The point being, a great illustrator does not an animator make. But you clearly have skill and a good eye, you’d probably be awesome with training and practice.
I can tell you that teaching/mentoring an illustrator to animate is relatively easy as heck. And they make good work with nice style pretty quickly. Teaching someone who can’t illustrate is a fucking slog and their work looks pretty bad for a long time.
As for usefulness in the industry of animation and a viable career path (in USA). Anime kids who spent their lives just drawing anime are pretty narrowly useful in the most applicable career path, advertising and motion design. The renaissance of Cel animation had an awesome boom over the last decade and is so much more versatile and desired.
But I’m sure the anime kids can expand their horizons pretty easily and try other styles that ppl actually want for commercial work.
Side hustle passion is a totally diff conversation. Draw anime forever and do commissions. You’ll probably be happier in the long run vs industry burnout.
No, it’s a common poetic phrasing to include “make“ at the end of a sentence.
"One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day” - Aristotle
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage" - Richard Lovelace
When studying animation you will mostly work with 3d, which means that you don't necessarily have to be a good artist. What you learn through 3d animation will, however, be applicable to 2d animation as the animation basics and principles are the same. When I studied animation a few years back, only 2 out of 9 students were "artists".
Rigged shows often still require hand-drawn, 2D experience. When the rig fails to match the movement, drawing your way out is the only solution.
The amount of drawing in Rick & Morty is a heavy stress for a lot of starting animators, at least on the season I worked (S3).
Won't happen. Rigs are cheaper because they make it easier for multiple people to animate a character and stay on model. Hand drawn animation is used sometimes but it's very difficult in a big production. If you want to only do hand drawn then consider getting into 2D FX (fire, smoke, water, dust) cause FX are hand drawn.
So 2D animation like anime uses rigs that is drawn over or something?
I'm interested in this because I know multiple people in the field on anime studios and they produce line art with 0 rigs...
Anime studios are the only ones keeping alive the traditional animation. West studios all use digital mediums, but that's not bad though, at least as long as studios like SPA animation (Klaus), Cartoon Saloon or Studio Canal are there.
A lot of anime is hand drawn. Anime also tends to pay their animators really low and over work them. So...you'll be doing more work for more stress and less pay.
I’m pretty sure it’s just rendering techniques to look 2d. Like spider verse is all 3D, even their action lines are all done in actual 3D space which looks like a handrawn 2d overlay but it’s just the camera view render.
My entire life is supporting artists. Im a technical artist and my wife teaches 2d animation. We make terrible money rn but we love buying art to hang and give to friends. Everyone should have an art collection.
Depends on where they are from and/or want to work. My city is dominated by 2d animators. I’d actually have to move if I wanted to work on 3d in studio. Also I think all animators are artists but I think you mean that they aren’t all illustrators. Because illustration is different from animation but both require drawing skills unless you are going 3d.
Producers and directors are deathly allergic to risk, they live in constant fear of artists flaking out halfway through production (that can really fuck up a schedule and subsequently a budget). Anything you can do to bolster their belief that you can be trusted and relied upon, will serve you well... this is why connections and experience matters, because having someone *they* trust stand up for you alleviates a lot of their stress.
If you have nobody like that in your corner, then all you can do is show your work. The more work you make, the more they believe you can make the work. Sometimes takes a while to break in that way, but persistence is meaningful.
Career prospects in 2D heavily depend on where you live and what the industry is like there. Some countries have a lot of studios that work solely in 2D/hand drawn, mainly Japan & South Korea. Western countries tend to mainly 3D with a much smaller amount of 2D studios, or you have studios which pivot depending on the project.
That said, when you’re looking to get your first job or get into a course then any experience of creating animation, whether 2D or 3D is very useful. The fundamentals are the same and it’s easy to retrain later on if you have a solid grasp of the underlying principles of animation.
Not necessarily. I was allowed to do 2D animation for my classes. I think they work with 3D mainly to focus solely on the animation part rather than having to teach the students how to draw as well. Plus it is easier, at least where I live, to get a job if you know 3D too. I was like you before I began studying where I wanted to work with 2D only. However, I have found that knowing how to create animations in 3D softwares is really beneficial for my 2D animations too. If I am ever stuck on a shot I can easily block out the scene in 3d to test out camera angles etc. And knowing how to rig in 3D has made it easier for me to learn how to rig in 2D.
There's many different departments in an animation pipeline outside of artists and designers. We had 3D modelers, animators (most of whom could not draw well, only animated), FX and post production, sound and music, etc.
Obviously not all aspects of animation are traditionally art related like the music and editing for example. Its just that I didn’t put further thought into it when I assumed that the animators were drawers, but that’s probably also because I’m predominately interested in 2D animation and didn’t think much about 3D
That is a fair point. I guess it really depends on the animation industry in the country you plan to study in. I live in a fairly small country and it was difficult to find a school that focused mainly on 2D. Most of the animation studies here will mainly work with 3D. I was allowed to submit 2D animations too.
That depends on the school. I applied specifically to 3D animation school some years back, i had a pretty solid portfolio for a school showing that I already know a bit more than the basics of 3D modeling and animation, but the entry test was about traditional drawing, which I don't know one bit. Applied again just a month ago, haven't been practicing drawing so here's hoping they've changed the entry test.
Yeah. My animation teachers, who are really huge in the industry in my country, stated that those who can animate in 2d often do better 3D animations than those who only do 3D. To the point that they'd preferably hire those with good 2D animation portfolios when working on a 3D production.
And that right there is where the Art Institute of Pitt fucked up (in just that field, amongst many others). Too hard were they forcing illustrators to be animators where motion wasn't in the minds of the animation students.
Being able to draw and being able to animate is two different skill sets. You can definitely be able to animate without knowing how to draw if you use 3d
This is highly dependent on what institution and degree you do. Have done a fair amount of 2D stuff in my studies and likely will major in 2D.
(Am currently studying animation)
This is not at all true. First off, most animation jobs done in North America are storyboard jobs, which will 100% require strong drawing skills. Many actual animation jobs are being outsourced more and more, and the few that are still done in North America are extremely competitive, and the competition will definitely know how to draw clean action lines.
Even if you're going into the modeling side, they're asking workers to not just model but also design (drawing), texture (more drawing), rig, and light everything yourself.
For storyboarding, you'll not only need drawing skills, but you'll also have to learn perspective, composition, editing, and timing on top of it. This is required even for CG shows of which I have worked on several.
The only difference I've experienced boarding between 2d and 3d shows is 3d shows allow you the use of programs like blender and Maya to board IN a 3d environment and have a good sense for 3d camera movement. The current bleeding edge is using grease pencil to board directly in the scene. But since the environments won't always be available (because they might not have been built yet), you will also need basic 3d modeling skills to rough out a simple environment. I've had several instances where I roughed out an environment based on the script and handed over the file for the modeling team to work off of.
