Animation Freelance VS Fulltime - My thoughts and experiences

[Music] do you fit more as a freelance artist or a full-time artist what is best for you before I start talking about freelance versus full-time I kind of have to define what I mean by them during my time in the animation industry I have worked both freelance and full-time so please take note that these are based off entirely my experiences my definition of full-time means that you're dedicated to full-time work hours 40 hours per week a standard full-time job kind of requires you to be present in the office with your coworkers but with the age of today that's not always a case but I'll talk about that later I think the biggest definition for me for a full-time artist is that your contract to do work only for them so you can't take up other jobs from other companies like for example you carry a visa that allows you to work in that set country in most cases you're not allowed to do work outside of whoever's sponsoring your visa you're restricted to whoever got you your visa now let's talk about my definition of being a freelance artist freelance means that you aren't tied down to one company you can choose to accept many different contract works for many different places to me it really means that you're working for yourself you're your own boss and you set your own work hours and schedule you also have more flexibility when it comes to negotiating income and pay rate when I talk about working off-site this does not always count as being a freelance artist remember how I said that in the age of today you don't have to be present in your office all the time a full-time artist can also work off-site and off-site means that you aren't working within the premises or the physical location of the studio for example for example you can be contracted as a full-time artist but we kind of have to work from home because of reasons for now I'm gonna talk about my experiences of the pros and cons of being a full-time artist and a freelance artist let's talk about the positives of being a full-time artist in most cases you know that you're getting paid because most full-time jobs sort of follow an income rate either you get paid per hour or per week this kind of leads to other the advantage which is security in your work you know what your project you're on you know what your stood here in you have a stable job and you at least have a studio to enter during the mornings of your days one thing I really love about working as a full-time artist and animator is to build social relationships and networking with my coworkers if we wanted to get lunch we can take a break from our work and go together and we can just talk about normal things you can build friendships this way and if you wanted to collaborate on a project together in your own spare time you can organize that with your newfound friends most of the friends that I've made within the industry are people that I've worked with not due to the fact that we were merely on the same project but because we formed memories together we went through the crunch together we got lunch together and eventually became great friends after and outside of work and most of the full-time studio jobs that I've worked at they've always provided the resources I needed to work with such as a worktable tools software equipment they've always offered a computer for me to work with as well as licenses for software that I don't have access to by myself so I don't need to provide that by myself other resources that I've realized in full-time Studios is that some people may offer classes and in most of the studies that I've been at you're getting paid to work but to also take educational classes to learn a new skill some Studios offer free life drawing classes or some co-workers just want to teach a new skill when I was at alka house and sadly I was kind of working off-site but they had intro to Japanese language classes in depending on the size of the studio some studios may offer how to code classes or many more now depending on going back to the size of the studio you can gain benefits that the studio offers these benefits include health insurance discounts to restaurants in the gym - to actual products and may be free memberships to different clubs when I joined us to do like DreamWorks which is considered part of the Union I was granted a membership with the animation guild these benefits include health insurance free animation classes from the animation guild itself and retirement savings like the 401k which the animation Gail really helps its members get into but now let's talk about the cons of being a full-time artist one thing I really hate about being a full-time artist is that I was locked down into contracts so one example is that I can't do freelance for other people or I can't work on personal projects that might that may be in the same line of work as a studio what can be frustrating if my full-time job isn't enough to pay for my debts one thing about projects in the full-time industry is that if it doesn't pull through you kind of suffer consequences this can lead to your project getting cancelled and therefore leading you to be let go of that studio with that project never seeing the light of day I've been involved with three feature films that have gotten canceled and I'll never get credit for that one thing I notice about myself and other people in full-time job positions is that they relied too much on the full-time safety therefore they're not building exposure for themselves they didn't take up freelance or they didn't work on a personal project that identifies them as a unique individual so relying on too much safety can also lead to underperforming or being sort of lazy taking things for granted and if you end up leaving or getting let go you're gonna have a hard time finding a new workplace for yourself if you didn't make any impact or influence within your work people aren't gonna know you to be able to hire you another con I can think of is there may be inner studio politics and hierarchy there may be directors and producers or your fellow co-workers might have ego issues and may have a hard time working with others and you have to sort of deal with that another example is that if you're seen as someone in lower tier of work or the lower importance of work you won't be able to talk to the higher-ups or you won't even be able to talk to your director this is more familiar in big studios however but there can also be ego issues and drama in small studios as well and you kind of have to deal with that at that time does happen so to me that's kind of what I want to point out from my experiences being a full time artist now let's talk about being a freelance artist the great thing about being a freelance artist is that you get to tap into so many different projects you get to try different styles different genres and you get to do as many as you can with your own work schedule another great thing is that you're not locked down to a full-time contract a studio can hire you to become an off-site full-time artist but if they know that they're just freelancing you for the work you're not strictly a full-time employee with SCU therefore it can accept more gigs and opportunities for you to gain more income if you'd like being involved in many different projects and being able to freelance for many different people can build reputation and credd a lot of my friends who have freelance get job offers from everywhere because if that person does get work and is great to work with there are more people talking positively about them when recommending jobs and artists to other people in need of artists this can lead to another positive of