From Animation Student to Professional

Congratulations! You've worked hard learning the art of animation and you're now an animator and getting paid to create content. That's truly something to celebrate! For most students, the road to your first paid gig is a long tedious road with lots of small victories or "A Ha" moments followed by frustration and setbacks. Sound familiar.?

Now that you're here at your first job however, It's easy to fall into a mindset that says "The hard part is over, I've crossed the finish line" which can lead to laziness and bad habits once you're sitting at your new desk, with your new computer looking at your first production shot. This is an easy trap to fall into because you have gotten used to doing one thing, trying to learn the art form and now you're in this new spot doing a totally new thing based on your time as a student.

You should take a moment to enjoy this moment for sure, but now is also the time to look around and start your new path to learning how the studio environment works and how to stay relevant in your craft over the length of your career.

There are a lot of things to talk about in regards to the dynamics of a working studio and what you need to do to make an impact for your team and for the company in general but today I want to discuss what you should be doing to push yourself and your craft once you've made it into the industry, especially if the art form doesn't come easy for you as it doesn't for me. Animation is hard..

I tend to think of myself as a pretty good animator. I'm not amazing by any means, but I have learned a lot from the industry since my start back in 1996 that has served me well and kept me working. Here are some things I've learned that I hope are helpful.

Get to know your team and how to work best with them.

To be a successful animator you have to have a strong work ethic. You will spend most of your day at your desk working on your shot, problem solving and working in changes from notes given to you by your director, animation supervisor and/or co-workers. A well-oiled working team requires everyone’s involvement and does not work well when you have new animators that come in and are more interested in standing around talking to other animators. The best animation comes from teams that are committed and comfortable with hard work. The harder the work, the bigger the payoff. Don't be a fanboy, be a contributor to your team and embrace a good work ethic.

Plan well, block quickly, show early and show often.

When you're starting any shot, make sure you're aligned with what your director needs from you for your shot and make sure you understand your character/s and the quality bar that has been set by your supervisor or head of character animation.

Block out your ideas quickly and show your work often. There's noting worse than putting everything into your first pass and then being told to start over because you went down a path that didn't fit the directors needs or fit into the overall arch of a sequence. Keep your ideas simple and clear and block as little as is needed to communicate your idea clearly to the team. Once you get buy off on your idea you can spend the time to clean up the work and go heavily into your work flow.

Fail fast

This is something we take pride in at Bungie and fits in with show early and show often. Failure is part of growth and paramount to success. We just ask that people fail as fast as possible so we don't go into the weeds on content that will end up being changed later when reviewed or play tested. Remember, simple ideas and quick iterations so pivoting doesn't become a crisis for you.

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new" -Albert Einstein.

If you happen to find yourself working in a company that is ok with you failing as you create content that allows you to grow and contribute to the final product through iteration and collaboration, consider yourself very fortunate and don't take it for grated.

Communicate well with your team members and other teams you interact with.

If your job requires you to work with other teams or you find yourself in some kind of leadership role, you'll need to be able to communicate well with other people and be as transparent as possible. I have also found great fortune in asking for clarification on questions and answers when unsure of what I was supposed to be doing or learning. Some people will nod their heads as a sign they understand what is being told to them only to have to ask for clarity at a later time which causes delays or wake on other departments or team members.

To reiterate. Ask questions when you need further clarification and don't assume people you talk to know everything that is going on or understand your intent. In my current role at Bungie, we take great pride in asking lots of questions and re-visiting priorities daily to ensure that we are all working well together and not creating wake or blocking other team members from doing their job. Don't cause wake for other people or departments.

Organization / prioritization. If you have a position like mine, there's lots of spinning plates.

Depending on what work your studio does you may have a pretty linear work schedule and only have to worry about one piece of animation content at a time. You're the lucky ones, depending on how you look at it. At Bungie I have the pleasure of working on multiple pieces of content at a time over short to medium periods of time. We have an intensive iterative process that requires us to juggle multiple animations.

Because of this work flow, I have to be able to manage where I'm at with all of that content and be able to reference it at a moment’s notice when talking to other team members who may have questions about the work I'm doing. Don't forget, there are other teams that are doing work on top of your work. Teams like FX or lighting for example. If you have dependencies from other teams like design or audio, you'll want to be clear with your priorities so that you don't end up working on content that may block that designer. He / she may assume you are working on content that will help forward the concept and instead you're working on something that they aren't ready to move forward on.

