I just enrolled to AM...i love animation but...

#1

Hi everyone :stuck_out_tongue:

Well,i’ll try to explain my current situation and i hope to receive some good advice…i’m a little bit dubious.

I love animation,i have very little experience and no real formal training,so few weeks ago i decided to enroll to Animation Mentor to improve my character animation skills.I know that the industry is shrinking and many cool places are in the US…but actually i think that it will be very tough to get a visa (i live in Europe),i don’t even have a bachelor degree…so after the school i’ll have few alternatives where i can hope to work (UK,Singapore,maybe Australia or New Zealand).Also i see that the industry is shrinking and the character animation is really competitive these days…many good artist are unemployed.

So i’m asking…what would you do if you were me?Join AM and hope to become a better artist?Give up Character Animation and study something else (rigging,modelling etc)?

I’m anxious about my future as a character animation…

Sorry for my bad english :stuck_out_tongue:

#2

There are more modellers and riggers out there, animators are the most highly sought after CG artists in the industry purely because the talent of bringing something to life is more appealing to a production and harder to learn then modelling and rigging up characters. If you were going down that road you probably are going to end up doing tv commercial for a few years before breaking into feature work. That’s why find a real decent school that has the reputation will probably give you that break. At the end of the day you should really think about how competitive the industry is if your a passionate and really talented person, your work will always stand out apart from every other artist.

#3

Then you already have everything you need. AM is just the first step. Stop worrying about failure, it’s just success training.

Yes there is a lot of competition but, that doesn’t mean you can’t be an animator. It just means it might take a bit longer to get your skills high enough for employment. Since you love animation it should not matter if it takes you 2 years or 5 years to get a job. That time will pass anyway, so you might as well pass the time animating!

Best of luck and happy animating.

edit For the record I’m an AM student. It’s a great school and I’m sure you will love it.

#4

Thank you guys.I’m no worried about the quality of AM,but i’m worried that here in my country it’s impossible to work as character animator,so i’ll need to work in a foreign country…

BUT

i don’t have a bachelor degree,so getting a visa will be really tough (except if i’d found a job in europe).I’m wondering if getting a bachelor degree in another school will be better for my future career…what do you think?

#5

Do you want us to tell you to go to college? I don’t know your situation. A degree couldn’t hurt - especially if you want a visa.

#6

obviously not :slight_smile: I’m only thinking about taking a degree first and then the AM diploma,especially because the bachelor degree isn’t so focused to character animation but to all the aspects of cg (rigging,modelling,animation etc)

#7

hi there, i’m currently student specialize in character animation, i am doign this course already for nearly half year, wat i can offer to say is, not worry about the qualification will give you, but in that time of training, what can you learn from it? is it worth that time you want to put and if it’s where you want for future?

what we can learn, what we experience good or bad I think that matters most, people will see fi you were serious when you show them your animation work, I have ask my tutor and lecturer about this, and he says, whatever our reason, do our best.

AM is always geetting the news is relly fantastic to learn and practise character animation, oso expensive, the decision is up to you. I would probably tryin future when I get a job haha

sorry my bad english

#8

the moment i stopped telling myself I wasn’t good enough to be an animator, that it was too competitive, too difficult was the moment I started becoming an animator, some time down the road and its paying off. But if I had continued to tell me all the things you’re telling yourself now where would I be. Probably still moaning and do something I really didnt enjoy.

So make the man decision and decide either way. Either you go 100% on it or you go home.

#9

There are plenty of CG jobs in Europe and the other countries you mentioned. If you have a hard time finding any work at all anywhere in Europe, you probably won’t be able to find any work in the US/Canada either so I wouldn’t worry too hard about whether you will qualify for a US or Canadian visa immediately after graduation. Typically US companies will not want to spend time/money on visas for entry level workers and I believe you need a few years of experience to get a work visa for Canada (unless you go to school there, then there’s some tricky work around), so you will probably have to work in other countries for awhile before they will consider you at all.

There are visas to work in the US that do not require a degree, but will require several years of work experience, so not having a degree will not mean you can never work in the US (pretty sure it also won’t prevent you from eventually working in Canada.)

The posters before who said that character animation is still in high demand are right. It won’t hurt you to have a well rounded CG background, but if character animation is what you want to do, concentrate on that and don’t let fears that you picked the wrong specialty stop you!

#10

My 2c:

There are less advertised job positions, but there are actually quite a lot available.

I have friends who knock back jobs from top companies because of location/lifestyle and even the project itself.

For example if you were a character artist, and you love sci-fi… would you really go work at a games company to work on football games? even if the pay was 50k? If you do, you probably wont last long. Being an artist requires a fair amount of inspiration and motivation. Thats why there are so many experienced artists without jobs. Everyone is looking for the “right” job.
Working on a “pony and friends” game instead of a shooter like GOW (or whatever the artist really wants to work on) is like working at Mcdonalds.

#11

I tend to think that relocations to whatever country for work reasons are going to get more and more rare in the next few years because it is expensive for the company that is hiring and not always a great choice for the employee who has to change is situation and all.
I also think that the high speed broadband will give more opportunities to artists to work remotely.

Go with what you love don’t care about the rest…

#12

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