The animation industry is extremely competitive. An insurmountable amount of work goes into formulating schedules and budgets, negotiations with clients, setting up a pipeline, equipment, crewing up departments (finding the talent), … and finally getting a project green lit.
By the time you get to the point where your running/opening your own animation studio, you’ve probably accumulated enough contacts and know a number of people who work for entertainment companies and larger animation studios, and can inquire with them about upcoming animation projects.
Your Capabilities
There will be several meetings and talks with your client, but initially you will want to give them an idea of your production capabilities – you’re studio space, equipment, core staff if you have any people already working for you. Clients will usually want to take a tour to see your studio for themselves considering there is a substantial amount of investment at stake, especially if it’s a larger scale project.
The tour is almost like an interview for studio owners. The client wants to get information about your facilities pipeline and how your studio and them should collaborate together – if working together may be part of the deal on the various steps in production or just one or two. For example, the client may just handle the modeling and rigging…
Initial Negotiations (the basics)
Sometimes this conversation can happen right at the start of communication with a client, especially if you know the individual well or have dealt with them before.
You’ll find out the details of the project. For example, how long a feature or short is, or if it’s series animation, how many episodes are required and how long each episode is – could be 24×22 (24 twenty-two minute episodes). The client should provide a pitch package or sizzle reel. This will give you a good feel for the show but also the style of animation required. The client may ask for an animation test (studios don’t get paid for these, and generally dislike doing them). As an animator I always like working on them though.
Once you have all this info, you’ll be able to figure out how many people/staff you’ll need to complete animation production on time and on budget. (your studio could also be taking care of layout, modelling, etc.., if so you’ll have to staff those departments as well).
Doing the Math (budgeting) {:(
Like many business ventures, you’ll be looking at your expenses and the time you have to complete the work. Employees are always your biggest ongoing expense – this is a big part of what you need to consider when you’re calculating your budget.
Assuming we’re talking about an animation department, here’s an example of how I would find out how many animators I need and how much the animation teams are going to cost…
First, come up with a number of frames that each animator should be able to complete in a day. If your not familiar with how long animation takes you ‘d be best to consult with someone who works in animation. It generally depends on the animation style/complexity and the software being used. ( For example, lets say a 3D series animator can handle 150 frames per day (about 6 seconds @ 24 frames/second).
If the episodes are 22 minutes (half hour episode with out the commercials), you might want to employ a teams of 8 animators if you had 6 weeks to complete 22 minute episode. If you had to complete 4 episodes simutaneously, you would need 4 animation teams of 8 working through the six weeks to complete the episode for delivery to the client. Then the teams would start the next for episodes.
Here’s how it breaks down…
If an animator does 150 frames or 6 seconds/day x 5 days = 30 seconds/week… 30 seconds x 6 weeks = 180 seconds (or 3 minutes) in a 6 week period.
Sooo, if each animator does 3 minutes of animation in 6 weeks….8 animators x 3 min = 24 minutes. It goes over the required 22 minutes but that’s OK because we need to allow time in the schedule for client retakes – a part of animation production that has to be factored into the production schedule timeline.
If you need to get the work done faster, you’ll need more animators to do the work in less time… The numbers change but it’s the same formula.
You’ll also need to figure out how much your going to pay your staff. To get an idea of animator salaries (at least in Canada, check out Contracts and Pay)
Once you know how many people you need and what each person makes per week, you simply multiply the total weekly salaries by the total number of weeks to complete the project. To find out your total cost, factor in all other expenses, ie. studio space, equipment, office supplies, travel, and what ever else will cost you.
For your own use and organization, I suggest listing everything for your budget in a Production Budget – you can create your own in MS Word.
Submitting the Schedule and Naming Your Price
Production schedules are usually done as an Excel doc. and submitted to the client along with your price (how much you need to charge for the entire project). Add to your total cost the amount that you need to make for the project…of course you need to make a profit but you also have to keep your price competitive. If it’s too high your negotiations could fall through and you’ll loose the project. If it’s too low, you’ll probably loose your shirt – go broke or end up in debt. Do your research to find out the going price so you know what to charge.
