I live in England and I'm not talking about the Anime industry. Learn 2D animation with my comprehensive online courses: www.animatorguild.com/courses.html
I am definitely a fan of freelancing / remote work - but let’s also acknowledge the reason that most of these jobs are disappearing are actually major studios unionbusting and outsourcing these jobs to areas where people can afford less pay due to cheaper cost of living.
I feel you, and i think i should start pricing my products & services to align with those in first world countries. can't deal with the fact that i might be stealing from artists like you
I will give you a succinct answer to your problem. Compete on everything but price. In other words, offer a bespoke luxury service that justifies a higher price cost. This puts you on an upward spiral - higher quality output leads to higher profile projects, which gives you greater publicity, which puts you in front of more potential clientss, which drives up competition between clients, which leads to higher pay, which leads to greater focus (no need to take on multiple projects at once), which helps you make even higher quality work, which leads to justification of an even higher price on your results And so on and so on. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's an important distinction that separates you from the downward spiral: Competing on price with people who have a lower cost of living than you, which leads to you taking on a greater quantity than you can handle, which leads to lower sleep, which leads to worse output, which leads to no publicity, which leads to a shortage of clients. Down and down the spiral goes until you are forced to quit.
@@HowardWimshurstright, but people all over the world can follow that same advice. How can you compete with very skilled individuals that can afford to charge much less than someone in the US would need to charge for their work
@@finneganswake4128 thats the case with a lot of things not just animation. Its just how it is, people who are able to charge less to secure a job over someone who NEEDS that income will always be a thing sadly this isnt anything new.
for any other job id be all about working from home but for artistic jobs id much prefer a studio where i can be around other creatives and talk to them. its not easy to find people irl whos truly dedicated to the craft and take it as seriously as we do
I agree with you, but I also like having the freedom of travel that freelancing allows. Perhaps in the future someone will organize some kind of freelance animator coworking thing where people could gather in a studio-like setting, but just working on all their individual freelance gigs. Would be great for networking and getting feedback as well.
The freedom of being able to choose and decide on your own fate makes it an involved choice for the artist to strive for better rather than paint for satisfaction. What a fantastic era to be alive in the animation industry imo.
its half a lie, you dont really have freedom, you have much move over head magment, marketing, tax, thinking on next projects - clients... much more scary than worst case swapping jobs and getting better pay. also you dont have any benfits, and if you in EU you cant ask for money from goverment if you have bad times... been freelance also mean much easier to cut ties with you, and forget you.
This video is both inspiring and depressing for me; I HATE social media and the grind to appeal to an algorythm, I really just want a stable job that gets me enough income to live quietly and comfortably, but it really seems like that dream is just out of reach nowadays. I HATE that this large structural and economic changes are happenning RIGHT as I am leaving my student/college life period and entering adulthood. I don't want to be 30 and still living at my parents' house...
Yeah me too. The grind to push the algorithm is something I never prioritise as far as I am. I make a ton of animations but didn't care all that much about followings/subscribers. I honestly not even sure what my trajectory is with all this.
It doesn't help that so many animators are breaking away from large studios to create their own studios, which dilutes the quality of animated films/series since budgets are dispersing and teams are becoming smaller. It's great to know your studio is adapting to the ever-changing civilization. Can't wait to see the trajectory of your studio and the art released through it!
@@Noirlax You're right. More interesting stories will likely get to see the light of day. But sometimes those interesting stories are ruined by subpar aesthetics due to lack of funding or staff. For me, a high degree of polish in animation is important-especially if the work is produced by a studio/a team of people.
@@alxandercontreras Fair enough, everyone has their tastes and bugbears. Any animations in particular? It's kind of strange to say this as an animated filmmaker but a film/series without highly polished animation never bothered me and in fact my favourites never had high production values. I value directing/concept/atmosphere/essence and 'soul' of the piece. That being said I do believe the art/animation should strive be the best it can be given budget/time constraints.
@@Noirlax I already replied to this comment, but it seems my comment didn't submit or something 👀**looks around suspiciously** Maybe the list of movies was too long lol Just to keep the comment short, I really like "Children Who Chase Lost Voices." Pls check it out if you haven't already. BTW I respect your opinion because without soul/essence, we cannot have profound stories that evoke something within us.
I have the feeling that an industry based exclusively on freelance work, however tempting it may seem, is ultimately a scam in the long term. In France, this is already the case for the storyboard industry, and workers have gradually lost many of their rights, and now it's extremely hard to mobilize if working conditions aren't acceptable. There's less of a bond between people, and it's much easier for studios to replace you without a second thought.
A lot of RUclipsrs are out of touch with most animators. Most of us haven’t garnered a massive following online, that basically is a massive advertising platform that makes you easy to find. Nothing wrong with that. It’s awesome to have that skill and if you can do it, more power to you. This isn’t most animators/illustrators though. And after the better half of the last 20 years doing freelance and contract work, I can’t tell you how freeing it is to actually work for a big company. I actually make similar money than I did freelancing, but I have a ton of the paperwork done for me, don’t have to pitch for work, negotiate and then chase money. It went from 20% animating and doing what I like to now animating 80% of my time.
life is really rough when you dont know when your next job is coming nor from whom it will come. so freelancing doesn't work with grads who typically have a huge debt that requires consistent payments, nor with couples/parents. "go freelance" is a cop out said to art graduates by adults who don't want to be held accountable for the weak university to position pipeline. Its a polite way to tell the youth to go f* ourselves while jobs are outsourced to people in cheaper countries (whose currency should be equally valued in a just world). What we need is new studios who have a lower barrier to entry, more entry-level positions, and freedom from huge conglomerates. Also a requirement that studios hire those with degrees in art and phase out hiring off the street. Those who are already in the industry can be grandfathered-in. If the product is national then so too must the hiring for positions making the product.
i feel you, but you can't force studios, especially small studios, to limit their hiring pool to people with degrees. They will hire whomever they feel is right for the job. They can't be made to pay back your student loans.
I hope not , unless there are more laws that can protect freelancers. freelance work has been an excuse for paying people low wages , sometimes not even paying, cutting people off projects without prior notice putting them in difficult positions...etc..
