All language subtitles for 20 Introduction To Independent Animation Production

If you want to turn off the subtitles,
click [setting]-[tooltips]-[‘on’ for PC, ‘close’ for mobile]

Hello, everyone.

Havtza here.

And today we'll be talking about working in 2D animation industry,

some common roles in the commercial environment,

and the difference between working as part of a team

and in independent production.

So first, let's talk a little bit about the industry.

2D animation is present all around us

from the obvious movies and shows

to music videos, commercials, video games, infomercials, explanatory videos

to even logo design and interactive screen

this list goes on and on and on,

you have so many options.

After everything we've done in this course,

you've probably already realized

that animation is very time consuming to produce.

In today's standard,

each second of animation requires between 8 to 24 frames per second

depending on your frame rate.

So you'll potentially looking at 24 sketches,

clean up 24 times,

coloring and shading 24 times,

and adding lighting 24 times for each second of your project,

with each drawing needing to be perfect

with the amount of details, proportions

and poses to create an animation effect,

which is pretty intimidating and exhausting

and sometimes even impossible

depending on the size of your project.

So in a way,

there is a limit to the capabilities of one individual,

both in what they can physically make and their skill set

but this is exactly why the industry is so big and varied.

There is a space for everyone in this industry

from independent creators

who make everything themselves like what I do,

people who specialize in small projects

to small teams that take middle range projects

with their specific animation styles

or big productions that's made by collaborations

of small studios or major studios.

Every kind of production size has its own corresponding creators.

You can choose how you fit into the industry

in many ways and for many reasons.

The great thing about this industry is the amount of freedom and power

that you have as a creator in it.

So in today's lesson,

I'll be talking about the different tools

you will commonly find in the industry,

as well as the pros and cons of working

as either a freelancer or as part of a studio.

The 2D animation industry is a global industry,

and in today's digital age

and the use of digital software for production,

you no longer need to work in the same environment

to be part of a team, studio or project.

With the wide exposure animation gets,

clients are from all over the world

will look for the exact talent they want for their project,

and it's not unusual for people with many different origins to work together

in all level of production.

The way the industry works is very simple.

A client commissions a product,

it can be as small as a couple of seconds

or as big as a feature film or a show.

And the creators provide the product.

Apart from a couple of major studios

that will often have the viewships or the funds to commission themselves,

and thus will always have multiple projects you can join,

you will probably won't find one production to work with long term.

And even if you do join as part of a studio in a permanent role,

each individual project is going to finish after a certain amount of time.

So we'll always have to move from project to project.

The industry,

especially in Europe and Japan, is full of small studios

who employ individual animators

to work as part of a team on certain projects

or sometime, individual scenes

after which your employment with the studio ends

unless they want you for multiple or following projects.

This employment term can be between a couple of days to a couple of years,

depending on the projects and your role in it.

But you will often switch

between productions, clients and team throughout your career.

The three biggest markets of 2D animation currently

are the USA, Japan and France,

each one with their own production procedure.

The way this production works, however,

your job security, your payment and the workload

will greatly depend on the market your team and clients are part of.

In the USA,

you will often find big and established studios

with hundreds or thousands of employees

each working in their own role on their assigned scenes,

and where you will often find work being exported

into smaller and foreign studios

to make the entire production cheaper for the producers.

Depending on where you work and the states and union laws in your area,

as part of an American studio,

you will have an assigned role and will usually be paid with a salary.

The USA has the biggest animation industry

in terms of profits and monetization,

but the actual biggest industry in terms of volume of content is Japan.

In Japan, you will find thousands of studios ranging from small to big,

and production will often be made by a couple of studios working together

or by hiring individual freelance contractors

to make additional scenes and supplement additional workforce.

And as an animator in the Japanese industry,

you will usually have to handle multiple roles in the production.

You have a pretty good chance to get hired for a job by a Japanese studio

since they contact people from all over the world,

but only for a number of scenes or shots in the production.

So unless you are going to be part of a studio in a permanent role,

you would usually not be able to take part in the more decision based roles

such as storyboarder or director,

and you will have to work specifically in the same manner

as any other employee in the studio.

So if you have differing software

or differing animation methods,

you might not be able to be employed by them.

In Japan,

the payment is usually made depending on your production

so it will be by scene, shot or frame.

So you are not guaranteed a base and constant salary

and your payment will depend on the speed and quality of your production.

And since Japanese animation tends to be quite complicated,

a lot of the time

the actual payment is quite low.

