20 Things Every Animator Should Know When Starting Out

[@SirWade]

At least half of the reviews of my last workshop say that each person learned more in my workshop than in 4+ years of schools, wherever they attended, for a fraction of the cost! So... maybe check it out with a Lord of the Rings themed discount code :) bit.ly/mayaworkshop2023

[@radekgrec1467]

I'm 45. Started my 3D career for real about 3 years ago by learning Blender. Almost from scratch. Today I have a job in one of major animation studios in my country as a motion/layout designer. Everything is possible if You really want to;)

[@quentinmorales]

Nice =) How did you go about learning blender ?

[@radekgrec1467]

@@quentinmorales what do U mean?

[@andereya99]

Whaaaat. How and why?

[@radekgrec1467]

@@andereya99 hard work, improve Your skills and make Your projects better and better. The results will come sooner than You think

[@littlecurrybread]

@@radekgrec1467 can i ask what do you use for motion design at work? are you strictly using 3D software or sometimes 2D assets?

[@peppermint229]

In all honesty, my art college was so real and direct when we went to visit. They immediately told me, it is going to be tough and is not going to be easy. Expect a ton of work and a lot of stress. And that if I need help, I should contact the school's counsellor for counselling if I am going to this college. They weren't wrong, I had a lot of burnout and stressful moments. But it is still fun and a great experience. I'm learning tons and it helped me be more open minded and make connections and networking with a lot of amazing artists. Is all about Time Management. No matter whether you are slow or not, the management of time and self discipline is SO important!.

[@keithyakouboff8755]

Yeah... learning to work smarter and not harder, as they say.

[@beansnrice321]

I found character animation to be so complex that I took Tai chi to better understand human movement. I swear, it really helped. It teaches you about the hierarchy of motion for a human body. For the most part, all motion starts from the core or the feet.

[@bashinspace]

that's really cool

[@chanpiggy3938]

i wish i wouldn't procrastinate

[@fluffsquirrel]

Can relate. Hard to set goals when even I can't obey my own goals

[@Saveara.]

ART BLOCK

[@artemis7496]

Ikr, my BIGGEST enemy is my procrastination

[@HUNGRYFLOWER98]

THAT IS MY REAL PROBLEM!!! I’m starting to realize it’s my fear of failure

[@SolafunmiAduola]

Everyday😭😭

[@Doc_Animator_N]

12:29 Do not rush. 13:38 Do not procrastinate. 14:45 Assignments aren’t checkboxes. 15:40 Planning isn’t a suggestion. It’s a life line. 16:20 Keep the animation simple. Not overwhelmed. 16:40 Short shots are better. 17:10 Try new workflows 17:20 Fundamental vs cool factor 18:00 Don’t hide being stylization 18:10 Love animation.

[@sandrahart6195]

This is helpful, thanks 😊.

[@katakana-kun2122]

Hey Sir, I'm a working animator in the industry and I wanted to say thank you for your work. Once you get a job it's so easy to bore yourself to death by repeating a formula that works, but your videos always inspire me to try and learn new things, making me fall in love with animation all over again. Been watching you for a couple years and plan on watching every new upload too. Stay awesome!

[@Dstinct]

As an addendum to the last point, unless you are animating for yourself, you will not always like what you are animating based on the direction you are given. Your leads, supes and directors have the final call. You are responsible for the execution of someone else's vision. Often people will like what you bring to the table, but you have to be prepared to be ignored and do what you are told. Because of this, you REEEAAALLY have to love animation. Animators should take a class on personal finance. A large chunk of people in the animation industry are independent contractors. Even those who are hired on by studios are often only contracted for one show, and there is no guarantee that your contract will be picked up. You need to learn how to save, budget, and plan for the lulls in your career. I've seen plenty of people end up in a jam because of poor assumptions they made. Understand how income tax works in the country you are working in, or how your country handles taxes of citizens living abroad.

[@OdyXeus7]

Been animating for 6 years now, and I forgot some of the basic stuff, especially planning, when you work for TV it's always go go go, sometimes you just forget to plan :(

[@Glitchfishy]

I've been struggling with my confidence when it comes to career hunting, but this video has made something click inside me, I'm so glad I subscribed to you! Incredibly helpful

[@shevanvfx]

something very important " can you do the job " is what struck me the most thanks

[@kaokong7226]

Soo true about choosing the RIGHT school man. Nailed it right there. I was a victim of attending to a bad school, bought in by their marketing campaign. I owed huge debt, barely learn anything in-deph on animation, just the basics! It has been over 10 years and I gave up finding a job in the animation field. I learn more things on my own now, than when I was in THAT college. PICK YOUR SCHOOL CAREFULLY!!!!