Here's a similar example but slightly different. I work for an animation studio that takes in work from other game studios, big and small. What's great is we take in different work, each with their own challenges and style, from realistic to stylized. And the time frame for each project can typically go from 1 to 3 months. Because of this I was able to learn and grow quite a bit. The downside is most of my work in under NDA :(.
Thank you for your advice, Howard. My name is Ndinawe, and I have been trying to get into the animation industry since I graduated from university in 2015. I should start focusing on freelancing, remote working and commissioning.
Great video Howard, I agree. The way things are done are changing drastically. The internet age is here, and animation is no longer needs to be done in a fixed location.
This is what is happening in Japan for many years, the freelance is the Top there. Many employers has a crappy payment such 6$ per hour or less. MAPPA is the worst studio with crappy conditions. Sometimes we have to analyze countries like Japan because there are people who think that what happens there will not happen outside...
yeah Japan's prolific anime output is at the cost of worker's rights. There is a sickness on that industry. They are not unionized and probably never will be. If I was an animator in Japan I would learn the English language and seek to work with US clients as a freelance independent.
Real nice of the entertainment studios whole generations have supported to jump from having a "you must live locally to the studio to make connections and be hired" requirement to the "we're going to hire primarily outside of our country because its cheaper" requirement. But there are art colleges in western nations that are far from the entertainment hub cities. 🤷🏿♂️
Studios aren't loyal to their artists, just like how artists aren't loyal to their studio. If you were offered a higher paying job by a rival studio, you would probably take it, right? Most animators would. In the same way, if there is low cost skilled labor, studios will work with them. It's a competitive market, so you need to be offering something valuable + communicate that value. You can't expect loyalty from these companies in a competitive market.
@@HowardWimshurstmaybe if you already own a house and everything lol no debt etc. These jobs have mainly been for comfortable rich kids anyway, and they continue to be so lol I'd never ever let myself depend on wondering when my next pay is when I wanna pay for a house, a family, or my debt, which are things you have to think about 90% of your adult life. Unless you already rich, which brings us back to...
@itsmj3103 Yes, some people of some backgrounds might find that a freelance lifestyle does not have enough job security for them. I don't have a mortgage (or a house) but I bet I would get a less favorable rate because of the feast or famine nature of a freelancer's income. It seems clear to me you have too many financial priorities to justify risking it all on a volatile career as a freelance artist. Going professional as an artist is not for everyone. Somtimes in the pursuit of happiness you gotta do what needs to be done to steadily climb out of the debt hole. Best of luck.
Thank you for making videos like these, in such a rapidly changing field hearing the mechanics behind the changes really helps me understand what to expect entering the industry
So I'm in the information security/software dev industry (trying to learn animation for fun and have loved this channel for that, btw) and this hits the same nerve for the software development industry. Spot on!
Who wants to be on the same exact desk, with the same exact people and the same type of work all the time? Change is what keeps the work interesting in the end and yourself excited to work on something. Plus shorter projects in smaller groups, than the big projects in studios, which sometimes take up to many years.
This has been a very helpful video for me at the moment. Having been shunned by multiple animation studios, and going thru hardships of creating multiple of the same animations for clients, Its time to expand my portfolio and start posting to socials more often. Thanks for your help in growing the online animation community Howard
At a later stage in my life, [by God's Grace, 30] I would like to open my own animation studio with ahybrid setting. I' e been graduated for a year now, applying to media job after media job and still haven't gotten my first job to break into the industry.
I do graphic design as a hobby and novice so background art is hard because it takes hours even weeks or less to make one background and that includes the visual effects and colour balance to make it remotely legit studio standard or it turns into fan art and don’t get me started on the “Not good enough” because how does it feel that you have trash the hard work and redo it again. It sucks
just a question on like how much should u charge for animation .. . and if it was u how much would u charge for 1 minute animation ... as animation is really a low paying job it concerns me a lot
My expertise as a 3D animator is so much more limited than 2D. In terms of starting my own studio. So much more different software and multidisciplinary. Although I'm really starting to resent being an employee for a game studio. Not sure how to do something like that. I'm really thinking of adding 2D to my skillset, though. I'm already a good drawer and I did try out some 2D in uni. On the other hand it might not lead to any more opportunities that are economical for me.
what you say is very interesting thanks for this video.!! I'd like to try to make a few minutes fan animation but I'm unsure about one thing =( How many drawings/frames should there be in one second of animation .? How many do you make and how many are there in anime.? =) Thanks if you can answer me ! I know it may be a trivial question but I'm trying to learn as much as I can from those who know more than me =)
people think that becoming freelance is all glory and amazing, its a lie. my exprince as doing it as game developer here is why: - get ready to fight for payments. - get ready to get paid 30-60-90-120 days after it, in some country its common to pay later. - if the market is full with "freelacner" get ready to cut prices down a lot. - contracts with everything. - lots of "empty" meetings that lead to no where with clients, just cuz they choose someone else from the 100 that fought on it. - lots of mails to deal with - clients to deal with - clieant fixes - when you do freelance you not getting paid "extra" you paid by hour, but the amount of "extra" work needed - deal with tax - you need to market yourself - you need to learn to represent yourself Infront of different clients - no benfits, so all the health insurnce, tax , vacation days are gone. - get ready to pay for lawyers, for building good contract, with dealing with unpaying costumers... and so on. - website expenses and so on... - get ready for periods of time without work, for example summer time as less people at office \ foucs on work, as kids at home. also no client projects starting in December - January as its end of the year, long vacations, new year, and companies reports i am not saying freelacning, or running a small company is bad, but it can easliy become too much to deal with, most people will not like it, and just want to create. been a freelancer not meaning you "free" you have much higher stress, if you fail and a bit too slow in full time position, you maybe be forgiven much easier than if you freelancer and miss deadline. your name is yours, if you fuck it up, clients will not do work with you. also to company have much easier control if you freelance, much easier to cut you off a project, much easier to not pay , and do so much troubles to you. freelance is been a slave to clients, there demands and there power, they still have more power than you, they still your bosses as long as they pay, and you still most of the time need to be in dead line reach, and this is a big one, you bound by deadline! so sure you can play video games all morning, but in the end you need to deliver the work. you always need to think what happen if this client stop giving work, always try to reinvent yourself, get better, and make new conation with clients while keeping in touch with old onces, and this requrie a lot of work! also delivering work, progress updates, asking more information, all of it is the same between fulltime and freelance. * sorry on the rant about been freelancer, i think both freelancer in full time are shitty position to be in, unless you on the top, and have enough money not to worry on either.