In France and the rest of Europe,

you will also find multiple small studios working together

with each studio often having their own distinct style

and handling medium size projects,

with studio collaborations being done for bigger projects.

These studios sometimes hire freelancers and contractors as well,

but will usually require you to physically move to the environment or the studio.

In Europe,

you will usually be paid a salary or by hourly rate.

And again, you will need to fit with the software

and style requirement of your production.

The last option is working as an independent animator.

This will allow you to get clients from all over the world.

But you will have the freedom to calculate your payment in rates

according to your own methods,

be it per frame, per second, per scene, per hour, per project, film

or any other options that works for you.

It is important to consider your clients or employer standard markets though

and be flexible with your methods.

Or you might end up not getting the job

if your standards are too different from your clients' standards.

As said at the beginning of the video

and as we've seen throughout the course,

animation is very time consuming and complicated process.

And this is why it's usually done in a team.

In a team, the workload is divided between many people,

each with their own role on the production line

and their own responsibilities.

Since the animation process is very linear,

with each step building upon the one before it,

each person will work on many different scenes

and will continue making the same type of work.

So by joining a team,

you can aim to walk in the part of the process that you like

and avoid the parts of the process that you really hate doing.

There are many different roles and sub roles in the industry

and every production has slightly different role arrangements

with sometimes specialized or individual roles,

depending on the size of the production.

That being said,

there are a number of general roles you will find in almost every project.

Starting from the top,

the executive producer is the main provider of finance for your project.

This can either be your actual client

who commissioned the animation

or it can be the person raising the funds for the project.

It can be the person presenting the pitch

to the potential clients or investors,

the broadcasting company looking for content

or even internal production in studios or independent creation.

Without this role,

you would not have the funds or the ability to even start

and get your team for your project.

And if you are an independent animator

who wants to be an independent producer,

you still need to get the funds to live.

So if you are an independent animator, you're also a producer.

The actual producer is the person responsible

for the entire production process from start to finish.

They are the one responsible for the management of the project,

securing the funds from the executive producers,

calculating the budget for the production

and dividing it between the workers,

keeping track of deadlines,

assigning tasks, checking the quality of the product and delivering it,

and any other task required to keep the production going.

The producer will have to work

with many types of people in many capacities throughout the production,

from negotiations with the clients

to conflict resolves between the management and creators,

to actual communication with the workers and artists.

So it's important

to know every part of the process to have this role,

even if not to the same level

as the actual technical artist who creates the product.

Essentially, the producer role is to be the troubleshooter

for the entire production,

making sure that it will be completed

and make it as efficient as possible.

In small production,

The producer will also be the director

as part of the job is to keep track on quality.

But in bigger productions,

the director will be a separate role.

Moving on to the director,

this is the person responsible for having the vision for the project

and ensuring that it gets creating according to this vision.

The director is the person

who decides on the overall look of the scene

and they must have a clear understanding of the story

or the purpose of the animation

and will be the one to give the instruction

as to how to create the scene

in a way that represent these ideas best.

They will give the guidelines and descriptions

on which you will work as well as input on corrections.

As a director,

you must have good artistic vision, be decisive,

and have good communication skills

so that you can effectively get your ideas animated.

The director also must understand

that the process of animation in great detail

so they can get on the same page

with the artist and inspire them to create their vision.

Below the director, we have the assistant director.

This is not a role

that appears in every production

and usually only happens in big projects

which have many people working on them.

Essentially, the assistant director is the communicator

between the different production departments and the director.

They will handle giving directions,

solving technical difficulties,

even small corrections during the creation process,

or even translating the creator's vision into the actual particular terms

relevant to the department,

in case where the director comes from a different field

and might not be familiar

with the terminology or techniques of the project.

In essence,

they are a buffer between the artist and the director

and ensure that the director's vision gets done

as well as support the director

and provide input and second opinion.

The writer's goal is pretty self-explanatory,

but basically this is the person

providing the script for the animation.

This can either be a specialized role

or just a secondary role of the people making the production.

You will often get a script or a story from the executive producers

as they created the production to tell their own story.

And in smaller production,

the director might be the writer as well.

In really small productions

or in productions that allow a lot of creative freedom

from the different artists working on it,

you might even see the writers

between your storyboard artist

or pre-production designers.

And of course, if you are an independent animator,

you will also be responsible for being the writer of your story.

Next, we have the designers.

They are responsible for creating the style rules for the animation,

giving each production its own recognizable and special look

that distinguishes it from any other animation.