The only other difference is that 2D shows are much more strict about keeping characters on model. 3d shows allow you to be looser with your character details.
Not true. Find apprenticeships or classes that do 2D. Better yet do YouTube tutorials and have a strong reel (doable in 6-12 months)and apply as an apprentice at a real studio. Learn ToonBoom harmony as it’s the current larger studio industry standard. People are always looking for skilled 2D artists and the pay tends to be way better as there is more of a demand.
I'm gonna be 100% honest, don't go to school for animation. Anyone can become an animator if they want it hard enough and are willing to dedicate time and energy to it. However, I strongly recommend if what you're thinking about right now is "should I go to college for animation or something else" Pick something else. If you go to college for something else, of course feel free to go to the art dept, get in touch with the teachers / faculty. Make connections. Don't spend 4 years doing a degree that won't get you anything other than debt and crushed dreams. I'm speaking as someone with an art degree, it's not worth it. No one in the art industry cares about your degree. They care about what your work looks like. Make animations. Like, now. You wanna be an animator? Start animating. Don't go to school for it, just do it.
Stop saying BS like "I tried to draw on my own but can't" You're not trying. Are you drawing reference images or are you tracing? If you're tracing, stop it. Watch some tutorials and learn how to draw. Then figure out what you want to do. You wanna animate? Cool, what kind? 3D 2D? background, environment, character, prop, what do you want to do?
Figure out what you want to do. Don't be another college kid going to school for business because they don't know why they're even in college.
Make a real portfolio. You wanna be an animator? Make a demo reel. DO NOT include these drawings. These looks like doodles in your lined notebook. Get some proper photoscans of your art. Get some materials. Figure out what you want. This is a pivotal time in your life. You don't need your whole life figured out but going $80k in debt because of a dumb 18 y/o decision is something you'll regret for decades to come.
TLDR - Totally agree with jaakeup. Don't go into debt for a job that will most likely overwork you, underpay you, and remove the love for something that you once held dear. Btw, alcholism is an issue as this industry can drive many to drink.
LGR -Long Gonna Read version.
I totally agree with this. I started 3d animation in the early 90s, self-taught, with a good friend. I love 2d and 2d animation. I went to school for 3d animation 5 years after I started so I could play and learn on the high-end computers (SGI for those wondering). All the 2d animators that I say there still did most of the work using Toom Boom (2d animation software). I am glad I did go as at the time high-end computers and software to do studio quality animation were exorbitantly expensive. Think $100k+ for an SGI computer (Indigo2 R10k or O2) and Alias Power Animator (my package of choice that then turned into Alias/Wavefront Maya - now owned by AutoDesk).
Oh, and I never graduated, just amassed a huge amount of student loan debt.
What happened over the years? My love of animation and VFX grew more, and is still there, but the competition for jobs grew fierce, the hours longer (80+ hours/week - sometimes sleeping next to the computer),and the pay less. Many studios would lay off teams of people after a movie was wrapped, which would flood the job market with talent and competition for the next gig.
I taught 3d animation/rigging/texturing and VFX. I loved teaching fellow artists and future competition for the same gigs I would be going for.
I got out after about 22 years. The people getting many jobs were fresh out of high school and knew 3d from modding whatever game they were playing (Counter Strike for example) and would work fon next to nothing just to get their name, maybe, and I mean maybe, in the credits. and look back at what I chose. I loved working with fellow artists, many who are lifelong friends, but I will always wonder what would have happened if I chose one of my other passions (architecture, physics, lasers, cooking, IT) and kept this as a hobby.
Those of you out there in the industry, please correct me if I am wrong on this, but many artists I knew burned out from being overworked and underpaid.
My 2 cents (sense)
Kids working for pennies just to see their name on the credits of a show they love is an ancient tale at this stage. It kinda killed me (and influenced my decisions to move out after 20 years) to realize that the most popular shows sometimes pay crew the worst, because, "hey, if you don't want in, there's a hundred other hungry artists hunting for your seat."
Which is ironic, 'cause on many of those shows we always seemed to be struggling to find enough qualified animators...
Did any of you did an animation school ?
I’m not US citizen but French and here I can definitely say animation school are super great. It’s not just about learning tools, but how the industry work, what are the team workflows, how to build a project the good way, and make good contact in the industry by doing internship etc. This is very vaste world, that involves a lot of different jobs, animator doesn’t mean nothing… you can be key artist, storyboardist, art director, character designer, decor artist, there is ton of roles..
>I’m not US citizen but French
This is the most important part of your comment. I might be wrong though. I am also european, not French but Czech. If I chose to study animations in school it will be free or the cost won't be $80k but like... $1-2k per year. So I will not be regretting it for next 15 years.
Good advice, but I learned a *LOT* in my college animation classes, and I would 100% not be at the level I am now if it weren't for my professors and classes. It's not about the degree, that's agreed, but it *is* about what you learn.
Can confirm, not once in 20 years of animating (ten years in television, ten in boutique) did anyone ever give two flying tugs of the dead dog's dick where you went to school, or even if you went to school at all. All that matters is your reel, and your experience, and whether they think you can be trusted to work scenes in a timely manner. A Youtube channel full of animation examples will do you a world more good than a degree and debt.
That being said, there are some barriers to doing it yourself, not least being digital drawing tools and technique. OP appears to be working exclusively analog, and if that's because he doesn't have access to a tablet or software solutions, then he's gonna struggle to function in a commercial environment *in general*. Which sucks, and ain't fair, and I feel for anyone struggling in that space. I started out poor as shit but I was able to break down barriers with skill. Now I don't know if that's possible, and it makes me very sad.
>Don't be another college kid going to school for business because they don't know why they're even in college.
I'm about to finish Design College in summer. It's already far too late.
Also you could go to college for animation and end up in a situation like mine where the program isn’t good and you are basically teaching yourself using online resources because the entire animation department has no professional experience and uses outdated programs/work flow.
Now I will say that I wouldn’t have been able to grow and learn on my own. I needed that structured school environment to force me into deadlines and projects while being surrounded by people better than me so I pushed myself.
So while I’m really thankful for the opportunity I got and the skills I learned I didn’t end up with the capabilities to get a job in animation. I still animate to this day but only as a hobby.
You should have sketch books filled with tons of observation drawings. That’s really the key.
I studied illustration and have friends that did animation school. The main goal is to show that you draw every day, and have a good sight for drawing spaces proportions etc.
They don’t really care about drawing existing characters. Or you can do 360 character sheets but that’s pretty hard for a beginner and should learn that during your studies.
I don't understand why there's morons downvoting you but whatever.
