Do I need a degree to get into the animation industry?

[NessIllustration]

@Michael-Angelo-Go I have a degree in traditional animation and from my experience, I've never seen a job offer in the field that did not require a degree. It's not like freelance illustration, this is definitely a field where I had a resume to write and was asked my credentials.

Even if they didn't ask for a degree, I think you'd need one. It's a very technical and very difficult field that requires specific knowledge and education. I still struggle animating (never been my best skill) despite years of study. I cannot imagine anyone being able to do the job convincingly without learning about the principles of animation and practicing it extensively. Even just the terms, like pegs, rigging, layout, underlay and overlay, ease in/out, animating on two's, stretch and squash, etc. Even after earning my degree, I remember sitting on meetings in my first week in a studio and hearing stuff like "We're thinking of adding some parallax in the shoot to blow, but we're just going to have to be careful not to create artifacts and floating pixels so could you make sure to check all your nulls, and reexport the xml?". And I'd be like.. I have no freaking CLUE what they're on about, what is even going on. Not to mention the animation softwares!

They're very complicated and require constant re-learning. Even with years learning Harmony, in the 5 years since I've graduated the software has been so updated and upgraded I can no longer comfortably use it.

As Lauren mentioned this is also a very demanding degree. I think back to my college days as my 4 years of hell where I was constantly exhausted, surviving on 2 hours of sleep and prone to bursting into tears at any moment...

[carlianne]

@Michael-Angelo-Go Hello! I also majored in animation/illustration in college. I disagree with those that said you "need" to have a degree to get a career in animation. What you NEED to have is an incredible portfolio/reel. I have worked as an animator in games before and I can say from experience that the portfolio is all we really care about the resume just helps you get past HR.

HOWEVER, as said earlier the field is very competitive and requires an incredible amount of technical skills and going to college will also help you make contacts with industry professionals and you can apply for an internship as you are a student. The program I went to was a 4 1/2 year program, so it is NOT a short road, and as Ness said, I barely slept or had much of a life out of my schooling.

You could technically train yourself independently, but I think you would have to work even harder as there is less structure and you won't have the networking opportunities that a school could give you. And you'll need to do a lot of figure drawing which is easier to access at a college.

Since you've never animated before, I think it would be great to start learning and practicing that now. It's possible that you'll realize you don't enjoy the process of animation itself, so instead of waiting around and then paying for school, try it out first and make sure you actually enjoy it.

Also, you wouldn't start in story boarding, that is a different field. I think you might be able to start as a production assistant to get in the door. In the 2D animation days you'd likely start as an inbetweener or a clean up artist not sure about how that works now.

[NessIllustration]

@carlianne They still need inbetweeners and clean up artists for traditional animation on the computer. But even for that, I've yet to see a position, even at such low level, that doesn't require a degree. You're right that the art director or producer probably doesn't give a damn, but as you said they won't make it past HR. Because out of 200 applicants for 1 open position, the one guy without a degree is the first to go in the "no" pile..

Anyway @Michael-Angelo-Go this isn't something you should pursue on a whim. Animation is a whole other world. It has more in common with film than it does with drawing. It's about movement, telling stories, and acting. Animators are actors. It all will consume your life and demand every second of your attention + years of learning.

[Michael Angelo Go]

@NessIllustration out of curiosity, what made you choose animation as a major?

I think my end-goal is to become a showrunner like Stephen Hillenburg, Butch Hartman, Rebecca Sugar, Carlos Ramos, Bill Burnett, Rob Renzetti, etc. and pitch a story that will be turned into a children's show on a network.

[NessIllustration]

@Michael-Angelo-Go I started out studying visual arts and was disappointed by the program. It was very free spirited, with an emphasis on expression. They weren't actually teaching us anything, you'd just show up to class and they'd be like "today, you guys do a painting". About the same time I was getting fed up with this, I heard about the traditional animation program form a school downtown. It had a reputation for being really hard and technical, so I decided to sign up based on that alone.

