How hard is it to get a job in 3d animation in the UK?

perhaps I shouldnt trust what I heard from the guy who built the models for corpse bride hehe.. I'm also a 2d animation student whos gonna graduate soon, looking at the info I've seen it looks like I'll either whore my self out to places that do 2d animation or just go into storyboarding... apparently britains short of story boarders.

I would have thought there where plenty of opertunities for a 3d animator in the uk because it seems like there are loads of them around here.. I had a hard time finding 2d ones.

When I was teaching at animation schools in Canada, I told students who had very similar questions that this was their "graduation exercise".

Its now up to you. Getting work will be as easy or as hard as you make it.

Do your homework in this.........in fact, you probably should have done the work BEFORE you enrolled in school. ( why enroll in a training program, to train in a trade if you do not know if there's a demand for it? That's like taking an awful risky crapshoot at life and your career.)

Check the media you are seeing in the UK, read all the trade mags, read sites like AWN for news about productions coming out of the UK.
Write down the names of the studios that come up, get their contact info.

As for how to get work, its pretty simple: It'll come down to your abilities.
Your education is next to meaningless if you cannot produce appealing work at a professional standard.
I know.....someone in your position HATES hearing that, but its true.
Just having 3D training under your belt is useless if all you can create is shit.
The studios/companies that are looking to hire are going to be looking for people with a knack for specific things. Particle effects, certain levels of modelling skill, skills with rigging, or FLASH builds. People with solid artistic abilities, or storytelling abilities.
Again, research into the kinds of studios and productions currently underway and about to get underway will give you an idea of what they want and what level you need to be at.

I will not mince words with you. It IS hard to get work in the biz. If you lack the skills, the ability to produce work at the level the studios need, no amount of whining or fussing will get them to change. Work in the animation biz is merit-based; you are either able to perform or not.
You WILL be competing with people that are very skilled, for positions in which they will likely be very qualified for. Ability is therefore your only deciding asset.

Now, as much of a downer as all that is, IF you have the ability you can make a good career out of it. Once you get a couple of jobs under your belt, put a couple of years in doing different stuff and expanding your skills and experience you can work in the biz indefinitely.
I've been in the biz in Canada since 1985, I'm self taught and did not have any fancy animation school to go to. I do storyboards for TV animation and related media and I've been working fairly steadily for the past 23 years or so.

I got my job by being put in touch with someone that a family member knew, and I had just enough mediocre ( at that time) ability to do entry level stuff, and I built from there. If I had not the ability, my career would have fizzled right then.

Without being so incredibly blunt, let me put it another way.

I'm a graduating 2d animator myself. I've had a fair amount of success in festivals, and yet I can't even get my foot in the door so anyone even knows HOW good I am to start off with, never mind actually look at what I can do or give me a chance. Personally, from the people I have talked to, a large section of the UK animation scene right now is in the doldrums. Theres an awful lot of talented young people who would have got a job two years ago that now can't even get close.

Theres a serious lack of schemes for youngsters, and absolutely no sense of any studios taking much of a risk on young'uns, except for the very biggest.

As much as its all about ability, at the moment, the UK is an awful place for young animators at the moment, because no-one is giving anyone a chance. You can have all the ability in the world, but at the moment its hard to find a single job application that isnt wanting 'two years industry experience at the highest level'.

Canada is positively booming compared to the UK.

As much as its all about ability, at the moment, the UK is an awful place for young animators at the moment, because no-one is giving anyone a chance. You can have all the ability in the world, but at the moment its hard to find a single job application that isnt wanting 'two years industry experience at the highest level'.

Canada is positively booming compared to the UK.

Well, this is the other thing. The reason the studios want that 2 years level of experience is because a lot of young workers with less than 2 years experience are notorious for flaking out ( botching) on the job. Creative fields like animation are esspecially prone to this.

How do you beat it?
It depends upon your life/work experiences in your resume'. If you can show a specific pattern of disciplined and reliable working positions (via the kinds of job, time at jobs and references) then you stand a far better chance squeaking in past that 2 year threshold the studios demand.

I know........young folks hate the piss out of that. It means they needed to have gotten serious about the stuff years before, and started building themselves up well before they came to this kind of thing.
What can I say? Consequences suck.

