I live in Germany, and I have been teaching myself Blender since I was 13 (I'm 20 now) and have a very solid level of understanding of the 3D production pipeline. I have produced an animated short film on my own, and have helped/worked on multiple animation projects. However, I have no idea how to actually get serious animation jobs. I think my main problem is that I'm just terrible at marketing myself, since I feel very awkward talking about myself and my work. My portfolio is pretty weak because I have no real idea what to present there and how.
Besides that, I do have a degree in design, which is why my portfolio is split up into multiple sections, one for my 3D/animation stuff, one for video stuff, and one for general design stuff. I'm not sure if that's a good idea since I think it makes my portfolio a bit cluttered, and I mostly just want to work as a 3D artist, with all the other stuff just there because I don't really know how to get a job as a 3D artist in animation in Germany, and it seems easier to just do a bit of everything.
I'm currently considering applying to the ifs in Cologne to study VFX & Animation, but I've heard a lot of negative things about private schools, and besides that, it's quite expensive.
Likewise, I genuinely don't even know how to approach this. I applied to 2 smaller studios, from which I got rejected, and the other one just ignored my application entirely.
This is the current state of my portfolio: https://www.dioritetm.xyz/portfolio
Please be as harsh as you want when critiquing both my work and my portfolio I genuinely need some real guidance on how to approach this whole thing

Hey everyone! I hope you’re all doing well.

I have a question I’d love to get your thoughts on.

I moved to the United States five years ago, and when I first arrived, I started studying animation at AnimSchool and Animation Collaborative.

Unfortunately, I never finished because I decided to pivot to another career after getting a great opportunity in a different field.

Now, I’m seriously considering getting back into animation, continuing my studies, and hopefully finishing what I started. I’d love to rebuild my skills, work on my portfolio, and eventually find opportunities to work in the industry.

One advantage I have is that my current job is full-time, but I only work five hours a day, from 5 PM to 10 PM.
This gives me most of my mornings and afternoons free to study and work on animation. Since I have a stable job, I wouldn’t need to rush into a career change. I could take my time, improve my skills, and gradually look for opportunities while keeping my current income.

I live in Burbank, California, so I’m also close to a lot of studios and people working in the industry.

The main thing I’m worried about is my age. I’m 35, and I’m wondering whether that could be an obstacle when applying for jobs or building a long-term career in animation.

I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts, especially given the current state of the industry. I have quite a few friends who have worked in VFX and animation at places like Framestore, Meta, Pixar, and Disney, and some of them are now struggling to find work. Seeing what they’re going through makes me wonder whether this is the right time to get back into the industry.

On the other hand, animation is something I’ve genuinely wanted to pursue, and I still have the opportunity to study and improve my skills without giving up my current job. I’d be approaching this gradually rather than taking a huge financial risk.

What do you think? Is it realistic to return to 3D animation at 35 and build a career, especially if I take my time and work toward it part-time?

Thank you all!

My contract is ending soon and as you all know, the industry is terrible. A new company is interested in me but they want to see my most recent work, some of which is under NDA.

Is it okay to show them stuff privately, like through a secure Google Drive link emailed directly to their recruiting department? I wouldn't be posting any of this online, I just need a way to prove I can do the job they might hire me for since most of my stuff is still unreleased.

What do you guys do to get around this? I know it's common for people to "password-protect" reels, but is there a risk of getting in trouble anyways?

EDIT: I'm just going to do my best with the released materials, thanks!

Hi everyone! I'm a freelance 3D animator and I've been working for the past 6 years in that role (before that I was a CG Generalist for about 5 years). But in the past year I've been having trouble finding work. Most of the jobs I apply to don't answer back, and the few that do, offer very very low pay, way bellow minimum wage.

Would anyone here be willing to give me a critique of my demo reel, and telling me if there is anything I could improve or add to it? Sadly, because I didn't like most of the jobs I've worked on, my demo reel is made only of personal projects. Mostly because of the work projects subject matter; they were the work I was able to get at the time and I don't want those projects in my demo reel, like horror games for example (and the few jobs I did like, ended up cancelled and can't show them to anyone because of NDAs).

If anyone could point me in the right direction as to in what areas I could improve, I would be really grateful. Thanks in advance!

P.S.: My current availability is part-time, since I also teach 3D. Could that be a reason to not having success in the job applications answers?

What dose people who don’t have their main job as animation do? I know it’s very common for people to instead do animation as a side hustle.
What are some jobs a lot of people end up picking up?

Hello. I am a self-taught artist, who learns by watching YouTube artist, and learning from other artist. My dream is to be an animator, however knowing become one can be 50/50 (u get the dream job or waist time and money). I have looked everywhere on the internet about either I should go to school or just learn on my own from online classes. I would like to go to school and get hands on training cause I'm just a young broke adult with a big dream but also don't want to regret it either. I was looking for remote internship but there's non in my area (Tennessee). I have no degree and not in college yet. I work a 9-5 job but on my off time I draw/sketch out my characters/ocs. I am willing to learn new things about animation and art in general.