After you submit your price to the client you might feel a bit like your selling your house, you almost always have to come down a bit (or a lot) depending on your initial price. The animation industry is brutally competitive, I’ve seen more negotiations fall through and go to different studios than get green lit.
On a Smaller Scale
If you are working independently as a freelancer you could take on more work than you can handle yourself and just hire other people to help you finish it.
Some animators have formed studios this way. It’s a safer way to ease into owning your own small studio, but you have to already be working in the industry and have the contacts to find work. If you are planning to do it this way (or any way really), make sure you have quality people lined up to do the work – after all, it’s your studio and your reputation on the line.
Following up to an interview is an important part of looking for work in any industry, I can show you how to make it especially effective when applying to work in a production environment.
I suggest making the interview follow up a strategic part of your job search. In my experience following up proved to be so important – I got interviewed and hired for my first character animation job right after following up…here’s what worked for me…
Application Follow Up
As I’ve mentioned before, after you send out a demo reel to a studio it can sit at the studio for weeks or even months before anyone looks at it. Demo reels could sometimes even get misplaced in the bustle of a production environment.
To get your material noticed, send a follow up about a week after your demo reel arrives at the studio. If you mailed it, you should be able to track the parcel and know when it arrived.
Make this follow up more fun – not just a letter. Try an image of some character you’ve created. It’s a good idea to use characters from your demo reel. It may help to jog their memory if they’ve already viewed it.
Take time to plan this out. Pose your characters in a comical, appealing and/or charming way – maybe a visual gag (joke). This is another opportunity for you to show that you can portray thought, emotion, and narrative through facial expressions and posing.
You can even put a short text message on it. For example “I sent my demo reel and was wondering if you have viewed it yet”.
This would probably get them to look, but if you wanted to get really ambitious you could even customize it to the studio that you’re applying at by including their logo in the picture some how.
Save it as an image file and email it to the studio (hopefully you have a contact). If not just send it to their jobs@ email, or call the studio and ask who you should send an application follow up or interview follow up message to. (possibly a production manager, an animation supervisor or director).
Interview Follow Up
If you go for an interview be sure and get the name and email of your interviewer and send a post interview letter (can be in the form of an email) a few days after the interview.
This interview follow up letter should sound professional . Show appreciation for the studios interest in you. Could even re-iterrate why your perfect for the position and your interest in the position, and include your references.
One last thing. Don’t forget to let your references know that they may get a call from one of your interviewers – especially if it’s been a while since you’ve spoken to your reference. I’ve gotten unexpected calls from other studios regarding someone they’ve interviewed (who is using me as a reference).
Let’s just say, it doesn’t look good for you if your reference needs a memory jog. So, definitely contact your references, and ask them if you can use them as a reference before your interview. That way they will get an early heads up and will be ready to say great things about you!
Animation job interviews are the deal maker or breaker. In most studios it’s decided at the interview weather you will be working there or not.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, your work (shown on your demo reel) will speak volumes, but they will also be paying much attention to your personality and attitude.
Attitude
It’s most likely you’ll be working long hours and spending a lot of time with the other members of the studio. For the most part, studio owners/operators want to hire people with a good attitude, who are ambitious and easy to get along with.
At your interview, keep in mind that the employers main priority in production is to get the project done on time and at the highest quality possible.
Studios’ clients may request multiple animation changes and fixes which can get frustrating. The studio wants people who will help them to please the client (within reason) without much negativity and resistance. At least not till the day is done – you can go and bang your head off a bar stool after work.
Having said that, I have been in situations where the client was asking for the impossible, or the unaffordable. Studio owners may either let the client know that it can’t be done or just bill them for the exorbitant amount of extra work…
Studios will resist doing this though, they don’t want to burn that bridge for future work. They are more likely to lean on the animators…so at your interview, let them know that your up for that challenge.
If they tell you that what is on your demo reel isn’t what they are looking for, ask to do a test (if you know the software and are able to do one). This might give you a second chance rather than just walking away.