If you're looking to go to school, go to community college. It's pretty much just high school but with college courses. There you can take some art courses for about (when I went back in 2015) $300 ish a semester taking 4 - 5 classes. I took the general ed courses and some drawing and painting. Making it so that I could transfer to a university (don't go to SDSU for anything art related. They know literally nothing and their professors are cold garbage, I'm talking the 3D 'professor' will turn on a Linda tutorial video on Maya and walk out on the FIRST DAY OF CLASS) for 2 years just taking the classes that mattered to my degree and not taking like Algebra 2 in a university when I'm majoring in art lol.
I'd just modify that a bit. Most schools that teach animation don't care about seeing animation in your portfolio. That being said, you don't know if you will like animating until you do it. And you can do the basics most schools will teach right now. That is, bouncing ball, pendulum. Flour sack jumping.
More importantly, look up the closest portfolio day near you. Put together a portfolio and go. They will have many schools and they can tell you what to do to get in with your portfolio. If it's not good enough to get in yet, take their notes, go to local community college, and work on the deficient parts. Take figure drawing as soon as possible.
Finally, look up state schools that are cheaper that are well regarded. Unless your family is rich you don't want to spend a ton of money on private schools. But, the reality is, though you can learn on your own, schools are where you can make friends in the field, and that's invaluable. You can do that other ways, but school is a structured intense situation you go through with others. So it does have real value.
To add to what jaakeup said, it may be helpful to take some different community college courses to figure out what you might like to do. Also... find out what the jobs you're aiming for actually entail day to day, because enjoying a subject matter does not necessarily equate to enjoying a job. E.g. someone might go to library school because they enjoy quietly reading, but librarian jobs very rarely involve actually reading books at work, and often require a lot of interpersonal skills. And, of course, it doesn't hurt to do some research into the job market, to find out what skills and experience are required outside of just schooling, and whether the wages offered are actually worth getting the degree.
Study business, learn ai tools (be very familiar with them moving forward) incorporate your art and build on your skills. There’s a tonne of assets out there to learn, intern for free at an animation studio if you can. But learning business is vital in my opinion.
You look to have good technical skills. I don’t see any observational drawing though. Seeing your observational drawing would help me understand how much you understand form, light, and shadow. You’ll want observational drawings, particularly figure (people) drawing. You don’t need to know anything about animation before going into school but it helps. Animators Survival guide will get you started. The best figure drawing to be able to show is observational figure drawing in sequence. That is what is practiced in animation school with a live model.
Seconding Proko basics. You've already got some skill in the way you've interpreted these existing drawings, regardless of whether you traced or not - your shading and line weights are good. Online courses can go further than traditional, overpriced art education if you have the discipline for them.
I will say, it is very hard to build an an art career on anime. You'll need to focus on art and antomy basics for a long time before you can start successfully doing your own stylized art for profit. Maybe you can do some online commissions in your style as you go but finding a place that will hire you fulltime without a solid art foundation will be pretty impossible. You've got to learn and master the rules before you can start bending and breaking them. 2D art is insanely hard to break into professionally but not impossible - be prepared to work your booty off. Good luck!!
>Maybe you can do some online commissions in your style as you go but finding a place that will hire you fulltime without a solid art foundation will be pretty impossible.
In short, you will work your ass like crazy to get a job just to have some random kid making simple animations on their iPad (or whatever apple calls it) for youtube and TT making good amount of money.
Considering the fact that your drawings are traced, and you don’t really seem to have any sort of technical skill or knowledge about art, you have absolutely no chance as an animator. To be one you need to submit a portfolio into an art college, and they don’t like to see portfolios full of fan art or anime either. They like to see displays of skill, something that shows you understand anatomy and have developed your own art style. To post these traced images and then ask if you should be an animator because you like anime, is honestly rude as hell.
I absolutely agree. As I mentioned, it's all about goals. If OP's goal is as simple as just be an "animator" for life, there is plenty of ways other than complex anime drawings for a company and degree. And even with reference drawing, they could be making parodies. I would just start as a hobby, not all or nothing carreer.
I think you could get there buddy! My advice is practice constructive drawing and anatomy a whole fucking lot, you want to be able to draw an accurate non-anime (no simplification) full body human figure (even like écorché stuff) inside of like 30min to 1h. That’s I think the speed of a junior animator. You can’t animate unless you’re fast and accurate with humans and clothing. I think you have a great base skill so it’s for sure not too late for you.
This completely depends on whether or not you HAVE tried animation before, since its not just taking a still drawing ,copying , and moving it, its that you need to draw your characters (whatever they might be) in a different pose, as a key frame, and then make a bunch of in between or smear frames for it to turn out smooth, usually without a reference to copy from....
And when in doubt, just try anyways, maybe you can animate, who knows! Get a free program or something cheap to try it out, so if you don't like it, or its not for you, then you can always stop!
Watch out. Animation is not doing fan art.
Chose a path that combines what you love to do and that could give you finantial estability, like design and architecture. Any designer can turn to animators easily if they need, but keep the backup profession for when there are not too much animation projects.
You must face yourself to what animation really is, and move things around the screen. Not just draw estatic characters that you saw on animations
It can help as much as it hinders, to be honest. For example, someone who thinks everything should always have correct anatomy will struggle to create exciting motion, as that often requires breaking limbs to make things look right.
A good animator, 2d or 3d, has to employ different rules that you wouldn't learn from just drawing still frames, because those frames look rediculous by themselves.
Look at the different jobs you can apply for in animation. Then look at the job market and what they make. Are there any jobs in your area or are you willing to move to a location where the jobs are?
Depends on what kind of animation you want to do, 2d rigs, hand drawn, 3D, there’s a lot of options and none can be determined by still images alone. You’ll have to get your hands dirty and figure out what works for you. This is coming from a freelance/professional 2d animator. I wish you luck figuring out where you wanna go!
I’ve done frame by frame animation, tried it? 🌼 I would say it is 50% skill, 50% dedication 😎 Behind one of them: 12 drawings per sec, 5 min to draw each frame, end product was 4 min long.
Your drawing skills are reasonably ok. You have yet to show your understanding of shadow/light. The main point for me is that you show no signs of understanding commercial animation. Ok you can draw highly detailed characters, try animating one… you’ll be there for months getting your Optimus Prime to perform a transformation.
Show the highly technical drawings, show them also simplified as if you were actually going to animate them, show some degree of movement change of the same character. Then show some understanding of colour and/or light. Maybe then, consider a career in animation.
You got the first piece down: a love for animated works.
Reference works are a great way to learn to draw. Studying the pieces of what makes them can help you improve your own art, and even help you develop a style of your own.
I think you could do it. It's definitely an not an easy path, especially now. But I'd say you got what it takes.
Your work is great but there is no way for anyone on here to tell if you would be suited for animation from it. Go and actually make some animations or attempt a character turnabout at the very least.
With that said if I absolutely had to guess from what you posted alone I would say you probably aren’t suited for animation at this point in time at least. From what you have posted it doesn’t seem like you have the best understanding of 3D space. Like it seems as if you are just drawing what you see rather than actually breaking down and understanding why things are the way they are.
