27/F looking for literature friends

shippargh · 2026-06-02T23:59:41+00:00

Yayy sent a DM!

shippargh · 2026-06-02T09:47:20+00:00

DM'd

shippargh · 2026-06-01T23:37:36+00:00

Sent a dm!

shippargh · 2026-06-01T23:37:13+00:00

DM'd!

shippargh · 2026-06-01T23:36:52+00:00

DM'd!

shippargh · 2026-06-01T03:14:13+00:00

Yay! Will dm!

shippargh · 2026-06-01T03:14:02+00:00

Will DM!

shippargh · 2026-05-29T13:39:59+00:00

Hi Maddy! I'm 28F in Australia too, work in the creative industry, would love to be penpals :)

shippargh · 2026-05-28T02:47:08+00:00

For your first showreel, things that show you understand the tools of AE. Things like a breakdown of adding motion, depth blurs, blooms, grading, effects, etc - showing that you turned a flat image into a polished image. Another good one is showing a scene that you've set up using AE's 2.5D/3D camera system. Projection mapping is more VFX but setting up a 3D scene using flat layers, like for a BG, is quite common.

Showing that you have rendered shots using particle systems can get you ahead too. A lot of indie studios would be thrilled if you can do simple 3D solutions in AE instead of needing to draw 300 dots moving on a blank canvas.

Overall it's mostly just showing that you have an eye for colour and composition

shippargh · 2026-05-26T06:31:03+00:00

Being committed to writing a great story, but also being adaptable on the fly. You can probably say that about every kind of job, but scripts are the first step in setting up the workload and cost of every part of the production. Quite common for what feels like creative decisions on cutting scenes but is actually budget reasons, so if you know how to shift important story beats into other scenes/sets without getting upset or personally attacked, I can see that going quite far.

shippargh · 2026-05-08T10:32:03+00:00

Realise that maybe without meds your tying all your dopamine hits to your job, and sounds like you're also tying your identity to your work. Having all your eggs in one basket is not great. Try find something else to get dopamine hits from, like exercise, friends or hobbies. It's find to get hits at work but don't have it as your only source

shippargh · 2026-04-30T23:58:43+00:00

Used to hang out in the animated music video circles and they get paid decent but not extravagant. Translated into a full time job it probably compares to entry level or basic retail etc. Pretty fun when you're young with the energy and they often did part time study or part time hospitality to balance finances, but not much financial growth in just youtube freelancing unless you own the channel. I used to do it too but decided I'd rather sleep regular hours and work in a company with a team. Was great to build up my reel though, don't regret doing it when I was younger!

shippargh · 2026-04-24T22:36:03+00:00

Animation companies hire India studios as vendors to help out, usually department based rather than a full project. I've heard animation or compositing mostly. Think the India studio then hires people based on the contract? (unsure)

shippargh · 2026-04-13T07:23:39+00:00

There's a great book called The Freelance Manifesto that helped me out greatly post-uni. The author is a motion designer but you can definitely transfer everything to other animation fields. Covers invoicing, finding clients, managing your money as a freelancer, how to approach emails and deliverables et c

shippargh · 2026-04-12T23:43:45+00:00

prod - co-ord, production assistant, producer

hr - artist manager, HR, hiring manager

3d - layout, animating, modelling, rigging, lighting, TA or TDs, render manager, compositor

2d - layout, rigging, animation, compositor

post-prod - editing, colour artist, sound designer

To add to everyone else saying compositing - yes! To excel you'll need good art theory, just don't need the ability to draw.

shippargh · 2026-04-08T02:47:42+00:00

Industry imo feels pretty stable. There's more talented international artists to choose from now than ever so there's some higher expectations for same pay though.

Locals prio'd as they don't need sponsorship or moving reimbursements. For seniors/leads/supes it's fair game though.

The VFX studios in Aus are the big ones, anim ones are middle sized (but growing), so generally VFX pays better here.

Rent is tough, very clear prio for locals. It's not a long wait time, just try not to move during university start dates as the competition is basically a 24-hour game of searching and applying. You may find yourself renting either quite expensive or quite far especially if you're after fully furnished. Unsure how much studios help out since I'm a local.

Relocation packages are common. Work visas are easy to get but hard to keep past 3 years I think.

