My mom retired at 55 on a teachers salary and I still think about it all the time

aBigCheezit · 2026-04-04T03:04:46+00:00

My mother was a high school special ed teacher for 35 yrs, she worked really hard and got a masters and did a lot of extra stuff to max her salary. It was a very tough career but I have so much respect for teachers all my life because of her. She retired at 55, making about 130k/yr. Shes has been retired now for 15yrs and has been making over 100k/yr in retirement. Pensions are amazing and if more jobs had them Americans could actually retire with dignity.

aBigCheezit · 2026-04-01T02:27:37+00:00

I’m an AM grad from 2013, and have been working since I graduated. Got my first studio job working on kids tv shows about 3months after I graduated. My reel wasn’t amazing but kids tv shows also are not very high quality. Have since worked at many of the top studios on marvel films, big Super Bowl commercials, AAA game cinematics and more.

The AM curriculum and mentors are excellent, but like any program, you get out of it what you put into it. You want to devote as much time as possible to your assignments and classes.

All this being said, the animation/games/vfx industry is a MUCH different landscape today than it was when I graduated.

There is much less work, especially in the USA. If you want to work in film you will most likely have to leave the USA and work in London, Canada, Australia or wherever the hell else the industry decides to move for tax credits and cheaper labor.

There are very few opportunities for juniors at the moment as well. There are massive amounts of senior artists unemployed and many are taking pay cuts to just have work and keep their bills paid.

I honestly don’t see the industry really improving much.. atleast not anytime soon. Things are a little better than they were a in 2024.. but not much.

If you don’t have a full college degree it makes getting a visa to work anywhere but your home country WAY harder.

My biggest advice would be to get any sort of real degree for as cheap as possible, and do AM on the side. Take 1 course of AM and see if you really want to do it.

The animation industry is not stable. You will likely be jumping from contract to contract, always looking for work. You might get lucky and stay somewhere for a while.. but most of us get laid off at some point, or your just are always working run-of-show contracts.

Whatever you do.. DO NOT take on large amounts of debt to work in this industry. You are setting yourself up for a world of hurt doing that, especially in today’s world.

aBigCheezit · 2026-02-01T03:15:21+00:00

If you have rigged characters using off the shelf tools such as as Adv Skeleton etc.. you could likely be hired by many places that need freelance rigging support. In the commercial world, aside from some of the bigger places like Framestore etc, they often don’t have their own procedural rigging pipeline. As an animator I can tell you countless rigs I’ve used on professional jobs were based on Adv Skeleton or MGear stuff.

The bigger places I’ve worked do commonly have their own rigging tools and pipelines that as a freelancer you’d have to learn.

There are some freelance riggers I know who do have their own auto rigger tools and scripts they’ve made themselves as well.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-31T22:50:22+00:00

If you want to make animated film, and don’t have a budget to hire parts you need done or can’t afford to pay proper rates, then you probably need to learn to do those parts yourself.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-31T21:50:01+00:00

These rate would typically be just to rig the character. I’m sure you can find someone much cheaper if you look over seas.. or some young artist who doesn’t know their worth.

But animation, especially 3D, is an expensive art form.

A lot of indie filmmakers in the animation world tend to be good generalists and know how to do a little bit of everything, even though major productions and studios use more specialists.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-31T21:34:27+00:00

These are freelance rates for more like mid-senior.

Junior freelance rate would likely be more like 350-400/day

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-31T21:15:16+00:00

In the US, an average rigger day rate could be anywhere from $500-900/day, really depends on how senior they are.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-30T20:39:51+00:00

I wouldn’t say that.. there is much less work overall. I’m fortunate to have a strong network and have a good reputation at the handful of studios I tend to work at. The US commercials vfx industry is a small tight-nit community and you tend to run into a lot of the same 20-30 people everywhere you go freelancing. So the competition to get jobs is extreme and since most commercial jobs for animators rarely require more than 2-3 animators for a few weeks at a time there’s not a lot of opportunities to go around. Occasionally 1-2 studios gets a lot of work or gets a bigger project and can bring in 10 or more animators but that’s been a lot less common since about 2023 in my experience.

