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If you want an actual answer, you don't do it by yourself. I counted 50+ people credited. But if you want to start to play a part in doing it, basically just le

If you want an actual answer, you don't do it by yourself. I counted 50+ people credited. But if you want to start to play a part in doing it, basically just learn a lot of math. My gf is a technical director at a large animation studio and she got in by being an expert in linear algebra and spending a ton of time studying animation textbooks/tutorials/etc. That said, the market is evaporating. Almost everything has moved ~to India~ [e: abroad] and there are barely any jobs left in USA, and those that do exist are being fought for by the many folks who have been recently laid off stateside. Sounds familiar...

JBits 3y ago
As someone who's keen on linear algebra but knows little about animation, how did linear algebra help her?
- dumbo-octopus 3y ago
  Helpful when writing shaders to describe surfaces and lighting, as well as working on the constraint optimization engines that go into physical body simulations.
- dagmx 3y ago
  Computer graphics is based on linear algebra. Behind the artists are lots of engineers and technical director jobs where you're building software tools, render engines or character rigs. Animation is a lovely meld of art and technology, and has been so since the very first animations existed. Its one of the reasons I really enjoy the field.
  - JBits 3y ago
    The application of linear algebra to rendering I can understand. Character animation less so, apart from the physics aspect. Sounds like a nice field to work in! I didn't realise it used maths to that extent. Would you have any recommendations for someone of a linear algebra / programming background if they were interested in this field?
    - truckerbill 3y ago
      You'll need a demo reel.
      - dagmx 3y ago
        Not for an engineering role.
    - dagmx 3y ago
      So one caveat I would mention is that you will likely earn more outside of the animation industry with those skills than within it. With that out of the way, I think there are several avenues to get involved. Picking up a graphics engineering book, or learning OpenGL/Metal/DirectX will make you valuable as a realtime engineer. But otherwise I would recommend finding an open source project and contributing to it as a way to build up the repertoire that you can use to apply for jobs with. Blender is an excellent place to start, but so are any of the projects under the academy software foundation at https://www.aswf.io https://www.aswf.io Getting more into the character animation side, you can look into Rigging, which is the process of setting up the armatures that move the characters. There are also things like simulation for cloth/hair etc... Blender is a good place for a lot of them.
      - truckerbill 3y ago
        What might be a better paying area with that background? Interesting that you say that technical art roles don’t need a reel always assumed otherwise.
        dagmx 3y ago
        Anything in tech would pay significantly better with the same skills. Graphics engineers are in high demand at many major tech companies like Meta, Apple, Google. But film/games will still pay well. Just not as well. As for needing a role, well it depends. Tech art is a very wide role with very little definition. But also those skills apply to engineering instead of tech art as well. Engineers don’t need reels. Tech artists would if they’re more on the art side (shaders, characters) but less so on the tools side.
dagmx 3y ago
Your comment about the market is incredibly wrong and jingoistic. The majority of popular feature and TV animation is made outside of India. Canada is a larger competitor to the US market than anything else, and very few companies have Indian outsourcing for feature/TV animation. Its more prevalent for VFX jobs, but even then many studios still have a large presence in North America/Europe. Studios like wild brain, titmouse etc are all North American based, while most feature animation is a mix of North America (Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney, Sony) and Europe (Illumination, Skydance)
- dumbo-octopus 3y ago
  I am sharing the lived experience of a person I am very familiar with. Do you have specific industry experience to back up your claims? If you know a place actively hiring technically minded animators, verily I say we would love to hear about it. I know for a fact that several of the studios you list as "North American" have recently laid off almost all their animation staff in favor of Indian vendor studios. Not feature, perhaps. But TV people do work too. Or did, rather.
  - dagmx 3y ago
    Yes I’ve been a supervisor in both feature film and vfx at major studios, as has my partner who currently still works in the industry. I maintain close ties with several major studios and am still a well known entity in the industry. I feel like I can speak with quite a reasonable level of confidence in this space You made two claims, that the jobs have been laid off (correct) and moved to India (incorrect). The layoffs are parts of market changes due to the strikes and production cuts before then. The implication that it was caused and will lead to outsourcing is not borne in reality for feature/tv animation. But yes several studios are hiring still. The job fair at the recent Spark conference in Vancouver had several studios open. Feature and Tv animation hasn’t seen the slowdown that other areas of the market have and will bounce back faster.
    - dumbo-octopus 3y ago
      It is most certainly incorrect to claim that the jobs have not (at least in part) moved to India. It is also incorrect to claim that laid off workers are not being replaced with foreign vendor studios, largely in India. This is a 100% verifiable fact for at least one of the "North American" studios you mentioned. It would appear you have taken your own experience, which I'm sure is vast, and made the mistake of assuming it applies to every studio. I can tell you that it does not. I can also tell you that the job market is quite dry indeed, and that studios that were attempting to headhunt just months ago will now no longer even reply to applications.
gamblor956 3y ago
Almost everything has moved ~to India~ [e: abroad] and there are barely any jobs left in USA, and those that do exist are being fought for by the many folks who have been recently laid off stateside. This is simply wrong, and if anything the reverse is true: the jobs that had been outsourced to India are being brought back to the U.S. after several years of subpar work. See, for example, the most recent Marvel movies and TV shows. The abysmal VFX work was the product of outsourced VFX shops. You can bet your rear that Disney won't be repeating that mistake in the future.