Sounds like you should change your profession, or learn to overcome with these problems yourself instead of putting it on the client / studio as their responsibility. You're clearly not happy so something needs to change.
@@HowardWimshurst there is great things about been freelancer, you can work on multiple projects instead of just big and long single project, you can work on things that more fit you, there is good things, but this good things happen on two cases: - you got a lot of money and can choose your client! - you have a big huge name (like 350K followers in youtube) and things to show for it. than its easier to find this corners. plus i think you come from a point above, you are a successes story! you built a great youtube channel, you have more than 500K followers in your media outlets , and some nice projects to show for it, so when a client come to you, yes you, he already know to not play with you, as you can burn him hard, also you have the option because you big to find the projects and client that interest you, most people will not become that big and huge to allow them this, and they will need to keep working, and get food on the table. also i pointed out some of the things you need to do as freelance, marketing, lawyer (for contracts, aggrements, hiring other contractors, partnerships, legal letter for people that not paying...), not having vaction\sick days, down time from clients at some points of the year, down time when ecnomics at a low at may be harder to find clients, meetings with clients and needing to represnt yourself, and to know how to sell yourself, pricing your worth. and much more. as of my ADHD i cant be in office, so i prefer remote or freelance, but freelance is not so magical as you sale it, and thats my point, you already on the top ride, half million followers, that give you nice base income, you have clients, and you have this channel. Even if all ur follower will be freelancers tomorrow, make a website, and youtube, you think the industry will have jobs for all the 500K artiest? i know how to run my boat, just saying that for *most* people it will be a hard ride, and much harder way to get enough projects and name, not everyone can have 500K followers in youtube, not everyone can talk themself , freelance is messy and requrie lots of extras than just drawing. last thing, you pointed out you outsource what you dont like, but it sound to me you becoming more of a small contractor company than solo freelancing, and its completely different market, project sizes, and cleints, than when people going solo on client projects.
@@danielr7599 I know you say you "know how to run your boat", but from the points you have been listing out, there seem to be a lot of core aspects of your business you could greatly improve upon. You can keep telling yourself "it's because he's lucky. It's because he's famous" Or you could fix each of those problems in your business, starting with the problem of your obscurity. Customers (or clients) are the life blood of your business. Clearly not enough of them are enquiring and it's been creating droughts in your business. I invested in my social media presence, which i recommend that everyone tries. It's funny how you talk about my following as if it was something that accidentally happened, or something i was just handed on a plate, not a tactical investment I deliberately made over several years (and continue to make) because I understand the importance of social media presence for artists. You say repeatedly that not everyone can have 500k followers... Why the heck not? That would be awesome and last time I checked, there is no limit to how many people are allowed to reach a following of 500k. Why can't at least the dedicated and determined of us reach a large following? Even 10k would make a huge difference in an artist's livelihood. I know animators who have reached a following of over 100k who have never shown their face on camera. What's your excuse for not promoting yourself online? Yeah, it's hard work. Tell me a job which isn't?
@@danielr7599 I will list some solutions to the problems or difficulties you listed: - "get ready to fight for payments": make it a policy to charge 50% upfront before any work is done. Wartermark your end product if you really want to feel secure. The most you could stand to lose then is 50%. - "Late payment": Write it as a deadline in your contract and in your invoice. Follow up with your client. First politely. Only make threats if necessary. Charge extra across all your projects as insurance against this potential outcome. - "Market is full with "freelancer" get ready to cut prices down a lot": No, you absolutely should NOT join that race to the bottom. Stand high above those freelancers and proudly offer an expensive premium service they could not hope to compete with. Whoever told you to cut your prices is almost single-handedly responsible for handicapping your entire career. Compete on everything but price. - "Contracts with everything": ...seriously? It's a problem for you to copy a contract template and change some words around? Is that really too much for you to handle? I feel like you're just listing things like this just to bloat your list. - ""empty" meetings": be reluctant to schedule meetings. Bring up price early and often. Set a minimum level of engagement in your first reply email before any meetings. Bill for your time spent on each call. They will get the message. Your time has value - start acting like it. - "Lots of mails to deal with" - okay, once again you are just adding things to bloat your list. That's like saying "the pain of being a freelancer is you have to brush your teeth twice a day". Dude, i hate to break it to you, but everyone has emails to deal with. - "Clients to deal with" once again, you can choose between working with clients who rotate with each project, or being settled with one boss at a studio positivon who is far more likely to micro-manage. - "client fixes" - how about "bosses fixes" at a studio job? same goes. Get the client to "sign off" on your planning / rough stages. Don't move ahead with the render until you have their signature of approval. It encourages decisive action and discourages flip flopping. I could go on for every single point you have listed... - "no vacation / no sick days": make enough money and you can give yourself a vacation whenever you want as a freelancer. I don't get given those benefits from my clients. Most of the world do not get these benefits either. - "needing to represent yourself": learn to represent yourself. This is a learned skill. not a tallent. - "You need to know how to sell / price your worth": LEARN. I learned online mostly. Look up this channel called "The Futur". Free education. No excuse. - "you need to make a website for yourself": you can do this for free using wordpress. - "you need social media": you can set up social media for free. It's free advertising. Just requires time and a lot of effort. Those are the barriers to entry. - "ADHD": that problem is specific to you. I'm not specialized to prescribe solutions to that. - "non-famous people can't threaten to burn clients": it is a nasty nuclear option anyway. I have never needed to burn a client, I guess because i'm fairly good a judging the character of my clients. Even as someone totally non-famous, you probably have a network of at least 100 friends on facebook? Nobody wants a bad reputation, even if it's among 100 people, that's still a deterent. - "Job scarcity" - trust me when I say: there are a bunch of commission opportunties for freelance animators. I think you're just not seeing them. They come directly to my inbox because they know me. Then I do my best to distribute them to my network of friends who I know to be good reliable animators. I scout for animators when I host community events on my second channel and the AG film contest. I recieve at least 10 times more commission opportunities than I have the capacity to handle. Your problem is: They can't hire you if they don't know about you, or if they can't trust you to finish the job. I could go on and on... It's important to change your mindset, away from thinking "the system is unfair" to "there are steps I can take to improve my business" It's clear that you are burnt out. You're tired, hurting, alienated, disolusioned. You have written off many basic hurdles as "impossible" for people coming up now, when that simply isn't true. You don't want others to suffer, and you think i'm persuading them to join your predicament, when i'm really not. If you want to become a freelancer, you should go all the way. Learn how to run it properly as a fortified business. For many of your problems, it appears that you just were not aware of a better solution. I'm working on a comprehensive business course where I will lay out all of these steps in detail. The course will equip animators with the business skills they were never taught in art school. It won't be a total solution but it should help a lot of people avoid the situations you brought up. The one thing you need to bring to the course is a positive attitude where you believe in your own ability to learn and overcome these hurdles one by one.
Hello, its matter of choice brother...theres pros and cons for both...the difference is its easier for working fulltime but your growth potential is low. While freelance/business maybe abit harder but the growth potential is higher. Its just different mindset actually - what do you really want? you want to be normal and comfortable or you want to be the best but challenging?...if its me I would choose to become the best/winner all day and paid the price for it...we only have on life...I will not settle for mediocre even if the process is slower and harder. Thats what makes it full of experience : full of problem makes full of growth. Its fine if you start to working fulltime on early while building your business on the side until it become bigger than you job. I think thats the best solution that I can give to you, I hope it would helps. Even if you fail your business you can always go back to work again. The last advice is for you to think about what you want and dont complain/be negative about it. Excuses/complain/blaming will not help you succeed. Good Luck.
4K , increased the volume, used a volume booster, tripled the volume gain in the browser, and still can't hear you. man your content is great, please invest in a good mic. Best of luck.
As a high schooler who wants to go into fine arts, how do you recommend approaching college and jobs beyond it? Art school (college in general) is so expensive, and I don’t want to waste all that money to become a freelance artist that doesn’t get much work. Is there a certain field you would recommend, like character design or storyboarding? I’m just curious on all of it, so I really hope that wasn’t offensive in any way
hey not sure if you still need advise,but as someone who did go the film school route for my animation career,I recommend if you are uncertain to take short courses and workshops and build a mini showreel/portfolio then ask for feedback on it before taking the plunge.If you cant go the short course/workshop route I recommend interviewing students of where you are applying too,ask them for advise on what they are doing and what skills they have been able to gain from the courses offered and where in the industry they are branching to.hope this helps.
Well RUclips is the one I put the most effort into so it makes sense that i get the most offers form there. Instagram has worked quite well for me too, although a lot of the less professional requests I filter out.
Thank you for your reply. Can I ask what type of jobs you normally get via RUclips? are the offers normally 3D related or 2D concepts or anything else?@@HowardWimshurst
Are you speaking on the entire animation industry as a whole, or 2D animation. In 3D I’ve noticed the trend of the big studios moving their productions to Canada due to the cheaper labor & tax subsidies
Not seeing any feature animation credits or commercials on his page, so it's just his own niche 2d project experience. You're absolutely right about the drive for cheaper labor, and flatly ignoring tax subsidies really underlines the fact that he doesn't have business experience in the larger industry. In another comment he thinks he'll be able to differentiate himself on quality. That's going to be one rude awakening.
weeks of hard work, building the background in dozens of photoshop layers, re-importing into tvpaint to slowly erase each layer frame by frame, compiling in after effects, tracking to original background (the worst bit, adding the glowing lines in tvpaint to show the erasure lines, giving them glows in after effects
People can't hire you if they don't know you exist. It's probably a case of obscurity. Share your work online. Make it worthy of re-sharing. It's not enough to be good. Not in the entertainment industry. You gotta strive to be sensational. Sensational should be considered the bar you need to pass.
I live in England and I'm not talking about the Anime industry.
Learn 2D animation with my comprehensive online courses: www.animatorguild.com/courses.html
I am definitely a fan of freelancing / remote work - but let’s also acknowledge the reason that most of these jobs are disappearing are actually major studios unionbusting and outsourcing these jobs to areas where people can afford less pay due to cheaper cost of living.
I feel you, and i think i should start pricing my products & services to align with those in first world countries. can't deal with the fact that i might be stealing from artists like you
@@io_inc bruv i feel that , you wont even catch me speaking my mother tongue anywhere, these companies can smell when you from an emerging country
I will give you a succinct answer to your problem.
Compete on everything but price. In other words, offer a bespoke luxury service that justifies a higher price cost. This puts you on an upward spiral - higher quality output leads to higher profile projects, which gives you greater publicity, which puts you in front of more potential clientss, which drives up competition between clients, which leads to higher pay, which leads to greater focus (no need to take on multiple projects at once), which helps you make even higher quality work, which leads to justification of an even higher price on your results
And so on and so on.
I'm not saying it's easy, but it's an important distinction that separates you from the downward spiral: Competing on price with people who have a lower cost of living than you, which leads to you taking on a greater quantity than you can handle, which leads to lower sleep, which leads to worse output, which leads to no publicity, which leads to a shortage of clients. Down and down the spiral goes until you are forced to quit.
@@HowardWimshurstright, but people all over the world can follow that same advice. How can you compete with very skilled individuals that can afford to charge much less than someone in the US would need to charge for their work
@@finneganswake4128 thats the case with a lot of things not just animation. Its just how it is, people who are able to charge less to secure a job over someone who NEEDS that income will always be a thing sadly this isnt anything new.
for any other job id be all about working from home but for artistic jobs id much prefer a studio where i can be around other creatives and talk to them. its not easy to find people irl whos truly dedicated to the craft and take it as seriously as we do
I agree with you, but I also like having the freedom of travel that freelancing allows. Perhaps in the future someone will organize some kind of freelance animator coworking thing where people could gather in a studio-like setting, but just working on all their individual freelance gigs. Would be great for networking and getting feedback as well.