Festivals are nice things to have on a resume', but is your work commerical in appeal? If its not, then that might be why the offers are few. Studio don't care if you can push the buttons right--they want people that can do the work just like they do. If your work isn't showing that, no amount of technical prowess will sway them.

This is why trades like animation, in many parts of the Western world, remain a elite vocation. Again, persistence plays a role here.
Network with people, get your name, face and work in their faces. Use your feet, your head and the keyboard right in front of you. Try further out in the field, out of the country. Don't give up.

Yes, Canada IS "booming" again. The curve for work is on a upswing again and shows no sign of abating. There was a momentary fear that the dollar at par with the US buck would kill off a lot of projects......well, its been 6 months and that's not what appears to be happening.
Projects are underway, or on the way.
Its not crazy busy like it was in the mid 90's, but it appears busier than it has been for a while--at least from my perspective.

Unfortunately Ken, its hard for UK citizens with little experience to go anywhere else, such is the massive difficluty with VISAs. I did try myself, but its made very difficuly, and even impossible in some cases.

I think a lot of what you talk of Ken is common sense that this guy undeniably has. He KNOWS its hard work, god we all do, we don't need to keep on, but this isn't simply a case of 'work very hard and you may just make it' School from Fame kind of talk, the problem runs a lot deeper than that. People who CAN offer the level of work and commitment needed can't get in unless someone dies or retires at the moment in the UK, and thats the sad thing.

For instance, from my college, the year before ours managed to have everyone employed in the animation industry within a year. Compare that to our year where only eight or nine out of about thirty have managed to hold down regular work at any point. Our year isn't exponenitally worse, its just theres no work out there for them.

This isn't simply a case of 'are you good enough?'. We wouldn't be on this forum talking about if if the passion and desire and ability wasn't there.

I think a lot of what you talk of Ken is common sense that this guy undeniably has. He KNOWS its hard work, god we all do, we don't need to keep on, but this isn't simply a case of 'work very hard and you may just make it' School from Fame kind of talk, the problem runs a lot deeper than that. People who CAN offer the level of work and commitment needed can't get in unless someone dies or retires at the moment in the UK, and thats the sad thing.

Have you guys bottle-necked your careers? That is, focused on just animation?
If so, you've shut yourselves off from a lot of other options.
Look, animation gigs dry up, try other cartooning gigs, comics, illustration, greeting cards, design work, advertising, storyboards etc.....
Being connected to the internet puts you into a global work-place, not just a national one. How far afield is the job search going?
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but via the European Economic Union, can you not work in other EU countries like France or Germany? Can you not work in the UK on projects out of those countries?
Heck, I have gotten work from the USA, Germany and Japan in year's past, so I know outsourced work is doable.

My only advice I can offer is this: rather than accept the paradigm as you believe it to be, seek to function in and around it regardless.
Don't do just animation. Make work for yourself as best you can.
The ballsy thing a person can do is open shop for themselves--offer services on their own--or gather together with a few colleagues.

If you are putting films in festivals, put them on-line too. Send the reels/portfolios to foreign studios--to heck with the visa issues for now. Do it anyway. People do get hired in from other countries a lot more than you think.

I haven't bottle-necked I don't think. I've looked at 2d, 3d, storyboarding, commissions and running/assistant work.

I already have quite a few solid contacts, but as I said, theres just nothing I can find to even work on. Only recently have I found any possible leads at all in the last couple of months.

Ideally, I'd start my own business/studio, but I have no money to get it off the ground to start with. Freelancing doesn't appeal at all, as its the team dynamic that makes me want to animate in the first place.

I'm a very positive person in general, but the 'paradigm as I believe it to be' sadly very much at the moment is reality. Everyone talks of it that way.

jaysus this topic scares the bolox off me

Well, I thought I needed to add a quick update.

In the last two days, out of nowhere, I've been offered two completely different and seemingly fantastic oppurtunities! Buses and all that....

I think we can all agree that this industry can be totally unpredictable at times...

Well, I thought I needed to add a quick update.

In the last two days, out of nowhere, I've been offered two completely different and seemingly fantastic oppurtunities! Buses and all that....

I think we can all agree that this industry can be totally unpredictable at times...

Yes, it can be.
Congrats on the offers--I hope they work out for you.

What was I saying about patience and persistence?:rolleyes: