Career Paths and Job Availabilities in Animation ~ Mike L Murphy [5/5]

That's cool. And it brings up a point that I think a lot of students, especially their parents have, are there jobs in animation? I mean, you see all of those millions of names at the end of a movie. What kind of jobs? Is there a successful career there? what kinda earning potential do they have? Ok, so to answer that real quick, the average animator in Los Angeles whose in the guild, is about, I think it's around... 88 thousand dollars. So if you working at Disney, or dreamworks, you're making

at least 90 grand a year. That's good! That's not bad. That's not bad. and internationally, it varies. animation used to be that you get hired at a studio and they give you a three-year contract. now your pretty much higher to work on a movie at a time. which means that's anywhere from like a week, to nine months, to, usually a week to nine months. so you're constantly getting the job and then you have to find the next job. It's the freelance cycle. and one of the main reasons I started successf

ul animators, is because I was in that cycle and I didn't really understand that I had never been trained for it. And it was kind of thrust upon me. And I had to learn the hard way. And how to have a career, and how to create those relationships, and plan ahead and save them money, and do all these things, that, basically, your an entrepreneur. You are your own business owner. you know? And even though you might be working of Disney or Pixar, your going to get laid off when the movie's done.

And you need to start thinking you know, and all the jobs I've had, it has other friends. That got their foot in first, recommended me. Hey, design, we're hiring, are you free? Yeah I am! You know. Here I am. So, thats one of the things that I train. How do you have that career? How to you get your, how do you get into that college and get the training? What are the schools you want to go to? how do you then get your first job in the industry? How do you then build that career so that you have

at least three reputed jobs under your bell so that producers look at you go, oh, they worked at that studio, that studio, that studio. Oh, I have heard of those studios, I am going to take a shot. Your know, how do you work up to get to those disney's and the pixars. you know? And then once you're there, what's the next step? do you start making your own books? Do you start pitching shows? what's the career path for animator? And thats something nobody's ever talked about. And I hope to god so

mebody else would taught me and I just had to learn it. So that's why I'm doing this mentoring. doings mentoring so they can just say hey, here's the way it is. And you know, I don't sugarcoat it, I like to pretty much be straight up that there's enough work if you in the the top at the top. Right? if you are really super good, and your hard-working, and people like you, you're gonna be working. if you are under that. And thats five percent of people. If you are that ninety-five percent that's

not really passionate, you know? You don't really know what to do. then you're going to struggle, pretty significantly. So that's why right from the get-go, check yourself, make sure that you really want to do this. And then understand how the business works. Understand how to give value to people. And understand what skills you need and then you're gonna be fine. So and are there some more support jobs that are maybe a little less, um, maybe don't require quite the high level. like you're worki

ng at a fairly high level it sounds like. Are there quite a lot of jobs that are just needed to create the whole feature film? Because so many names at the end of a film. So is there a place where there is more of a a more steady and lower employment? sorry, a lower salary, but a more steady employment? you know what I mean? The studios is like a pyramid. Right? There are a lot of jobs down here. And when you get up to pixar and disney, there are not that many studios. So, if your goal is to be

a Pixar animator, its limited. If you just wanna work in the animation field, well you've got medical animation, you got courtroom animation, you know, every trial they have CG animation. Like the defendant walked here, and the knife was here. right? there's product animation. there's architectural animation and with animation, theres modeling, theres texturing, lighting, rigging. there's running render farms. there's doing commercials. There's motion capture. I mean every everywhere you go, on

TV, or in the movies, there's motion graphics. right? All that stuff, an artist has to do it. But its an artist that understands design. Right? And they understand the business a freelancing. And they can get in there and they can they can have that sustainable career. And they also understand that there's going to be times that their working, all the time. There's going to be other times that there is a dry spell. So if you don't plan for that if you get that first paycheck, your like, yeah I a

m going to get a Ferrari and go to the Bahamas for a month, wo who! I'll be on my friends a pay for them. you know? Well your not going to last, your going to be broke. If you plan ahead, Really, its about having a plan. Awesome. So, its great that you're out there providing this really needed mentoring. And I think that, you and I kind of have sprang up out of that need. there wasn't anybody else out there doing that. and so from the beginning stage, to the, I ave graduated and i'm having a ca