A lot of people in different professions are moving to the freelance side. The ability to be your own boss is so freeing
The freedom of being able to choose and decide on your own fate makes it an involved choice for the artist to strive for better rather than paint for satisfaction. What a fantastic era to be alive in the animation industry imo.
its half a lie, you dont really have freedom, you have much move over head magment, marketing, tax, thinking on next projects - clients... much more scary than worst case swapping jobs and getting better pay. also you dont have any benfits, and if you in EU you cant ask for money from goverment if you have bad times...
been freelance also mean much easier to cut ties with you, and forget you.
This video is both inspiring and depressing for me; I HATE social media and the grind to appeal to an algorythm, I really just want a stable job that gets me enough income to live quietly and comfortably, but it really seems like that dream is just out of reach nowadays. I HATE that this large structural and economic changes are happenning RIGHT as I am leaving my student/college life period and entering adulthood.
I don't want to be 30 and still living at my parents' house...
Yeah me too. The grind to push the algorithm is something I never prioritise as far as I am. I make a ton of animations but didn't care all that much about followings/subscribers. I honestly not even sure what my trajectory is with all this.
It doesn't help that so many animators are breaking away from large studios to create their own studios, which dilutes the quality of animated films/series since budgets are dispersing and teams are becoming smaller. It's great to know your studio is adapting to the ever-changing civilization. Can't wait to see the trajectory of your studio and the art released through it!
Having more smaller studios has it's own pros and cons. Work might be less polished but the stories/ideas will likely be more varied and interesting.
@@Noirlax You're right. More interesting stories will likely get to see the light of day. But sometimes those interesting stories are ruined by subpar aesthetics due to lack of funding or staff. For me, a high degree of polish in animation is important-especially if the work is produced by a studio/a team of people.
@@alxandercontreras Fair enough, everyone has their tastes and bugbears. Any animations in particular? It's kind of strange to say this as an animated filmmaker but a film/series without highly polished animation never bothered me and in fact my favourites never had high production values. I value directing/concept/atmosphere/essence and 'soul' of the piece. That being said I do believe the art/animation should strive be the best it can be given budget/time constraints.
@@Noirlax I already replied to this comment, but it seems my comment didn't submit or something 👀**looks around suspiciously** Maybe the list of movies was too long lol Just to keep the comment short, I really like "Children Who Chase Lost Voices." Pls check it out if you haven't already. BTW I respect your opinion because without soul/essence, we cannot have profound stories that evoke something within us.
@@alxandercontreras Oh I haven't seen this movie, I will take note.
I have the feeling that an industry based exclusively on freelance work, however tempting it may seem, is ultimately a scam in the long term.
In France, this is already the case for the storyboard industry, and workers have gradually lost many of their rights, and now it's extremely hard to mobilize if working conditions aren't acceptable. There's less of a bond between people, and it's much easier for studios to replace you without a second thought.
A lot of RUclipsrs are out of touch with most animators. Most of us haven’t garnered a massive following online, that basically is a massive advertising platform that makes you easy to find. Nothing wrong with that. It’s awesome to have that skill and if you can do it, more power to you. This isn’t most animators/illustrators though. And after the better half of the last 20 years doing freelance and contract work, I can’t tell you how freeing it is to actually work for a big company. I actually make similar money than I did freelancing, but I have a ton of the paperwork done for me, don’t have to pitch for work, negotiate and then chase money. It went from 20% animating and doing what I like to now animating 80% of my time.
yes, it will be. i see this as things going around to full circle..
It's not a scam. It's just supply and demand. If storyboard artists keep accepting shit gigs, they're gonna keep getting them offered.
life is really rough when you dont know when your next job is coming nor from whom it will come. so freelancing doesn't work with grads who typically have a huge debt that requires consistent payments, nor with couples/parents.
"go freelance" is a cop out said to art graduates by adults who don't want to be held accountable for the weak university to position pipeline. Its a polite way to tell the youth to go f* ourselves while jobs are outsourced to people in cheaper countries (whose currency should be equally valued in a just world). What we need is new studios who have a lower barrier to entry, more entry-level positions, and freedom from huge conglomerates. Also a requirement that studios hire those with degrees in art and phase out hiring off the street. Those who are already in the industry can be grandfathered-in. If the product is national then so too must the hiring for positions making the product.
i feel you, but you can't force studios, especially small studios, to limit their hiring pool to people with degrees. They will hire whomever they feel is right for the job. They can't be made to pay back your student loans.
Freelancing is the way to go and is so freeing since you can be you your own boss!
I hope not , unless there are more laws that can protect freelancers. freelance work has been an excuse for paying people low wages , sometimes not even paying, cutting people off projects without prior notice putting them in difficult positions...etc..
This is a very well explained video for both young people entering the industry or people unsure of becoming freelance. Thanks for sharing.
Glad it was helpful!
Here's a similar example but slightly different. I work for an animation studio that takes in work from other game studios, big and small. What's great is we take in different work, each with their own challenges and style, from realistic to stylized. And the time frame for each project can typically go from 1 to 3 months. Because of this I was able to learn and grow quite a bit. The downside is most of my work in under NDA :(.
sounds pretty good! I find NDAs to be terribly restrictive for the artist and I often negotiate the rights to showcase what I worked on
Thank you for your advice, Howard.
My name is Ndinawe, and I have been trying to get into the animation industry since I graduated from university in 2015. I should start focusing on freelancing, remote working and commissioning.
Great video Howard, I agree. The way things are done are changing drastically.
The internet age is here, and animation is no longer needs to be done in a fixed location.
Very accurate photo of the actual industry. Great video man !
This is what is happening in Japan for many years, the freelance is the Top there. Many employers has a crappy payment such 6$ per hour or less. MAPPA is the worst studio with crappy conditions. Sometimes we have to analyze countries like Japan because there are people who think that what happens there will not happen outside...
yeah Japan's prolific anime output is at the cost of worker's rights. There is a sickness on that industry. They are not unionized and probably never will be. If I was an animator in Japan I would learn the English language and seek to work with US clients as a freelance independent.