Do’s and Don’ts
Of course, don’t be late…obviously.
If your interviewer is critiquing your demo reel, DO NOT defend your work. They are probably doing it on purpose to see how well you respond to direction. In fact, let them know that those are good points and thank them for the helpful tips. This will show them that you take direction well.
Bring a copy of your demo reel and resume just in case the interviewer doesn’t have it.
Don’t try and memorize what you are going to say. You’ll just make yourself more nervous and forget it all anyways. Just try to keep in mind an idea of what you want to communicate.
Like a dork, I wore a suite to my first animation interview. I was interviewed by the Director…he was wearing a T-shirt and jeans. Don’t overdress. It may not hurt you, but you’ll sure feel silly. Business casual is pretty safe for this type of interview. More casual than business.
Ask some questions, if you don’t ask any questions at all it could seem like you are not very interested, or that this job isn’t very important to you. I strongly suggest coming up with just a few questions before hand so you don’t freeze up with nothing to ask. You might think of more during the interview.
Most animators work on contract, usually employed for 3 – 12 months at a time. As with most contract work, one of the biggest challenges is to always have work.
Ideally you want to jump from one contract to the next without much down time in between (unless of course you can afford a break).
Aside from having great animation skills, how you market yourself as an animator is one of the most important factors in managing your career. It helps to keep new contracts rolling in and keep you working.
Here are a few different ways to market yourself and help keep you steadily employed….
Networking
I know, you hear this all the time “you gotta network”. This is simply staying in touch with people in the industry that you already know and trying to meet new people (usually through the people you already know). Even if you do much of it online, at least they get your name and see your work. You want people to know your there so they can send you work or recommend you. If your not networking, your hibernating.
Website or Blog
Showcasing your talents on a site or blog is a quick and easy way for potential employers to view your body of work. It also provides a way for you to organize your work with your sites pages – life drawings, modelling, animation demo, other art forms can all be stored on seperate pages.
When you apply for a job, they will also be able to browse through all your other stuff if they want to or just go directly to the area that they are looking to hire you for.
LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com)
Speaking of networking, LinkedIn is an online networking site for professionals and there is a huge animation industry presence there. I think LinkedIn’s About Us page describes it best…
“When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. You can then form enduring connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts.”
I would like to add that you can also get recommended by other professionals and add a link to your own site or Utube demo reel, among other features. Speaking of Utube demo reels…
Utube Demo Reel
It’s no big secret that Utube is rammed with animation demo reels. It is a very easy way for studio folks to veiw your demo reel via a link. If you set up a Utube account you will get a free channel which you can design (much like a twitter home page) and upload as many videos as you like. You could also embed your uploaded videos onto your site which is made quite easy to do.
AWN (Animation World Network)
AWN is absolutely my #1 recommended resources for animation industry information. It’s one of, if not the most used sites by animation studios to post available positions and find qualified animators. I like being able to find studios by location through AWN. There’s lots of other stuff in there as well. The site has a section called ‘AWN Career Connections’. Here you can browse jobs and create a jobseeker account to post (and edit) your resume for industry recruiters to view.
There’s a number of ways to look for work as an animator. Using the mail is a great way – that’s right snail mail…but it still is a very effective way to send out your material for studios to review. It’s how I got my first job.
It’s effective because your sending out hard copies as opposed to digital. It’s a physical thing that they get in the mail and can hold it rather than simply clicking “delete”. In some ways it’s less easy to dismiss – sure it might sit in a box or on a desk for days or weeks, but it’s better to exist somewhere in the studio than in a digital recycle bin.
How To Do It
Use a manila envelope and put your demo reel (burned onto a CD or DVD) and resume inside. If your seeking your first job you may want to include a cover letter. I suggest using a bubble wrap lined envelope if your sending it long distance to protect the disk. Make up one if these packages for each company/studio you will be sending out to.
Package it together very neatly – everything you can do to leave a good impression counts. The ridiculous pursuit of perfection is a good quality in an animator. Then just bring’em to the post office and send them out – with proper addresses and postage of course.
Tips
Use a black Sharpie marker (or something similar) because they stand out well – and write “ATTN: RECRUITMENT -ANIMATOR DEMO” in one of the bottom corners of the envelope. This will make it obvious to who ever receives it and will be more likely get into the right hands.
Know the arrival day of each package you send out and write them down. Send out follow up emails to each company that you applied to about a week after your package arrives there.
Get creative with the presentation of your application and follow up message. You could put an image on your demo reel disk – you will need some equipment to do this but you can usually get what you need in any office depot or office supply store and it’s not that expensive. For your follow up you could send a jpeg image of your characters posed in a comical way, with a message asking if they’ve reviewed your material – “looking forward to hearing from you”, etc…
These are just suggestions, you can get creative with your application in any way, funny is usually a safe way to go but you don’t know who will be reviewing your material so keep it in good taste and try to make sure it has broad appeal.
As I’ve mentioned before, when you’re looking for work as a character animator your demo reel (or show reel) is most important. But you still need to have a resume to show – you are applying for a job after all.
From my own experience (while being interviewed), the interviewer will usually look at the resume and comment or ask questions about some of the projects I’ve worked on. When you are new to the industry they often ask questions about your education.
They ask the question because they are interested in the answers, but to also get a sense of your personality and how well you communicate (as nervous as you may be {:- o
Resume Layout
Since your previous work experience is what they’re most interested in, I suggest putting “RELATED EXPERIENCE” at the top of your resume, and then “EDUCATION” below that.
Be sure to indicate which software packages you know and list your skill sets – modeling, rigging, etc…
It’s always a good idea to include references at the bottom of your resume, or on a separate page if you don’t have room.
Shot Breakdown
If you have a variety of work on your demo reel, you should include a Shot Breakdown List on a separate sheet. The shot breakdown simply lists what you did for each piece on your demo reel.
As a recent graduate you may have done everything on your demo reel. In that case just list everything that was done. For example – Character design, modeling, texturing, rigging, animation….all done by “insert name here”.
And of course with any resume, keep it neat, clear, concise, and include your name and contact info at the top of the page.
If your applying for a character animator position you should think about submitting an art portfolio with your application. But it’s not always necessary or even appropriate to send in an art portfolio these days…I’ll explain…
An Art portfolio is a collection of your art work. You can use it to display your drawing skills, digital art, color work, sculpting or any other type of visual art.
If your studying to become an animator (especially a 2D animator), you should edit your portfolio to show skills that are relevant to animation, ie drawing skills. Art portfolios for animation are mostly line and contour hand drawings. (that includes using a tablet or cintiq).
In my opinion, the most appropriate use of an animators art portfolio is if you are applying for 2D animator – you would want to show your drawing skills because you’d be using them in this role – but most likely using Flash, Toonboom/Harmony and drawing on a tablet or cintiq.
It isn’t really necessary to submit a portfolio if your applying for a 3D animator position on a TV series. If you’re applying for 3D animator on a feature film you could include it if you feel it’s really impressive and will help you stand out from the rest.
Just like demo reels, you don’t want to include work that will lessen your value or leave any kind of negative impression. Harshly edit your art work down to only the absolute best stuff.
My advise is to put your character/cartoon drawings first and life drawing second. If you have any other work that you would like to show, put it in the back. The idea is to always put the most relevant stuff at the forefront, again like the resume.
Always use copies for your portfolio, especially when your sending it in the mail. Studios don’t want to be responsible for original art work.
And of course, put it all together in a neat package. The work will speak for itself, but if it’s paper clipped, stapled together or rolled up it’s not going to leave a very good impression. Duo tangs with plastic sleeves work well. I like the kind with the plastic front cover – these are great if you want to include a Front Page with your name and personal info (email, phone number, graphic etc…)
Your animation demo reel, or “show reel” is a video which displays your best animation work. If your looking for work as an animator (especially a character animator), It is without a doubt the most important piece of material you’ll use to get a job. Even more important than your resume and cover letter.