I joined because I wanted to draw, so I was pretty shocked when I started to realized the "film animation" program is really about "film". I remember a few weeks into the program, they set us free in the city with cameras to capture some footage for learning to edit later. I picked a pretty spot, set up the tripod, camera, adjusted the lenses, hit record and only then realized... nothing in the shot was actually moving. I had been thinking of art only as still images up until that point. Although it wasn't what I expected, I was learning a lot. So I decided to stay and immerse myself in this new world. I learned about cinema, types of shots, acting, heck we even had a seminar about correct blinking triggers. I kid you not!

I was never the best animator - I was very slow, so I really struggled to keep up in animation class. Maybe I was always going to end up in illustration in the end. But I'm still glad I did it: I learned about perspective, background design, character design, storyboarding, storytelling, posing. All these things are very useful to me as an illustrator. Thumbnailing a book is a lot like storyboarding. I no longer struggle with backgrounds or dynamic character poses as I used to. Still, that is an incredibly circuitous and difficult route to take just for illustration. I don't recommend it unless someone actually wants to animate.

Being a showrunner is obviously an extremely competitive and difficult position to reach. Only the top of the top will ever reach that. If I were you I'd look into what these showrunners' education and career paths are to give you an idea of what's required to be one. Just be aware this is a path 100000x more difficult than being a children's book illustrator. You have to be sure, and if you want to pursue this you'll have for sure to focus 100% on it and go full-ahead if you want a snowball's chance, so it would mean putting aside children's books, commissions, architecture, anything you're currently doing to devote yourself completely to this goal. It's as difficult as becoming an astronaut, it's not something you can half-ass.

[Jfbray]

@Michael-Angelo-Go I also have an animation degree, and from my experience getting a degree in animation from a traditional university did not fully prepare me. It is often better to attending a program like animation mentor. However that one is more geared toward someone who wants to be a 3d animator. If your goal is to be a show runner, from my experience show runners often come from the writing side, rather then the animation/art side.

[carlianne]

@NessIllustration He does have a degree though, it's just not a specific animation degree. I've been involved in the hiring process before, and I stand by what I said from that experience

[NessIllustration]

@carlianne Huhmm.. you're right, it's possible any degree is enough to get past HR. I've been involved in interviews before too and while people had to have an animation degree to get in the interview room, while in there you're right we never actually asked about that. The interview was mostly to determine if the person was a psycho, and what ultimately made the decision was the animation test.

[carlianne]

@Michael-Angelo-Go also you store check out https://www.animationmentor.com I believe they have online classes

[Michael Angelo Go]

@carlianne Thanks! I just applied!

[lpetiti]

@Michael-Angelo-Go I worked on a couple of student films, but other than that went right into teaching. Like I said, plans changed for me, I sort of re-prioritized my life.

[Kim Hunter]

Try looking on the studio websites to see what jobs they have open and what they require. Most want some work experience and portfolio.

[Kim Hunter]

Maybe you can start out by drawing buildings as background art. Animation has a lot of little specialties in it. None of it is done by one person or one skill. Pixar used to have a lot of behind the scenes info on their site.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

Hi! Have you considered being a visual developer instead of being an actual animator. Tho the competition might actually be tougher.

[Michael Angelo Go]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Hmm... do you think it would be less exhausting, but more competitive in order for me to create my own kids show?

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@Michael-Angelo-Go i can’t really say. I’ve never experienced it for myself. Lolz But one of the illustrators I follow, Anoosha Syed, does character design for animation while also working as an illustrator. Perhaps you can shoot her a message.

[Michael Angelo Go]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz OMG! I've been watching Anoosha Syed too recently! I heard that she's been really BUSY because of her workload and how popular she's become, so I haven't thought of messaging her because she's likely overwhelmed by all her fanmail. But sure. I don't recall her being a showrunner or producer, but I will ask her anyways. It's worth a shot.

Her style inspired me to make this latest piece in my portfolio!

I made this a couple of weeks ago. I've been trying to find a style that doesn't require you know a whole lot of detail and shading to make it look a lot more simpler, and focusing on using brushes and textures to compensate for detail. It's pretty flat, but I think it looks pretty industry standard, which is what I was going for.

[APHOTICMOTH]

Listen to this: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2DLbzg2iwBvE02lgdbIs82 Bancroft brothers podcast, interviewing Netflix animation recruiter, Robin Linn. No you don't, a good portfolio can be enough now a days, and they are actively looking at Instagram and twitter to recruit people. He has also worked for much more than Netflix, it's worth the listen.