[@hireathecho4]

I'm curious, which school were you going to?

[@Minurownbiznes]

Same here went to the one in Fort Lauderdale hate the ai I owe a bunch of money too.I started to go to animation mentor it’s been leaps of progression. Think I’m going to go to Animschool as well.

[@cryson3d]

@@Minurownbiznes Currently in AnimSchool, 1000% recommend it!

[@natspitzentranker5205]

Thank you Sir Wade for the Video!! I also went to Animation Mentor and wish that I had taken some times off inbetween courses to work on my weak points and hadn't rush through it when I was clearly not ready. Took me a while to realize that not everybody would get a job right after AM. But now I'm getting paid for what I love doing and your videos helped me along my way :)

[@CVerse]

Happy to see you’re hosting another workshop! I took it last year and I learned so much from it. I’m currently working with a USC Games student project and have been applying my animation knowledge there, but I totally want to make more stuff before I apply. You guys should totally take his workshop! It’s worth it

[@ZaDussault]

The tip about the degree is very good. It's not the kind of job where a piece of paper is important, you'll be evaluated on your skill only (and personnality too, please be nice)

[@mexicanburrito2979]

@3:35 Not sure how often this happens in feature animation but I would also say that unless the layout has been 100% decided on you should take into account that the layout department or direction might change the composition to include more of what was before out of frame. Doesn't have to be polished but at least having something there could be of value in such a case.

[@Dstinct]

Only gotta get burned by a reframe once to learn this lesson.

[@elfmeletomel2481]

thank you so much, im very happy to watched this video!

[@devdev72597]

I wish I watched this years ago! 😭 I'm nowhere near professionalism or even skilled enough for a job, but I have wasted a lot of time brute forcing through really big projects I'd give myself and never finishing one. This advice is hitting me at a time when I am more receptive and more aware of myself (my values and goals) and so I'm very thankful for that and very thankful for this video. 💙

[@goku_dunker_420]

Tons of good tips here, but stylization is definitely one I need to hear. I was so focused on realism, and sure the shot might look believable, but it's also super boring if it's just real life with no extra part to it, and only hyper realistic projects need said realism to be 100% intact

[@Mamika_AFK]

Exactly, why would you animate realistic if you can just use actors for the shot. I see a lot of people struggling with ultra realism, but after their hard work is finished, nobody cares because people want to see what doesn't exist... specially Characters.

[@the3danimationdude770]

So true make animations is time consuming this come from a small youTuber that is an animator

[@mariarzyt_3D]

I am finishing 3D design school this year, thinking about learning more about animation tho. Great video, I like the way you talk, straight to the point and nice to listen to

[@spookydoofus4526]

I love your wind waker shirt

[@zedfirenze]

You spoke so much realness in this video man.

[@kylefemath5875]

Thank you @SirWade for everything you do for our community! Strength and Honor brother!!

[@zoesunnysandell8346]

I would love a video really showing what the graph editor looks like moving from stepped to spline. Specifically, if I have keyed breakdowns, inbetweens, anticipations and overshoots-and saved on all for each of these- how do we know which keys to keep once splined? Do we keep them all on every curve or does this get simplified when cleaning up and smoothing… not sure if this makes sense- hence why a video would be helpful!!!!

[@Minurownbiznes]

Awesome video, I usually spline block for the timing first with arc trackers on the head wrists knees and feet then pose only on the moving keys after that I bake on 4's switch to stepped mode and push the posing. This helps with timing and spacing for me at least, IDK if I should be doing this but I find it to be a faster way to get things where I want them to be.

[@madmodder]

Honestly I simply cant judge timing from stepped mode. My brain just isn't wired like that, so I have to switch to spline just so I can "see". Hopefully with enough practice I'll develop a better sense of timing, because right now as a beginner its basically not there.