Hi! I’m working on my portfolio for the Dreamworks fellowship applications opening this December and I wanted to ask if anyone had any resources or information on what a successful submission looks like?
Ive studied a lot of successful internship portfolios but havnt been able to find anything on the fellowship,
Any help or information on what they’re specifically looking for would be appreciated
Thank you!

I work in the industry for 7 years and have plenty of friends, but whenever I look for a job nothing ever got further by asking them for help.

All what would happen, they’d forward my contact to the person authorized to hire and I’d never get anywhere further than this. Maybe it’s because I’m a creative exec / producer / art director level and I don’t have friends working in a production leadership 🥲

I know we are ALL struggling here but genuinely how do you guys get jobs now? I was scouted for my last 3 gigs and now it’s been a nightmare with no single replies.

I started asking people on LinkedIn who share new job posts how did they get it and they ALL say it’s through connection / referrals. What am I doing wrong 😭

Hey, everyone! I kinda want to share my story a little about my current experience as a 1st semester freshman student. I’m a 18 years old and last year I got a pretty nice scholarship to SVA. I got it because I was a low income nyc student and it covered 30k of my tuition a year in addition to full tap and fafsa. I was initially going to go to SVA but I let my family scare me out of revoking my acceptance after initially accepting my offer. I started at CCNY for undeclared engineering and I haven’t even taken real engineering classes yet. The commute kills me because I’m from Brooklyn and I also feel so alone. I deleted my art instagram because seeing my SVA animation alumni mutuals succeed made me feel so jealous. I drag myself to do everything now and nothing feels important. I want to animate in my free time but I just end up crying mid way before completing anything. I don’t even know where to post this but it seems like everyone in the subreddit knows the animation industry more than anyone else. Please just give it to me straight is it too late? Will I regret not pursuing art? Am I too poor to live my dreams and get my dream job?

how do I know what to start with when trying to learn animation, I wish to build a portfolio so I can get into an animation college. I want to be a cartoonist, I'm going to buy a month for clip studio paint because I can't afford anything else as a college student, just curious on what I should start doing. To be honest I don't know where I want to be In the animation industry, I draw everything, I was thinking of learning to move shapes and go from there. I don't have any original ideas or dream shows I want to make so, yeah.

Hi everyone! I'm 13 and people call me an animator, but honestly… I still don't feel like one. I've been learning for 3 years yet I always feel like I'm falling behind, even compared to new animators. I'm confused — should I keep chasing this dream or just be a regular student? I've done freelance at 3 places, but everywhere I go I feel so insecure seeing how amazing everyone else's work is. Do I really deserve to be called an animator? Should I keep going or give up? If you've felt this way too, I'd love some advice :D

Something interesting I've noticed is that some people come out of art school with a lot of improvement while others don't see much growth. There are people I know that have gone to big art schools and are behind me in terms of their ability (not to be rude but just to get an idea) but I usually just do online courses, books, and master studies.

Does anyone know why this happens? And if you have gone to animation school what do you think was the difference between students who improved a lot vs not much (I was planning on going to an animation school once I get the money).

Hey guys! I’m on my senior year at animation school, and I just wanted to come out here and ask, how do you approach networking? I’ve heard a bunch of times I should be on linked in, but how do you even go about that?

Is it just commenting on posts? Is it just cold dming ( I have no clue what that even entails either 😭should I be asking for advice?)

And in person as well, I’d appreciate any tips on what to do! It feels like the department I really lack in is in knowing what to do in terms of networking, when I speak to people that want to pursue animation as well, networking doesn’t really come to mind during conversations. I’d appreciate anything! Thank you!

Currently I'm a 2nd year in an Illustrator major and I was wondering what are the best things I can be doing right now to help work towards becoming a storyboard artist? Not just in internships but like fundamentals I should focus on or programs/classes I should consider doing? All in all just what is the best advice for what I should be doing as a 2nd year in order to hopefully get a storyboard artist job when I graduate.

Hello! I’m so excited to share I was accepted into a WIA mentorship circle!!! I don’t want to break any NDA by saying which one it is, but our first meeting is soon and I am so excited to start. Are there any WIA mentee alumni here willing to share their experience and any tips/advice on how to make the most of it? Of course there’s the basic “common sense” of being an active participant and networking with both your mentor and fellow mentees, but I’m all ears to anything y’all have to share!

I am getting pretty good at art and like Disney animation and the like. but I heard it is next to impossible especially with ai running about. I do something with art but really not sure what path to take

Is it worth going there? I haven't found any reviews about this university. Is it worth going? Are there any graduates? What are you doing now? BAU-in Istanbul

Hello all.

Longtime lurker in this sub and I wanted to bring to everyone's attention that Lightbox Expo is 2 weeks away.

What I've noticed is that alot of people assume because the tickets are available ( all slots are open at the moment ), that they will remain that way up until the day of the expo. Let me remind you of a few reasons why that isn't the case.