[Michael Angelo Go]

@Jfbray Oh that's very cool. I did some research on the people that I was talking about, based on @NessIllustration's advice, and while okay a lot of them have worked as writers, a lot of them have also started their careers as animators or storyboard artists before becoming showrunners.

I'm talking about people like Stephen Hillenburg (Spongebob Squarepants) who first had a degree in Marine Biology and taught at a college. He created Intertidal Zone which later became SponegeBob Squarepants. What I read from his bio is that he went to Cal Arts (a school I'm strongly considering), got his Master's in experimental animation 5 years later, worked with another well known showrunner Joe Murray (then Rocko's Modern Life, also Camp Lazlo) as a storyboard artist, shared his comic with Murray and organized a pitch that became Spongebob.

Gennedy Tartakovsky is also an alumni of Cal Arts, but only before he moved Chicago to study animation. He made a student film that would become 'Dexter's Laborartory'. Gennedy has a big resume, he not only made Dexter's Laboratory, but also Samurai Jack, the animated version of Clone Wars, and works for (or at least recently) Sony Picture's Animation, and he's still making animation and showrunning.

He was also one of three very notable alumni studying animation together at Cal Arts together with Craig McCracken who created 'Whoopass Stew' that later would become 'The Powerpuff Girls' and Lauren Faust. McCracken started work as an art director for 2 Stupid Dogs, before he pitched his student film when he worked for Hanna-Barbera.

Lauren Faust according to my research studied at Cal Arts with Tartakovsky and McCracken. Her bio says she was animator for Turner Feature Animation, then worked as a storyboard artist then screenwriter for Cartoon Network then was promoted to supervising producer and story supervisor. So @carlianne when I said that I thought I might work as a storyboard artist before becoming an animator/showrunner, I made that assumption based on a lot of the fact that the big-name people I am familiar with started out storyboarding before becoming showrunners. I remembered an ad featuring Butch Hartman (showrunner of Fairly Odd Parents) when I was younger trying to explain how an episode is written using storyboards, as a presentation, so I came to the conclusion that's part of a showrunner's job when creating an episode.

Then there's John L. Dilworth (Courage the Cowardly Dog) who graduated from SVA in New York. Based on my research his background is much different compared to the other animators. So he doesn't have a degree in some variation of animation, but he became a showrunner after he worked on several personal films, one of them was called 'The Chicken from Outer Space'. He didn't pitch it directly to CN, but apparently what happened was Cartoon Network commissioned him to turn the short into a full series. He still does animation, but doesn't seem to be collaborating with any big network at the moment.

Danny Antonucci went to Sheridan College of Visual Arts but quit to start working as an animator, so Idk if he has a degree, an assocaite's degree, it doesn't say. But he worked for Hanna-Barbera to animate several properties, then he went to MTV to produce his short 'Lupo the Butcher' and short-lived series 'The Brother's Grunt' before creating Ed, Edd n Eddy. It says he wanted to sell it Nickelodeon, but they wanted to obtain all his rights. So Danny went to Cartoon Network and settled on a deal where he was 'commissioned' to make 'Ed, Edd n Eddy' and retained all his rights doesn't that make you happy @NessIllustration?

There's a lot more animators/show producers that I admire and want to breakdown, but I know this is TL;DR.

So yeah to a degree I agree that writing is very important when pitching a show that you are going to be responsible for running. Good thing I have some decent writing skills, and studying things about story structures like (hero's journey, story archs, rules of thirds, irony, foils, visual irony, etc.) Does that mean I need a degree in film/writing?

Based on the people I have collected what they mostly have in common is:

1. They have a degree in animation or went to an art college.
2. Made a lot of there most well-known work while still in college studying.
3. Worked for other shows that were generally successful.
4. Had connections in the industry during college or while working for their respectivenetworks.
5. Created pitches with Networks they were already affiliated and the rest became history.

My research could be too simplified, as most of their biographies regarding education is pretty skimmed out. It doesn't really elaborate if there were any serious trials or tribulations (except maybe with Danny Antonucci) but yeah maybe that's the formula to success??? Or part of it?

Let me know what you all think. I hope this really added to the conversation.