The designers job is to basically create the guidelines

according to which the rest of the artists

are going to base their own drawings upon.

The designer is also responsible to make sure

that every part of the visuals work together

be it characters, background, props

and even effects and compositing assets.

The designers job is to make sure

that they create a coherent and aesthetically pleasing look for the animation.

And depending on the size of your production,

you might have multiple different designers.

They can either work on different types of assets,

such as having character designers, background designers or prop designers,

or they can be responsible

for certain sequences or scenes.

The designer's job is to work with the director

and present a large number of options

for them to choose from to make their vision.

To be a designer,

you must have good technical drawing skills,

design principles and understanding of shape language,

and again, good communication skills.

The designers assets will later be used

by the rest of the team to draw from

for their own asset creation

or to reference to make sure that the style is being kept.

The storyboarder is the person responsible

for designing each individual scene and shot assigned to them.

In a sense,

they are the practical directors

and in small productions

the directors might also be storyboard artists.

They are responsible for the composition of each scene,

giving the baseline for the animators

and background artist to work from

as well as for the timing,

if they bring the storyboard to the animatic stage.

The storyboard artist will work directly

with the directors or assistant directors

and will usually focus more on speed

and try and work through large number of scenes quickly,

keeping the storyboard as a sketch

and trying to give as much information as possible efficiently.

The storyboarder has to have good communication skills,

good understanding of cinematic rules

and good art fundamentals,

as they need to make sure

that the general character, shape and model are being kept

and that the perspective of the shot is correct

so that the animators and background artist

can do their job properly.

The animator is the person

creating the actual movement in each shot

from action to acting to effect.

The animator has to have very good art skills.

They need to have a good understanding

of what they are drawing

every angle, every position,

how it can theoretically move

and have the skills to draw the action correctly.

Animators also need to have good understanding of acting and people,

as well as good communication skills

so that they can immediately understand

how to make the movement requested of them

and how to correct and adjust it if needed.

Animators also need good observational skills

because you will often find yourself

animating objects or characters

that you haven't encountered before,

especially if you're moving between productions

with each one of them having a different style.

You will need to be able to recognize differences

between art styles and objects

and be comfortable with drawing them,

even if you haven't done them before.

Depending on the size and type of a production,

the animator's role can be divided

to multiple positions and people.

In some productions you will have key animators

which are responsible for the important poses and overall timing

and in-betweeners,

which are responsible to fill in the gaps

and smooth out the transition between each keyframe.

And in some cases,

this role will be combined with the clean-up artist as well.

In bigger productions or studios,

you will also find people

who specialize in different objects in animation,

such as character animators, effect animators

and animal or prop animators.

Working alongside the animators,

we have the background artist.

The background artist

is responsible for creating the finished background for each shot

from the storyboard.

They will edit the colors, values, lighting and details

to the layout drawn by the storyboarder

and give it a finished look.

The background artist needs to have good understanding

on coloring and painting techniques,

as well as good drawing fundamentals

to be able to add all the details in the scene.

They must have a great attention to details

and be organized in the creation process

as the background needs to be designed

with animation and camera movement behind it

and thus made in advance with that in mind

so that it can be worked on by the compositors.

Again, background artists need to have good observational skills

and be adaptable

so that they can create many different scenes with many objects

that they might not have encountered before.

The last artistic role in the production pipeline is the compositor.

The compositor is responsible

to bringing all of the elements of each shot together

from the different layers of the background,

the animation itself,

the character and environmental lighting and camera movement.

The compositor has the last step on the production

and after moving through it, we have the final product.

The compositor must have good understanding of the software

as well as good organizational skills,

and they must be able to communicate effectively

and work quickly

since in many cases they won't have a lot of time

to actually complete their step in the animation process.

Last, we have the supporting roles.

The main three roles in that category is the in-betweener,

which is responsible to adding frames and smoothing out movements.

The clean-up artist

which is responsible for making the messy sketches of the animators

into understandable drawings with clear, precise lines.

And the colorist,

which is responsible to adding the base colors

to the animation itself.

These roles are usually done by beginners in the industry

and they are very technical

and often repetitive and boring

but they do give good fundamentals

and help you hone your skills

These roles require a lot of patience and good attention to details.

Now that we know the basic role in the industry

and how it functions as a whole,

let's talk about deciding your own personal role in it.

There are two main options for you to take as an animator.

Working as a part of a studio

or working as a freelancer,

each have their own pros and cons.