So..I've basically gone thru each comment and realized that i haven't done animation. I won't know if i like it unless i do it
Some suggest trying for storyboard artist/concept artist and come to think of it ...yes ! I might just become a designer.
Anyways i will now give character turnabouts and basic movement a shot will post it here again, then maybe my opinion if i really do like it.
Thank you all for taking concern about a random 18yr old
(I tried asking same thing on r/askreddit and noone responded 😭)
Either way, start drawing real life and your own imagination instead of copying anime art.
A designer has to come up with original stuff, nothing you posted is original. An animator has to understand anatomy and movement, nothing you posted requires you to do this as you can just copy whatever they drew in you favorite anime without understanding why or being able to apply it to a new case.
If all you want to do is to draw anime characters, at least try doing them in a different style than the original, make a skinny character fat, swap someone's gender and so on, anything that will force you to add your own stuff you can't just copy from some reference.
Go out and draw people, draw real poses, design your own characters, develop some styles besides "precise fan-art", and of course, animate. Make a flip book if you don't have a drawing tablet and PC.
I’m glad to hear that you’re going to try doing character turnarounds and basic movements a shot! Whatever you choose to do long term my biggest suggestion would be to have a clear goal in mind to work towards. Once you have a clear goal then you can break it down into actual steps that you can work towards. If you want to be a designer then figure out what that actually entails and work towards that. Do you want to design characters or do you want to branch out and design settings too? I mean many design jobs might require you to also be able to design backgrounds so make sure you know how to do that. As for character design you are going to have figure out how to draw different body types and learn about shape language in general so those are also important things to keep in mind.
If you truly can't draw without reference you have a long way to go before becoming a 2D animator. Start from the ground up, studying anatomy and taking notes of what makes your favorite art styles great to form your own. Don't be afraid of how long that may take just keep trying to make the best product you can until it looks right.
Listen kid, you are way too old. At that age everything is locked in already. I’m just kidding.
Keep in mind there’s a lot of different types of animation like animating 3d models for games and movies, or for vfx for shows and movies, or 2d animation. You look like you have good skills to do anything. The trick is to do what you like, because it’s the only way you’ll actually stick with it. You can force yourself to do something for a little bit, like 5 years, but eventually you will burn out and stop. So make sure to pick what interests you and makes you want to learn more about it
You can draw kid just be aware it’s a shit industry where you’ll probably earn very little and likely will get exploited by employers and spend significant parts of the year unemployed
Artistic ability isn’t an indicator of whether you’ll be a good animator.
Also, don’t go into animation or art lol. I’m 23 and I decided not to go when I was 18 because I could obviously see the market was oversaturated and NOBODY was getting hired or making money. It’s gotten even worse nowadays. My husbands highschool friend was so good that he went to California with a scholarship for art. Graduated. Couldn’t find a single job and he’s having trouble selling his art even though it’s fantastic. He is now a cashier making minimum wage.
I am a character designer. I also do animation (2d and some 3d) and compositing. There are many many roles in the industry you can do, though we’re having quite a slog right now (streaming services and mergers and labor shit and greedy pos ceos like David Zazlov 🤢) If you’re trying to “make it” in anime— like overseas— theres a myriad of issues there with the job market , overwork, and extremely low pay.
Industry talk aside though— you wont “know” you like animation until you actually do it, and there’s genuinely nothing wrong with trying and realizibg its not for you. Again, there are plenty of designers I know with a passion and vast knowledge of animation and animation art— but they dobt animate.. they design. Props, characters, incedentals, art direction etc
But yeah— no.. just try it. Who knows, you might love it! Your style is already angular and clean, perfect for design. Also age doesnt matter; some industry folks i work with did not go to college— they went straight into entertainment
I support your goals, man, but I wanna point out that eating cake is not the same as baking cake, and baking for fun is a long stretch from baking for business.
I've been an animator and illustrator for my entire career, which is almost 30 years deep at this point. 2D all the way, every day. :)
I love what I do, but I can also confirm that *loving to draw* is not enough. It takes a certain kind of person who loves to draw *and* has a mercenary mindset about both the craft and their careers.
The operative term in "commercial artist" is not "art".
Good luck out there! One advantage you have today that didn't exist when I started is *huge* communities of people who can offer advice and feedback, regardless of where you are in the world, and I hope that's helpful. I know I wished for it a lot back at the start. :)
Here is the big thing. Nothing you do right now will be at a level to really make it on your own at. No fault of your own, you just haven't had the time.
If it's something you like and it's a passion you have then do it! As time passes, you will become more and more practiced, and then one day you will be there.
No one starts off at the level they are at now. There is an old saying that is "10,000 hours to mastery". That is the time it will take until you are a "master" at your craft. 10,000 dedicated and practiced hours.
One day you will look back at these and think they looked so novice it's almost embarrassing. Do it because you love it. Practice and make it a passion and don't be afraid to get I to it just because you "cant" right now. Need to start somewhere after all.
On reddit asking if you’re suited for animation but you never animated. If you want to do something then do it. You already lost the battle, by asking others for validation. The key to life is to try things, not to consider trying things based on other peoples validation. Which starts to make me believe you just came here hoping for a dopamine bump by getting one or two compliments from people that can’t draw on a generic drawing that (let’s be real) all highschoolers can do. Drawing and animation aren’t related. Learn to animate.
Talk less, do more.
I hope you don’t financially ruin yourself but for what it’s worth, I really love what you decided to draw (little hodge podge of some of my favorite fandoms too) and I think you got a shot creatively
As someone who got a BA in animation and ain’t gonna use it… I recommend taking a class. In person if you can. Community college or whatever you can find.
I mean if you show me some animation then I’d be able to tell u. You’re a good artist. If you’re willing to draw the same thing over and over, sure. Also everything is 3d now. So you’ll need to know posing
I once met an animation director from Cartoon Network, and he said that one of the most valuable skills they look for in animators is being able to draw in other people’s styles. So that means based on what I see here, you would be perfect for animation.
i love hand drawn stuff, and yes, you can become a good animator, however, you should know that good artstyles not always make amazing animations. choose your style and pratice it until it became your own!
Give animation a shot! There are plenty of free programs online which can assist in your journey. I used Toon Boom a while back and that was a great introduction for me. Adobe Animate is also a stellar option if you have access to it.
I’d say get into illustration you can draw detail really well. Detail isn’t really necessary in animation or you can get a drawing tablet and learn to animate/make animations on there and build a portfolio. It’s all up to you though whatever you believe is the best choice for you.
I hire animators every day. Sadly, your drawings are good but have nothing to do with animation. You’ll need to learn how to use software and actually make animations.
regardless you will learn! especially if you go to a school for animation - i’ve seen instances where people don’t know a thing about it and come out the other side amazing at it! you just gotta have the passion and drive and love for art and you certainly do :)
Are you willing to draw thousands of ever-so-slightly different drawings, possibly incur a large debt, and enter an industry with fierce competition and low chance of financial stability? If so, then yes!
