Need Advice Changing Career to Animation Field

[aminguy]

Hello all,

This is my first post and I hope I came to the right forum. :)

I need some career advice because I'm thinking of changing careers to the animation field.

Many years ago I had always had an interest in cartooning/animation and graphic design because I had a natural or artistic talent for it (but never fully persued it). I took some college drawing and design courses but stopped and changed majors (thus, graduating with a non-art degree).

For a long time, I thought of other professions, but I come back to maybe doing something creative.

So, I'm an "older" guy thinking of changing careers into the multi-media/animation field but don't know anything about it. I have old books on drawing, animation and comics, but the field has changed so much over the decades. Of course, I will have to take college courses in multi-media but I'm not sure which schools (in the U.S.), degrees/certificates, or software is standard in the industry.

Any advice on this topic is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Ken Davis]

Its hard to give an answer because how you do this and where you end up have unlimited variables.
You also have to gauge restarting a career from the ground up with the needs of your current lifestyle and home-life.

Geez, there's hundreds of questions I could ask you to ask of yourself. There's a thread ( and dozens of them in fact) with discussions and asnwers to your question in the Animation Cafe forum, in this forum and in others.


I will say this though....
That if you are an "older guy" and looking to change careers, but know nothing about this field......then I'd say don't do it. Not to insult you, but this sounds, on the face of it, like an affectation that's struck you.
I see this a lot in people--an idea that animation would be an interesting career, but they have no inkling of what lies in store. Once they get a glimmer they realize just what kind of committment it takes and realize their folly was time wasted.

Seriously, you have to be CRAZY to get into this biz, and "crazy" actually helps--because its really only in that insane obsessiveness that some can muster that will help develop the skills and mindset to succeed/thrive in the biz. A LOT of people TRY, but there's very few that ending up actually doing it.

Ask yourself the really hard questionL: are you prepare to put EVERYTHING else in life aside/on hold/ or away to pursue this?

Some people are willing to do that, many are not.
Are you one or the other? Only you can figure that out.

[Animated Ape]

I'd take everything that Ken says to heart. He's pretty spot on with his assesment. To put some perspective on it, I'm a 2D animator and I'm currently going to school to learn 3D, and I'm finding extremely difficult to find the time to do that. So it's going to be really hard to learn both animation principles as well as the computer technology. If you are willing to put in the time and effort, then congrats, but it's a ton of hard work and late nights.

Aloha,
the Ape

[AlanO]

May I suggest looking into the school thing but keep an eye on the job postings elsewhere on awn.com. There is so much more to the animation business than just animators. You don't say what you've done in this life, but perhaps you can leverage what you're doing with some school work to get a job in the multi-media business. By all means aim high, but be flexible enough to go where your skills and the work best fit.

All this assumes you actually need to work. If money is not an issue (lottery, oil well in backyard, blackmail, etc) then go to school and see what happens.

Good Luck,

Alan

[Ken Davis]

If you have the means, and the security, then by all means make your grab for the brass ring.

Having tauught, counselled and worked with older talent entering into the biz, I can say that life-experience brings a LOT to the endeavour.
19-20 year olds have nearly limitless stamina, but they can also come with some..........some immaturity, and thus some potential discipline problems. Having worked in other fields can help you in this because you can bring a "no-bullshit" focus to it.

The biggest obstacles for older students/newcomers are family life and stamina issues, I've found which can mitigate their artistic development.
"Mitigate", not cripple as some animation pundits of late have spoke of. Focus is the key, as before. If you can sew together the artistic mental and coordination associations inside you to produce that pro-grade looking work then you can stand right beside the younger upcoming hotshots.

People have contested this statement of late, but really the ( now-cliche) of "what you bring to is determines what you get out it" is the real deciding factor.

Good luck--and we'll send some "nice" people by to fit you for the straight-jacket.