Hey ㅐㅐㅐ,

no problem: I don’t mind answering questions at all. Its a nice diversion from all the cataloging homework !

I haven’t seen Makoto Shinkai’s work, but I will check it out: I’m always interested in new animation from the East. I find its completely different from the stuff produced in North America.I also miss the golden days of animation: I worked at Nelvana for most of the 1990’s and up to 2002 and it was a lot of fun. I think things are a bit different now though: I’m not sure if its just Vancouver, or all of North America.

Before I answer your questions, I just want to warn you that you may find some of the answers a bit depressing. The North American animation industry is not what it used to be, even in 3-D.

 

1. Job security doesn’t exist: in Vancouver anyway. Even directors are hired on a contract basis. If there is the work and you are well-liked (I emphasize like rather than skilled!) you will usually be rehired, but there will usually be a gap of at least a couple of months, and things in Vancouver seem so disorganised, that you never know until the last minute. Or even after: I’ve been called back to work and worked for up to 2 months before a contract was even given to me – which is pretty bad.

At the moment, there is a lot of work, so much that people without any skill are being hired out of parties! But that tends to go up and down quite sharply from year to year. The past couple of years have been a boom, but the year before that I was between contracts for 7 months. You just never know.

If you are a digital compositor with knowledge of both live action and animation, you will probably be able to get work on a pretty constant basis. If you are a well-liked, skilled, fast, easy to work with storyboard artist you will be in good demand. There aren’t a lot of producers: when I worked at Bardel, they had 1 poor producer covering 5 shows at a time. Everything seems to either be Flash animation or Toonboom – Harmony, with AfterFX for compositing. 2. Most studios in Canada only do client work. They either just do part (like ink/paint/comp or flash animation) or all of it, but its very rare to have a show that is completely studio funded. The last one I worked on was Class of the Titans for Studio B a couple of years ago. Bardel is growing, and hope to do that at some point, but they’re not there yet. I’m not sure about 3-D: Mainframe might still, but I heard they were shrinking. Gaming companies (EA) do, but I haven’t had direct experience with that.I miss the days of Nelvana when they did everything from script to screen 🙁

3. Feature Animation in Canada is dead, not that its had much going on ever. The States still seem to release a couple of 3-D movies a year, and I know everyone was really impressed with Ratatouille. But yeah, 2-D movies in North America seem to not be happening right now. 4. I know there used to be, but when I came to Vancouver 5 years ago I was told that the NFBC had switched all their funding to live action independent film making. To be honest, that’s the last I’ve heard of it. You should try this site: http://www.film.bc.ca/resources/resources.htm .

5. I don’t mind answering this. I’d been in the animation industry for about 15 years, and it was great at first when I was working for Nelvana. But now its all contract, which is ok for young people, but I want some job security and benefits (Nelvana in 2002 was the last place I had benefits). I’m also finding that its too much of the ‘cheaper, faster!’ attitude lately. And in Vancouver there seems to be an unwritten rule that if you want to be hired for the next contract, you will do unpaid overtime.

 I did really enjoy being a colour stylist and compositor, but after 17 years, I also wanted to try a different career.

 

So that’s my experience; I’m sure other people will have different viewpoints. I really don’t know that much about the 3-D side of it either, so that could be a lot better (certainly better paid!). I should also add that good IT guys are always in demand: the studios here in Vancouver never seem to have enough people doing IT.

 

And if I haven’t totally put you off, the best studios to try are: 

– Studio B (usually has at least 4 Flash shows on the go, and does some layout/bg painting etc in-house – not sure about storyboarding)

– Bardel Entertainment (doesn’t pay as well as Studio B but is growing: does Harmony, Flash and 3-D.)

– Mainframe (3-D) (used to be biggest 3-D in Canada, but I hear they had to shrink a bit)

– Electronic Arts (EA) (3-D) (mostly do sports console games)

– Atomic Cartoons (smaller 2-D, flash studio)

– Radical entertainment

– Relic entertainment

– you could also try Mercury filmworks, but I hear they’re not doing so well, and they pay the least out of everywhere. they do some Flash and mostly Harmony. They’re also the only one that only pays by the foot (some of my friends ended up getting $10 a week at one point!). Bardel and Studio B have freelancers paid by the foot, but in-house people usually get a monthly wage.

Also, this site is sometimes a good place to pick up freelance work from home:

 

Anyway, don’t let me put you off it: some people still really love working in animation, and there are still opportunities. It just seems a lot more cutthroat than when I started in 1991. But again, that could just be because I am older and want different things. When I was young, six months off was an excuse to go travelling! Now, unfortunately it means not being able to keep up with the credit card bill!

Wow, this has gotten a bit long! Sorry, its hard not to go on when I get started talking about animation.

 

Good luck in whatever you decide to do,