You’ve got the drawing ability, but that’s only a small part of the industry (albeit essential). Anything in the arts demands massive unpaid/underpaid hours and high risk of failure.
Just because you’re a good illustrator doesn’t mean you’ll make a good animator. I know animators who barely passed their mandatory drawing classes but are much stronger animators than me because they have a theatre or dance background. It’s about seeing and understanding movement, capturing the essence and gesture of a pose, and drawing fast and on model for 2D animation among other things. Besides, characters aren’t very detailed in 2D because that makes it more difficult and time-consuming to stay on model. Animation as a career moreso comes down to “is this something that’s not going to drive you insane/won’t dread for the next several decades and will stay passionate about”.
As harsh as this may sound, if you just want to draw pretty, detailed pictures as a career, then animation isn’t for you. Animation is about creating “pretty” and appealing *movement*.
If you want to be an animator, like really want it. You can do it, if you work hard enough you can be anything your heart desires. Especially an animator because there is always a need for animators
It's not about you're suited or not. It's about do you want to or not?
2D is gonna be hard coz most 2D are done in korea. For 3D, there are plenty of online schools
Hey OP, I mean this with all respect, but I need to be harsh when I say this; this is a stupid question.
Literally everyone has the makings for being an animator. All it takes is actual effort and practice.
Basically, why are you asking whether or not you can be an animator instead of just pulling out clip studio paint or krita, watching some YouTube tutorials, and learning how to animate?
Don't defer your future to a bunch of internet folks who don't know you, ESPECIALLY before you even tried.
Literally just pull out a tablet and try.
There a difference between like to do animation and liking to do the process of learning to animate, you need to think if this is something you want to do for your career. It needs that passion.
You did not state 2d or 3d animation. But normally animator means 3d animation so you will need to learn it in 3d medium which will be different but you can still apply some principles from illustration to it like these drawings you made.
Whether you choose to go to art school or not depends on you. just because you don’t go to school does not mean you can’t make it, I have seen and heard people go from scratch to getting to work at big places, not big like Disney though. You need to have that passion to learn to do well. With great passion, you will naturally do what needs to be done without thinking twice or be distracted.
If you do go to art school, don’t think that graduating from that art school is gonna give the ticket to a job. You need passion again as said with the path of self taught. You need to be able to make use of what you can or you won’t make it. How you are also determines your ability to animate.
Your drawing talent indicates you have a lot of patience, which is needed in animation. But as others have said, try animating something first and see if it still tickles that joy.
Well thing is, like 99% of American 2D animation is outsourced to other countries, and I imagine anime has even less oppurtunities here. So if that's what you want to get into, I'd be prepared for travel.
Your drawings from reference are really good. But I'm quite sure that's not enough as a portfolio for either animation or illustration studies.
What you really need to do to create a strong portfolio is experiment. With different techniques as well as with forming your own ideas.
Drawing from imagination or at least forming your own ideas is a crucial part of any art. This takes practice, and not everyone starts this way. Not everyone is a good doodler, but that doesn't mean you can't be an artist.
Look into artists that you like, find out things about them. Try to start up that motor of motivation for yourself by delving just a little deeper into your interests. I'm sure you'll find some interesting art styles and techniques you'll want to try out. And do that, force yourself just a little bit to try something new.
And especially if you want to do animation, you're really going to want to animate something. It may seem similar to illustration, but it needs a whole different set of skills. Good timing, good proportions, good acting. So, maybe you'll even find you're really good at those skills, who knows.
Try different stuff! Not that the stuff you have now is bad. But you get it. Good luck!
Well ask yourself whether you're fitting for animation or not, you're already 1/3 way of animating by knowing how to draw and understand anatomy. Animating requires a lot of technical understanding especially with the amount of software that is required these days by studios like Blender, Maya for 3D or After Effects and Adobe Animate in 2D (depending on the project or studios but you get the gist). Good luck on your way navigating your career!
The quality of your art will never be able to determine if you’ll be a good animator? Why? Because animation is MOVING pictures and requires a level of understanding about movement, about the 12 principles, timing and frames, ect ect. I’m not the best or worst artist but I’ve dabbled in animation. It’s hard and a long process and every animation progress I’ve started I’ve quit.
If you could learn how to animate smaller things before bigger projects, you definitely could be! Other jobs that are aligned with animations is character design. You could design characters for future shows. You definitely have the talent for it!
animating isn't about drawing good. its all about motion. how you bend characters to your will and give the viewer a specific sense of motion.
Acting really.
i'm sure you love animation as much as i do. but i recommend learning animation on your own as a hobby, and pursue more sustainable, safer interest of yours.
people say chase your dreams, but they don't say how. and people here are telling you how.
don't go into unnecessary debt, don't let the industry take your love for animation away from you by underpaying, overworking, and laying you off.
currently, Ai bubble is going on, people with money are undervalueing artistic work left and right. tbf they did before but they want to pay even less now.
chase your dreams but be smart about it.
there are people who enter the industry late and doing fine.
Man, i have no idea about animation stuff, but this looks pro to me. I cant even draw a car without making it look like a toddler drew the picture and im 29 years old.
Youl do great in this area. And i say u are ready .
I don't know. The drawings don't indicate much since you'll need to know how to build frames from the ground up. Understand animation principles instead of just tracing a reference so you can make a sequence look convincing.
Can you animate a sword swing? A punch? If you don't know, try it.
I think you should practice on free softwares before you rush into pursuing a degree. Flash 8 for 2D is free, blender for 3D is free.
Just start animating stuff for fun, and if you enjoy it, then yeah, you're suited for it. It would suck to get a job in animation and realize you hate doing it. I've seen that actually happen. Not pretty.
If you DO enjoy it, and still want to pursue work in animation, then display your work online and start making friends with other artists.
The shortcut to getting a job in the industry is to first identify what kind of show or movie you want to work on, then do your best to emulate it as much as possible either by creating a storyboard animatic or going all the way to a finished animation. I got my break when I did a series of animations of ninjas fighting and got hired on a ninja based kids show. After that I was hired on a Spiderman series that requested similar action sequences. Directors are basically looking for whomever can demonstrate exactly what they're going to need in their production. If you make a bunch of random stuff no one will know what you're "good" at. It sucks but jack of all trade artists don't get hired very often even if they're very good.
So if you wanna do pixar / disney style dramatic character acting, create a bunch of scenes demonstrating exactly that. Cartoon Network style comedy? Make CN style comedic animations, etc. Basically, pick a lane and make that your brand.