[@kendarr]

Iam a generalist, if I want to show my animations I'll get the best rig I can online, if I want to show modeling, I'll get the best scenery I can to show my model, doing it all is crazy

[@sonicartist91]

Thank you for the reminders on some of these questions. As well as answers others I didn’t consider. I just sent this to the artists on my game team. For context, we all want to do stuff with the arts for games. So I managed to wrangle a bunch of people together to grow our experience. So the parts where you said “Focus on what you want to be good, and make it simple.” Really stood out to me.😊

[@galotta8475]

Thanks for the video! @14:20 You`re right!!! I`ve done that a few times and the result wasn`t always that good.

[@antstar1005]

Thanks, Sir Wade, Great stuff as usual. A lot of young (Junior Animators) need to watch this video and "Learn" from it. Anyway, I always love your (VIDs). Great stuff, and keep'em comin', bro!

[@adamkovarik]

Thanks to your videos animation isn't this huge uncomprehensible concept anymore, Thanks a lot!

[@idkjr6060]

Yeah I really liked your workshop a lot! I wish I could download the videos on my phone so I can watch how to make a golden cronut while im on the plane 😂

[@ripples1072]

i knew these! now if i just animated enough maybe i can get a quality reel

[@minoki46]

Thank you!

[@PaulNaas]

LOVED this! Will be showing it in class this afternoon (and bragging about you as well! 😁) Great stuff SW!

[@subtlecapg]

Thank you for the video! I am a character rigger and felt very disappointed with how I was taught animation at Uni. I would love to see a heavy hitter in the animation community discuss that topic. (hopefully, it does not get you in trouble legally)

[@girishpowar6098]

Thank you so much for making this video there were so questions i had that u answered !!!

[@easy3d300]

Where you disappeared my boy you can't scare us like that man KZbin is not the same with out you Sir the goat of animation lmao

[@Glenningway]

Wish this video was made in 2003 and not 2023, heh. My school stressed that companies were "desperate" for animators and would pay for relocation. It's totally bunk, and around 2008 I remember sending out 300 applications ranging from animation to gaming. Not a peep. I think living in the area with animation jobs would be the best thing as there's no way someone from Texas can make it to LA in two weeks for an interview, that will get expensive fast. Been having a bit of nostalgia of animation, Blender seems to be way bigger than I remember it. Though I'm in my 40s now, unsure what ageism and job stability is like now.

[@luciomennillo]

This was a fantastic video, sent this to all my students :) Thank you

[@bobloblaw6058]

do you store all ur anim knowledge in your chest hair cus gotdammmmm. when the chest hair tutorial coming out? 20 things every chest stubble should know when starting out? keep me posted!

[@nimaxo2012]

Thank You Sir Wade.😊❤

[@reverb07]

I am guilty of the giant shots thing I tried to make this character hit something big and it'll have some flashy VFX and I just added way too much and it ended up not looking good and I wasn't even that experienced with animation and I thought I could do it but nope it was a waste of my time and I learned my lesson. THANK YOU for this video btw! It inspired me to go back to animating more bouncing balls xD

[@GmanGavin1]

Meanwhile me: I just want to make VRchat avatars 😅

[@beminj]

Real good information! Thank you! Already shared it!

[@keithyakouboff8755]

Here's my recommendation: Have a plan B. I know many talented 3D VFX artists in addition to myself who are not finding work (at least in the US). At least one I know has given up and is looking to start a new career. Another is considering starting his own business since no one's hiring. Have a plan B: A career alternative you think you'd enjoy, or at least tolerate, that would also pay the bills.

[@bula288]

Here's the Penguins of Madagascar pipeline video if anyone else is looking for it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3TFeGOalNmhick

[@User-hx7gc]

Praying for consistent sir wade uploads😭

[@b.borovyi20]

Dude, I can't imagine what can be interesting in 30 frames. A jump? A fall?

[@lukasbabravicius6509]

really good video and informative about becoming animator. Also I was on Twitch and saw that on your (twitch) channel the is stream schedule for some reason like if you would stream on it (lol)

[@peterpmd]

Thank you very much.

[@krishnapuri5232]

Very relatable topics that you touched. I used to get frustrated a lot, now I started to understand and make some good progress thanks to all my seniors. and I have this question how animators do freelancing and survive without the actual need of job from companies. and Am very new to this freelancing stuff and have zero idea where or how to began with. so, I just wanna hear your personal experience on it and any suggestions will be very helpful. Thank you.

