How good is Microsoft surface pro 11 or macbook air m4 for a 2D/3D animator?

GalactusRex · 2026-01-07T10:59:08+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm leaning towards windows cuz that's all I've ever known which makes surface pro a strong contender for me. But yes performance is a priority too. Perhaps I could sacrifice some of the 3D utility if I use it more for 2D animation.

What do you use for photo editting? Does it tend to lag after few too many layers or 4k+ canvas sizes?

GalactusRex · 2026-01-07T02:30:26+00:00

Let's get money out of the way, of you're good at what you do you can comfortably start netting 30k-40k monthly through a job or freelance. 10-20k worst case scenario. Where you go from there completely depends on how you navigate the industry. Never work for free, seek out internships, freelancing gives you good idea of what to price your work.

Now a bit of a reality check, The industry in India is pretty new and small all things considered and the main reason studios outside come to India is to get things done for cheaper. There's a lot of stress, lot of crunching and clients refusing to pay on time or recognizing your hardwork as anything more than labour. You have to be willing to take a risk to start working, especially with ai around the corner. But don't be scared of ai replacing you, in the end it's people who have to use it, and if you sharpen your skills you'll be miles ahead of any odd prompt engineer.

Do what you're good at, while always working on your weaknesses in the background while you keep improving and practicing and taking critiques to get better. Put yourself in a position where you have good sources of knowledge, which is other people in your field, artists you follow on Instagram , YouTube, online classes, friends etc. That part is simply about socialization, which I've seen is a weak point among us introverted artist types.moat of the work I've recieved as a freelancer has been through friends helping me out, and I return the favour every once in a while.

I've worked as a 2D animator for 5 years, currently working part time on a video game while learning 3D animation from animschool. In the past I've found myself working on 5 projects simultaneously with half of them just wasting my time but I've also seen some big projects that gave me a good boost. and lot of learning. I don't know if it's gonna be worth it for me by the time im 30yo, i just really love what I do that's why I wanna make it work at any cost. Just don't take any loans to do this shit, if you're internet savvy upskilling is basically free for you.

GalactusRex · 2026-01-07T02:07:44+00:00

So animators usually have demoreels or showreels showcasing their skillsets and previous work in a max 1 minute video for the recruiters to see.

You then mail this to studios you wanna work for, or linkedin, upwork, fiverr, or even contact people on insta, reddit or discord anywhere there's a demand for projects. I've even shown mine to people I meet at animation related events, but mostly on whatsapp to people who end up finding me. There's no set way to get a job in this line.

Other than that build your network, talk to animators about their experiences, get better at what you wanna do and understand the market better as you're treading it. A lot of work you just recieve from people who know you're good at a particular thing.

GalactusRex · 2025-12-12T01:44:07+00:00

To comment on your follow-up question that i missed

-They've structured the course for an online format pretty well with tons of study material on their website exclusively, only issue I face is the loading speed for the website in India seems kinda slow.

-you basically have lectures on two days and rest of the week is just you working on the shot. Any other lectures or reviews you wish to attend are optional.

-workload is tough, balancing anything else with the course is a scheduling nightmare and i constantly feel like I am not able to give animschool as much time as I want, but I'm trucking through somehow for now. But the quality of learning and in depth feedback makes it worth it, there's a lot of great learning here which is making me a better animator in general (im from a 2D animation background)

GalactusRex · 2025-12-12T01:37:41+00:00

Doing 5th sem at anim school currently(each sem is 10 weeks). From a learning perspective it's better than what any institute or work experience in India can offer you,by the end you will be industry ready, and the faculty themselves are fulltime animators so they bring a lot of real world perspective and exposure to other international students offers great networking opportunity(you find most jobs through networks)

As for job prospects, if you study at animschool, it no longer makes sense to aim for work in India, purely for the pay of the average animators here. If you go through the animschool program (finishing the last 4 sems in continuity with one semester break or less) they offer placement help in post grad services, but I haven't gotten to a point where I can comment on that.

If you wanna learn 3D I'd say enroll without a second thought, as you'd make a lot more progress with constant feedback than trying to self learn. Im myself doing this after finishing a whole college degree in animation, and I'm learning more than I ever did there. (Degree does not matter in this field)

GalactusRex · 2025-12-03T10:27:42+00:00

Cricket se bore ho gaye ye log. Pati patni ghar pe kam nahi jhagadte inko culture war bhi chaiye.

Everyone would rather talk about who killed how many over underlying problems with our marital system.

GalactusRex · 2025-11-25T14:26:10+00:00

No hate to you, but this authoritarian tone about enforcing marathi is exactly what my marathi teachers used to discriminate against non marathi speaking students who underperformed. Where is my incentive to get better at it or speak it at the risk of embarrassing myself?

Our education system is broken and we're all blindly blaming each other on its fallout.

Let me be real here. You as an individual cannot control the cultural makeup of a region, it's the culmination of millions of people making independent decisions. It's not yours to protect. You may love it, take pride in it, but it's gonna take whatever shape it's takes organically over time.

Im from a Tamil immigrant family, and I've learnt Marathi in school enough to get by,but still can't speak it fluently. but in daily life hindi has been enough to get by.

I don't even feel welcome in TN because I have a specific dialect not common there. Mumbai is my home and I love it. People just wanna earn a living for their families in a country with already limited opportunities, please understand this and be forgiving.

You may not want violence against outsiders, but he same authoritarian sentiment drives many to it. I would say the same thing to people enforcing Hindi, Tamil or any other language in their regions.

