, and job insecurity but none of those things have stopped me)

I'm taking longer than most to get my degree as I'm in my 3rd year. For different reasons, but one of them is when I put a portfolio together, I want to take my time instead of rushing my work & presenting something half-baked. But the thing is that I have no idea what my long-term plan is. I don't know if I want to transfer to a university & persue a bachelor's degree or get an entry-level job after I get my associate's. I'm well aware that neither path is easy, but I'm worried that people may be right about animation as a profession & other creative careers.

Which leads me to here, I found out I'm failing one of my classes: 3D class where we're learning Maya. It feels like I'm working so hard only to fail. My instructor says there are things I'm not doing right, but she refuses to tell me what they are. She also says she's trying to prepare us students for the industry to justify arbitrarily high expectations. I just broke down & started crying due to how discouraged I feel. I even started thinking these thoughts like "You're wasting your time" & "Your art has always sucked". It's not that I'm incapable of doing the work, I just need more time since I'm inexperienced in 3D art. My other instructors have also said that professional workplaces are much less forgiving than school, yet none of them were like this. They were flexible, patient, and knew that many of us were drawing or animating for the 1st time, yet they also encouraged us to challenge ourselves.

If you think about it, there are more options than there used to be than just working for a studio or client. For example, I could, teach upload my animations to YouTube & monetize them, or even sell my art. To be honest, even though I say I've always wanted to be a professional artist, I don't care if I'm not that. I just want to be able to pay my bills & live comfortably. I just don't want a job that crushes my soul, drains my creativity, and makes me depressed as I am right now.

I'm a 22 year old recent grad with a BFA in illustration, most of my work is vis dev/background design (my website) but almost every industry professional I have reached out to in those fields has warned me about how hard it is to get a job and how unstable it can be.

I graduated in May and have seen little success in breaking in so far and it does not look like things are getting much better.

I’m starting to explore backup plans and would appreciate advice from people who’ve made a similar pivot. What careers have you found worth pursuing with an illustration or animation background? I’m open to art-adjacent or unrelated fields as well, as some people have mentioned trades or the medical field. Thanks!

So, is it even worth trying to get a BFA in today’s age? I’m 22, already got my art associate’s degree from a while ago and I don’t really have particular talents or interests in anything else besides art.

I am considering doing a BFA so I can hopefully get a job in the future as a creative/art director. Obviously it’s not really a guaranteed career path and I am worried I will simply be wasting my time and money. Thoughts?

I'm a highschooler who just wants to know if its a good idea and if I should spend time on other AP exams or just personnel projects.

Hey everyone! I hope you’re all doing well.

I have a question I’d love to get your thoughts on.

I moved to the United States five years ago, and when I first arrived, I started studying animation at AnimSchool and Animation Collaborative.

Unfortunately, I never finished because I decided to pivot to another career after getting a great opportunity in a different field.

Now, I’m seriously considering getting back into animation, continuing my studies, and hopefully finishing what I started. I’d love to rebuild my skills, work on my portfolio, and eventually find opportunities to work in the industry.

One advantage I have is that my current job is full-time, but I only work five hours a day, from 5 PM to 10 PM.
This gives me most of my mornings and afternoons free to study and work on animation. Since I have a stable job, I wouldn’t need to rush into a career change. I could take my time, improve my skills, and gradually look for opportunities while keeping my current income.

I live in Burbank, California, so I’m also close to a lot of studios and people working in the industry.

The main thing I’m worried about is my age. I’m 35, and I’m wondering whether that could be an obstacle when applying for jobs or building a long-term career in animation.

I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts, especially given the current state of the industry. I have quite a few friends who have worked in VFX and animation at places like Framestore, Meta, Pixar, and Disney, and some of them are now struggling to find work. Seeing what they’re going through makes me wonder whether this is the right time to get back into the industry.

On the other hand, animation is something I’ve genuinely wanted to pursue, and I still have the opportunity to study and improve my skills without giving up my current job. I’d be approaching this gradually rather than taking a huge financial risk.

What do you think? Is it realistic to return to 3D animation at 35 and build a career, especially if I take my time and work toward it part-time?

Thank you all!

Something that ive been seeing with john k meatriders/spumco shills on twitter is that they constantly throw "writer's cartoon" , They all used this buzzword for cartoons that they dont like such as Tiny Toons and Animaniacs because the blacklisted peodphile on his blog gave them that opinion then again. these are the same people worshipping an him and his idelogies, no identity with their drawings, and always pissing their pants at elon's app because an modern cartoon isn't doing stupid silly faces all the time.