Real nice of the entertainment studios whole generations have supported to jump from having a "you must live locally to the studio to make connections and be hired" requirement to the "we're going to hire primarily outside of our country because its cheaper" requirement. But there are art colleges in western nations that are far from the entertainment hub cities. 🤷🏿♂️
Studios aren't loyal to their artists, just like how artists aren't loyal to their studio.
If you were offered a higher paying job by a rival studio, you would probably take it, right? Most animators would. In the same way, if there is low cost skilled labor, studios will work with them. It's a competitive market, so you need to be offering something valuable + communicate that value. You can't expect loyalty from these companies in a competitive market.
@@HowardWimshurstmaybe if you already own a house and everything lol no debt etc. These jobs have mainly been for comfortable rich kids anyway, and they continue to be so lol I'd never ever let myself depend on wondering when my next pay is when I wanna pay for a house, a family, or my debt, which are things you have to think about 90% of your adult life. Unless you already rich, which brings us back to...
@itsmj3103 Yes, some people of some backgrounds might find that a freelance lifestyle does not have enough job security for them. I don't have a mortgage (or a house) but I bet I would get a less favorable rate because of the feast or famine nature of a freelancer's income.
It seems clear to me you have too many financial priorities to justify risking it all on a volatile career as a freelance artist. Going professional as an artist is not for everyone. Somtimes in the pursuit of happiness you gotta do what needs to be done to steadily climb out of the debt hole. Best of luck.
Thank you for making videos like these, in such a rapidly changing field hearing the mechanics behind the changes really helps me understand what to expect entering the industry
Ur a big inspiration to me ❤
This has been incredibly helpful thanks❤
Very informative, its intriguing to see how the industry really is transforming. Appreciate the video!
So I'm in the information security/software dev industry (trying to learn animation for fun and have loved this channel for that, btw) and this hits the same nerve for the software development industry. Spot on!
Great video and advice as always
An actual informative and useful video on animatiom industry that isn't an emotional rant. Thanks for this!
Who wants to be on the same exact desk, with the same exact people and the same type of work all the time? Change is what keeps the work interesting in the end and yourself excited to work on something. Plus shorter projects in smaller groups, than the big projects in studios, which sometimes take up to many years.
Thank you. I been thinkin about those things as of late
That Sam Kolder video is sic man🎉
This has been a very helpful video for me at the moment. Having been shunned by multiple animation studios, and going thru hardships of creating multiple of the same animations for clients, Its time to expand my portfolio and start posting to socials more often.
Thanks for your help in growing the online animation community Howard
so glad it helped you bro
@@HowardWimshurstttt
Hiiiiii. :D
At a later stage in my life, [by God's Grace, 30] I would like to open my own animation studio with ahybrid setting.
I' e been graduated for a year now, applying to media job after media job and still haven't gotten my first job to break into the industry.
I like what you're doing. Keep making those videos and posting art / animations!
I am also freelancing
Thnx sensei
Traveling animator here working on my own animations working from a laptop lol I been to 3 countries in the last year
F’ em I took the Bakshi Route
NICE
I am finishing up my animation studies and I am still hoping for a studio job to get started, but the freelance option seems nice eventually
love your vids
I do graphic design as a hobby and novice so background art is hard because it takes hours even weeks or less to make one background and that includes the visual effects and colour balance to make it remotely legit studio standard or it turns into fan art and don’t get me started on the “Not good enough” because how does it feel that you have trash the hard work and redo it again.
It sucks
just a question on like how much should u charge for animation .. . and if it was u how much would u charge for 1 minute animation ... as animation is really a low paying job it concerns me a lot
ur awesome howard .. keep doing ur thing
Hi, can you please make a video about how to negotiate for animation projects?
I would love to make a video on that
@@HowardWimshurst That would be appreciated! thank you!
My expertise as a 3D animator is so much more limited than 2D. In terms of starting my own studio. So much more different software and multidisciplinary. Although I'm really starting to resent being an employee for a game studio. Not sure how to do something like that. I'm really thinking of adding 2D to my skillset, though. I'm already a good drawer and I did try out some 2D in uni. On the other hand it might not lead to any more opportunities that are economical for me.
what you say is very interesting thanks for this video.!! I'd like to try to make a few minutes fan animation but I'm unsure about one thing =( How many drawings/frames should there be in one second of animation .? How many do you make and how many are there in anime.? =) Thanks if you can answer me ! I know it may be a trivial question but I'm trying to learn as much as I can from those who know more than me =)
In my country it's different. Am ok with that
people think that becoming freelance is all glory and amazing, its a lie. my exprince as doing it as game developer
here is why:
- get ready to fight for payments.
- get ready to get paid 30-60-90-120 days after it, in some country its common to pay later.
- if the market is full with "freelacner" get ready to cut prices down a lot.
- contracts with everything.
- lots of "empty" meetings that lead to no where with clients, just cuz they choose someone else from the 100 that fought on it.
- lots of mails to deal with
- clients to deal with
- clieant fixes
- when you do freelance you not getting paid "extra" you paid by hour, but the amount of "extra" work needed
- deal with tax
- you need to market yourself
- you need to learn to represent yourself Infront of different clients
- no benfits, so all the health insurnce, tax , vacation days are gone.
- get ready to pay for lawyers, for building good contract, with dealing with unpaying costumers... and so on.
- website expenses and so on...
- get ready for periods of time without work, for example summer time as less people at office \ foucs on work, as kids at home. also no client projects starting in December - January as its end of the year, long vacations, new year, and companies reports
i am not saying freelacning, or running a small company is bad, but it can easliy become too much to deal with, most people will not like it, and just want to create.
been a freelancer not meaning you "free" you have much higher stress, if you fail and a bit too slow in full time position, you maybe be forgiven much easier than if you freelancer and miss deadline. your name is yours, if you fuck it up, clients will not do work with you.
also to company have much easier control if you freelance, much easier to cut you off a project, much easier to not pay , and do so much troubles to you.
freelance is been a slave to clients, there demands and there power, they still have more power than you, they still your bosses as long as they pay, and you still most of the time need to be in dead line reach, and this is a big one, you bound by deadline! so sure you can play video games all morning, but in the end you need to deliver the work.
you always need to think what happen if this client stop giving work, always try to reinvent yourself, get better, and make new conation with clients while keeping in touch with old onces, and this requrie a lot of work!
also delivering work, progress updates, asking more information, all of it is the same between fulltime and freelance.
