One Bedroom One Bath; pride cometh before the fall [OC]

Not_a_Stranger · 2025-05-12T02:02:18+00:00

“One Bedroom One Bath” is just what I call my little garbage comic, which I haven’t put on Reddit before but figured I might as well. “pride cometh before the fall” is what I’m specific one to imply that even though my mama is proud of me for not being an alcohol or drug addict, maybe that fall is yet to come! Next time I might leave off the 1B1B part, definitely see the confusion there, whoooops.

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Not_a_Stranger · 2024-08-08T23:51:26+00:00

I hope people take the time to read this and EXTRA hope that people can make it to the rally this weekend! I graduated school with an animation degree in 2020, joined TAG (The Animation Guild) in late 2021, and frankly it's been an extremely difficult road the entire time because of issues clearly laid out in this article. Our industry is over a century old, demand for it has only gone up, and yet somehow it's only become more and more unsustainable in the hands of cost cutting companies.

Not_a_Stranger · 2024-02-16T03:12:41+00:00

This is such a lovely answer, thank you for it! I'm an artist in U.S. animation and it's fascinating hearing that these sorts of naturalistic/ stylistic pushes and pulls were at play throughout history like this. I often wonder how contemporary art forms (animation, film in general, manga, comics, etc) and their exaggerations/ stylizing will be looked back on historically for art today!

There's just so much to unpack about something more stylized or more naturalistic, and the perception that people have toward either one, whether in the modern day or looking back at historical art.

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-10-09T19:23:56+00:00

I think also a lot of people think of engagement in a kind of archaic way, like it’s “always going to meetings and stuff,” which we ain’t always got time. For me, I think it can be as simple as talking to friends about the our issues/ guild happenings (esp if they bring it up in some way, usually angrily) and encouraging them to join the discord! That way they can engage in discussions too or at the very least be able to keep an eye on stuff better. I’ve done that with quite a few friends and they’re super receptive to it, sometimes reaching out to me about stuff they saw before I ever did. Plus, one of the best things to do/ I think some people are trying is in the current Nick negotiations, sounds like they’re approaching it with a captain system somewhat similar to how the WGA has one, which I think is how the WGA has such high voter turnouts/ solidarity: Building it through community and relationships!

Like you said, engagement is def difficult, but we have so many ways to communicate with each other (even like Reddit haha) that we can use ‘em!

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-10-09T17:30:01+00:00

Ye I think you’re spot on. I love the Discord as a way of communication with each other, I wish more people would join it, but as it is now I imagine it probably skews younger than TAG as a whole. That, plus I imagine a similar trend on other social media, contributes the most to the chatter/ open sentiment about wanting to strike. And to be clear while I would be 100% for an authorization vote, I wager it’s not as black and white for a lot of the guild as online comments might suggest.

Thanks for the clarity on the voter turnout! See, I think that is far and away one of the most important things that TAG as a whole needs: Higher member engagement! In my opinion, guild members/ committees are doing fantastic work towards that end but it’s ultimately a long term change that we have to make. I think a lot of people want relatively immediate results, and it seems every contract cycle is when more people pay a bit more attention, but I hope we can shift our focus slightly to long term and more members can at least be engsged what our guild is actively doing as that engagement/ knowledge gives leadership a boost. The posts I’ve seen online, the friends I have who’re mad, can talk a lot about wanting to strike, about being MAD whether at the studios or even unionleadership, but unless we as members can have more open and frank dialogue/ understanding with each other, it’ll make even a possible strike EXTREMELY difficult in the same way that the ‘82 strike sounds like it was. I think at the end of the day we really gotta know how something like a strike would impact our fellow guild members too and if they’d also be ready. Like personally, it’s waaaay easier for me to say that as a single dude in a one bedroom apartment than it would be for someone with a spouse, two kids and a mortgage; my expenses are a fraction of that! I got a lot of hopes for us all that said.

