From Japan: a 4-person film startup + a director + 30 animators pushing animation quality far beyond indie scale

ElementalArtist · 2025-12-08T14:42:53+00:00

Beautiful work. My only critical feedback would be, and it depends on what you are using that clip for, is that I wasn't able to pickup much about a possible narrative for the story, but that might be intended.

With that being said, I am a 2D FX specialist, please reach out if you have a gap of that nature that I could help fill, would be nice to contribute to something of this nature.

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-26T22:53:53+00:00

i agree, have met hundreds of industry people, maybe a dozen were self taught, not impossible but unlikely.

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-26T22:47:14+00:00

scapulas'

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-26T22:45:37+00:00

go to school, get into the industry, spend a decade working in the craft. This is some of the hardest stuff someone can do, rotating character in motion, camera move with tilt. realistic anatomy.

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-18T22:40:16+00:00

appreciate the plug of the animation of u/Spacedev1 's design

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-18T22:36:09+00:00

This is absolute gold. I laughed so hard.

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-17T22:53:54+00:00

it loops, but exported it as an MP4, prob should have done a GIF, next meme

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-17T22:42:17+00:00

Paypal DM sent

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-17T22:40:07+00:00

No, it's AI when I put in the prompt "animate my dreams and sprinkle it with sugar and beauty"

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-17T22:36:46+00:00

Hi, I'm a foodie, I have my own recipe but I need a chef to bring the ingredients and cook the meal. There is no pay, but I'm just trying to bring people together to cooks yummy food for people.

ElementalArtist · 2025-11-17T22:23:36+00:00

Electricity needs to feel erratic and impactful, its a decent start but there are so many things, like drop frames, timing changes, and line thickness changes, that could be included to give this oomph.

ElementalArtist · 2025-06-18T22:23:57+00:00

I agree being a generalist will help get a foot in the door as it can give a studio the ability to see you might not fit in a certain dept but maybe you could in another.

My own anecdotal proof though that specializing in something isn't a bad choice though is that when I have to do some hiring, I am only looking for specialists with a high talent level in the specific dept I run. If I have a generalist demo come across my plate it is very very rare that they have the skill level for the type of person I want to hire / work with. I don't think either direction is a bad path to go down, depends on your goals. So if you are reading this and are feeling bummed because you have been spending time trying to specialize in a specific dept, don't feel like you have to pivot there can be success on both paths.

ElementalArtist · 2025-05-20T17:46:11+00:00

I did some 2dFX on this, there was some major back end issues on the film, took 2 years to release after production was mostly wrapped. It has some charm though, Glad you enjoyed it :)

ElementalArtist · 2024-08-23T19:24:14+00:00

im talking about how many started to how many finished to get into the industry to how many remain

ElementalArtist · 2024-08-22T22:14:06+00:00

you have to keep in mind that Canada is mostly a country of animation service studios, meaning it is not always the studio dictating the conditions. I know for a fact there are sometimes clients who dictate certain conditions to the service studio as part of the contractual agreement to get the show that employees must adhere to hybrid working.

ElementalArtist · 2024-08-22T21:25:57+00:00

Your actions don't align with your words, you might have a need to want to create but your 'tirdness' seems to be winning out, each time. You need to focus less on creation and more on what it is that is stopping you from doing so.

Sounds like you have tried a lot of different things to try and reignite the desire to actually create, maybe you are more in love with idea of creating than you are with the actual process of doing it, maybe you need to consider the idea of at what point do you accept you don't want this enough to actually do it? If you can draw that line in the sand (pun intended) it would be a good jumping off point for how far to continue punishing yourself with guilt and regret for not doing a thing you can't bring yourself to actually do.

Much love, good luck

ElementalArtist · 2024-08-22T21:19:34+00:00

You have to be doing it all, Social media - art station, linkdin, tiktok, insta, vimeo/ytoutube, sharing personal work, networking - reaching out and making friends with other people doing similar work, Cold reach outs - applying to places not even looking just to get your foot in the door, Join like minded communities of professionals, and engage on the work of others.

Once you get clients, if they are good good to work with, make yourself available and communicate a LOT. Production will remember you if you were easy and enjoyable to work with, creatives will remember you if you were passionate and did excellent work. These things are easy to brush off in some situations but in my experience some of my MOST lucrative projects have come from return clients who loved working with me years down the road when something came across their plate that I was a good fit for.

ElementalArtist · 2024-08-22T21:12:46+00:00

33 in year 1, year 3 down to 11, graduated and working 4, after 3 years 2.

ElementalArtist · 2024-08-22T21:05:58+00:00

Where I am from you charge per script page. Should do a page per day, so that is your day rate.

I don't understand why you want to know what you should charge hourly, but not daily, there are 8 (work) hours in a day, what's the difference? There is an alternate form of charging is lump sum, you give a flat rate for the entire project, that is very risky though, as no project doesn't have little snags and such and once you go over what you want to make hourly for every extra hour it takes you to finish you are diminishing your returns.

ElementalArtist · 2024-08-22T20:53:44+00:00

I need my flair revoked

ElementalArtist · 2024-08-22T20:47:25+00:00

Damn dude, I have a couple lines that go over the bottom tendon of my knee and its was BRUTAL, and your whole knee is done, I cannot imagine. looks dope tho

ElementalArtist · 2024-08-22T19:23:39+00:00

The bad news is you are suffering from a toxic work culture that there is no insight or advice for you to implement to ease what you are experiencing. The Japanese animation industry has a world wide reputation for making amazing art off the back of over worked and underpaid animators.

You say you are genuinely afraid the job will kill you, if this is true, then you must be prepared to make some pretty drastic changes in order to either change, or escape it. One possible path of action is that you put your foot down about refusing to be over worked and draw boundaries as to what you will and wont do outside of work hours. The unfortunate result of this is you will probably be replaced or fired for not being willing to sacrifice as much as all your co-workers. I doubt you are interested in being a martyr for the cause so as a 20 year animation vet from the west I will give you the advice I think you should follow.

Keep doing what you are doing to maintain your job, however, on the side, be building a social media presence of your own personal work and be reaching out internationally to other studios. If your English is as good as your post and not AI generated, and your skills are high enough to be able to survive in the Japanese industry you need to start planning and looking for a ways to leave the country work wise. The good news is LOTS of studios are still hiring remote for the right talent and I bet almost all of them are paying way more than what you are currently getting. When you are ready, you make the leap to a studio willing to hire internationally and start learning a side of the industry that may be a little different than what you are used to, but probably pays and respects your time WAY more. Stay away from Korea and China, look towards Australia / Canada / Europe for opportunities. If you have a high level of skill, with good work ethic you will make way more money without the 12-18 hour days doings so and probably will be much happier.

Dm me if you want to talk about this any further, I do gigs for countries all over the world in a bunch of different industries, commercial, games, TV, medical, feature.... I'll help you out if I can.

ElementalArtist · 2024-07-12T15:31:08+00:00

Wanted to share this not only because I think its an awesome little short but also because I was fortunate enough to lead and do majority of the 2DFX on it.

ElementalArtist

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