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Educating Yourself in an Animation Writing or Production Career - Page 2

© Shannon Muir

Formal education isn’t necessarily needed for animation production jobs either. When I first joined what is now Sony Animation, the Production Supervisor I worked closely with on JUMANJI had no animation background whatsoever before coming there; previously this person spent years in retail sales. However, many of the things learned in this totally unrelated field translated to animation production management, such as how to deal with people. It wasn’t that many years later the same person turned up as Line Producer – two job titles higher and much more responsibility – on DILBERT for UPN.

Even if you haven’t gotten your first job in the animation industry yet, or aren't in a position for or don't desire any formal education, you can still start educating yourself. Sit and analyze shows on the air. Pay attention to how everything’s assembled, the flow of dialogue, how long time passes before the picture changes to a new shot, or the timing of how high an animated ball bounces on screen. If you want to write, track down animation scripts and their completed counterparts. See how what’s on the page translated to the screen, what was cut, or what dialogue lines were changed. You can start educating yourself this way right now, until the opportunity to educate yourself on the job comes along.

Whether it’s writing a scene every day for a sample (“spec”) script, or communicating with artists and production personnel on a daily basis, you’re learning and honing skills to make you more effective in the animation industry. There’s always room to grow and learn and improve over the years. “Doing” is the greatest teacher.

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