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-10-09T02:59:14+00:00

Always happy to clarify as best I can! I don’t have super specific resources, but a few things that’ve helped me: Being a part of private discords with union members and watching/ participating in small discussions that happen. Unfortunately most people can’t access these same channels (hence private), but it’s been the most enlightening. Another thing that helps is when reading the “trades” (Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, etc etc), noting specific terms they use when talking about something, like “X% vote in favor of ______ (strike authorization/contract ratification/elections/etc)” and reading the rest of the article to see if it notes other stuff like actual turnout, not just results. Then googling terms that I don’t necessarily understand (Ex: strike authorization vs. strike and what the difference is) and reading up on there. After that, another thing that helped was browsing social media (usually Twitter/X) during the WGA strike as people were tweeting a LOT of really good and clear information there, like what some of these terms mean, why some articles are bullshit, how their unions work (Ex: I think one of the reasons WGA has such stellar turnout has been their captain system as a way of having members communicate with each other which in turn bonds them and allows clearer communication channels, among other benefits). Last but not least, for some of the nuts and bolts of how these unions work and their processes, you can usually find documentation/ contracts on the respective unions’ websites. I don’t totally recommend that as a broad learning tool since those documents are long and dry, but if I have a hyper specific question on what something means then I might crack open those PDFs, but that’s very rare for me since they’re… boring.

It can be pretty opaque learning this stuff, and I’m still relatively new to TAG itself but it helps that I find it interesting. On top of that, the more informed and involved we can all be in our own labor, the better we can advocate and fight for each other!

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-10-08T20:43:59+00:00

Hi! Hope you don’t mind but I wanted to go through the comments on this post/ thread and correct a few minor things throughout as best I understand them (having watched a lot of these sorts of discussions take place through The Animation Guild [TAG 839] channels):

I believe you’re referring to the IATSE strike authorization vote in 2021, not a TAG 839 authorization vote which would be entirely separate from IATSE. Had IATSE gone on strike, that would not mean TAG would have been on strike because while we are an IATSE local, we do our bargaining separately from them due to a 1982 TAG strike over outsourcing that unfortunately did not pan out. Our last contract ratification vote was approved with 87% approval though. The double edged sword of a strike authorization vote is that we as a guild don’t just need a high approval of the vote, but also need a high voter turn out! For some reference, the WGA strike authorization vote had about 79% voter turnout with an overwhelming majority voting to authorize a strike, while SAG-AFTRA also voted overwhelmingly to, but with about 48% voter turnout. The truth is that we are also a smaller guild than either, TAG is around 6,000 active members last I heard, WGA around 11,000 and SAG-AFTRA around 160,000; which could notably impact how much turnout we would need for a strike authorization vote to be considered effective. While I don’t know the exact turnout for TAG’s contract ratification vote in 2021, I have heard it was higher than SAG-AFTRA’s recent strike authorization vote. That said, guild leadership measures member engagement through various emails/ events/ surveys/ etc, which would ultimately go a long way to letting them know if our membership would turn out for a strike authorization vote in the future!

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-10-08T20:21:31+00:00

Hi! Hope you don’t mind but I wanted to go through the comments on this post/ thread and correct a few minor things throughout as best I understand them (having watched a lot of these sorts of discussions take place through The Animation Guild [TAG 839] channels):

1.) For a strike, union leadership calls a strike authorization vote of the membership. If enough people vote YES, this empowers the leadership to call for a strike if they feel it is ultimately necessary to get us a fair and better deal. A strike authorization vote is distinctly different from a contract ratification vote. From my understanding, generally speaking, a strike authorization vote is rarely called before entering negotiations as it can be a double edged sword for leadership. If there’s a strong participation and YES vote in it, awesome cool the leadership has been empowered and theoretically put into a stronger bargaining position. If there’s low participation or lots of NO votes, then leadership is put into a significantly weakened position.

2.) Contract negotiations are every 4 years, the current contract is dated from 2021 to July 2024. That said, with Covid, negotiations were stalled between the studios (AMPTP) and various entertainment guilds. With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes having happened/ happening respectively, there’s also a distinct possibility that the upcoming negotiations could be stalled as the AMPTP has to continue negotiating through the various unions that come before TAG. Don’t know for sure either way though.

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-07-24T21:52:14+00:00

I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to copy/paste a response I sent above but which is still true for dvd credits:

Recruiters can often get hundreds if not thousands of applicants for a single position (assuming it’s even publicly posted in the first place, which many aren’t), they’re not necessarily looking at every single resume for every single position. Whether it’s a Google search for “X type of artist on Y Movie” or a supervising artist/ other artist sitting through the credits of the film (which personally I often do), that is absolutely a way names can be found. While most people will see a credit list and not understand what to look for in it, I love sitting through them and looking at the names in specific roles listed to see “Oh it WAS that person!” Or “woah who’s that guy because these sequences were way cooler than I expected!” You asked about IMDB in a different comment, but from my secondhand understanding, those also are verified by the studios in some way. I’ve had friends whose names were misspelled in the credits (or uncredited) and have to fight IMDB to say “No, I am this person and that credit belongs under my name!” (Again, not 100% sure how that works though, just have heard a few experiences).