reer now. What do I do? So its great to have met you, Mike L Murphy. and say you've got an Ebook and what are some other things that you're working on that animation students can look as you build your business? well if you go to a successfulanimator.com, well if they want more information about me, in general, go to MikeLMurphy.com. But if they want to know specifically about the animation, and visual effects and the gaming industry, just basic computer graphics type of stuff, they can go to su

ccessfulanimator.com. and like I said, I'm revamping it. We are shooting this in the middle of August 2013, so after I say, I don't know, Winter 2013, if they go to that site, I'm making a whole free course. Because the top three things people ask me are how do you get started? what's it like working on these big movies? and what's the animation pipeline like? What are all of these jobs? So I am making basic 3, one hour, free trainings. that, if you sign up, put your e-mail in, I will just send

you that as a newsletter. And then as I do other free bits or I'm always doing new blog post and putting it up. so you're going to basically get tons of great information. And then also have workshop, so if you want to go deeper in your training with me, we can do that as well. So it's really how much engagement you want to have with me. But if you just want to just get some basic info, you go there. And we've got the ebook. we've got the blog post that talk about all this stuff. So just hunt

around and you will find some good, broad information. And I can point you in the right direction. yeah, and if you're just starting out, wanting to select a college and create your portfolio. You can go to portprep.com. we've got a free assessment there just to look at your portfolio, have a quick Skype call with you, just get your strategy for your education in line. Just letting you know is your portfolio's ready yet. it's that kind of, first, second, draft thing. And we have got services t

here for you whether you want to get some self help. download some tutorial videos on how to put a good portfolio together. or like mike says, you can get personal mentoring as well as a number a free videos and study guides. All kinds of things that helps you put together the portfolio so you can get into the college of your dreams. So you can start on an awesome career like Mike's been telling us about. Don't just go inside your cave and do your portfolio. and send it off to college without

asking for feedback. Wether you listen to use and want to get our information, or ask your friends but please, you gotta get feedback. If you don't get the feedback, it's not going to be good enough. Your not going to get in and then you're gonna get sad and go, oh, I guess im not good enough. And then, your going to give up. So absolutely, lean that feedback is the greatest tool you can possibly ever get. and the people who actively seek the feedback and they find the mentors. And they want to

improve themselves, these are the people that are running industry right now. And those are the people that are hiring people like you. When they see that you have a similar energy to them, a positive energy, that wants to be the best, then they're going to bring you on. yes there is a student I'm thinking of, he had wanted to study illustration, at Sheridan out of high school. Applied, and didn't get in. and he gave up. you know? And he could have studied art fundamentals. That's a one year p

rogram that they have there to prepare you and then reapply. But he didn't. And he studied something else at just a small local college and he was miserable. He spent five years, working in a career he hated. And then he realized, I got to try this again. and so he started taking life drawing classes, and one of my portfolio workshops. and then I individually mentored him on you know and I looked at it and he said well I didn't get in last time, so I know im not gonna get in this time. So I'm g

onna go to art fundamentals. And I look at his work and it was was really excellent. I said you don't need to spent another year in her fundamentals, just, you know, you need to work on your life drawing more, you know, you gotta crop this, put this in work on that flip book you got there, improve that. we just messaged what he had, and strengthened some areas that were weak. he got in to illustration, he ended up being a silver award winner, and then he went on, and got into the animation prog

ram, again. And now hes working in the field. In lighting actually. and he loves it. And he says it's hard work, but he would never trade it for anything. and you could see his website if you want, tonylinka.com and so he's just a wonderful success story, just because you don't get in right away right at a high school with out getting help, don't give up on your dream, and don't waste more time and money. you know, there's the resources out there to get some help whether it's directly from the c

ollege's like you were doing, or somebody that's working in the field, or somebody like myself or Mike that can help you. reach those goals in a shorter time and continue that belief in yourself. And don't give up. So make a plan, make it happen. I guess that's it. so thanks so much for your time, thank you! animation students are gonna be thrilled to hear this. It's just the type of thing that need to know about. Thanks so much for taking time from, brought to you from where... where you in

Slovenia? I'm in Slovenia. And if you don't know where that is, neither did I, before I came here. It's on the map, you can google it. Have a great afternoon. we're gonna put this together and we will have it available on both our YouTube channels to share with students.