If you keep creating things and putting them out there, while constantly applying to studios, you will eventually get noticed, and hired.

There's always enough time to work on your reel, especially in the first year of your animation career. When you add stuff to your reel, make sure you follow our Demo Reel Guidelines so you don't waste your time.

Continued animating for my reel. And that's what I did everyday until I got my first freelance work . And then after work kept working on more shots so I'll be ready for the time the freelance project was over.

You know what I did the day after graduation?

Having a BFA in animation or a diploma from an online school will definitely help, but it won't guarantee a job after graduation.

Since I don't know you personally, I'll give you the best advice I think would benefit most people: The best way to get noticed is to create things .

Over the years I have made many demo reels for myself, and watched dozens of other people’s reels. Before you start sending your reel to a bunch of studios, I beg of you, read our demo-reel guide . I have collected a ton of information about how to create an effective animation demo reel that actually gets you hired. Don't skip it.

For many professions, having a good resume or cover letter is the most important factor in getting a job. For animators and visual effects people it’s all about the demo reel.

So how do you take the next step? What if you want to make animation your career?

Career paths for animators

Film / TV

The most obvious career path (though not the easiest) is working on movies and TV shows (Disney, Pixar, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network etc.)

Even though the most common perception of what an 'animator' does is animating characters like Wall-E or the dog in Up, a lot of animation work in this industry happens in VFX and mechanical animation in live-action films as well. Almost every effect-heavy live-action film you see uses animators to some degree.

Most of the work in the film and TV happens in California, and getting into the major studios might take years of applying before getting in the door.

Commercials

Working in commercials takes a different set of skills than film and TV. Though you might still be animating characters, the timeline of production is much quicker, and you would be expected to do more different tasks rather than specialize.

Also, =commercial work will often be motion-graphics rather than character animation. That means knowing After Effects and/or Cinema4D is more relevant if that's your path.

Animating on commercials might not be what you went to become and animator for, but it can still be a lot of fun, and there is much more work to be had, and locations are almost a non-issue, since most major cities have production companies producing commercial work to some degree.

Pre-visualization (Previz)

A less known field for animators is previz work. Previz animators create a pre-visualization of the piece (commercial, movie, etc...) by animating temporary figures in a mock environment to allow the director get a sense of their shots and composition.

You'll be surprised how many studios and production houses use previs, and some companies are dedicated to only create previs for different productions.

With the massive growth of the use of previz in both commercial, TV and film, previz animators can get work in a multitude of fields and locations, though as an aspiring animator you might not get to do your best work (since animation has to be done quickly and quality isn't much of a factor) and your work will not actually be seen by an audience.

Video Games

The video game industry is massive and there is a lot of work for animators in it. The work itself varies greatly from motion capture to full character-animation, to creating animation cycles that loop throughout the game.

If you've even played a Blizzard game, or watched some of the cinematic pieces from Final Fantasy games, you know that video games produced some of the greatest pieces of animation, and pushed the technology just as much as films did. Working in this industry could be a lot of fun, and it employs animators in both 3D and 2D and offers a great variety of work.

Motion Graphics

I've mentioned motion graphics when I wrote about working on commercials, but motion graphics artists work on a much wider verity of projects. From explainer videos to event projections to software UI demonstrations.

Motion graphics life is often the life or a freelancer, jumping from one project to the next, using mostly After Effects (sometimes in combination with Cinema4D)

Independent

A new rising type of animator is the independent animator. They mostly use YouTube as their main platform and make their living through ads, sponsorships and merchandise, and ore and more of these animators surface all the time.

Other animation filmmakers can use crowdfunding to fund their movies, or get studios to fund their films on an indie budget.

Director

Unlike most jobs, there’s no clear path to becoming a director.

Going to film school does not guarantee a directing job after, and there’s rarely a job opening under “Director” online. Some people get there at 21, and some spend their whole life trying and never make it.

The same goes for being an animation director. Some start out as animators, some story artists (storyboarding) and some transition from live action, never having animated a day in their life.

How does, then, one becomes an animation director?

Animation directors like Andrew Stanton, Richard Williams and John Lasseter were animators before they became directors, and it’s probably the more common way to go about it, since animators are very involved in the storytelling aspect of the film.

So the path would be:

Get hired at a big studio like Disney. Moving up the ranks until you become a director.

But, of course, it's not that simple.

First, you will be working as a junior animator for many years, and it will probably take you almost a decade to get to a place where someone would even consider making you a director. And even then, the chances are close to zero.

To me, the path of working as one of hundreds other animators for 10 years, just for the chance of maybe being noticed, doesn't seem like a very safe path.

What I did instead, was create a little cube and a little ball, and made my own film. And then I made another one. And I’ll probably keep going.

So guess what? I became a director. Nobody officially gave me the director’s license, I just made movies. And that’s the only certain thing I can tell you about how to become a director – start making movies.

Ok so I need to make my own films, now what?

If you’re going to chose the director’s path of making your own films, I suggest starting with short films. Making a feature film is a goal that might take a very long time to achieve, and is not a realistic goal for animation if you’re just starting out.

As for what your films should be about, I suggest keeping to super-simple characters/environments, and focusing on a good story.

When I started working on Lift Up, the story itself came from my limitations of not having good modeling skills. That’s why the film is about a cube and a ball. If you wanna read more about it in detail, read our complete guide for making an animated short. It’s free.

Focus on storytelling skills

The skills of being a good director are mostly about being a good storyteller, as well as understanding pacing, composition and acting. These are all skills that a good animator should have as well, so if you’re coming from animation it might be easier for you.

Focus on showing off these skills in your short, showing interesting compositions and cinematography. These are what people are looking for in a director. Not fancy renders or complex modeling – but good storytelling.

Remember – no one can make you a director. It has to come from you.