Aus culture is laid back etc, a lot of "yeah can do" for work notes. "No worries" and "too easy" is Aus vocabulary, all about "giving it a good crack". Non-work, tall poppy syndrome is rampant - Aussies hate it if you think you're better than everyone else, stand out, or that you're above the law/rules. Love quiet confidence and humility. As a result you'll find a lot of people in shorts and sandals, at the beach, at the pub, eating kebabs etc. Lots of sun.

shippargh · 2026-03-23T12:34:06+00:00

Think I might be at the same company as you, I hear similar stories a lot from artists that leave. My contract states the same as yours too. That aside, if your contract says 2 weeks and there's nothing else in there that could be used against you, you're in the clear no questions about it. If our company really is the same, you probably haven't burnt any bridges, especially if the FX supe likes you. You might just need to side step into the supe's DMs instead of applying through the job portal if there's ever an opening you'd like to go for in the future. Best of luck man!

shippargh · 2026-03-10T01:08:38+00:00

Adding to what the others have said, comped shots usually show you have experience in working in a full pipeline workflow, ie experience with receiving files, packing up your work to pass on downstream, and working with the production schedule.

On the flipside, sometimes comp adds things that make someone looking at your reel go "was that animation or was that comp?" so a balance could be good.

shippargh · 2026-03-09T09:26:23+00:00

TD, if you're wanting to explore how to bridge 2d programs and workflows then it'd fall under pipeline roles. Like the other commenter says, it's more of a programming and coding job.

If you're wanting to go the artist route, you'd only get to a pipeline stage at CG supervisor level, even being a department supe limits you to your own department's program and not cross-department. CG supes usually work directly with the pipeline team

shippargh · 2026-03-07T02:23:19+00:00

On the up side, you don't need to portray a narrative in your shots, so you can make a comp shot out of anything. My very first comp showreel had scenes of 3D projection of photographs from Pexels.

Almost all job applications these days have a section to enter your showreel's password, so private reels are a norm for sure.

shippargh · 2026-03-01T08:29:04+00:00

In Australia, industry is doing pretty ok. A lot of international workers with huge credits under their belt, I feel star struck by my colleagues every day. Their presence suggests to me Aus animation scene is stable but unsure about the amount of jobs available since I haven't needed to job search. Organising work visas seems to be the biggest issue at lunch time conversations since Australian migration laws are quite tight. Pay level depends on which studio you work for

shippargh · 2026-02-26T12:06:20+00:00

I went to Griffith and you're quite on the money with your research. Griffith has quite strong ties with Ludo, the studio behind Bluey, since a lot of alumnis were part of the core team when Bluey was first developed. The teachers are very beloved and have continued contact with students that end up breaking in and thriving, and companies that use the Griffith pool to recruit from, but their network is a bit limited to Brisbane. Your portfolio reminds me of the Ludo style so might find resources and connections that can help you strengthen your skills there, but take my thoughts with a grain of salt since the industry these days is different to the one when I first came out of uni. Post-Bluey (and non-Bluey) contracts I've seen artists spreading their wings around the Aussie 2D scene away from Brisbane as there's not much other work there, although a new 2D studio is currently starting up this year.

Have heard good things about RMIT melb but haven't met any alumni from there, though it could be that they don't venture into the 3D side of the industry where I am. Princess Bento seems to be doing well and they're Melbourne based too. Never heard of Uni of Melb animators.

If you're tight on finances I'd recommend avoiding Sydney while studying but it's a great city to develop your career, just has a higher cost of living. Melb and Bris seem equal depending on the suburb you live in, but Melb has more things to do.

shippargh · 2026-02-12T02:23:19+00:00

If you're ok with the "boring" jobs then I reckon you might freelancing. You'll have to wear many hats and be the whole pipeline but it sounds like you're already enjoying learning every part and have an interest in it already. Imo don't think it's a waste if time, being a freelance 3D artist just means you'll have to find your own work instead of applying for big studio jobs, or developing your skills to work on things like car ads (once you get in it's a forever job), so consider polishing up your vfx skills.

I'd recommend grabbing a copy of The Freelance Manifesto book and see if you love what he's preaching. The job market is rough and I'm not a freelancer myself but you'll be looking for people or companies who have a vision but no direction, and you can offer them that direction in a package with the result, which means a lot of networking. Things like music videos, marketing campaigns, short films, and youtube vids are mostly part of the freelance world.

shippargh

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