It has been said that if you love your job, you will never work a day in your life. I believe this to be an accurate statement, having spent a large portion of my career as a writer/producer in the field of animation. Although not every day is puppies and Rainbows (some are Carpet Vipers and tornados) it is none the less a pretty great way to make a living if you consider the alternatives. (I go to my college re union every few years and I have yet to find anyone beside myself who sat on a panel at COMICON, in front of 2500 screaming devotees of a show that I wrote and produced.) Sorry. Off track. Anyway, there are many very different jobs in the world of animation and I believe, one or more for every skill set imaginable.
In this Blog, I am going to attempt to work through the different ways you can become part of this amazing world. I will try to help you narrow down your choices and find the job that fits you to a tee. There may end up being more than one. Don't worry. That's a good thing. The more jobs you become proficient at, the more valuable you are to a production. Then, I am going to tell you the best way to approach getting that job.
WHY ANIMATION?
Throughout my career, I have been asked countless times how one gets into animation. I usually answer that question with another question (annoying to the person who asked the first question, no doubt): "Why Animation?"
It is VERY important to know the answer to this query with any field you have decided to enter, not just the one being discussed here. As it pertains to the world of animation, specifically, I ask this question because there are so many different areas of this long and complicated process, that you need to first figure out where, in this vast landscape of hard working talented people, to plant your flag. If you have any doubt that there are a ton of different ways to make a living, here is just a SHORT list of SOME of the jobs in the Animation field:
Lead Animator
Animator
Character Designer
Modeller
Texture Artist
Lighting Director
Layout Artist
Head of Layout
Storyboard Artist
Revisionist
Background Designer
VFX Supervisor
VFX Artist
Voice Director
ADR Supervisor
Sound Mixer
SFX Supervisor
SFX Editor
Foley Artist
Writer
Producer
Director
Exec Producer
And it goes on and on. If you are interested in seeing the entire list of union positions and what the standard pay is, you can check the Animation Guild Local 839 site. Their basic agreement has everything, including minimum salaries for every job, hours per week of work, benefits, etc. It should be noted that there are many projects that DO operate under a non union model. You will find that those jobs usually pay less and don't contribute to any pension fund or health care pool. This is why it's best to find yourself a job with union benefits. I'm a big fan of unions. I belong to many and because of my years of service in those guilds, my retirement benefits will allow me to live a comfortable life and have health care until I'm being put in the ground and covered in dirt. Love, Love, Love my unions. Studios hate them, but that's not a problem we need to concern ourselves with at the moment. For now, let's start looking at some of those awesome jobs and what it takes to get one.
Here's a question I am asked all the time:
Q: Do you have to be an artist to be successful in the animation field.
A: Not at all. But, it reduces the number of jobs you will qualify for.
When I tell people I work in animation, they are shocked. "I never knew you could draw", they tell me. "Can you draw a Toothless for my kid. He loves your show". "Sorry, I have zero artistic ability", I reply as their faces drop in disappointment. That fact is, I cannot draw. I've been trying to sketch Toothless, the main character from our series for 7 years, and he always comes out looking like a 5 year old's attempt at drawing their pet lizard. It's sad, especially since my mother and sister are both successful artists and my other sister runs an art gallery. You would think. But, sadly, I suck at it. But, look how far I've gotten? Amazing, right?
NO! You don't need to draw. BUT, if you CAN, there are many, many opportunities for you in the animation world. I love when I hear people say that "Computers do everything nowadays and you don't even need to know how to draw." BULL SHIT! Someone has to create the characters that go into the computer that get modeled and then animated. Someone has to design the world that the characters live in, draw the props, the wardrobe, etc.. Animation doesn't start in a computer, even though technology HAS made things a lot easier and allowed us to produce VERY high quality work. It starts with artists and their brilliant, creative minds and talented hands. Yes, it ends up in a computer, eventually, but first comes the hands on stuff. The work that requires the minds and the hands of an artist.
As I attempt to go over the production cycle of an animated TV show (this can be applied to movies as well), along the way, I will plug in the folks at every step needed to bring the project to completion. Hopefully this will give you a better idea of where you fit in and where you'd like to focus your energy. I will then give some recommendations on where to start looking for your first job in Animation!
THE IDEA:
Every movie, TV show, Play, Book, etc. starts with an idea. Maybe you have an amazing idea for an animated series or movie. Maybe you wrote a script, or sketched some characters out and you think everyone in town will be pushing one another out of the way to buy your brilliant work. Maybe you're right. The problem with that, is that most everyone who lives out here in the land of LA, has an idea for a screenplay, TV show, etc. They all think their's is genius and has never been done before. Most of them are incorrect. In fact I was pitched an idea the other day that my friend was convinced was revolutionary and was a sure sale. I sadly had to tell him that although it was a good idea, it was already airing on Netflix and doing quite well. This happens every day in this business. HOWEVER, this should, in no way discourage you from trying to bring your idea to life in some way, shape or form as it may indeed be that one that blows peoples' minds and gets bought up.
Here are a few of the folks that you will be looking for when you have an idea and want to bring it to life to pitch the networks, studios and streaming services. As you read further, also consider if any of these jobs sound fun or like something you would want to pursue.
