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Anime and Toys

• 1 idoniagoseling ~ Mar 7, 2008 at 7:20 am

  Being an animator takes intuitive talent.

  Being a 3-D animator means taking intuitive talent and cramming it into unintuitive interfaces and frequently glitchy 3-D programs that will eat any and all the fun out of being a cartoonist.

  To make things even worse, there’s about 200 times as many people who want the job than there are jobs.

  The outlook is bleak. A few will make it, but only the brightest and the best artists– ARTISTS, mind you– will be chosen.

  If you’ve got the hardcore talent and the tenacity to have lots of doors slammed in your face? Go for it.

  If some guidance counselor or relative said “Hey, why don’t you make stuff like Toy Story?” and you said “Hey, that was a cool movie, maybe I’ll try that”…..? And now you’re trying to get a feel for the field in Yahoo Answers instead of, say, a forum dedicated entirely to 3D animators?

  Maybe it’s time to reconsider.

• 2 MagPookie ~ Mar 10, 2008 at 7:18 am

  What idoniagoseling said is not entirely true. 3D does not stifle your creativity. It just directs it in a different direction.

  However, 3-D animation is a VERY competitive field. As far as age, there’s no minimum requirement - just 18 and over but you really need A LOT of experience, specifically in Maya. There are more opportunities in gaming.

  If that’s what you want to do, keep at it but just know that you have a difficult but not impossible, road ahead of you.

• 3 Rob S ~ Mar 12, 2008 at 8:30 am

  if you want to get hired, you need a solid portfolio of 2D work (lifedrawings, concept art, storyboards, etc.), and a kick-ass 3D reel (a 30 second - 3 minute video of your work - your 3D models with full renders and wire frame rotations/poly counts, a list of the software you’ve used and are familiar with [ie, Photoshop, Maya, Softimage|XSI, Adobe Premiere, Adobe AfterEffects, Final Cut, Flash, etc.])
  Also, if you’ve got some 2D animation clips, those are good to include as well.

  A lot of companies will train people who are extremely talented to use whatever software they have in-house… but you’ve got to be damn good. If you do amazing 2D animation, it’s easier to get hired than a guy who submits a reel with awful 3D animation. It’s much less about technical ability than it is about talent.

  My recommendation would be to go to a school which offers some sort of 3D animation program, as such schools typically get scouted for talent by the major companies. Such schools can be pretty expensive, and they are highly competitive, but it is a good route.

  I went to Ai Vancouver/Burnaby (dropped out after a year with 16 grand in debt from tuition alone). It was a great experience, even though I decided that it wasn’t really a field that I wanted to get into. A few of my friends went on to work for EA Games, Radical Entertainment, and Ubisoft. Another of my friends got hired by Mainframe right after he graduated as well. He’s the only one I know of who will be working on features and tv shows…the others all got work with videogame companies.
  It’s a lot of hard work to break in…but definitely possible if you really have a love for it.

  -Rob

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