I live in Northern California (Sacramento), and I'd like to be a character designer. I spent the last 15 years taking online courses and practicing. Started learning as a teen, and now im 29. Almost 30. I am hoping to try and find a job in this industry later next year. I am hoping that by then, it will be easier to get a job in animation. I noticed that many jobs in general require experience, which I do not have. I have heard of people in other industries getting hired despite not having that requirement. So I am just hoping that's the same here, lol. Throughout my life, I've seen people around me progress with their lives, and its like, here am I just living at home learning to draw. I just hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel here. Because there have been so many times i have felt bad about myself and this decision i have made to dedicate my life to this. It has been a tough journey.
Please help. I attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC from 2013 to 2017. But even before finishing, I’ve been struggling with a lot that it reaches the point of an existential crisis. I attended SVA to learn traditional animation and eventually work for Disney. But during the second year, I started to feel very insecure because I thought my work looked weak, and crude compared to the other students. During the next one, I started having second thoughts. After 1 month of third-year animation class, the professor told me that my drawing skills were weak compared to the other students. That really hurt to the core. Even after I left that class and joined a different animation class, what he said still haunts me. After that, the professor in the layout class I took said that my work was poor. That all caused me to get off track and feel completely lost. It hurt because these were professionals that work in the animation industry, and they know who’s got it and who didn’t. People keep telling me that my real talent is my knowledge of the history of the art of American animation because I’ve studied the subject since, I was 14. I thought that after I finished college, I would become an animation historian since I had no future in the industry. I planned to teach the subject in schools and write books and articles and perhaps work at the Disney Archives. While I had done things to get started, including writing historical articles for a blog called MickeyBlog.com and while I excelled at it, I was scared that it wasn’t leading me to where I have to be after a year. Plus I need a Master’s and a PhD and I can’t afford to start. When I saw the Disney+ docuseries, Into the Unknown, it sorted of rekindled the spark that was lost, and I looked into other areas to work in. In 2022, I took a job as a temporary usher for the Radio Christmas Spectacular. After the run was over, I kept struggling to figure out where I belonged. I enrolled in a class to learn computer animation but that was too complicated for me, and I couldn’t even build a model in the computer. So, I dropped out after the first class. Since the School of Visual Arts offers a continuin education course, I thought I could enroll in one to better whatever skills I have to land an animation job. In 2021, I signed on to a class in character designing but soon cancelled it because I was scared that the professor would tell me that my skills were trash. I tried storyboardin but that ended up a failure. Last year I seriously considered writin for animation because people praise my writing, and I thought I could apply it to creative writing. But when I tried to learn about scriptwriting through tutorials on RUclips and watch the Disney RUclips series, Script to Screen, I started to feel intimidated that I don’t think that I could do that, and it’ll be another failure. I even wrote a story synopsis as a test to see if I can write creatively and I sent it to a lot of animation writers I found on LinkedIn to see their feedback. The first said it had a lot of grammar issues but the second said she thought it was good and offered to help further. I was looking for affordable creative writing classes but didn’t continue. I also seriously considered independent animation and animation history writing and teaching, but there’s still a lot of things stopping me. First is I can’t afford the software I used in school, which was TV Paint, which costs $411 in the states. I tried to use free software but those were all rip-offs. Last year I took a job as a substitute paraprofessional but that is not working out at all after a year. I really don’t know what to do. Now several people, including a priest, mother, and my therapist are tellin me to give up and settle. That hurts because it sounds that I attended art school for nothing. Even mother thought that and said that the BFA I earned is worthless because it hasn’t landed me a job. And the priest said that my dream will never happen so I should settle. Now my depression has reached the point where I feel crippled and that shouldn’t try anything because it’ll all be for nothing. And it doesn’t help that I have to land a job soon because my parents will retire next summer and sell the house in 2026 to live in Portugal. But I applied to a lot of different jobs after finishing college, but none would give me a chance and that too hurts. Now my mother said that she’s losing sleep because she’s nervous about what will happen to me after she and father retire and now, I feel terrible that all I am is a letdown and burden. Please help me because I think you understand and will tell me what I’m missing because no one else does and I’m lost and emotionally crashed. This is the link to my RUclips channel. www.youtube.com/@danielalpine1994
I am curious how network executive's for entertainment (especially in the animation) get hired and work to get said job? 🤔 Cause we've been getting shitty one's for some time now. 😑
That’s a good question, hopefully someone in the comments can provide insight. My guess is they start with entry level jobs on the production or management side and from there it’s just networking?
You forgot to tell that we are in information age. Too much watching tutorials, social media, schoolism, lightbox expo, netflix is the main culprit in today’s age. You will end up no where if all you do is watching and going to conference
ok but what if i like every role ive tried xd. altho if there was a role that focused on painting/3d modeling that would be cool. Very useful and im only halfway through.
That’s nice. But I ain’t got time for all those steps. I’m just gonna go ahead & take the short way around & let the animation supervisors hug me as much as they want or send them some feet pics 🦶 along with my portfolios 💼: you’re not willing to do whatever it takes Sia, that sounds like a YOU problem
Well.I sure am glad not everyone has your Attitude toward Animation Sia 🙄 if it were up to You, we’d all be watching Slideshows for entertainment. That’s it. SIAAAAA LATERRR
Hi guys! If you liked this video, please don't forget to hit like and subscribe and help me out with the algorithm. Much appreciated :)
25:50 EXACTLY What CLOWNFISH was STATING!!!! DO YOUR OWN THING!
I live in Northern California (Sacramento), and I'd like to be a character designer.
I spent the last 15 years taking online courses and practicing. Started learning as a teen, and now im 29. Almost 30.