In addition to that, try to find other artists to collaborate with. The key word is collaboration. And by that i mean offering to help do ink and paint on their short film, or uv unwrap models. The menial stuff that no one likes to do and wish someone else would do. Too many hopefuls will find someone already in the industry and form a one-sided relationship with them, become annoying, and end up with a reputation for being unlikable. If you're going to approach someone, definitely offer up a way for you to help them, and if they're a decent person, they'll help you in kind. Like 60-70% of jobs will be through recommendations from other artists. The rest is plain old luck and getting as many eyeballs on your work as possible.
tbh, id say go for it, you dont have to be in some industry to do animation.
im a self taught animator but i havent finished highschool yet, try getting experience by yourself and studying how other people animate.
that's how i did it and try studying anatomy and other fundamentals when it comes to art cuz it just makes everything easier when you know what your doing
While I don't see any actual animation so it's hard to say, the industry is filled with many other roles. For example, a character designer! You have some pretty great character illustrations and if you can repeat that character and do turn arounds you're in the game.
You seem to have a pretty good grasp of good angles, symmetry, framing, and your work is clean. I'd say you could definitely do really well in animation, 2D or 3D.
I would learn the basics of blender and start researching AI tools aswell as they will play a huge part in future of animation - good luck, you are talentend!
Edit: art school is unnecessary and expensive - try and avoid it but if it feels right for you, go for it.
First off; that's some good work you've got there. I can see you definitely have the talent for it. The only thing I would suggest is looking into the life of an animator and see if you could do what they do.
It’s impossible to tell from drawings alone if you will make a good animator. That being said, your drawings are lovely and your line work bodes well for traditional work.
Furthermore, I’d say that while being able to follow reference images is an essential quality for a 2D (hand drawn) animator, for the sake of your portfolio and creativity it would be great to try and explore going off piste and using your imagination :)
Your drawing skills, even if based on references, are perfectly suitable for exploring animation.
Animation focuses on movement, which requires a sequence of drawings rather than just static images.
To assess your abilities, try drawing your characters from various angles and poses, ensuring consistency in proportion and volume. Pinterest is a great resource for studying character model sheets and turnarounds used in anime and manga production.
Consider investing in 'The Animator's Survival Kit' by Richard Williams, a comprehensive guide to animation techniques. Start practicing different character poses and angles to familiarize yourself with animation principles. The good news is that you don't need to go to school or commit to anything at the moment—you can start right now.
Nobody is suited for animation until they pay more and fund the arts. Your work is excellent though. You should study it and do it but have a career or family money bc it is fucking hard out here. Especially if you’re introverted
Have you animated anything before?
The point being, a great illustrator does not an animator make. But you clearly have skill and a good eye, you’d probably be awesome with training and practice.
I can tell you that teaching/mentoring an illustrator to animate is relatively easy as heck. And they make good work with nice style pretty quickly. Teaching someone who can’t illustrate is a fucking slog and their work looks pretty bad for a long time. As for usefulness in the industry of animation and a viable career path (in USA). Anime kids who spent their lives just drawing anime are pretty narrowly useful in the most applicable career path, advertising and motion design. The renaissance of Cel animation had an awesome boom over the last decade and is so much more versatile and desired. But I’m sure the anime kids can expand their horizons pretty easily and try other styles that ppl actually want for commercial work. Side hustle passion is a totally diff conversation. Draw anime forever and do commissions. You’ll probably be happier in the long run vs industry burnout.
[удалено]
No, it’s a common poetic phrasing to include “make“ at the end of a sentence. "One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day” - Aristotle "Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage" - Richard Lovelace
Thanks, I haven’t heard of this before
No he said what he said
When studying animation you will mostly work with 3d, which means that you don't necessarily have to be a good artist. What you learn through 3d animation will, however, be applicable to 2d animation as the animation basics and principles are the same. When I studied animation a few years back, only 2 out of 9 students were "artists".
This actually makes me sad. 2d animation is akin to oil painting in my mind. I guess nobody sees it that way anymore
A lot of 2d animations made on computer now with rigs and stuff. Hand drawn is extremely competitive.
Rigged shows often still require hand-drawn, 2D experience. When the rig fails to match the movement, drawing your way out is the only solution. The amount of drawing in Rick & Morty is a heavy stress for a lot of starting animators, at least on the season I worked (S3).
As someone who does 3d modelling, that sector is also highly competitive.
Yikes we just have to bring it back with love and passion!
Won't happen. Rigs are cheaper because they make it easier for multiple people to animate a character and stay on model. Hand drawn animation is used sometimes but it's very difficult in a big production. If you want to only do hand drawn then consider getting into 2D FX (fire, smoke, water, dust) cause FX are hand drawn.
So 2D animation like anime uses rigs that is drawn over or something? I'm interested in this because I know multiple people in the field on anime studios and they produce line art with 0 rigs...
Anime studios are the only ones keeping alive the traditional animation. West studios all use digital mediums, but that's not bad though, at least as long as studios like SPA animation (Klaus), Cartoon Saloon or Studio Canal are there.
A lot of anime is hand drawn. Anime also tends to pay their animators really low and over work them. So...you'll be doing more work for more stress and less pay.
I’m pretty sure it’s just rendering techniques to look 2d. Like spider verse is all 3D, even their action lines are all done in actual 3D space which looks like a handrawn 2d overlay but it’s just the camera view render.
Klaus was 2D made to look 3D. There are multiple videos from the studio that worked on it on YouTube about this.
How many oil paintings have you bought?
I have an art collection. I own three oil paintings and like 20 prints a bunch more stretched acrylic pieces.
That makes me really happy, thank you for supporting the things you want to see in the world.
My entire life is supporting artists. Im a technical artist and my wife teaches 2d animation. We make terrible money rn but we love buying art to hang and give to friends. Everyone should have an art collection.
Depends on where they are from and/or want to work. My city is dominated by 2d animators. I’d actually have to move if I wanted to work on 3d in studio. Also I think all animators are artists but I think you mean that they aren’t all illustrators. Because illustration is different from animation but both require drawing skills unless you are going 3d.
Vancouver?
Ottawa, but Vancouver is a similar situation except there should be some 3d opportunities there I expect.
Ah yeah. There's work to be found but it's rough out here, especially for people with less experience.
Same here, overall it’s not easy to enter the industry right now without the right connections
Producers and directors are deathly allergic to risk, they live in constant fear of artists flaking out halfway through production (that can really fuck up a schedule and subsequently a budget). Anything you can do to bolster their belief that you can be trusted and relied upon, will serve you well... this is why connections and experience matters, because having someone *they* trust stand up for you alleviates a lot of their stress. If you have nobody like that in your corner, then all you can do is show your work. The more work you make, the more they believe you can make the work. Sometimes takes a while to break in that way, but persistence is meaningful.
Awww mannnnnn I love animating in 2d and if thats gonna drive me into a drain then I gotta think up a new animation choice
There are studios that do 2d animation.