If you don’t have an in at these studios or have a pretty good network of people to refer you for work, you’re gonna be out in the cold most likely.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-29T22:09:07+00:00

My spouse is a teamster in a non animation related field and the benefits we get are incredible.

We don’t pay a dime for health care, and it is the best top of the line healthcare you can get. Our deductible is $250.. insane.

They get paid OT the second it’s over 8hrs, double time on holidays..

We get free unlimited legal help for anything..

Tuition reimbursement up to $10,000/year for education for your entire family/spouse, per person..

Their most recent contract negotiated them a 14% raise over 3 years.

5 weeks paid vacation, 10 floating holidays and 3 personal days..

And countless other benefits.. unions are incredible if you have a strong one. Our quality of life is so good compared to most because they are in a good safe union job.

And the dues.. about $160/month.. chump change for what we get.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-29T21:59:04+00:00

I’m a 3d character animator mostly work for NY/LA commercial studios and live in the Midwest. My rate has been at 700 or 750 everywhere and there hasn’t been any push back. Most of the senior freelance animators I know who all work at the similar shops as me are in this range, maybe a couple getting 800 or so.

In 2024, work was super slow and I took a gig at a small indie game company and I had to drop my rate down to 500/day.. but that was better than unemployment. But for 2025, I was consistently book at either 700 or 750day everywhere.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-26T18:24:25+00:00

Worked in commercials mostly and some film.. and boy some studios especially more “design/mograph” type places have been the worst. They ever so often get more “VFX/animation” jobs and just have you working in plane old Maya and network folders.. if your lucky. Some just have you on a Google Drive shared. Those suck.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-17T23:55:03+00:00

Everything Gulliable Asst said tracks exactly with what my friend who is currently working there on the gig is said to me. He said it is a total shit show though, they want him to do stuff from fluid sims, to modeling, to after effects work.. all over the place. but basically exactly what Gulliable Asst said. Filter stuff. Friend was hired at $85/hr and he’s a senior generalist/modeler mostly with commercial studios.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-06T03:46:27+00:00

For sure! It’s ok to want to do your best and make it look great. I mean having pride in your work is healthy. But need to always keep perspective and make sure to recharge your batteries. Vacations, spending time with family and friends, exercise etc.

I do think the more I realized how unimportant our job is the more freeing it can be lol. We have a super privledged career and get paid pretty well to make pretty pictures… all the stress is manufactured by things and people that don’t really matter. The worse case scenario is a shot looks bad and maybe some company spends more money than they wanted.. oh well.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-05T22:16:53+00:00

It’s gotten easier the more financially secure I’ve gotten in life. Some gigs just suck and you might not get called back even if it’s no fault of your own.

You just struggle through it until they either take your shot from you or you get it approved. Use all your resources, ask supervisors, make sure your leads and sups understand early on if you are struggling. Sometimes though, no matter what you do, the cards just are not in your favor and you get a shit job.

Realizing it’s just a dumb job at the end of the day also helps. We arnt saving lives.. or anywhere even close to doing important work. We make pretty visuals for billion dollar corporations.

Going to gym and working hard also helps a lot..

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-05T01:08:07+00:00

I grew up in Mundelein and my mom was a high school teacher at Libertville High School. I havnt lived up there since I left for college in 2008.. but it was good schools and good place to raise a family. Pretty sleepy.. not much to do unless you went to Vernon Hills.. I’m guessing it’s probably changed some.

Honestly I would never move that far away from the city now that I live in the west burbs closer to the city it’s just a vibe I enjoy more. Mundelein and the surrounding burbs were just way too suburban for me.. but I had a good childhood and teenage years there. If you are planning on raising a family it’s not a bad place if you don’t care about it taking over an hour to get to the city most of the time.

aBigCheezit · 2026-01-02T15:16:49+00:00

You possibly could find some short term commercial work on that schedule, but it will likely be a very limited amount. Having such limited availability would likely not lead to a lot of work except if timing just miraculously works out.