[@iguigutea1001]

🤔I wish I could make animation like Dreamwork or Pixar, I love the world of animation and am happy that now animation can be made as easy as possible. learn new things due to makeshift conditions and limited knowledge, and it would be great if we could make animations even though we don't believe it can be realized even if it's simple (😆thanks to the help of great motion creators, clothes, rooms, worlds, vehicles, etc., I love you 😚🙇💐and others who are as enlightening as you). Indeed, the challenge is very broad and big with the situation, but when it is so conical it feels like, WoWoW yea not bad..🚀

[@Jaakeup]

I understand that you should be focused on getting a great demo reel and portfolio and you should always be upgrading your skills. However, it's hard to focus on that when your income is near zero and the only jobs you can get are part time retail jobs so I keep applying to artist careers and I keep getting ignored or told "your skills aren't quite in line with what we're looking for". Seriously, I have over 2,000 job rejections that all say the same thing. I've changed up my portfolio multiple times and it's just the same thing over and over. It sucks.

[@leucome]

There was a pretty obvious skill inflation lately the new minimum requirement went off the chart compared to a couple years ago. There are some OG artist talking about that sometime. The portfolio they had to get there job back then would be totally useless now.

[@Jaakeup]

@@leucome Yeah that's something that really bothers me when old-school artists talk about how all they needed was a cube that vaguely resembles a human and bam, they're making $100k/yr. I've been to seminars where the instructor literally said he just moved a cube across the screen and he got a job at Blizzard. Like how is that useful in anyway? The skill inflation is ridiculous. Have you seen Flycat? And they're still in school!

[@ultraozy4085]

i partly disagree with your making everything point as an artist who's not in a team and can't afford hired help if i drew a unique concept that i can't find online then i should make it and sometimes the 3d asset is indeed available but i can't afford it, i kind of disagree with the way you see people that create independent animations its not necessarily just for fun alone but because they believe in the idea and want to see it come to life its why they got into animation to begin with.

[@mukilbharathi6873]

Can you try out the cascadeur software and can you talk about the animation and AI too?

[@Animationcafe]

Thanks for video, it's great)

[@TimTangents]

The fresh eyes after submission part is so true 😂 I've been experimenting with one of my recent projects using Ai and realised, if you put in bad work, it puts out worse work. Basically what ai does is it amplifies your quality of work... This was a fun project to do to see how much I can decrease render time.

[@clevachloe6988]

I tend to disagree when it comes to education. At the right schools, you’ll have an advantage over everyone who doesn’t go to a school because faculty can have connections. They might just be the one to help get that Pixar Intern application get approved, opposed to a random person with no connections applying

[@Dardasha_Studios]

What I extrapolate from this, animation is hard and easy.

[@nashineworks8318]

You should REALLY specify that this is more about 3D animation than anything else, man

[@maykirabo]

Well said 💪 keep it up

[@laudeharo]

Hi Sir Wade! I am currently studying in Animation Mentor and wanted to join your Workshop. However, those live Q&A's are mostly on the same dates that I will be attending Animayo Festival. Is there any Maya workshop coming up soon? I really want to polish and improve my maya skills. Thanks a lot for all your videos!!

[@SirWade]

Hi Laura! At the moment I’m not planning on holding another set of Maya live sessions for the next year or two. But I’m putting a ton of effort into the recordings so if you end up joining, you’ll still get access to those, even if you can’t make all the live sessions :)

[@laudeharo]

@@SirWade Great info, thanks!! I finally joined so see you there today at 9:00am

[@DUHRIZEO]

I wish I had that shirt haha so sick

[@chantifantasy]

I'm in my fourth semester in college and we have to take an internship next year. I feel really stressed and overwelmed when I think of all the projects for my portfolio. I mean I won't apply for a job straight after my bachelor, I plan to do also my master but I feel so left behind in comparison to the other students (eventho I deep down don't think I'm so bad). I'm just procrastinating so damn much, I can't help it. It's like a devils cicle but I don't know what to do. Do you think I can still participate at my internship (I haven't applied at any studio yet, my prof says October/November will be soon enough) or should I take more time to prepare (I can't do my bachelor without the internship before). I mean I have like a year left but I feel so paniced right now ...

[@harrisheller]

3:52 you're welcome internet

[@Yahnart]

Currently and probably going a little too ambitious with a 8 minute 2d animation on 1s but made to look 3d... C': I have hope though.

[@artificialpro]

I've been working on this one animation project for over 6 months, decided to model rig and create the environments myself. I deeply regret it. So much opportunities to work on other small projects lost. Saddest part is that this animation when complete, will still not be impressive, I think.. Idk.