I am hoping to try and find a job in this industry later next year. I am hoping that by then, it will be easier to get a job in animation.
I noticed that many jobs in general require experience, which I do not have. I have heard of people in other industries getting hired despite not having that requirement.
So I am just hoping that's the same here, lol.
Throughout my life, I've seen people around me progress with their lives, and its like, here am I just living at home learning to draw. I just hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel here.
Because there have been so many times i have felt bad about myself and this decision i have made to dedicate my life to this.
It has been a tough journey.
Animation is hard but worthwhile. Great tips.
Thanks for all this great information. It definitely can feel daunting at first, but buckling down and being consistent goes a long way!
Please help. I attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC from 2013 to 2017. But even before finishing, I’ve been struggling with a lot that it reaches the point of an existential crisis. I attended SVA to learn traditional animation and eventually work for Disney. But during the second year, I started to feel very insecure because I thought my work looked weak, and crude compared to the other students. During the next one, I started having second thoughts. After 1 month of third-year animation class, the professor told me that my drawing skills were weak compared to the other students. That really hurt to the core. Even after I left that class and joined a different animation class, what he said still haunts me. After that, the professor in the layout class I took said that my work was poor. That all caused me to get off track and feel completely lost. It hurt because these were professionals that work in the animation industry, and they know who’s got it and who didn’t.
People keep telling me that my real talent is my knowledge of the history of the art of American animation because I’ve studied the subject since, I was 14. I thought that after I finished college, I would become an animation historian since I had no future in the industry. I planned to teach the subject in schools and write books and articles and perhaps work at the Disney Archives. While I had done things to get started, including writing historical articles for a blog called MickeyBlog.com and while I excelled at it, I was scared that it wasn’t leading me to where I have to be after a year. Plus I need a Master’s and a PhD and I can’t afford to start. When I saw the Disney+ docuseries, Into the Unknown, it sorted of rekindled the spark that was lost, and I looked into other areas to work in. In 2022, I took a job as a temporary usher for the Radio Christmas Spectacular. After the run was over, I kept struggling to figure out where I belonged. I enrolled in a class to learn computer animation but that was too complicated for me, and I couldn’t even build a model in the computer. So, I dropped out after the first class. Since the School of Visual Arts offers a continuin education course, I thought I could enroll in one to better whatever skills I have to land an animation job. In 2021, I signed on to a class in character designing but soon cancelled it because I was scared that the professor would tell me that my skills were trash. I tried storyboardin but that ended up a failure. Last year I seriously considered writin for animation because people praise my writing, and I thought I could apply it to creative writing. But when I tried to learn about scriptwriting through tutorials on RUclips and watch the Disney RUclips series, Script to Screen, I started to feel intimidated that I don’t think that I could do that, and it’ll be another failure. I even wrote a story synopsis as a test to see if I can write creatively and I sent it to a lot of animation writers I found on LinkedIn to see their feedback. The first said it had a lot of grammar issues but the second said she thought it was good and offered to help further. I was looking for affordable creative writing classes but didn’t continue. I also seriously considered independent animation and animation history writing and teaching, but there’s still a lot of things stopping me. First is I can’t afford the software I used in school, which was TV Paint, which costs $411 in the states. I tried to use free software but those were all rip-offs. Last year I took a job as a substitute paraprofessional but that is not working out at all after a year.
I really don’t know what to do. Now several people, including a priest, mother, and my therapist are tellin me to give up and settle. That hurts because it sounds that I attended art school for nothing. Even mother thought that and said that the BFA I earned is worthless because it hasn’t landed me a job. And the priest said that my dream will never happen so I should settle. Now my depression has reached the point where I feel crippled and that shouldn’t try anything because it’ll all be for nothing. And it doesn’t help that I have to land a job soon because my parents will retire next summer and sell the house in 2026 to live in Portugal. But I applied to a lot of different jobs after finishing college, but none would give me a chance and that too hurts. Now my mother said that she’s losing sleep because she’s nervous about what will happen to me after she and father retire and now, I feel terrible that all I am is a letdown and burden.
Please help me because I think you understand and will tell me what I’m missing because no one else does and I’m lost and emotionally crashed. This is the link to my RUclips channel. www.youtube.com/@danielalpine1994
Thanks a lot for all the info, it was very informative.
I am curious how network executive's for entertainment (especially in the animation) get hired and work to get said job? 🤔 Cause we've been getting shitty one's for some time now. 😑
That’s a good question, hopefully someone in the comments can provide insight. My guess is they start with entry level jobs on the production or management side and from there it’s just networking?
I imagine they fail upwards.
You forgot to tell that we are in information age. Too much watching tutorials, social media, schoolism, lightbox expo, netflix is the main culprit in today’s age. You will end up no where if all you do is watching and going to conference
I would like taking a storyboard position but I don't think I'm good enough
ok but what if i like every role ive tried xd. altho if there was a role that focused on painting/3d modeling that would be cool. Very useful and im only halfway through.
You might be better off being a generalist! I know a few people like that
3:30 Unless you're making your own cartoon all by yourself.
I wouldn't mind being a character designer since I'm more of a cartoonist type of artist.
That’s nice. But I ain’t got time for all those steps. I’m just gonna go ahead & take the short way around & let the animation supervisors hug me as much as they want or send them some feet pics 🦶 along with my portfolios 💼: you’re not willing to do whatever it takes Sia, that sounds like a YOU problem
Well.I sure am glad not everyone has your Attitude toward Animation Sia 🙄 if it were up to You, we’d all be watching Slideshows for entertainment. That’s it. SIAAAAA LATERRR
discord invite is invalid
hmm that's odd. i just double checked, do you mind trying again? discord.gg/PZkdyJRK5n