The best tool I've found to date to stay on top of everything I have to do on a weekly basis is to maintain a chart in Excel. I review this spread sheet every morning when I get to my desk to see where I'm at with all of my tasks and what I need to do that day. I then sync with my lead and designer to make sure I'm working on relevant content so that I don't create blockers or wake for the team.

There's no room for procrastination in animation.

Similarly, to needing a strong work ethic, you have to beware of procrastination entering your day. Because other teams are relying on you getting your work to them, you really shouldn't put off tasks. That's not to say that you won't defer tasks from time to time because of priorities, this is just an opportunity to keep tasks managed on your spreadsheet or to-do list. If you do start to notice tasks piling up, take a moment and knock them out or talk to your team about re-organizing your priorities.

 It's important to take an active role in your job and help push the team forward. Getting bogged down in tasks you've put off can take a toll on your creativity and can affect your attitude towards your job and knowing that you're walking into work each day with an ever-growing list of avoided tasks.

Keep learning your craft. The 5-hour rule.

This is a big one. I think it's easy for us as animators to rest on our laurels. But in fact, we have to continue to work on our craft and improving because we never truly are finished learning our craft.

The 5 hour rule is a simple concept. Set aside one hour a day 5 days a week deliberately learning or practicing content that will benefit your job or empower you as a human being. This isn't to be confused with working hard but more about self improvement.

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest" -Ben Franklin.

One of the things that was shocking to me when I became a game animator was all of the philosophy around what we did as animators for game play. It wasn't just animating for the sake of entertainment. Most of the rules and principles that apply to feature film work apply to games but in a much different way. For the first time in my career I had to learn a different approach to what my job required as a game animator and I loved it.

In regards to your job as an animator, whether it be for games, feature films, commercials or children's shows, learn about best practices and what you are trying to communicate to your audience. Speaking of audience, learn who your audience is so that you know how to communicate your intent to that age group.

The best animators on the planet will tell you that they're still a student of their craft and are always hungry to learn more. Remember, it's a journey, not a destination.

Share your experience with others and help lift up your team. People matter.

Hopefully you'll land a job at a company that embraces the benefit of knowledge and what each member of the team can bring to the dynamic of a project and to better the company. A good team will have no ego and will share in what they have learned over the length of their career and how it might benefit others.

Each team member that I work with, be it a designer, an animator or UI engineer has experience in their careers that might bring a new and fresh perspective to your daily job. Sometimes a new way of looking at an old thing is just what you need to approach your job from a new angle. I call this "a creative kick to the head".

It's easy to think that because you now work in an environment that is new to you that you have nothing to bring to the table compared to these people around you who have been working in this industry longer than you. My manager would argue against that. He'd tell you as he did me, that you have experiences that other haven't had and you could teach people around you about your perspective and what you've learned. Even if it is just your experience of learning the craft well enough to get your first job. For example: What did you do in your learning that got you to where you are compared to the many others who struggle and haven't found their path yet.

Be humble

Be a team mate that people talk favorably about, not behind your back. Nobody likes a person with an ego, so don't be that person. Find your commonality with your team mates and share in the process. Above all, be present for every failure as a team and celebrate every victory as a team.

It doesn't matter where the ideas come from but get the best ideas into your work.

When it comes to the content that best suits the project, take the best ideas wherever they come from and make polished content that communicates the idea successfully. When I worked at Blue Sky Studios, we had a department culture that if anybody needed help with an idea, we'd get together in a room and look at the layout of the shot in question. Then everybody in the room had an opportunity to voice their idea. The best one won and the animator would go animate that idea if he / she wanted.

Collaboration should be fun. Embrace input and feedback from others.

This is my personal favorite. I love working with people to create cool stuff. I hate working in a vacuum and don't think I work best when left to my own devices. I seek out communication with my designers or team members whenever possible to talk through ideas and to get to the heart of what we are trying to do. I also love to hear their ideas and perspectives to see if I've overlooked something or am lacking something in the work.

I enjoy the victory of a successful piece of content made by the whole team. There's just something satisfying about seeing the work done and being able to celebrate with your team mates knowing that everyone put their blood sweat and tears into it fully.

Enjoy the result of all of your hard work, it's no small feat!

Animation is hard. Animating as a professional is just as hard. You worked hard to get here and that's no small feat so take time once in a while to reflect on your current situation and let that motivate you to grow in your craft and spread your enthusiasm and creativity to everyone around you. Your team and the company will benefit from your contribution and you'll stay relevant to the industry you love. Good luck and happy animating.