When you have an idea for an animated TV show or movie, you MUST include artwork in its presentation. It is expected and even demanded that you show the buyer an example of what the show will look like; the characters, the environments, etc. Everyone sees things differently in their mind. You can't expect the people you are trying to sell your idea to, to see anything in their heads the way it's supposed to be seen, the way YOU see it. That's why you have to come strong with the art, or "The Shiny" as I like to call it.
When I pitch a show, or a movie, I usually have what's called a pitch bible, which is a 15 or 20 page document that includes all the characters, the log line of the show, where it takes place, the relationships between the characters, episode ideas, season arcs, and finally, artwork. I try to have at least four or five of the heroic characters designed and rendered in 3D (including the Villain) and a few environments in which they exist. If you can draw and use photo shop, this is a relatively achievable, but time consuming task. In the end, you need to walk in with a book, AND have a nice Power Point or Keynote presentation with the same artwork, so that you can bring your idea to life in the room.
Keep in mind, this is if you want to try to sell your own show. It pays NOTHING until you sell the show. It will probably, in fact, cost you money if you want to do it right. And, as such, will require you to turn to some smart creative people to help you get things together. But, if you want it done right, you need to either pay them, or make them your partner. These are not only people you need, but jobs you could, yourself have. It's a great way to make money on the side and once word of mouth spreads that you are easy to work with and talented. BOOM. Sky's the limit. Anyway, the folks I find myself turning to time and time again in this phase of the process, are...
- Character Designer: This is the job that I would have if I possessed the talent to actually perform it. This is the first position in the animation process that we will discuss. As I said before, when an idea is presented for a new show or movie, it lives in someone's imagination before it is brought to life. The creator can see what he wants it to look like in his head. But he may not be able to translate that onto paper, or computer, or whatever. That's where character designers come in. They are the artists who take the creator's vision of his virtual cast of characters and turns them into beautiful color drawings then renders them in a computer.
A Character Designer must really get into the mind of the creator and try to help guide him towards what he or she wants. They often sit with creators and sketch for hours until they can, together, come up with a basic look, or style, for the characters. Keep in mind that animation is about style. It's about creating a LOOK for the animated actors that, although they are all different characters, share the same basic feel. For example, below are lead characters from three different movies from three different studios. Notice the similarities that the characters have in each property with each other. And, notice the differences from the characters in the other movies.
These Dragons characters are a bit more realistic. Their features are not distorted and they are designed to look like actual people and animals, yet with that slight Dreamworks twist.
Here the characters become a bit more over the top, facial features more distorted, if you will, stretched and compressed in scale, less like actual faces, leaning more to the stylistic as opposed to the realistic.
These characters are all about laughs. They are in no way meant to look like real people or beings. They are of another world (although on Earth) and meant to create a comedic effect by their mere design.
The differences may seem subtle at first, but if you study them, you will see what I'm trying to say.
THE DESIGN PROCESS:
Below is an example of the steps of a character design for a new project I am working on based on a novel entitled WATCHDOG, by Will McIntosh. I will go over the steps and give examples of how we get from an idea to a fully rendered piece of art.
STEP ONE:
ROUGH SKETCHES: These provided us with different looks and concepts for the lead character, a young autistic girl living in the Post Apocalyptic future outside the city of Chicago. You will see four different ideas. Decide which one you liked the best. Also, for all you artists out there, is this something you think you could do? Maybe you are a future character designer!
Of these four really amazing drawings, we ended up going with the fourth and final one. The one thing we wanted to make sure was that she had a really wide eyed, animated feel to her, one that set a style, nothing too realistic or lifelike. That takes us to:
STEP TWO:
LINE DRAWING: The line drawing below represents the final design we agreed in a perfect, clean drawing, ready to go into the final stages of color.
FINAL STAGE:
3D RENDERING: This is where the drawing gets colored in the computer using Photoshop. Most Character Designers should have a firm grasp on Adobe Photoshop which is the program used to create and finish these images. I won't go too deeply into the program itself, just be aware that if you have plans to be a designer for animation of any kind, you will be using some sort of drawing program with a bluetooth tablet pencil connected to your computer. Just know that it takes some getting used to, but in the end, the possibilities are almost infinite as to what you can do with an image. Below is our final design that went into the presentation for the series.
BACKGROUND DESIGNER:
Many Character Designers are also Background Designers, although it does require a certain skill set that some artists struggle with, scale. Proportionally sizing and scaling a drawing so that it has a three dimensional feel and look is a skill that is in demand across many areas of Animation. Background Environments need to have depth and scope. They need to convey the world of the show or movie; the place in which the characters will live and move and where the action will take place. Often times, we will place character designs into a background that has been created to give an even better feel for what we're thinking. The process is similar to character design, starting with a sketch, then a line drawing, finally a full color image. Below is one of the designs for our show. This one happened to be created by our character designer who is a brilliant artist, able to do just about anything. We were lucky to have him.
Below is an example of characters placed into a background created for the show. Notice that the Background was blurred to create depth and a 3D feel.
So, this is the first of my blog series. I will be going over multiple areas of production each week. I tried to keep it fairly short today just to give an intro and give a taste of what I'm trying to accomplish. Hope you enjoy it and I look forward to continuing this series in the hopes that it inspires some of you to give it a try. Maybe one day, we'll even work together. Stay tuned!