How to get a 2D animator job in 2023

How can I get a job in animation??

That age old question gets asked all the time and I’ll do my best to give you a concise 2D meets 2023 answer to it.?

1-Do you know cut-out animation?

Cut-out what?! If you aren’t familiar with this technique, it is a very common approach to digital 2D animation that is often used, especially in commercial tv animation. Styles can vary quite a bit, ranging all the from Peppa Pig to Rick and Morty without forgetting contemporary classics like Hilda and Kid Cosmic.

This technique consist of breaking a character down into as many layers as needed to then build a digital skeleton that will enable animators to move it into different poses instead of having to redraw it every frame.

Cut-out had a bad wrap for a long time mainly do to the cheap plastic look a lot of the early show using the technique had. Nowadays though, with the great shows I cited above (and many more) it is hard to argue that this technique is only used for the low tier projects out there.?

Most school are still in the infancy of teaching cut-out in their curriculum and yet it accounts for a LOT of the shows being produced at the moment. Official numbers are hard to come by, but I would go so far as to say that at least 2/3 of non-anime* shows use cut-out in part or in totality for their productions (*Japan being the second biggest producer of animation worldwide and is mainly using traditional 2D and 3D at the moment). ?

Many great 2D digitally animated projects are actually made with an hybrid technique that combines traditional animation (often to rough out the movement or design new angles/states for some layers or entire part of a character) and cut-out ( sometimes to animate full character from scratch, other times to facilitate the clean up process of the traditionally animated elements).

That brings us to the next part:

2-Do you know the ‘’right’’ software??

If you’re just starting out in 2D animation, you’ll see plenty of non professionals online raving about the merits of softwares like Clip Paint studio, Krita, Photoshop or even ProCreate when in reality none of them are used in production.?

Sure you can use the latest drawing app that added a couple animation tool to introduce yourself to rough out some movement, but it won’t serve you when it comes down to finding work. Studios mostly use all the same technology to produces 2D animation, it’s either gonna be:?

-Toon Boom Harmony

-Adobe Flash or Animate?

-Adobe After Effects

-Tv Paint

-CelAction2D

-RETAS Studio

-OpenToonz

-Blender

-Moho

-Spline

And just to give you an order of magnitude: the first 4 ones probably account for more than 80% of all western (if not worldwide) productions.

Of course the industry is in constant evolution. 15 years ago, Toon Boom Harmony wasn’t that big and Flash was everywhere. Today the digital landscape is much different and I’m sure it will keep evolving overtime (open source options like Blender and OpenToonz might even explode at some point). But at the moment, if you want to find work in the industry you have to know the ‘’right’’ software for the position you want to get.?

But what is the right software??

Depending on where you’re living and where you’re applying this might defer quite a bit, but it’s key that you learn early what the ecosystem you’re gonna be evolving in look like.?

If you’re aiming at animating on short film in Europe, it might be traditional animation on paper or in TvPaint.

If you’re aiming at animating on Rick And Morty Season 7, it might be cut-out animation in Toon Boom.?

There’s not one answer to this but you have to be knowledgeable of your interests, the options available to you in your area (or the area you think you’d like to move to) AND the methods of fabrication used in both.?

Do a bit of digging, ask around, analyse exerts, etc. The more you know, the better you can prepare for the future.?

3-Do you know where the jobs are?

And so in closing it all comes down to understand the game to play it as well as you possibly can.?

If you are prepared to do the job, wether it’s cut-out or traditional and you know the software the studios you’re tracking to snake charm are using it is just a matter of packaging a good demo reel and sending it to them.?

But let’s say you’re a bit earlier in your search, scouting for studios in your city might be a good starting point. If there isn’t much, start to explore remote options and if that doesn’t work so well either maybe you can start to explore bigger cities around you that would be better places to foster your animated journey.?

Again there’s so many ways to approach a career in animation and the landscape is in constant flux but I hope these couple pointers can be of help.?

If you have any question be sure to drop me a line and I wish you the best in your job search.

Godspeed,

Hubert