Animation Career report from AnimationMentor

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AnimationMentor has released a report about the current state of the animation Industry and it’s future. If you are considering a career in 2D or 3D animation, this report is well worth reading no matter where you live.

You can get the report at AnimationMentor

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    • JardB

      This is great, thanks!

      however, i’m stuck in the loop of ‘look for our e-mail with the details for the report’.

      Wandering if its the same for others?

    • Morcy

      No JardB, I’ve received in a few seconds… The report is really good and looks very nice.

    • gundampilot
    • http://tieleman.m.googlepages.com Freakydude

      I’ve been stuck on the same kind of look with another pdf they released a while ago. So thanks for the link.

    • http://pw-software.com NetOperator Wibby

      Thanks for the link!

      Their CAPTCHA system, quite frankly, sucks.

    • http://3d-synthesis.com ROUBAL

      Very interesting report. Thank you for the link.

    • http://home.deds.nl/~mp/ ysvry

      thx for the link gundam.

    • Mike L

      I got this one fine but was never able to get the pdf for the animation tips… if you’re using yahoo or google or one of those, that might be the problem…

    • BonE

      wow thanks

    • Easton

      Very interesting and informative, thank you

    • http://www.studiorola.com Sim Pern Chong

      Downloaded… now reading it.

      Thanks.

    • redbyte

      One of the most informative articles/reports I’ve ever read. Very helpful in my current progression towards a freelancing career.

    • Tadeusz

      Its funny how the future is bright for animation, coming from animation Mentor. ey ?

      Its also funny that most games now days are done using motion capture. Which is abit …different than working with key framed animation. Nothing against mo-cap but the guys at Animatin Mentor dont teach you that cos by heart they dont like that. (At the end of Pixar movies it says that no motion capture was used in the film to point out where they stand in that debate)

      Also I presume they asked all the animators who got a job ?

      They jump quickly over the fact that if you cant travel the world for jobs, then you are likely to end up in a place were animaiton has to be done so fast and cheap that it ends up as an example by Animation Mentor teachers as how not to do it. (Forgetting the fact that most shitty animation is shitty cos of inhumane deadlines, not because the animator is crap) But of course coming from Pixar you know that.

      Im not against Animation Mentor in anyway, but I just would like to give people in here another input than the typical Succes story that we all want to hear. There is another side to the animation industry which are never told, because the people who dont succed finds something else to do and never look back.

      ½ of my animation class is (20 people) not doing animation at all 5 years after we finished school. The rest is doing something related to animation, a few actually do what Animation Mentor is teaching.

      I dont buy the survey that seems to be asking all the succesful animators if they are happy and satisfied, I think the survey is on the edge of being brainwashing propaganda.

      If you have something else to fall back on if you fail as an animator then go for it !

      T

    • Jahmaica

      Hi Tadeusz!
      Nice reading from you!

      That was I planed to say, but you said it better ;)

    • Lucas21

      Hey Tadeusz, how come you graduated from Animation Mentor 5 years ago, but the school was only founded on 2007? I think you are right about your post, but was lost with the 5 years reference. Also you said your class was only 20 people but I read in their brochure their classes are 200 people.

    • brainfreeze

      Tadeusz,

      You are absolutely right. This is basically a tool that AM is using to sell the dream to future students. AM is a for profit venture… there is nothing wrong with making a profit, but in light of our economic state, selling that dream may do more harm than good. It IS borderline brainwashing propaganda and it is effective. Nobody questions the science behind the survey or the report because AM has become synonymous with the mainstream Animation Industry. The entire Industry reeks of a childlike false sense of hope. The fact of the matter is, many of the small houses that would have hired animators have gone under (Orphanage, Giant Killer Robots to name a couple) and the rest of them hire only for short periods of time during rushes with hardly any prospect of a stable ongoing gig. Job stability is a myth especially in Animation… do not be fooled. AM makes it easy to buy into their brand of education. I bought into it and then I quit. While their model is on the right track, I found that some of my mentors were pretty burnt out and they passed some of that burn out on to their students. A few even openly talked about transitioning OUT of animation… and these were the seemingly “happy and fulfilled” cadres of Animators that are actually employed full time. One always has to look at both sides of an issue. Whenever I tried to speak about this with other students, they simply refused to talk… they had bought into it so much that they could not bear to hear an opposing opinion. This can be dangerous, and I can see how in a few years, once the market is fully saturated with Animators, it may play out against AM unfortunately. Someone really needs to investigate this further not as an expose (because as a business, AM is very legit and by the books), but more as a psychological study on the effects of this “soma” like induced exuberance in the mainstream Animation Industry.

    • http://www.treadster.com dave t

      As a perspective student to AM this Fall, I am glad to read some negative press. I have been debating on joining AM or purchasing a low end mocap system. On the one hand, I could be up with mocap quickly but on the other hand – you can’t exaclty mocap a dog that walks like a person. So it goes along with the “Teach a man to fish” principle. I will continue to evaluate this. I have a good job now in an unrelated industry and want to learn animation as a hobby. I appreciate the honest feedback. Like my old man told me, don’t believe anything you read and only half of what you see :)

    • Kevin

      I graduated 2 years ago from AM…If you are trying to get a job as an animator, I really wouldnt recommend animation mentor. The job placement dept. is a joke to tell the truth. Outside of the few companies on the west coast who worship AM, no one else will care about your diploma from there.

      They are hardasses about animation for sure..and thats a great thing..but as others have said, they are selling false hope to a lot of people who think they actually have a shot to work in the animation industry..the truth is, unless your reel is both ungodly and great, AND you know someone inside the animation industry, you wont find a job, *much less a stable job* inside the animation industry…Dont get me wrong – AM is a great school if you want to meet people and chat it up with people who are head over heels about animation..they are definitely gung ho about Character animation..but the problem comes when its time to produce results, in the form of finding a job.

      If I could do it over again, I would for the life of me, save my 17000 dollars and many sleepless nights to just become educated at a school with actual respect in the multimedia industry. Upon graduation, the “job placement” department basically just sends you an email asking if you’re still unemployed so far…you answer yes, and they tell you something to the effect of “good luck, I know its hard out there..hang in there!” – of course this is written in the traditional good ol hopeful, glass half full, brimming with excess optimism disposition that they sell you the rest of the false dreams with…good luck at AM..hope your experience is better than most people’s