JBits 3y ago

As someone who's keen on linear algebra but knows little about animation, how did linear algebra help her?

dumbo-octopus 3y ago
Helpful when writing shaders to describe surfaces and lighting, as well as working on the constraint optimization engines that go into physical body simulations.
dagmx 3y ago
Computer graphics is based on linear algebra. Behind the artists are lots of engineers and technical director jobs where you're building software tools, render engines or character rigs. Animation is a lovely meld of art and technology, and has been so since the very first animations existed. Its one of the reasons I really enjoy the field.
- JBits 3y ago
  The application of linear algebra to rendering I can understand. Character animation less so, apart from the physics aspect. Sounds like a nice field to work in! I didn't realise it used maths to that extent. Would you have any recommendations for someone of a linear algebra / programming background if they were interested in this field?
  - truckerbill 3y ago
    You'll need a demo reel.
    - dagmx 3y ago
      Not for an engineering role.
  - dagmx 3y ago
    So one caveat I would mention is that you will likely earn more outside of the animation industry with those skills than within it. With that out of the way, I think there are several avenues to get involved. Picking up a graphics engineering book, or learning OpenGL/Metal/DirectX will make you valuable as a realtime engineer. But otherwise I would recommend finding an open source project and contributing to it as a way to build up the repertoire that you can use to apply for jobs with. Blender is an excellent place to start, but so are any of the projects under the academy software foundation at https://www.aswf.io https://www.aswf.io Getting more into the character animation side, you can look into Rigging, which is the process of setting up the armatures that move the characters. There are also things like simulation for cloth/hair etc... Blender is a good place for a lot of them.
    - truckerbill 3y ago
      What might be a better paying area with that background? Interesting that you say that technical art roles don’t need a reel always assumed otherwise.
      - dagmx 3y ago
        Anything in tech would pay significantly better with the same skills. Graphics engineers are in high demand at many major tech companies like Meta, Apple, Google. But film/games will still pay well. Just not as well. As for needing a role, well it depends. Tech art is a very wide role with very little definition. But also those skills apply to engineering instead of tech art as well. Engineers don’t need reels. Tech artists would if they’re more on the art side (shaders, characters) but less so on the tools side.

dagmx 3y ago

Your comment about the market is incredibly wrong and jingoistic. The majority of popular feature and TV animation is made outside of India. Canada is a larger competitor to the US market than anything else, and very few companies have Indian outsourcing for feature/TV animation. Its more prevalent for VFX jobs, but even then many studios still have a large presence in North America/Europe. Studios like wild brain, titmouse etc are all North American based, while most feature animation is a mix of North America (Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney, Sony) and Europe (Illumination, Skydance)

dumbo-octopus 3y ago
I am sharing the lived experience of a person I am very familiar with. Do you have specific industry experience to back up your claims? If you know a place actively hiring technically minded animators, verily I say we would love to hear about it. I know for a fact that several of the studios you list as "North American" have recently laid off almost all their animation staff in favor of Indian vendor studios. Not feature, perhaps. But TV people do work too. Or did, rather.
- dagmx 3y ago
  Yes I’ve been a supervisor in both feature film and vfx at major studios, as has my partner who currently still works in the industry. I maintain close ties with several major studios and am still a well known entity in the industry. I feel like I can speak with quite a reasonable level of confidence in this space You made two claims, that the jobs have been laid off (correct) and moved to India (incorrect). The layoffs are parts of market changes due to the strikes and production cuts before then. The implication that it was caused and will lead to outsourcing is not borne in reality for feature/tv animation. But yes several studios are hiring still. The job fair at the recent Spark conference in Vancouver had several studios open. Feature and Tv animation hasn’t seen the slowdown that other areas of the market have and will bounce back faster.
  - dumbo-octopus 3y ago
    It is most certainly incorrect to claim that the jobs have not (at least in part) moved to India. It is also incorrect to claim that laid off workers are not being replaced with foreign vendor studios, largely in India. This is a 100% verifiable fact for at least one of the "North American" studios you mentioned. It would appear you have taken your own experience, which I'm sure is vast, and made the mistake of assuming it applies to every studio. I can tell you that it does not. I can also tell you that the job market is quite dry indeed, and that studios that were attempting to headhunt just months ago will now no longer even reply to applications.

gamblor956 3y ago

Almost everything has moved ~to India~ [e: abroad] and there are barely any jobs left in USA, and those that do exist are being fought for by the many folks who have been recently laid off stateside. This is simply wrong, and if anything the reverse is true: the jobs that had been outsourced to India are being brought back to the U.S. after several years of subpar work. See, for example, the most recent Marvel movies and TV shows. The abysmal VFX work was the product of outsourced VFX shops. You can bet your rear that Disney won't be repeating that mistake in the future.