being able to provide for yourself with more income and great reputation you will get more work coming to you therefore kind of building more security for yourself as a freelance artist you can work wherever you want some freelance artists can decide to work in the studio during a day but in most cases they work off-site because they're also doing freelance for many different other projects when I was doing hand-drawn animation for Clarence I also was doing storyboarding work for another feature film and I was doing both of these projects in the Philippines when living expenses are much lower so if you wanted to move to a place that was less expensive or you wanted to move to a place that just makes you happier you have more flexibility to do that I got to live with my parents and with my sister doing freelance therefore I saved so much money last and not least you answer mostly to yourself you decide when you want to come into work when you want start work and when you want to wrap up are you an all-nighter maybe your work hours are during midnight to the morning maybe you sleep during the day maybe you decide you only want to work four hours a day and you get to do whatever you want during the rest of the day you are your own boss but then again being your own boss in a freelance setting can also lead to freelance negatives and freelance cons being a freelance artist for example is not always secure if you work in the creative field or you work in animation like I do you know that it's a very nomadic lifestyle or nomadic work lifestyle meaning when one job ends you kind of have to hustle to find a new one to stabilize your work another thing is that you have to secure the needed tools and equipment for your work with your own money software licenses can be expensive and so can equipment if you work in full 3d and you need a lot of rendering power oh boy you're gonna provide that for yourself and that gets expensive you also need really powerful internet ten years ago internet in places like Indonesia the Philippines was terrible but now they're getting a bit better but to be able to transfer huge file sizes and to be able to participate in online conferences you have to get yourself really good internet like I have to pay for more higher tier internet so I can participate and make conference calls while sent huge file sizes while I pitch live or while I teach a class career-wise it's rare to be a lead of something mostly it's our full-time artists present in the studio space and this makes sense because leads need to be present in meetings and they need to be inclusive vicinity with the directors and the producers but if you see yourself being a supervisor a lead or director it's much harder in freelance settings and it's very rare as a freelance artist you also have to deal with clients who lack knowledge on what you do or ethics and how you do the work I get people who want to freelance me to animate a full episode for them for only a few hundred bucks I sometimes get people who are refusing to pay a certain amount when you put yourself as a freelance artist you're also opening yourself to people who don't know how your line of work goes and this can lead to them being very cheap with you or being fully controlling of you last but not least the thing I learned about being a freelance artist is that it can be a lonely venture for me for example I'm not the type of guy who goes out of my way to meet new people I meet people through my daily life and this includes work this includes the gym time or working out but again most of my friendships and camaraderie was formed in full-time settings because we went through trenches together we formed memories together and as a freelance that's much harder to achieve unless you're the type who can connect with people online and through text but for me I do appreciate someone's physical presence with me so those are my positives and negatives of working as a freelance and full-time artist now the big question is what's best for you I think that's something you have to ask for yourself but let me give you some scenarios let's say you want to build your career maybe start off as an apprentice and then you become an assistant and eventually a lead a supervisor or whatever being a full-time artist allows you to do that if you see yourself more as a studio person you see yourself growing within the studio and that studio may be a full-time artist is best for you if you just want something stable it would just give you security and you don't want to keep looking for new work I would say full-time for you if you see yourself being the person who wants to work for many different people and for many different projects from everywhere then maybe freelance is best for you if you want to do more than just animation work you want to do merchandising you want to sell tutorial courses or you want to work on a short film then freelance is great for you too if you want to go somewhere that makes you happier maybe it's cheaper or maybe you just want to be close to family then I would say freelance but some studios will allow you to work off-site as a full-time however here's my personal advice to you I would say start as a full-time artist because you get to work in a studio you know how the student works you understand the politics and you build relationships spend a few years in that industry building your career maybe you get promoted you start becoming a lead in different projects you spend a bit of time building your career and maybe you're at a point in your life where you have to make a big decision either you just want to maintain your full-time job or you want to venture outside and if you do decide to venture outside or be a freelance artist well you now already have the street cred you have the experience your experiences as a full-time looks really good on your resume people are more likely to seek you out because you've been more involved in major productions so you have more flexibility and accessibility to opportunities for you maybe you want to leave the studio because you want to start a personal project maybe to find that project you accept freelance gigs because you have that reputation from your full-time gig so my advice and newcomers spend time as a full-time artist build your career and if you decide to leave you already have your full-time experience to back you up and to open new opportunities and doors for you however if being a full-time artist is no option for you and you have to be a freelance except a bunch of freelance but work a ton more on your personal projects freelance to gain experience with working with different teams or clients and personal projects to build your own voice and open opportunities for yourself I released a video on the benefits on making personal projects a week ago please check it out if that interests you anyways that was my talking full-time and freelance artist I hope you choose what makes you happy in your lifestyle thanks so much for hearing me out interested in learning hand-drawn animation or learning how to finish an animated shot from beginning to end have a look at the store where you'll find the complete introduction to 2d animation video course tutorials and other resources learn classical animation approaches drawing lectures techniques and other process videos visit the store through the link in the description below

Channel: Toniko Pantoja

Views: 41,841

Keywords: Toniko Pantoja, Youtube, Animation, Tutorial, Advice, Lesson, Vlog, Adobe, Photoshop, Animate, Flash, After Effetcts, Premiere, Video, Film, freelance, fulltime

Id: 18gwx8j_fHc

Length: 13min 54sec (834 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 30 2019