[@vguannel]

this was really interesting! also, where can i find your shirt, it's really beautiful

[@seekertosecrets]

7:10 Question. Wouldn't be ethical to give credit to some of the outside resources that you used in a demo reel?

[@DebzLife]

Rhett from good mythical morning

[@Doc_Animator_N]

5:34 Ah. So animating the characters and the FX are two separate things. Then I should just stick to animating first, then work at the FX later, instead of together…

[@mustanggox]

please do more videos w blender i beg of u sir 😭

[@hectormanuel8360]

Would you do a small preview on the open source Moonray Engine?

[@harrisonworkman6301]

Thank you so very much for sharing these tips SIr wade. As I recently got accepted and about to start at the end of june in Animation mentor, these tips are going to be forever in my mind. I trained as a 3d modeler for 6 years and only realised last year that I was never really following what i actually wanted to do in life and what I was truly passionate about, which is working for feature animations and becoming an animator for it (and only work in feature animation if that is even possible). Was a very hard decision to l realise, but very excited to start. One random question if it is ok, regarding blend shapes on characters. Does an animator do that and set it to the rig controls (or that pannel thing)? or is that something the rigging team does. Like I was wondering if you were working on a production as a team and a character had some sort of stylised certain stretch or cartoon pop mechanic, would one person (like a lead or sup) create those changes? appolgise for the random question

[@_m3atball]

Are there careers for poeple who want to animate for games but don't want to do character animation? Like animating machinery type work?

[@kresnadimas4170]

thanks sir for info, but i wonder is 3d animating will still relevant in upcoming years? 3-10 years from now? .. cuz those AI animation make us worry

[@archcast5550]

I got a degree in Architecture, it is garbage When I applied for Unreal engine Jobs, They just ask this simple question . . .: where is the proof of concept!!!!! I agree to you! ! !

[@randomgeek-px7ri]

Hi Everyone, Hi Sir Wade, I have a question regarding animation if anyone can answer it would be very helpful for me. I wanted to really know how to develop the eyes for animation, there was a time when I took a workshop which was taught by a pixar animator and in those times when I saw his works and other people's work my animation sense went through the roof and my shots came out really more polished. But it all faded away once the worskhop was over and I didn't saw more quality work. My animation sense dulled and is dulled even now, when I see movies a lot for a week it comes back but I don't have much time these days. Is there a way to keep consistent animation eyes and are the supervisors, Leads and even you SirWade regularly see movies to keep consistency in watching hi quality animation content and maintain your animation eyes? Thanks in advance.

[@Prokamon]

I completed my animation in rig but i forget to reference it first but now it's going heavy So is there is any option... To make that file rig as reference rig file

[@talkythegamer2305]

another thing about the pipeline and I can´t stress enough name your files correctly

[@Kaijoworks]

Am a 2D animator. I can relate to all the 20 tips

[@Yahnart]

Fellow 2dian hang in there.

[@Conceptsofsanket]

Hi, Can you please tell me what kinda deformer you used to make the fluid

[@SirWade]

It's a cluster deformer, controlling the vertices on the top face of a cylinder! (And I show a bunch of stuff like that in my workshop :D)

[@anuragranga9254]

after watching you for ages.... today is the day i realise.... CHris prat from guardians of galaxy

[@Barbar-barbaro]

…you’re talking about Full Sail, aren’t you?

[@Maz789]

12:19 even if we come from to an other country ? 🤣

[@AmusementVision]

Why did I think you were Alex Hirsch?

[@oshit2874]

he's just getting more handsome and handsome by each video

[@ibrahimmomoh]

do you know Ravi Govind Kambele?

[@indiboy7]

Schools just teach you a bunch of softwares, not use them effectively. To properly use them you have to practice a lot. Else school js a waste.

[@lupinlapin]

Why is the price on your website so weired. Don’t get it

[@SirWade]

Why is it weird?

[@lupinlapin]

@@SirWade just a bug. I’m from France 🇫🇷 and would like to reach out to you to talk organisation if possible ?

[@lupinlapin]

@@SirWade the price is more then fine.

[@Lo.0se]

I chose the university of YT.

[@Fly-Co2]

I didn't like the video but i do love your chest hair though... JK the video is great too.

[@LordLuigi_Rigs]