* sorry on the rant about been freelancer, i think both freelancer in full time are shitty position to be in, unless you on the top, and have enough money not to worry on either.
Sounds like you should change your profession, or learn to overcome with these problems yourself instead of putting it on the client / studio as their responsibility.
You're clearly not happy so something needs to change.
@@HowardWimshurst there is great things about been freelancer, you can work on multiple projects instead of just big and long single project, you can work on things that more fit you, there is good things, but this good things happen on two cases:
- you got a lot of money and can choose your client!
- you have a big huge name (like 350K followers in youtube) and things to show for it.
than its easier to find this corners.
plus i think you come from a point above, you are a successes story! you built a great youtube channel, you have more than 500K followers in your media outlets , and some nice projects to show for it,
so when a client come to you, yes you, he already know to not play with you, as you can burn him hard, also you have the option because you big to find the projects and client that interest you, most people will not become that big and huge to allow them this, and they will need to keep working, and get food on the table.
also i pointed out some of the things you need to do as freelance, marketing, lawyer (for contracts, aggrements, hiring other contractors, partnerships, legal letter for people that not paying...), not having vaction\sick days, down time from clients at some points of the year, down time when ecnomics at a low at may be harder to find clients, meetings with clients and needing to represnt yourself, and to know how to sell yourself, pricing your worth. and much more.
as of my ADHD i cant be in office, so i prefer remote or freelance, but freelance is not so magical as you sale it, and thats my point, you already on the top ride, half million followers, that give you nice base income, you have clients, and you have this channel.
Even if all ur follower will be freelancers tomorrow, make a website, and youtube, you think the industry will have jobs for all the 500K artiest?
i know how to run my boat, just saying that for *most* people it will be a hard ride, and much harder way to get enough projects and name, not everyone can have 500K followers in youtube, not everyone can talk themself , freelance is messy and requrie lots of extras than just drawing.
last thing, you pointed out you outsource what you dont like, but it sound to me you becoming more of a small contractor company than solo freelancing, and its completely different market, project sizes, and cleints, than when people going solo on client projects.
@@danielr7599 I know you say you "know how to run your boat", but from the points you have been listing out, there seem to be a lot of core aspects of your business you could greatly improve upon. You can keep telling yourself "it's because he's lucky. It's because he's famous" Or you could fix each of those problems in your business, starting with the problem of your obscurity. Customers (or clients) are the life blood of your business. Clearly not enough of them are enquiring and it's been creating droughts in your business.
I invested in my social media presence, which i recommend that everyone tries. It's funny how you talk about my following as if it was something that accidentally happened, or something i was just handed on a plate, not a tactical investment I deliberately made over several years (and continue to make) because I understand the importance of social media presence for artists. You say repeatedly that not everyone can have 500k followers...
Why the heck not? That would be awesome and last time I checked, there is no limit to how many people are allowed to reach a following of 500k. Why can't at least the dedicated and determined of us reach a large following? Even 10k would make a huge difference in an artist's livelihood. I know animators who have reached a following of over 100k who have never shown their face on camera. What's your excuse for not promoting yourself online? Yeah, it's hard work. Tell me a job which isn't?
@@danielr7599 I will list some solutions to the problems or difficulties you listed:
- "get ready to fight for payments": make it a policy to charge 50% upfront before any work is done. Wartermark your end product if you really want to feel secure. The most you could stand to lose then is 50%.
- "Late payment": Write it as a deadline in your contract and in your invoice. Follow up with your client. First politely. Only make threats if necessary. Charge extra across all your projects as insurance against this potential outcome.
- "Market is full with "freelancer" get ready to cut prices down a lot": No, you absolutely should NOT join that race to the bottom. Stand high above those freelancers and proudly offer an expensive premium service they could not hope to compete with. Whoever told you to cut your prices is almost single-handedly responsible for handicapping your entire career. Compete on everything but price.
- "Contracts with everything": ...seriously? It's a problem for you to copy a contract template and change some words around? Is that really too much for you to handle? I feel like you're just listing things like this just to bloat your list.
- ""empty" meetings": be reluctant to schedule meetings. Bring up price early and often. Set a minimum level of engagement in your first reply email before any meetings. Bill for your time spent on each call. They will get the message. Your time has value - start acting like it.
- "Lots of mails to deal with" - okay, once again you are just adding things to bloat your list. That's like saying "the pain of being a freelancer is you have to brush your teeth twice a day". Dude, i hate to break it to you, but everyone has emails to deal with.
- "Clients to deal with" once again, you can choose between working with clients who rotate with each project, or being settled with one boss at a studio positivon who is far more likely to micro-manage.
- "client fixes" - how about "bosses fixes" at a studio job? same goes. Get the client to "sign off" on your planning / rough stages. Don't move ahead with the render until you have their signature of approval. It encourages decisive action and discourages flip flopping.
I could go on for every single point you have listed...
- "no vacation / no sick days": make enough money and you can give yourself a vacation whenever you want as a freelancer. I don't get given those benefits from my clients. Most of the world do not get these benefits either.
- "needing to represent yourself": learn to represent yourself. This is a learned skill. not a tallent.
- "You need to know how to sell / price your worth": LEARN. I learned online mostly. Look up this channel called "The Futur". Free education. No excuse.
- "you need to make a website for yourself": you can do this for free using wordpress.
- "you need social media": you can set up social media for free. It's free advertising. Just requires time and a lot of effort. Those are the barriers to entry.
- "ADHD": that problem is specific to you. I'm not specialized to prescribe solutions to that.