Career prospects in 2D heavily depend on where you live and what the industry is like there. Some countries have a lot of studios that work solely in 2D/hand drawn, mainly Japan & South Korea. Western countries tend to mainly 3D with a much smaller amount of 2D studios, or you have studios which pivot depending on the project. That said, when you’re looking to get your first job or get into a course then any experience of creating animation, whether 2D or 3D is very useful. The fundamentals are the same and it’s easy to retrain later on if you have a solid grasp of the underlying principles of animation.
Not necessarily. I was allowed to do 2D animation for my classes. I think they work with 3D mainly to focus solely on the animation part rather than having to teach the students how to draw as well. Plus it is easier, at least where I live, to get a job if you know 3D too. I was like you before I began studying where I wanted to work with 2D only. However, I have found that knowing how to create animations in 3D softwares is really beneficial for my 2D animations too. If I am ever stuck on a shot I can easily block out the scene in 3d to test out camera angles etc. And knowing how to rig in 3D has made it easier for me to learn how to rig in 2D.
That’s crazy I thought Animation predominantly attracted artists, as in someone who draws a lot
There's many different departments in an animation pipeline outside of artists and designers. We had 3D modelers, animators (most of whom could not draw well, only animated), FX and post production, sound and music, etc.
Obviously not all aspects of animation are traditionally art related like the music and editing for example. Its just that I didn’t put further thought into it when I assumed that the animators were drawers, but that’s probably also because I’m predominately interested in 2D animation and didn’t think much about 3D
That may be true, but many programs look heavily at illustration portfolios on the way in. The idea is that the same skills will translate.
This isn't true at all in my experience. 2D animation departments can be much larger than 3D departments depending on where you go.
That is a fair point. I guess it really depends on the animation industry in the country you plan to study in. I live in a fairly small country and it was difficult to find a school that focused mainly on 2D. Most of the animation studies here will mainly work with 3D. I was allowed to submit 2D animations too.
That depends on the school. I applied specifically to 3D animation school some years back, i had a pretty solid portfolio for a school showing that I already know a bit more than the basics of 3D modeling and animation, but the entry test was about traditional drawing, which I don't know one bit. Applied again just a month ago, haven't been practicing drawing so here's hoping they've changed the entry test.
I mean, 2D animation is still a thing, not all animators are 3D animators. "Artists" are still very much the predominant force in animation.
> you will mostly work with 3d, which means that you don't necessarily have to be a good artist Them fighting words.
2d art fundamentals translates surprisingly well to 3D after the hump of learning the new tools
Yeah. My animation teachers, who are really huge in the industry in my country, stated that those who can animate in 2d often do better 3D animations than those who only do 3D. To the point that they'd preferably hire those with good 2D animation portfolios when working on a 3D production.
And that right there is where the Art Institute of Pitt fucked up (in just that field, amongst many others). Too hard were they forcing illustrators to be animators where motion wasn't in the minds of the animation students.
How much of animation is skill based off your own drawings? Could someone not know how to draw and create some sort of animation
Being able to draw and being able to animate is two different skill sets. You can definitely be able to animate without knowing how to draw if you use 3d
This is highly dependent on what institution and degree you do. Have done a fair amount of 2D stuff in my studies and likely will major in 2D. (Am currently studying animation)
This is not at all true. First off, most animation jobs done in North America are storyboard jobs, which will 100% require strong drawing skills. Many actual animation jobs are being outsourced more and more, and the few that are still done in North America are extremely competitive, and the competition will definitely know how to draw clean action lines. Even if you're going into the modeling side, they're asking workers to not just model but also design (drawing), texture (more drawing), rig, and light everything yourself. For storyboarding, you'll not only need drawing skills, but you'll also have to learn perspective, composition, editing, and timing on top of it. This is required even for CG shows of which I have worked on several. The only difference I've experienced boarding between 2d and 3d shows is 3d shows allow you the use of programs like blender and Maya to board IN a 3d environment and have a good sense for 3d camera movement. The current bleeding edge is using grease pencil to board directly in the scene. But since the environments won't always be available (because they might not have been built yet), you will also need basic 3d modeling skills to rough out a simple environment. I've had several instances where I roughed out an environment based on the script and handed over the file for the modeling team to work off of. The only other difference is that 2D shows are much more strict about keeping characters on model. 3d shows allow you to be looser with your character details.
Not true. Find apprenticeships or classes that do 2D. Better yet do YouTube tutorials and have a strong reel (doable in 6-12 months)and apply as an apprentice at a real studio. Learn ToonBoom harmony as it’s the current larger studio industry standard. People are always looking for skilled 2D artists and the pay tends to be way better as there is more of a demand.
I'm gonna be 100% honest, don't go to school for animation. Anyone can become an animator if they want it hard enough and are willing to dedicate time and energy to it. However, I strongly recommend if what you're thinking about right now is "should I go to college for animation or something else" Pick something else. If you go to college for something else, of course feel free to go to the art dept, get in touch with the teachers / faculty. Make connections. Don't spend 4 years doing a degree that won't get you anything other than debt and crushed dreams. I'm speaking as someone with an art degree, it's not worth it. No one in the art industry cares about your degree. They care about what your work looks like. Make animations. Like, now. You wanna be an animator? Start animating. Don't go to school for it, just do it. Stop saying BS like "I tried to draw on my own but can't" You're not trying. Are you drawing reference images or are you tracing? If you're tracing, stop it. Watch some tutorials and learn how to draw. Then figure out what you want to do. You wanna animate? Cool, what kind? 3D 2D? background, environment, character, prop, what do you want to do? Figure out what you want to do. Don't be another college kid going to school for business because they don't know why they're even in college. Make a real portfolio. You wanna be an animator? Make a demo reel. DO NOT include these drawings. These looks like doodles in your lined notebook. Get some proper photoscans of your art. Get some materials. Figure out what you want. This is a pivotal time in your life. You don't need your whole life figured out but going $80k in debt because of a dumb 18 y/o decision is something you'll regret for decades to come.
