How to know if you're good enough for the Animation Industry

i get a lot of people asking me questions about whether they're good enough or if they're good enough for the animation industry this one's always a tricky question to answer because there's so many different styles and types of animation as well as different skills needed for a production in this video i'll try my best to talk about how to find out if you're good enough for the animation industry from my general [Music] perspective [Music] first off a word from our sponsors because this is a youtube channel after all and it happens the ridge wallet it's small sleek industrial the biggest thing about the ridge wall is that it isn't awkward look here's my previous wallet bulgy crowded and awkward holds cards cash and receipts amongst other things now here's my ridge wallet small compact minimalistic when you see someone whip out a wallet like this they've got their life organized and an overall winner even if it isn't true it's all about presentation and the ridge wall gets that don't 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made with rfid blocking technology that protects you from digital pickpocketers take that cyberpunk douchebags so if you're interested in getting a ridge wallet get 10 off today by using the code taniko ridge link in the description below it's so small that you wouldn't even realize that it wasn't there at all back to the video hey guys this is niko pinto and today i'd like to talk about how you can determine if you're good enough or skilled enough for the animation industry now i'm only talking about my experiences with mostly in la or the california hollywood industry of animation so i really can't talk about other things such as what it's like to be in the animation community in france in europe in japan in russia etc these are just based off from my experiences alone and there are so many points that i do want to get across but the first point i want to make is more of a question to you guys the question i want to ask you guys is what kind of animation projects would you like to get involved at the most i think if you're just asking the questions such as how do i know if i'm good enough for the industry it's just too general and i think this answer will be heavily influenced by the type of projects or a specific type of project that you'd like to get into personally like film and video games there's just so many different types of genres age groups and styles in the world of animation and its productions so would you like to work for tv shows that's for early childhood ages seven to twelve do you like sitcom style shows do you like action adventure do you like raunchy humor while most of these jobs will definitely require you to have a basic understanding of let's say design storyboard or animation they all ask for specific different skill sets that might be required for the job so let's say we take someone who boards really well action scenes has worked for studio mir legend of course stuff do you think that person would suit really well in a show like spongebob squarepants well that person might nail the drawing aspect of that show the tone the humor and the style of the storytelling is a completely different game so if that artist doesn't have that naturally they might actually suffer throughout the production one thing people tend to forget about animation is that it's kind of like casting in tv shows or live action film you may be technically accomplished you may have the best skills for it your drawing and staging and design sensibilities are just sublime but you might just not be the right fit for a certain production so if you're developing a portfolio for work for example you might want to start thinking about a studio you have in mind you want to work for or a certain production and cater that portfolio for that studio that way it's easier for recruiters to know exactly who you are and what type of work you want to get into when it comes to portfolio making there's a lot of different debates and discussions talking about what makes a good portfolio some people like to show variety in different styles some people like to just focus on a single aesthetic all i can say is that make that portfolio best represent you so if you feel like you want to do a generalist portfolio where you kind of just show everything understand that's the type of vibe that you're giving otherwise i just say just understand and figure out what kind of animation production set you'd like to get into and that will kind of determine how your portfolio for work will look like however this is not to say that you have to be close-minded and disregard any other form that isn't your strength i would just tell you to keep working and improving on your general foundations if you feel like you want to work on other productions that's outside your comfort zone then i would start improving on the skills needed for those type of productions so i can be seen as someone who can do the work for that certain production when needed even if it isn't my main priority in the type of work or genre i want to do so if you're really tight on options at least you have the enough skill set to actually do some work another way to determine if you're good enough for the industry or you know what more specifically good enough for a certain animation production is to do tests for a show usually a studio will release a call out asking for people to partake in a test for storyboarding design or whatever it is for potential hires for a certain production so just like that statement i made about casting tests are like auditioning for a show or a play in real life but for artists and animation we have tests so an animation test usually looks like they give you a prompt as well as reference material from the production so for storyboarding for example they give you a few pages of the script or maybe one page they'll give you a model sheet with the character designs and some layout drawings for the backgrounds they'll probably offer some style guides so how to draw a character or how not to draw a character they'll give prompts or headers or advices so for storyboarding for example they'll say things like milk the gags milk the acting make it cinematic as hell or make it funny sometimes they'll send you material of what exactly they're looking for so for storyboarding again for example they'll send sample storyboards from the production this doesn't happen all the time however one thing i'd like to add is that nailing the overall look the drawing sensibilities and all that to me as a 2d animator i find that quite easy since i do have to always work in different drawing styles however some tests are likely to add other supplemental stuff so one production i was doing a test for had these mini games where they'd ask you how would this character's bedroom look like what will this character's iphone look like or design a scary monster that might appear in an episode while a lot of these things might come off as uncommon this is also another way of showrunners or recruiters to find out if you're the right fit for a production and to see if some of the tone the gag the humor and the overall aesthetic and execution just comes off natural to you however just understand this most of the tests will just ask you to see if you can match the overall style tone and the drawing sensibilities of an animation production however i'd like to repeat myself here it's just to see if you're good enough for the certain production it doesn't really necessarily mean a reflection of your skill set well yes having the skills is crucial and can easily determine whether you get the job or not there are a lot of great artists who have tested out for shows that didn't pick them up there can be many reasons behind this but the overall saying is that they just weren't the right fit for the show so that's kind of why it's tricky to determine if you're good enough for the overall industry just for this one test for a certain production since many tests i have done in the past required me to adapt to different styles and sensibilities or that they already had someone else in mind the length of these tests usually change some studios asks for a week turnover to see how you can deliver a certain task within a certain time period or some tests do not have a time limit at all and they're much more flexible and remember it's kind of like auditioning the third point i want to make is to compare your work to those currently in the industry and this is probably the most common and popular advice that i hear time to time compare yourself to artists that work in the industry that you want to get into or artists that