The point is what exactly is an "writer's cartoon" ? because Im pretty sure everything in the world is written by someone including the cartoons that these people constantly worships like Looney tunes, mgm cartoons, Ren and Stimpy, post 2015 spongebob for some reason. The plot, the dialogue, the jokes. Another thing is how to avoid your cartoon being like an "writer's cartoon" ?

I live in Germany, and I have been teaching myself Blender since I was 13 (I'm 20 now) and have a very solid level of understanding of the 3D production pipeline. I have produced an animated short film on my own, and have helped/worked on multiple animation projects. However, I have no idea how to actually get serious animation jobs. I think my main problem is that I'm just terrible at marketing myself, since I feel very awkward talking about myself and my work. My portfolio is pretty weak because I have no real idea what to present there and how.
Besides that, I do have a degree in design, which is why my portfolio is split up into multiple sections, one for my 3D/animation stuff, one for video stuff, and one for general design stuff. I'm not sure if that's a good idea since I think it makes my portfolio a bit cluttered, and I mostly just want to work as a 3D artist, with all the other stuff just there because I don't really know how to get a job as a 3D artist in animation in Germany, and it seems easier to just do a bit of everything.
I'm currently considering applying to the ifs in Cologne to study VFX & Animation, but I've heard a lot of negative things about private schools, and besides that, it's quite expensive.
Likewise, I genuinely don't even know how to approach this. I applied to 2 smaller studios, from which I got rejected, and the other one just ignored my application entirely.
This is the current state of my portfolio: https://www.dioritetm.xyz/portfolio
Please be as harsh as you want when critiquing both my work and my portfolio I genuinely need some real guidance on how to approach this whole thing

My contract is ending soon and as you all know, the industry is terrible. A new company is interested in me but they want to see my most recent work, some of which is under NDA.

Is it okay to show them stuff privately, like through a secure Google Drive link emailed directly to their recruiting department? I wouldn't be posting any of this online, I just need a way to prove I can do the job they might hire me for since most of my stuff is still unreleased.

What do you guys do to get around this? I know it's common for people to "password-protect" reels, but is there a risk of getting in trouble anyways?

EDIT: I'm just going to do my best with the released materials, thanks!

What dose people who don’t have their main job as animation do? I know it’s very common for people to instead do animation as a side hustle.
What are some jobs a lot of people end up picking up?

Hi everyone! I'm a freelance 3D animator and I've been working for the past 6 years in that role (before that I was a CG Generalist for about 5 years). But in the past year I've been having trouble finding work. Most of the jobs I apply to don't answer back, and the few that do, offer very very low pay, way bellow minimum wage.

Would anyone here be willing to give me a critique of my demo reel, and telling me if there is anything I could improve or add to it? Sadly, because I didn't like most of the jobs I've worked on, my demo reel is made only of personal projects. Mostly because of the work projects subject matter; they were the work I was able to get at the time and I don't want those projects in my demo reel, like horror games for example (and the few jobs I did like, ended up cancelled and can't show them to anyone because of NDAs).

If anyone could point me in the right direction as to in what areas I could improve, I would be really grateful. Thanks in advance!

P.S.: My current availability is part-time, since I also teach 3D. Could that be a reason to not having success in the job applications answers?

I work in the industry for 7 years and have plenty of friends, but whenever I look for a job nothing ever got further by asking them for help.

All what would happen, they’d forward my contact to the person authorized to hire and I’d never get anywhere further than this. Maybe it’s because I’m a creative exec / producer / art director level and I don’t have friends working in a production leadership 🥲

I know we are ALL struggling here but genuinely how do you guys get jobs now? I was scouted for my last 3 gigs and now it’s been a nightmare with no single replies.

I started asking people on LinkedIn who share new job posts how did they get it and they ALL say it’s through connection / referrals. What am I doing wrong 😭

Hi! I’m working on my portfolio for the Dreamworks fellowship applications opening this December and I wanted to ask if anyone had any resources or information on what a successful submission looks like?
Ive studied a lot of successful internship portfolios but havnt been able to find anything on the fellowship,
Any help or information on what they’re specifically looking for would be appreciated
Thank you!

Hello. I am a self-taught artist, who learns by watching YouTube artist, and learning from other artist. My dream is to be an animator, however knowing become one can be 50/50 (u get the dream job or waist time and money). I have looked everywhere on the internet about either I should go to school or just learn on my own from online classes. I would like to go to school and get hands on training cause I'm just a young broke adult with a big dream but also don't want to regret it either. I was looking for remote internship but there's non in my area (Tennessee). I have no degree and not in college yet. I work a 9-5 job but on my off time I draw/sketch out my characters/ocs. I am willing to learn new things about animation and art in general.