Breaking in

I decided to write this post because someone at work was asked how to get into the industry by his students. I figured that if anyone pops over to this blog, I can give them a little advice. So you want to be a professional animator? You want people to pay you to do what you love? The main advice that I can give is to find an internship. There are too many student animators that have little or no experience but want to go straight to Pixar. Sometimes you have the rare ocassion where a talented animator gets picked up right away. (Remember I said rare) Everyone starts from the bottom and works his/her way up. It's hard but it's part of the business. Sometimes it takes years before you finally get to where you want to be but in the end it's all worth the journey. I personally did an internship, I've also worked using motion capture for a while (Which I really don't like) I've done commercials, games etc. Some people work in games, TV or commercials but ultimately strive to go to film. It will happen as long as you work hard at what you love and don't forget about that journey. Believe me, I was that college student who sent my reel to those big feature studios expecting to land my first gig as an animator. It's an extremely difficult road to get to your dream job. If it were easy, it wouldn't be a dream job would it? You will face countless rejection letters or emails. It's just part of the industry. The idea is to keeping chugging to that goal and never giving up no matter how many bumps are in the road. Remember, start from the bottom and build your way up. If you don't land that dream job right away, keep working at it until you do. Sometimes you have to take any job to pay the bills but just don't forget about that goal. The competition out there is HUGE, you need to get yourself noticed and sometimes it can be experience that gets you that job over the next fella. Hope this helps. Happy Animating!!