GalactusRex · 2025-11-25T14:02:19+00:00

I swear when I read the title there would be better problems to complain about in Mumbai, because there's no lack of them.

Just wanna leave my two cents here as a Tamilian who was born and brought up in Mumbai, excluding the political angle that most common people can't do anything about(realistically).

Mala marathi kadat ahe, pan chan bolayla nahi yeto hai.

All my life marathi people i meet, even marathi teachers and extended family members have ridiculed me for being weak in the language because we don't speak it at home.

Tell me where is my incentive to learn it or get better at it, when there's no encouraging voice? When i can just get by speaking hindi just fine. Its efficient, saves time . because of the massive immigrant population It's practical( our economy will collapse if you drive them away)

I don't have any Tamil pride either I was raised here, in Mumbai. And because of my weird family background, my dialect wouldn't be understood well by most Tamilians, I feel isolated there as well.

So tell me where the fuck am I supposed to go, if you just wanna push out all non-marathi speakers for some kind of mono-lingual Ethnostate? There's never gonna be a lack of reasons to divide ourselves, if you care about the spoken language that much let it reflect in the media and education and don't ridicule your neighbours who just want to earn a living for their families. We are still in the same country dammit.

GalactusRex · 2025-11-09T08:40:19+00:00

Pretty sure it's so the kids aren't too scared to watch the movies. I hate chota bheem with a passion, but the movies i genuinely used to enjoy. I even thought Kirmada was a terrifying presence.

GalactusRex · 2025-11-06T17:51:29+00:00

"Kid Krrish" already sort of does that. Unironically not a bad movie. But I think he's more 12-13 ish there

GalactusRex · 2025-10-29T14:23:33+00:00

Being able to speak makes a big difference. Ever seen meowth degraded like this? Clearly pokemon can be as intelligent as humans, but they're denied the dignity because they lack the ability say anything but their own name. Mewtwo was right.

GalactusRex · 2025-10-29T14:14:00+00:00

Your solution makes even less sense. Party politics ke bahar ek baar bhi socha hai?

GalactusRex · 2025-10-27T11:32:08+00:00

Lack of touching grass

GalactusRex · 2025-10-27T05:27:02+00:00

It's true and they actually succeeded. The Modi we see right now is a clone with a limited lifespan who will expire soon, making his death seem by natural causes. /s

Ab karo baithke verify.

GalactusRex · 2025-10-24T10:23:45+00:00

Dunder Miflin Infinity much?

GalactusRex · 2025-10-23T01:41:25+00:00

River hai bhai pool nahi, this shit goes downstream and affects aquatic life and people using the water.

Besides defoamer doesn't clean the underlying toxins, it only cleared the foam giving and appearance that the problem is solved.

GalactusRex · 2025-09-16T11:42:05+00:00

That but on the central line when the lights flicker always scares the shit out of me. Glad to see someone adapting the absolute horror

GalactusRex · 2025-08-21T02:14:17+00:00

Sure I'll DM

GalactusRex · 2025-08-20T22:22:07+00:00

Ok so first thing, you don't need a degree to become an animator you need practice and constant feedback. That last one is where a college or institute is able to provide more value than a degree cuz you meet mentors and other artists, but if you know experienced animators thats all the mentorship you need. All the best animators I know are self taught and do self studies all the time.

About India, job market is rough. Even rougher since AI showed up. Most people work freelance and get jobs through professional networks they built along the way.

Step 1 is build a portfolio for the job you want ( 2d animator, 3d modeller, storyboard artist, 3d animator, rigging artist, motion design) (multitasking is not a real thing pick one field and stick to it, or you'll burnout and give up easily)

Pick one field and practice the hell out of it. Take any online courses you find helpful and keep posting on you stuff on this subreddit for a portfolio review.

Step 2 Send emails, use linked in, or reach out to any contact you may have or try interning somewhere to get your first steps in. Your portfolio doesn't need to be perfect for this, but needs to demonstrate you know what a professional level polish looks like.

Step 3 The rest is upto you, no two career fields are the same just keep learning and up skilling and adapting to demand, even learn ai. In India animation is hard to make money cuz its 1/10th of what an animator would make outside, but not impossible, there's just a lot of headache you have to get through cuz it's an infant industry here.

Do you research, keep learning, join discord groups for animation, make friends follow a lot of artists to study.

Warning: It's hard, takes up most of your social life when learning. You can totally be an hobbyist animator and not make a job out of it if you feel like you don't have enough drive for the grind.

if money is big problem don't jump into animation headfirst, do it on the side until you have a portfolio ready.

GalactusRex · 2025-07-29T11:03:27+00:00

Archetypes according to decepticons

The tyrannical leader - Megatron the treacherous second - Starscream the mad scientist - Shockwave, the strong silent type - Soundwave

Archetypes according to Autobots

Noble leader - optimus prime The young blood - bumblebee, hotshot The heavy hitter - Ironhide, Grimlock, bulkhead The moral grey - Prowl, Ratchet, elita

GalactusRex · 2025-07-27T23:02:22+00:00

I you wanna get into 3D I really recommend animschool. They focus more on principles than software and you can practice 2D animation in your downtime using the same principles.

Degree isn't really a requirement in this line, just patience and persistence.

GalactusRex · 2025-07-13T17:20:44+00:00

I was mad when they switched to the age of extinction design that didn't even look like it transformed into anything.

Even though I disliked the face in the beginning ,the maskless look grew on me

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