Career Skills for Artists Archives - Page 4 of 6

How to Stay Focused on Big Projects

When working on your own, on personal projects, it’s sometimes hard to keep a steady progress through the ups and downs of the creative process. Finding energy and inspiration to work is one thing, but how does one keep working on …

Getting Inspired to Animate (Pros Don’t Wait for Inspiration)

“How do you get inspired to animate?” is a question I hear a lot. I often wonder about that question. What does it mean? Have you ever heard someone asking an accountant “How do you get inspired to do taxes?” Probably not. Then …

Making Your Animation Reel Stand out – A Detailed Guide

This is a guest contribution by Rusty Gray. When you drool over someone’s AMAZING demo reel – what are your first thoughts? “Man! How could I ever make a reel that good…” “I wish I had animations that everyone was blown …

Freelancing vs. Full Time as an Animator

In this post I will go over what’s it like being a freelancer in the animation industry, as well as the main differences and benefits of freelancing vs. full time employment. How freelancing works as an animator Holds Freelancing can work in …

Making Money from Animated Shorts

Making money. A topic that is rarely discussed on this blog, and one that artists tend to stay away from, fearing ideas like “Selling out” or “compromising your art”. However, I believe this is an important issue to talk about, especially …

What I Did After Graduation (and How I Picked Myself)

Upon graduation there were a few things I wanted: I wanted to be hired by Pixar. I wanted to win awards. I wanted to get hired as a director. I wanted to make movies. I wanted a lot of things that required …

5 Reasons You Won’t Be an Animator

This is a guest contribution by Rusty Gray. It’s 2015 and You Won’t be an Animator Another year is coming to a close. You’ve spent your life fascinated by movies (Jurassic Park, Toy Story, Lion King). You’ve captivated yourself for hours …

What Ratatouille and Monsters University Taught Me About Being an Artist

This is a guest post by Dean Movshovitz, the author of our new book Pixar Storytelling. One of the joys of writing Pixar Storytelling was simply re-watching all of Pixar’s magnificent films. And while all of Pixar’s films are very …

Why Most Animation Student Films Suck and how to Make Sure Yours Won’t

We’ve all been to student films screenings, let’s face it – most of them suck. That’s not exclusive to animation student films, the same goes for classic film students as well. A majority of them aren’t good. You can say that …