What Do You Want To Know?

[Ward Jenkins]

Obviously, there are a good mix of people here from the animation industry, both young and old(er), newbie to seasoned. For those who are dying to know anything and everything about working in animation, ask away on this thread. Myself (11 years experience), along with many others in the industry will try to take a crack at your answers.

For the record, I work in the commercial/broadcast side of the biz. Others have worked on TV shows and internet. Do we have any feature peeps? If not, let's try and get 'em here.

Ask away.....(or not)...

[Ian Ellis]

Melvin Van Peebles had the same problem. You should check out the documentary on him called "How to get the man's foot outta your ass"

-EanFace

[Ian D. Merch]

How necessary is it to move to California for the animation industry? I was born, raised and educated in the midwest, and Chicago seems to have very little in the way of careers in animation, despite having three schools with a bachelors program in it.

[Vincent Veidt]

Okay, for North America, your major outlets for animation are LA, San Francisco, NYC, Vancouver, BC, Toronto, ON and (although still immature) Portland, OR. Some business (mostly through Turner) is conducted in Atlanta. As for the thought of moving west, while not necessary, it's an entirely different world than the midwest. I grew up in Detroit, MI and I have loved every minute of life since moving to the west coast. My suggestion is to visit these hubs (I've considered relocating to Toronto when the success-oriented pressure of California gets old) and figure out where you like best. If you prefer Chicago, I believe Calabash and a few other, smaller studios operate in the area. If all else fails, there's freelance work everywhere and there's always potential for going in to business with your own studio. I hope this helps.

[Patrick Mallek]

Another Detroit bred animator! What is it about sunshine deprivation that makes good artists? I grew up on the east side, where I learned, amongst other things, what a torque wrench is used for...

[Vincent Veidt]

I grew up in a trailer park where I learned, amongst other things, what a Molitov Cocktail is used for.

[Ian D. Merch]

I worked for Calabash for a couple months, but they don't get enough work to hire entry level animators full time - only when they get their bigger projects in. I'd love to work for them full time, it's a great atmosphere and great people work there, but sadly they just don't get a whole lot of big commercial projects. I've been highly considering getting a work visa, after every time I see an opening for a 2D job they all seem to be in Vancouver or Toronto.

And yeah, it did help, thank you very much!

[Vincent Veidt]

If you end up in Toronto, be sure to let me know how it is. I haven't visited in six years, but I used to love the city. If you can make it sound better than LA, maybe we'll be working together.

[Clinton Racine]

Hey Denny,

What do you mean by Portland being immature? Do you mean that Portland is just starting it's animation industry and not up to speed with the other major cities yet? This might be off-topic, but here in North Carolina, Raleigh is growing into a major city for video game developers. Raleigh is not as big as Austin, or LA, but I think it will be eventually. You reckon it's the same for Portland's animation industry? It's just young?

[Vincent Veidt]

Yes and no, the industry in Portland is young, but I meant immature more as "undeveloped" than young, but both stand firm. As for the eventuality of a hub, there's no saying what could happen to undermine its future... there could be a massive economic recession, there could be a massive earthquake, but barring any of these disasters, the city has potential... but I wouldn't move [back] there just yet.

[J.C. Rider II]

As far as going into business with your own studio, it is a great chance to take your creator owned work and make it the piece you wanted it to be without others hanging over your head saying Y here and N here. It took me 10yrs to get Techedout Empire to be more than this idea that wouldn't let me sleep nights. To an actual company with the equipment and a slew of freelance musicians, camera men, photographers, animators, and all around artists. I have a lawyer to keep ever ones rights in check and have taken on handling all sides of my business. It is allot of work, takes me away from animation more than I would like but some one has to have the master hat collection to call from to make it all work. My animation comes a little slower from start to finish but sense then quality has been increased and worth all the extra time.

Some have told me to get investors to help me hire on full time workers, but also sed they tend to want to tell you what you can and can not do. With that sed I at this time have chosen to stay a small company and keep the control in my hands. If the right investor came to me with money and didn't want to interfere with my day to day nor tell me what projects Techedout Empire will be doing I might take em on. But back on planet Earth I will press on and grow the company one employee at a time.

Good luck to all,
J.C.

[Patrick Mallek]

Depends on what you're looking for. I started out in Detroit and I've been doing business from Colorado for the last ten years, yet most of my clients are in NY and LA. No doubt it would be easier if I was in Orlando, Atlanta or somewhere with a larger base, but I enjoy a challenge... and love the mountains! Ad agencies and local TV are a good source of jobs off the coasts.

In the traditional sense, yes, go west young man. But the world is changing rapidly. Last year I did a series of shorts for a project based in NYC run through their office in Denver. The writer was in Alaska, the lawyer was in L.A., the voice actors in Ohio and the audio production team in Atlanta. We had three conference calls a week, made 26 shorts and I only ever met two of them face to face.

[Vincent Veidt]

You've got a point, Pat. There's a lot of online collaboration going on these days. I had a project last year where I worked at home in a team of four (I was in Oregon, one was in Israel, one in Pakistan, and one in Montreal)... we never met in person.