you kind of want to strive to be i do have some thoughts about this advice but i'll talk about the good things first so first off the good things about this advice is that you have something to have reference with to see if your skills match or don't match a certain production just by looking at someone else's work if you feel that you can match the standard of their work then you might be good enough if you feel that your skills are far below then you might need to spend more time reworking your foundations and your overall skills so keep practicing improve your skills one of my favorite ways to improve is just to work on personal projects since i get to deal with so many different factors instead of just one single skill set and it encourages me to think more creatively the only problem i have with this advice is that the skill set and the amount of work or the standard of work tends to fluctuate for these professional artists some of these artists are really really bad and i'm gonna say that out now there are some bad artists that work in the industry that are just terrible at drawing their drawings are so unappealing yet there's something that they're delivering that allows them to stay at work so there may be some people or some students out there who look at this work and think oh if i'm just above this person right here then i'm definitely going to be hired at places and if they don't get any work they just be bitter about it the other problem is seeing someone who is ridiculously talented seeing someone who just does way above and beyond in their work the type of work that only comes once in a lifetime or that it's really unstable to maintain and there will be people who will see these works and think that this is the golden standard or this is a standard just to get work in the industry and it can be completely off-putting because of how unrealistic the expectations are while i do encourage for people to always shoot for higher than they usually do i think it's also about knowing your priorities in your work and it'll show and recruiters will see that so for example you want to get into storyboarding for uh production right would you emphasize more on the strong poses and the storytelling or would you just focus more on the flashy action neither of those are wrong answers it's really about knowing who you are and what you can deliver to the table so my advice for this point is to look at many different artists in the field and that's where you'll discover a comment or certain trait that most of these artists that you're looking at have find out the quota the timeline and what's expected for the job get a general idea of the quota or the amount of work required to do for a certain job so for storyboarding for example it usually takes two to three weeks of the first pass boarding then you pitch it to your showrunners and your directors and the producers and then you do another week or two of cleanup well i think it's like two to three weeks it really depends on the show and that's for you to find out another thing that you might want to consider is finding out what software they use some productions may require you to use photoshop or some productions might require to use the toon boom package while i'm a firm believer that software doesn't best reflect who you are as an artist and your skill it does matter for the general pipeline of a production such as how the files are distributed how the files are used in the formats needed for you know all these sorts of things some of you guys might be thinking wait i don't have the money or i can't afford these licenses to be able to use or just to learn these software so i'm doomed from the start how do i even learn the skill set for this job if you've used one software for animation or painting it's easy to transfer those skill sets into new software because for me software is really all about knowing what buttons to press and just how to use those tools in general the truth is that most people in the industry only use like about what 20 or less of what a software can offer and there are many times where people already in the industry are still asking questions on how to do certain basic things within a software if you just wanted to learn the basics of the software get a trial version of it watch some tutorials of it understand what buttons do what buttons don't but other than that you're really utilizing your own skill set for the software so recruiters and studios still look at who you are as an artist and what kind of work you can deliver aside from software to be honest i took a gig where i straight up did not know how to use toon boom storyboard but i said i did and over the week i watched some tutorials i asked friends for help and i learned the program not all of it but i learned the basics of what the program can do and what's necessary for work so the bit of transferring from one software to another software it really isn't all that hard it's just getting used to different habits but aside from that get a general knowledge of what the job is asking you to do whether it's a cartoony style or realistic style whether the storyboarding has a lot of animated poses or not just understand what they're looking for for the line of work and if you can do that great this can be tricky because some people will get it and some people won't which is getting feedback from people within the industry now most people i personally know in the industry don't really have the time to look at everyone's portfolios or every email that gets sent to them asking for them to look at a student's portfolio and there are some who are generous for that and will just give their feedback without any form of compensation you also have to understand that most of these professional artists probably get a lot of emails from the same type of people or they're just really busy with their line of work either way they'll probably never respond even i never get response from my co-workers and my acquaintances but let's say they do all right then this is great because you have someone from the industry who was willing to give their feedback who understands their field right now and the field that they're in to give an answer that best caters to you they can tell you exactly what your strengths are what you need to work on and how you can get there lately there have been online events where volunteer professional artists look at a collection of portfolios from volunteers and give a live on critique session and this is why it's also a good idea to keep track of an artist's social media so if they have a critique session going on or they're doing something for charity and they're willing to look at portfolios for a small price it could be good to take advantage for that sometimes these artists will just do it for free but it's not always common that people respond i mean i get a ton of emails asking about what software i use and i've posted that many times in the descriptions in my youtube channel and on my website or they're asking the same questions that i've answered again and again so i get both sides that it does suck being the person to send stuff and never hearing back or being the person who has to deal with the same type of email again and again but if you find a person that's willing to work with you then that's amazing anyways i just want to wrap this video up by just saying just focus on your own growth right now and don't worry too much about knowing if you're good enough or if you aren't good enough for the industry because there are professionals who've reached the point where they have the work and the skill set to at least get the work they get the job and they don't really grow from there they just stay at their comfort zone and that really sucks to see so all i ask of you is just to keep growing and to really invest in your own personal work too because that personal project may end up being your career and you might not have to refer or rely on a studio for work if you want to get better at certain things like filmmaking study films if you want to get better at animation study those pencil tests and see how those animators figured out acting this field is a lifetime of just endless studying and learning so when you do get an offer from a job don't assume that you're just good enough for the industry or good in general just understand that they see you as a person that can do the work that they're looking for anyways um thanks for watching this video i guess bye 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: 45,417

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

Id: hs6PUO7KrQ0

Length: 16min 59sec (1019 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 21 2020