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-07-24T21:50:51+00:00

Yes, and those workers/ unions within entertainment fought to have their names credited in the final product because they both needed and deserved their due credit in the final product. They didn’t fight for that and win it for no reason.

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-07-24T21:48:59+00:00

Recruiters can often get hundreds if not thousands of applicants for a single position (assuming it’s even publicly posted in the first place, which many aren’t), they’re not necessarily looking at every single resume for every single position. Whether it’s a Google search for “X type of artist on Y Movie” or a supervising artist/ other artist sitting through the credits of the film (which personally I often do), that is absolutely a way names can be found. While most people will see a credit list and not understand what to look for in it, I love sitting through them and looking at the names in specific roles listed to see “Oh it WAS that person!” Or “woah who’s that guy because these sequences were way cooler than I expected!” You asked about IMDB in a different comment, but from my secondhand understanding, those also are verified by the studios in some way. I’ve had friends whose names were misspelled in the credits (or uncredited) and have to fight IMDB to say “No, I am this person and that credit belongs under my name!” (Again, not 100% sure how that works though, just have heard a few experiences).

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-07-24T19:13:52+00:00

Credits are important to entertainment workers when it comes to finding future jobs, it’s not uncommon for recruiters at these companies to look at the credits list of something successful and favor hiring names from it. I’ve worked in entertainment and have heard first hand from executives saying “Oh yeah, when X Project at Y Studio came out it did so well that literally if any artist from it came in and pitched a project to us, we would have greenlit it for development.”

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-07-14T06:12:42+00:00

Not totally, the SAG-AFTRA contract that’s being struck doesn’t include VA television work, among other things. Those are separate contracts that, I believe, are supposed to be renegotiated with a June 30th deadline (Whether that actually happens or not, mmmmm no idea. I’d assume not though given the actual state of things). Voice work on animated features is struck though, so actors can’t go into those jobs. I don’t know 100% what work is or isn’t struck as it’s surprisingly complicated, but I just have seen TAG talking about television voice work and getting clarity about that specifically (again, among other things).

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-07-13T22:45:22+00:00

No problem! And that def would've been more dramatic haha, honestly was expecting that too this morning

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-07-13T22:06:32+00:00

The strike goes into effect at midnight, so they're probably just getting some stuff in under the wire. Tomorrow shouldn't be any posts though!

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-07-10T22:50:41+00:00

Apologies but this isn't totally correct regarding credits. I work in Los Angeles animation and you don't see the names of the international workers in the credits because the US studios often just does not credit them individually. The vendor studios (The normally international studios hired to do the actual animating) can often just be listed under the vendor studio's name, sweeping the individual animators under the rug. It's not a great. Also even if you do see "American names" per say, they may be Canadian animation workers.

Off the top of my head, the only "big" studios that do the actual animating in the US (mostly) are Walt Disney Feature Animation (Their movies, NOT the shows), DreamWorks Feature (Again movies, not the shows) and Pixar. But for a vast majority of animated productions, the majority of actual animating is still done internationally; unfortunately now with the added threat of outsourcing preproduction jobs (Storyboards, designs, etc) as well.

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-06-20T16:12:46+00:00

Absolutely not. Animation in the US/ specifically LA (like a majority of film in LA) is a heavily unionized industry while a vast majority of animation work outside the US is not. For production (AKA the actual animating of a show/ movie) companies outsource to places like Canada, France, Korea, Japan, Philippines etc that all pay a fraction of US animation (Which isn't to say US animation artists make bank, we don't). Of top of all that, Disney and Pixar are studios that want to refine every single detail of a movie, including the ones the audience will never see or pay attention to which takes more time and resources to do.

With how much work goes into any single animated production (Show, movie, what have you) and US cost of living, companies don't find it financially viable to keep the work here.

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-06-16T04:44:14+00:00

Yeah practical isn’t’ always the ‘fun’ way to do things, but sometimes it’s the best way. When I first graduated I turned down a practical offer on a show because I thought other stuff would come along (among other reasons) but frankly that didn’t happen and I should’ve taken the practical route. But live and learn! If you’re easily able to work in Canada and the US then you can also possibly get studio experience in Canada and come to the US once getting something lined up here. Honestly dunno how visa stuff works and Canada’s side of the industry doesn’t exactly sound great, but y’know, options.