Do Not’s
I’ve conducted a fair amount of interviews for character animators and have done some scouting on more than one project (for animated TV series). Based on my experience with that, the following is my opinion of what you should avoid when creating your demo reel…
The most common mistake I’ve seen with demo reels is including too much material. It’s tempting for new graduates to include everything they’ve done in school – and that’s understandable, you want to show a wide range of what you’re capable of.
The last thing you want to do is show a potential employer some work that isn’t that great or doesn’t accurately communicate your abilities. It will only leave a bad impression – they may just move on to the next demo reel in the pile.
Only include your best pieces of work and leave a good impression! Don’t be afraid to keep it really short. Your better off leaving it short and sweet than long with hits and misses. Most of the time, whoever is reviewing reels is pressed for time and will appreciate the fact that quality work was shown, and it didn’t drag on.
Demo reels should be between 20 seconds and 2 minutes (approximately). As you animate on various projects and gain more experience in the industry, you tend to accumulate animation clips from projects you’ve worked on. An experienced animators’ demo reel may reach 2 or 3 min in length. (if you have that much work you feel should be shown). It’s safe to say that you should never go longer that that. Keep in mind that some industry folks may say that 3 minutes is too long.
Keep your reel focused on one craft. For example, if you’re looking for character animation work, don’t include all kinds of modeling and rigging stuff on there. When we see demo reels with the kitchen sink thrown in we don’t know what this persons strong points are or what they really want to do.
What About Music?
Adding music is OK but keep in mind that everyone may not have your taste in music. Try to choose a tune that you think has a broad appeal. It’s safe to say not to use death metal…you get the idea.
Should also keep the volume low and have the volume taper off for any character dialogue. The reviewer will want to check character acting with the recorded dialogue.
In my case, I used to have some background music with my work, but as I added more production work to my reel I cut out more and more of the music so that character dialogue, sound effects, mood music, etc..could be heard.
What They’re Looking For
In a studio environment it will usually be an Animation Director or a Supervisor reviewing demo reels. Often, what they are looking for is:
- Could you hit the ground running. In other words, start working right away with little or no training. (this is why it’s helpful to know more than one animation software package).
- Will you be able to produce the standard of animation quality needed for their project.
For example, in almost every case if they’re hiring for a Maya project, they will prefer to see some Maya animation on your demo reel (or at least 3D animation in another software package). Same goes for Flash, ToonBoom/Harmony, or any other 2D software package. Which ever software they are using, that’s what they’ll preferably want to see in your demo reel.
Most importantly, they’ll be looking for good character performance/acting, and will take notice if you are employing animation principles (especially good timing and posing) in a way that gives your work a certain level of charm and appeal.
Description/What you learn:
Before we start animating we should set ourselves up for easy character control selections. Here’s two different ways to do it and why. We will use a pre-rigged and textured ball.
Exercises: go to animcareerpro.com
Download and open the file. Set up the ball with character sets (or a shelf button if you prefer). Save it to use in Maya Workshop 4
Quick Animation Review
Packed with action and suspense, this story keeps you on the edge of your seat. Although it reminds me of the chase scene in Ratatouille, it's still original and very well done. I have nothing bad to say about the animation, it's all there, looks fantastic. I especially enjoyed the bit of 2D in there with the chef chopping up the squid - really drives the motive for the escape. Nice cliff hanger at the end - looking forward to another one of these!
This is a short created at Gobelins L'Ecole de L'Image (Goblins School of the Image). A school in Paris dedicated to the visual arts which is best known for the Cinéma Department of Animation. Oktapodi won a flurry of festival awards in 2007 and 2008, and was nominated for Best Animated Short at the 2009 Academy Awards.
Also check out the making if Oktapodi - shows a snippet of the extensive planning and pre/post production that went into the film. It's on the Oktapodi site http://www.oktapodi.com
Your animation demo reel, or “show reel” is a video which displays your best animation work. If your looking for work as an animator (especially a character animator), It is without a doubt the most important piece of material you’ll use to get a job. Even more important than your resume and cover letter.
