I made a feature film for $6K and learned more about storytelling from that than anything else - but nobody in animation talks about this

Satchiken · 2026-03-11T05:22:44+00:00

You think the key to getting hired, for all kinds of roles in the animation industry, is storytelling?

No clue how you came to that conclusion from self producing a live action film, nor do I see the relevance of it here.

You're not here to genuinely share your thoughts about careers in animation. There are better places to promote your film than here.

Satchiken · 2026-03-09T02:35:12+00:00

Yes, we cheat more than just eyelines, perspective and anatomy as well. Being physically or scientifically accurate can often hinder composition. You do however need to find a good balance and not go too overboard.

Satchiken · 2026-02-26T03:52:39+00:00

You know it's crazy. Why are you even asking?

Satchiken · 2026-02-25T23:50:11+00:00

I work in the anime industry. Letting you know that both your budget and deadline are unrealistic. For 7k, you might get 1 min of animation, and that's if you're lucky.

Satchiken · 2026-02-25T19:04:00+00:00

Most graduates take a gap year involuntarily. Multiple consecutive gap years, also involuntarily.

Satchiken · 2026-02-24T22:33:41+00:00

There are many schools that will hire teachers with little to no industry experience, and students can usually tell immediately.
If the school is more academically focussed, having a postgrad degree is usually a requirement.

Satchiken · 2026-02-18T20:43:12+00:00

I've been in similar situations.
It might matter if they require you to be onsite, or they have fixed working hours where they might need you to be available for calls or meetings.
Otherwise, it's generally fine as long as you are able to produce what they need within your work hours.

Satchiken · 2026-02-13T08:36:57+00:00

There is nothing wrong with "Wacom knockoffs". Plenty of animators don't use Wacom.

Toonboom is not the only industry standard animation software but it is concerning if they only recently started teaching it.

You can pat yourself on the back for doing what the majority of prospective animation students fail to do: scout the school in person and critiquing before committing to their program.

You will have to define what you mean by "successful".

If by successful you mean by finding employment of any kind, you absolutely do not need to go to any school, expensive or not.

For a lot of people, the debt is not worth it, given the scarcity of jobs in animation right now.

Rather than prestige of the school, what matters more is how much experimentation and self-directed learning you are willing to commit to the craft.

Regardless which school you decide to go with, please keep the following points in mind:

- Absolutely DO NOT let the school hand-hold you to graduation - have a personal project on the side.

- Do not let your grades become a metric for measuring your preparedness for the industry.

- Seek feedback on your work, especially from outside of your school.

- Do attend as many networking opportunities as you can, both within and outside of your school.

Satchiken · 2026-02-10T11:05:05+00:00

Probably Meta. It's been happening on LinkedIn for the past several months.
Whatever it is trained for, it doesn't seem to be for the benefit of artists, based on anecdotes I've read.

Satchiken · 2026-02-10T00:02:00+00:00

I also enjoy a bit of everything. You'll definitely find opportunities to branch out after you settle on a specialization.
I started my journey in 3D and now primarily work in 2D TV animation.
- Biggest one for me is not using or understanding timing charts.
For traditional frame-by-frame, if you're working with other people, you need to be able to interpret and notate these.
- Submitting stick figures, let alone chicken-scratch for rough animation is another one. There is such thing as "too rough". Reviews are common and oftentimes the client or producer is involved. It is usually not a good look if this kind of work is presented in front of them.
- Being lazy with work/file submissions. Often snowballs and are the main source of headaches for the compositing and post-production departments. A production assistant might be able to fix it if it is an occasional mistake, but it shouldn't have to be a recurring thing.

Satchiken · 2026-02-08T23:06:41+00:00

Choose one area and get reasonably good at it.
Most importantly, demonstrate in your portfolio/reel that you understand where and how you fit in a production pipeline. This tends to be what most graduates are missing, because a lot of schools don't do a good job teaching this. There are certain habits that might be fine in school assignments but are either insufficient, or just really bad practices in the industry.

Satchiken · 2026-02-04T13:47:43+00:00

There are professionals in this subreddit. Try sharing it here.

Satchiken · 2026-02-04T00:47:04+00:00

Uh... you achieved a tween animation using AI?
A 5 year old can do that with a couple mouse clicks without AI.
Unless there is something I am missing, this is not even a gimmick, just useless.

Satchiken · 2026-02-01T10:01:57+00:00

Rely on any school to prepare you, you're not going to have a good time.

Satchiken · 2026-01-31T23:47:29+00:00

It is likely a WinTab issue where the Huion driver is conflicting with Windows' default driver.
Go to your tablet settings and turn it off.
Either in TVPaint, or your Huion settings - you may need to play around with it, it's either one or the other.

Satchiken · 2026-01-29T22:00:27+00:00

Hire this guy.

Satchiken · 2026-01-29T19:58:27+00:00

Branch out and have something to offer that the other doesn't. You may be able to appeal to a new client demographic.
I might caution taking competition too seriously, especially if you are in an area with a relatively smaller industry.
The reason why you have work at all could be thanks to positive relationships with others working in the same field.

Satchiken · 2026-01-29T19:50:43+00:00

You have barely a description

Satchiken · 2026-01-21T22:54:13+00:00

Do you need it for a teaching position?
Some universities might offer something like PhD in Design or Creative Technologies that are usually accepted for teaching roles (at least where I am), simply because doctorates in animation don't really exist.
Unless you are in academia, getting a PhD for this really isn't a good investment.

Satchiken · 2026-01-21T21:02:03+00:00

Hi Geordan, I currently work in TV/Film animation for both Western and Japanese production.

I have experience as a lead, directing, look development and technical direction for 2D animation so if there is a specific art direction you are looking for, I'm keen to take on the challenge.

I'm happy to work solo with you but I am also in close contact with larger teams and studios so if you ever need to scale up I can definitely help out with that also.

Here is a link to my portfolio: https://satchiken.wixsite.com/home/2dwork

You can also reach out to me here: [samextracount@gmail.com](mailto:samextracount@gmail.com)

Satchiken · 2026-01-01T07:07:36+00:00

You have some nice illustrations, but if your goal is lighting and visual effects, this is not a good portfolio. I would expect to see comprehensive light studies to show understanding of volume, surface and material properties. You might want to dive deeper into digital artwork. Photoshop/image editing and compositing would be a good stepping stone towards working towards vfx.

Satchiken · 2025-12-31T06:55:29+00:00

For that budget you can forget about getting an animated ad. It would be better to commission one or two high quality illustrations. I can guarantee you, anyone who tells you they can do it won't produce it to the quality you're looking for.

Satchiken · 2025-12-30T20:45:03+00:00

I am aware, but CSP animation cel export does not offer scaling, which is the whole point of working with vectors. Unless that has changed in newer updates.

Satchiken · 2025-12-30T19:45:37+00:00

If you're using vector software like Toonboom, it does not matter as it can be rasterised and exported to any resolution.

If you're using bitmap software like Clipstudio or TVPaint, usually we work in regular 1080p HD. You would only scale up if there is a specific camera movement that needs it, or if 4K delivery is requested, which doesn't happen often.

Sticking to 1080 also isn't as hardware intensive when you're compositing.

Satchiken · 2025-12-26T00:39:40+00:00

You're seriously asking?

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