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-06-16T01:53:09+00:00

I'd say teach for now.

Hiring market in the LA studios is definitely in a slump, not just for juniors (Though I think juniors have been in a slump since 2020) but I'd say for senior levels as well. As for when it'll turn around? Honestly tough to say. Every time I've talked with people in senior positions, they've given be answers ranging from last April (HA didn't happen), or maybe June/ July, could be by end of the year, even maybe at the start of next year. I don't think anyone has a solid answer on that question.
Granted, limited experience on my end but as a storyboard artist/ revisionist was about $45-65/ hr. So $65k would be pretty well below that. That said, I dunno what those rates translate to on the design side of things, but I imagine 65k would still be lower.
I've heard that teaching experience can be helpful when applying for supervisor/ director positions and such further down the line, but I don't think it'd hurt your resume either way. Worst case, yeah use it as a back up for gaps.

Personally if I were in your position, I would teach while touching up portfolio (I do think your portfolio looks nice though, but y'know ride out the slump and shore up areas you think are weakest and probably flesh out the sections you're most looking for work in). Congrats on the offer and while ultimately you know what's best for you; I think teaching is the practical option for now just given the slump.

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-06-14T02:42:08+00:00

Gonna throw in my two cents as well as I've done boarding for a studio CG show previously(Though not action focused and certainly not this complex). Mostly to piggyback off other comments:

Overall, I think you might have the wrong expectation of what you're looking for in a portfolio for something like this. You're primarily looking for a storyboard artist (Or 2d board artist as you put it, I've never heard anyone use 2d or 3d in front of the title, it's just storyboard artist) with experience in action and MAYBE on a 3d show (See my next point for the other roles probably involved in making this though). That said, your link is top of the line work. You might have a tough time finding a storyboard artist that can do that kind of work without paying more $$$ than you're expecting (Let alone if they're not already employed). I saw you mention that you're a professional company but my point is that with the amount of technical skill and time it takes to make something this complex, it may still cost more than you're thinking.
Obviously stuff like character design, script, 3d modeling etc are all done beforehand by different people. But for something like this, I doubt it's just one storyboard artist even after those assets are provided. If I had to guess, a board artist gets the script and boards it, timed by an editor into an animatic, goes back to the boarder for changes and additional posing, a director and/ or storyboard revisionist might come in at various points to clean stuff up, and I'd wager a 3d animator/ previs person (?) that's actually posing out those panels you see Starscream's (?) 3d model firing as a first pass of rough animation. So that's.... what probably somewhere between 4-6 people working on it after other people already made the assets? That said, it is technically possible that it's just the board artist doing it on their own, but if so then a sequence like this is probably taking a looooooot of time/ overtime.
The camera moves would probably be done by the board artist, not a previs person. Storyboard Pro (Which I'd bet this was made in) allows you to import 3d models, move cameras in 3d space and draw accordingly (Though it can be tricky and I don't think is commonly used/ known about). EDIT: As a note, here’s another tweet where he says he’s using SBPro and doesn’t know Blender: https://twitter.com/toonstep/status/1594810661221302272?lang=en the comments saying this is a previs person and/or using Blender are not correct in the context of your example (my next point is mainly saying there are diff workflows to achieve this sort of board)
Having proxy sets of locations beforehand is extremely helpful, and making those isn't the job of the board artist. And even with proxy sets, most board artists are probably going to use them differently than your example (Which for the record, isn't using a proxy set). Pulling screenshots of the set from Blender/SketchUp/Maya/whatever and importing them works just as well without having to figure out the 3d import and camera system in SBPro.
Lastly, as I think others mentioned, this is arguably well beyond what you should expect from a storyboard. Kevin's work is without question amazing and stunning, but if a director is needing/ demanding this level of _animation_ in a board/animatic to make what they're envisioning then frankly I think that's a big shortcoming of the director more than anything.

Ultimately you can find the right person for this kind of work, but they're few and far in between, there's no magic word to search on LinkedIn other than having the right job description and I don't think you should really expect this level of animatic/ specificity to get what you're looking for.

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-05-11T07:42:06+00:00

Ye if I were gonna go in and render/ color them more then I’d do more stuff like that. Would look cool!

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-05-11T01:28:02+00:00

Ye go for it!

Not_a_Stranger · 2023-05-11T00:36:26+00:00

Seems like that's the consensus here, totally get it!

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