- "non-famous people can't threaten to burn clients": it is a nasty nuclear option anyway. I have never needed to burn a client, I guess because i'm fairly good a judging the character of my clients. Even as someone totally non-famous, you probably have a network of at least 100 friends on facebook? Nobody wants a bad reputation, even if it's among 100 people, that's still a deterent.
- "Job scarcity" - trust me when I say: there are a bunch of commission opportunties for freelance animators. I think you're just not seeing them. They come directly to my inbox because they know me. Then I do my best to distribute them to my network of friends who I know to be good reliable animators. I scout for animators when I host community events on my second channel and the AG film contest. I recieve at least 10 times more commission opportunities than I have the capacity to handle. Your problem is: They can't hire you if they don't know about you, or if they can't trust you to finish the job.
I could go on and on...
It's important to change your mindset, away from thinking "the system is unfair" to "there are steps I can take to improve my business"
It's clear that you are burnt out. You're tired, hurting, alienated, disolusioned. You have written off many basic hurdles as "impossible" for people coming up now, when that simply isn't true. You don't want others to suffer, and you think i'm persuading them to join your predicament, when i'm really not. If you want to become a freelancer, you should go all the way. Learn how to run it properly as a fortified business. For many of your problems, it appears that you just were not aware of a better solution. I'm working on a comprehensive business course where I will lay out all of these steps in detail. The course will equip animators with the business skills they were never taught in art school. It won't be a total solution but it should help a lot of people avoid the situations you brought up. The one thing you need to bring to the course is a positive attitude where you believe in your own ability to learn and overcome these hurdles one by one.
Hello, its matter of choice brother...theres pros and cons for both...the difference is its easier for working fulltime but your growth potential is low. While freelance/business maybe abit harder but the growth potential is higher. Its just different mindset actually - what do you really want? you want to be normal and comfortable or you want to be the best but challenging?...if its me I would choose to become the best/winner all day and paid the price for it...we only have on life...I will not settle for mediocre even if the process is slower and harder. Thats what makes it full of experience : full of problem makes full of growth. Its fine if you start to working fulltime on early while building your business on the side until it become bigger than you job. I think thats the best solution that I can give to you, I hope it would helps. Even if you fail your business you can always go back to work again. The last advice is for you to think about what you want and dont complain/be negative about it. Excuses/complain/blaming will not help you succeed. Good Luck.
How do i get animation jobs like you do, i have a fiverr account but haven't really gotten any jobs there
i'm working on making a course that will explain everything in great detail
i would love to work with you as a freelance artist any upcoming project you need help with, rigging, layout, set design anything u name it
4K , increased the volume, used a volume booster, tripled the volume gain in the browser, and still can't hear you. man your content is great, please invest in a good mic. Best of luck.
volume sounds fine to me. is anyone else having problem with the sound?
I would like to freelance, got some tips for me ;).
i'm working on making a course that will explain the whole process in great detail 😉
@@HowardWimshurst I am waiting for it 😊.
As a high schooler who wants to go into fine arts, how do you recommend approaching college and jobs beyond it? Art school (college in general) is so expensive, and I don’t want to waste all that money to become a freelance artist that doesn’t get much work. Is there a certain field you would recommend, like character design or storyboarding? I’m just curious on all of it, so I really hope that wasn’t offensive in any way
hey not sure if you still need advise,but as someone who did go the film school route for my animation career,I recommend if you are uncertain to take short courses and workshops and build a mini showreel/portfolio then ask for feedback on it before taking the plunge.If you cant go the short course/workshop route I recommend interviewing students of where you are applying too,ask them for advise on what they are doing and what skills they have been able to gain from the courses offered and where in the industry they are branching to.hope this helps.
Do you think a good animator has to be a ilustrater as well?
Have you ever thought of making an animated movie and how long will it be
Thanks for the advice. I was wondering for freelancing portfolio which social media has worked better for you in terms of getting jobs?
Well RUclips is the one I put the most effort into so it makes sense that i get the most offers form there.
Instagram has worked quite well for me too, although a lot of the less professional requests I filter out.
Thank you for your reply. Can I ask what type of jobs you normally get via RUclips? are the offers normally 3D related or 2D concepts or anything else?@@HowardWimshurst
Do you think opentoonz a good software or shall I buy clipstudio
Hey how do i get in contact with you i want to make a music video
Are you speaking on the entire animation industry as a whole, or 2D animation. In 3D I’ve noticed the trend of the big studios moving their productions to Canada due to the cheaper labor & tax subsidies
Not seeing any feature animation credits or commercials on his page, so it's just his own niche 2d project experience. You're absolutely right about the drive for cheaper labor, and flatly ignoring tax subsidies really underlines the fact that he doesn't have business experience in the larger industry. In another comment he thinks he'll be able to differentiate himself on quality. That's going to be one rude awakening.
So if you were to say do freelancing how do you get clients
May i please work for you, i'm in programming...
how does A.I. help you in your work process if at all?
it does not help. I don't use it.
hey guys does any one know how to do the effect that switches between the two background in 7:11
weeks of hard work, building the background in dozens of photoshop layers, re-importing into tvpaint to slowly erase each layer frame by frame, compiling in after effects, tracking to original background (the worst bit, adding the glowing lines in tvpaint to show the erasure lines, giving them glows in after effects
bro why you not using ipad (procreate)... it make animation easy
Maybe I should take lessons from you. I would love to know how to make animation easy
@@HowardWimshurst wow. didn't know ipad makes animation easy. Please share what you've learn to this lad to us.
@@HowardWimshurst i couldn't have thought of a better response
Shi new thumbnail style
I keep hearing freelance but yea....you rarely to not making any money. Me have my own studio and it's about to go broke no views..
I am 2D animator for a long time. I am good. But I can't find work. What can I do?
People can't hire you if they don't know you exist. It's probably a case of obscurity. Share your work online. Make it worthy of re-sharing. It's not enough to be good. Not in the entertainment industry. You gotta strive to be sensational. Sensational should be considered the bar you need to pass.
@@HowardWimshurst Yes, Sensational is really something difficult to reach. I will try. Thanks for the answer. How abou that interview?
oof
Insightful 🤌🏽✨
Thank you 🎉