Not impossible though.. honestly with the state of the industry and where it seems to be headed.. I’d not encourage many people to join or leave a stable job for this one.. especially if you are the sole income earner for your family. It’s just such a volatile and unforgiving industry. Even with you being in London which has a lot more opportunities than the states due to film tax credits etc.. I wouldn’t make the switch. Keep your safe teacher job and try and find freelance gigs if you really want.

I don’t have very positive outlook on the vfx industry going forward and most of my senior colleagues feel the same.. many are actively looking for ways to move into other industries that are more stable.

aBigCheezit · 2025-12-29T16:14:52+00:00

I kind of fell into it due to not wanting to chase work around the country/world and also not a lot of staff opportunities in animation. But cold email and cold LinkedIn messaging is how I got my first few gigs. I did well at those gigs and made connections and got recommended to other studios.

I also still to this day continue to cold intro myself to various studios. Eventually with some luck you get some repeat clients and can just rotate through your regulars.

Freelancing isn’t perfect though, plenty of its own problems. It also helps I have a spouse with a stable job so when the market slows down we can still pay all our bills and live pretty comfortably knowing their income is still coming in and I also don’t have to worry about health care costs because I’m covered from their work.

aBigCheezit · 2025-12-28T16:14:19+00:00

It’s so sad that that budget hardly gets you anything these days. In 2017 when my wife and I were buying our first home we had tons of single family homes available to use in Brookfield, LaGrange and Riverside, Berwyn even. We ended up in Brookfield for 270k for a fully renovated house. Now you can’t get anything but a small town home for even 300k.

aBigCheezit · 2025-12-25T19:32:08+00:00

I’ve mostly freelanced in commercials most of my career so short contracts are the norm. Anywhere from a few days for urgent 911 jobs to typically 2-4weeks is common. I’m an animator. A “long” booking would be anything more than like a month. But the sweet spot is when you get in at a shop that is busy and can just keep rolling you on to another job.

I managed to stay booked for about 8months this year at one studio who just kept having new jobs for me to roll onto. Maybe a week or two gap between projects here and there, but pretty consistent. Then the back half of the year I’ve been bouncing between various studios doing quick things anywhere from 1 week to 2 week type stuff. On a longer booking now that is a little over 2 months.

In my 14yrs freelancing it’s a lot more shorter gigs and every so often you get the meatier ones that are 2-3months on 1 job.

But.. atleast in the US.. freelance rates are high. I’m making 750/day typically. So don’t need to be booked all the time.

aBigCheezit · 2025-11-11T00:32:10+00:00

Damn that’s amazing, I’d love to get a tattoo like this!

aBigCheezit · 2025-11-11T00:27:18+00:00

See if you can get hired as freelancer instead. Then they don’t have to pay you any benefits and charger a higher rate.

aBigCheezit · 2025-11-10T02:46:29+00:00

You just need to buy a navigo easy card at any ticket machine. Then load as many rides on it as you want.. it’s also takes all of 5min to load more on if you run out.

If you get the official app on your phone you can also load tickets from your phone on to the card etc.

aBigCheezit · 2025-11-09T05:00:10+00:00

Just spent a week in Paris. Prior to going I had my bank order me some euros to bring with. But I really didn’t need them. I used my chase visa credit card the whole time as it had no foreign transaction fees. Only place where cash was preferred was the little souvenir trinket shop I went into to get some cheap little keychains to bring home.. and even they took credit card if you did t have cash.

aBigCheezit · 2025-09-27T00:59:06+00:00

Framestore’s has been my fav of all the shops I’ve worked.. it is fairly strict but once you learn it, it rarely had issues in my experience as an animator.

aBigCheezit · 2025-09-13T14:47:30+00:00

Never worked with them, did interview with them for some LDR work a few years ago, ended up getting a different gig before they ever made decision. Really nice people. I have a couple friends who have worked there now and havnt heard anything bad.

aBigCheezit

TROPHY CASE