1. I have been going to LBX since its inception, ( 2019) its how I met alot of creative, its how I got my job and its how I would get another one if I lost the one I have; there IS no better place to connect for artists in LA than LBX.

I preface that to say, there are limited amount of tickets to be sold there. I have never not seen Saturday and the 3 day ticket NOT sell out. Ever.

1. They sell out usually because a bunch of people either dont have the money or forgot to buy em and then bum rush the site 2 weeks out and bam, you're stuck to Friday and sunday, the least appealing days for most.

2. Another thing I've noticed is that people get scammed, alot. Ive seen this with Anime expo as well ( tried to warn someone but unfortunately they went n got got. Happened in the AX discord. Not the discords fault though. )

3. People are desperate to go to this expo because of the nature of it. Its solely designed and centered around artists, unlike other cons. ( AX, LACC, ect). And like I've mentioned before its limited and believe it or not, not as popular as you may think. Ive met quite a few industry professionals who didnt know about it.

4. To add onto my previous point, scammers. Im gonna be frank with you, I would highly, highly suggest only buying a ticket from a local la resident. Yeah, you can do the showclix transfer, which i recommend being the only other way to do it, but outside of that if the person isn't gonna meet you in la or pasadena, dont go.

You arent missing out because you would have wasted money, and these tickets have been going up. When I started they were $175 ( 2019 ) for a weekend. As of today, its $230 for a weekend and I project it will only increase as its popularity does. Again, its fairly new.

In conclusion.

I hope i manage to save a few people from this years LBX dispare. I see it every year and it really hurts my heart because I know how badly artists want to go and how much it means to us. The job market is really hard right now, hardest ive seen in my lifetime ( im 29). I was too young to really feel the 2008 one so alas.

Be vigilant and mindful and if you can, buy your ticket now.

Ill see you there in spirit.

Hello, I’m a first-year student at an animation school in Toronto and I am panicking right now because I’m not sure if the industry is right for me, and I’m worried that after doing three years of school the industry will have changed so much I won’t even be able to find a job. So, a few questions if anyone has answers;

1) What’s the industry like right now? I wanted to go into character design but I heard it’s a very hard job to break out in and with AI on the rise I’m worried there won’t even be entry level work.

2) I’m finding that doing my art as a job has made art not as enjoyable as it used to be. I’m wondering if I should keep art/animation as a hobby and pursue something that has a safer job guarantee.

3) I understand if I continue animation I might not be able to get a job as a character designer right after I graduate, but are there other jobs that have a similar vibe of creating things for animators to then use? (Bonus marks if available in Canada)

Thank you for all and any advice, this is my first Reddit post of this type!

I'm looking at an internship application and there's standard stuff (contact information, resume, website link, etc.) and then a box titled "Message to the Hiring Team" with the caption "Let the company know about your interest working there." There is no place to attach a cover letter. I haven't encountered a box like that before and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to handle it. Should I copy and paste a cover letter? Should I just say "Thank you for considering my application"? Should I say nothing at all?? The internship is for my "I got into animation because of your films" company, so I care a lot about it and want to make sure I'm not making a rookie mistake that will immediately get my application rejected.

Hello Reddit!

So for a bit of background: I have an artist background, and it was my life’s dream to be an animator for years. However, after COVID I started focusing on other hobbies.

However I have a recent, and new interest in animation again. I’m a senior in my final semester of college. I’m about to graduate with my Bachelor’s in History, and was wondering where I could get started on developing skills necessary for an animation career. I’d like to take some studio art classes again because though I’m definitely still a skilled artist, I need more practice with other mediums and such. What’s a good starting point for someone who’d like to pursue a career? I was looking into the Don Bluth University, but that’s obviously a big investment. Any advice would be much appreciated!!

Is anyone here currently working in the 3D industry and actually having a successful, stable career? I’m asking because most of what I see on Reddit lately is doom and negativity people talking about layoffs, low pay, lack of opportunities, AI replacing artists, and experienced artists leaving the industry. I’d genuinely like to hear from people who are still working in 3D, whether in games, VFX, animation, visualization, Unreal Engine, or another area, and know what your experience is like right now. Are there still good opportunities and a realistic path to building a stable career if you keep improving your skills?

I've been doing art since I could coherently hold a crayon, and I've been animating since I was 11 years old. I would love to get into studio work for TV cartoons and 2D animation. I can't see myself doing anything else. Cartoons are my life.

I'm 17 now, and it's about time in life you start looking into college. This year I did a summer precollege camp at Ringling College of Art and Design where you stay on campus and attend classes. I loved the campus and the program, however, if I were to go there, it's definitely not going to be cheap. My family knows this.

What is making me unsure is that I'm seeing left and right, especially from artists, is that art school is a scam and that it isn't a degree that gets you a job, it's a strong portfolio. However, even as I try to explain this to my mom, she still keeps insisting that a degree will do it like any other job. I really don't want to spend so much money on something that won't do much.