Starting with work as part of a studio,

a studio production's best feature

is the stability that comes with being part of a team.

Even though the production size

is much bigger than what you will have in independent animation,

the workload and responsibility is divided between multiple people,

each equipped to fulfill their role entirely.

You can always find support and help within your own team

and leave the roles

that you dislike to the people working on them,

making sure that you can do the parts

that you find the most fun

and the studio will have people

handling the administrative jobs as well,

letting you focus specifically on your creative process.

The studio environment provides more job security

and a better guarantee of income,

as the studio itself has more projects

than what you will get as an individual.

And the task of finding more clients is not a concern to you

unless you are aiming for one of the producer roles.

Another great benefit of studios

is that they can be good environments for your growth as an artist.

When you're taking part in a big project,

you will work with the best of the best,

creative people like you

who are passionate and dedicated to their work

and have the skills to match.

It can be an amazing experience

and with the amount of work which is required of you,

you'll be able to improve very quickly.

In the studio environment,

You will never lack in work and ideas,

so you will always get to be creative.

That being said,

there are drawbacks to working with a studio as well.

A studio environments is pretty rigid.

You will be required to work certain hours,

be part of certain environments and teams

and work only on the job assigned to you.

You will not have much freedom with creative choices

and will often not have the opportunity to experiment.

As a production, purpose is to create the product

as quickly and efficiently as possible.

If your studio environment is not ran properly,

this can easily lead

to cases of overwork, tight deadlines

and overall stressful environment.

Another drawback is the lack of individual credit.

Although you are part of a production

and will be credited with everyone else

at the end credits,

it's pretty hard to get individually recognized

as part of a beautiful production.

Each person is responsible for such a small part,

which they cannot have a lot of creative freedom over

so the chances of you creating something outstanding within your scenes

are very small,

even if the overall product is amazing.

Moving on to freelance work,

the best part of being a freelancer

is the great amount of freedom and power that you have over your work.

As a freelancer, same as with studio work,

you can choose to join a team in a specific role

in which case you will be an independent contractor

and reap some of the benefits of a studio workers

or you can take on independent projects

where you fill in every role in the production process.

You're also in complete control of your schedule,

the amount of work you take, your prices

and the general process of animation.

You can work wherever and whenever you like

and only take jobs that interest you.

The amount of creative freedom

you have as a freelance and independent producer

is also much greater

than you would have in a studio.

Only needing to conform to your client's wishes,

which they will often let you handle completely,

as they don't really have a put together vision in their head

and by being the main creator,

you will get much more recognition and credit

for your work as an individual.

The main drawback to being an independent animator

is the bigger amount of stress it can create.

First, as a freelancer,

you will have to waste quite a lot of time

just finding work to take.

You will need to constantly submit your portfolio

and chase after clients,

essentially limiting your job choices

if you don't have many to choose from.

And even after all of that,

you might not have guaranteed income.

It will fluctuate quite a lot

depending on the amount of projects that you have

which will be affected by both your individual capacity,

as well as the type of people who see your product.

You will need to have a very good understanding of your own capabilities

and organize your time and schedule

to make sure that you don't take too many projects or overwork yourself,

as well as fulfill all of your obligations to your clients

and keep on top of deadlines.

As an independent animator,

you will have to be capable in any part of the animation process

and be able to match your client's demands.

So you will need to have a wide range of art styles and capabilities

to get as many job opportunities as possible.

You will also have a greater amount of responsibilities specifically on you

and will not be able to get away

from parts of the animation production process

which you don't like doing.

Lastly, you will have to deal

with your clients requests and criticism of you specifically,

trying to work and figure out the vision of people

who often don't have background in art

and don't know how to describe what they want

or even have a clear vision of it,

which can be quite challenging and frustrating at times.

To summarize,

when deciding between studio and freelance,

you will need to choose between security and freedom,

control and pressure.

Ideal paths can be very rewarding

and you can always switch between them

as long as you have the right skills.

To recap,

today we learned about the different roles in the industry

and the paths that you can take in your own career.

After completing this course,

you've had a taste of each role

and you will probably be able to expand

and aim for your desired goal

and the career path that you want to do.

And if you'll only heal as part of a hobby

or you haven't clearly decided

that you want to take part in the industry,

this lesson might of helped you get some context and ideas

of what types of work you can do,

as well as maybe have some appreciations

to the amount of work that goes into the industry itself.

Thank you for watching

and see you next time for the conclusion.

Bye.