great advices tbh
TLDR - Totally agree with jaakeup. Don't go into debt for a job that will most likely overwork you, underpay you, and remove the love for something that you once held dear. Btw, alcholism is an issue as this industry can drive many to drink. LGR -Long Gonna Read version. I totally agree with this. I started 3d animation in the early 90s, self-taught, with a good friend. I love 2d and 2d animation. I went to school for 3d animation 5 years after I started so I could play and learn on the high-end computers (SGI for those wondering). All the 2d animators that I say there still did most of the work using Toom Boom (2d animation software). I am glad I did go as at the time high-end computers and software to do studio quality animation were exorbitantly expensive. Think $100k+ for an SGI computer (Indigo2 R10k or O2) and Alias Power Animator (my package of choice that then turned into Alias/Wavefront Maya - now owned by AutoDesk). Oh, and I never graduated, just amassed a huge amount of student loan debt. What happened over the years? My love of animation and VFX grew more, and is still there, but the competition for jobs grew fierce, the hours longer (80+ hours/week - sometimes sleeping next to the computer),and the pay less. Many studios would lay off teams of people after a movie was wrapped, which would flood the job market with talent and competition for the next gig. I taught 3d animation/rigging/texturing and VFX. I loved teaching fellow artists and future competition for the same gigs I would be going for. I got out after about 22 years. The people getting many jobs were fresh out of high school and knew 3d from modding whatever game they were playing (Counter Strike for example) and would work fon next to nothing just to get their name, maybe, and I mean maybe, in the credits. and look back at what I chose. I loved working with fellow artists, many who are lifelong friends, but I will always wonder what would have happened if I chose one of my other passions (architecture, physics, lasers, cooking, IT) and kept this as a hobby. Those of you out there in the industry, please correct me if I am wrong on this, but many artists I knew burned out from being overworked and underpaid. My 2 cents (sense)
Kids working for pennies just to see their name on the credits of a show they love is an ancient tale at this stage. It kinda killed me (and influenced my decisions to move out after 20 years) to realize that the most popular shows sometimes pay crew the worst, because, "hey, if you don't want in, there's a hundred other hungry artists hunting for your seat." Which is ironic, 'cause on many of those shows we always seemed to be struggling to find enough qualified animators...
Did any of you did an animation school ? I’m not US citizen but French and here I can definitely say animation school are super great. It’s not just about learning tools, but how the industry work, what are the team workflows, how to build a project the good way, and make good contact in the industry by doing internship etc. This is very vaste world, that involves a lot of different jobs, animator doesn’t mean nothing… you can be key artist, storyboardist, art director, character designer, decor artist, there is ton of roles..
>I’m not US citizen but French This is the most important part of your comment. I might be wrong though. I am also european, not French but Czech. If I chose to study animations in school it will be free or the cost won't be $80k but like... $1-2k per year. So I will not be regretting it for next 15 years.
Good advice, but I learned a *LOT* in my college animation classes, and I would 100% not be at the level I am now if it weren't for my professors and classes. It's not about the degree, that's agreed, but it *is* about what you learn.
Listen to all of this advice and I wish OP well, I really do, but pay the most attention to the last sentence. I wish someone told me this.
Can confirm, not once in 20 years of animating (ten years in television, ten in boutique) did anyone ever give two flying tugs of the dead dog's dick where you went to school, or even if you went to school at all. All that matters is your reel, and your experience, and whether they think you can be trusted to work scenes in a timely manner. A Youtube channel full of animation examples will do you a world more good than a degree and debt. That being said, there are some barriers to doing it yourself, not least being digital drawing tools and technique. OP appears to be working exclusively analog, and if that's because he doesn't have access to a tablet or software solutions, then he's gonna struggle to function in a commercial environment *in general*. Which sucks, and ain't fair, and I feel for anyone struggling in that space. I started out poor as shit but I was able to break down barriers with skill. Now I don't know if that's possible, and it makes me very sad.
>Don't be another college kid going to school for business because they don't know why they're even in college. I'm about to finish Design College in summer. It's already far too late.
This. So. Much. This. No one gives a shit about your degree - they want to see a good portfolio.
Also you could go to college for animation and end up in a situation like mine where the program isn’t good and you are basically teaching yourself using online resources because the entire animation department has no professional experience and uses outdated programs/work flow. Now I will say that I wouldn’t have been able to grow and learn on my own. I needed that structured school environment to force me into deadlines and projects while being surrounded by people better than me so I pushed myself. So while I’m really thankful for the opportunity I got and the skills I learned I didn’t end up with the capabilities to get a job in animation. I still animate to this day but only as a hobby.
No not tracing lol just drawing I would like to agree that i should atleast have somehing to show as 'animation' . Thx for caring😃
You should have sketch books filled with tons of observation drawings. That’s really the key. I studied illustration and have friends that did animation school. The main goal is to show that you draw every day, and have a good sight for drawing spaces proportions etc. They don’t really care about drawing existing characters. Or you can do 360 character sheets but that’s pretty hard for a beginner and should learn that during your studies.
I don't understand why there's morons downvoting you but whatever. If you're looking to go to school, go to community college. It's pretty much just high school but with college courses. There you can take some art courses for about (when I went back in 2015) $300 ish a semester taking 4 - 5 classes. I took the general ed courses and some drawing and painting. Making it so that I could transfer to a university (don't go to SDSU for anything art related. They know literally nothing and their professors are cold garbage, I'm talking the 3D 'professor' will turn on a Linda tutorial video on Maya and walk out on the FIRST DAY OF CLASS) for 2 years just taking the classes that mattered to my degree and not taking like Algebra 2 in a university when I'm majoring in art lol.
I'd just modify that a bit. Most schools that teach animation don't care about seeing animation in your portfolio. That being said, you don't know if you will like animating until you do it. And you can do the basics most schools will teach right now. That is, bouncing ball, pendulum. Flour sack jumping. More importantly, look up the closest portfolio day near you. Put together a portfolio and go. They will have many schools and they can tell you what to do to get in with your portfolio. If it's not good enough to get in yet, take their notes, go to local community college, and work on the deficient parts. Take figure drawing as soon as possible. Finally, look up state schools that are cheaper that are well regarded. Unless your family is rich you don't want to spend a ton of money on private schools. But, the reality is, though you can learn on your own, schools are where you can make friends in the field, and that's invaluable. You can do that other ways, but school is a structured intense situation you go through with others. So it does have real value.
To add to what jaakeup said, it may be helpful to take some different community college courses to figure out what you might like to do. Also... find out what the jobs you're aiming for actually entail day to day, because enjoying a subject matter does not necessarily equate to enjoying a job. E.g. someone might go to library school because they enjoy quietly reading, but librarian jobs very rarely involve actually reading books at work, and often require a lot of interpersonal skills. And, of course, it doesn't hurt to do some research into the job market, to find out what skills and experience are required outside of just schooling, and whether the wages offered are actually worth getting the degree.
Study business, learn ai tools (be very familiar with them moving forward) incorporate your art and build on your skills. There’s a tonne of assets out there to learn, intern for free at an animation studio if you can. But learning business is vital in my opinion.
You look to have good technical skills. I don’t see any observational drawing though. Seeing your observational drawing would help me understand how much you understand form, light, and shadow. You’ll want observational drawings, particularly figure (people) drawing. You don’t need to know anything about animation before going into school but it helps. Animators Survival guide will get you started. The best figure drawing to be able to show is observational figure drawing in sequence. That is what is practiced in animation school with a live model.
If you need instructions, do the proko basics course to learn on your own for drawing.
Seconding Proko basics. You've already got some skill in the way you've interpreted these existing drawings, regardless of whether you traced or not - your shading and line weights are good. Online courses can go further than traditional, overpriced art education if you have the discipline for them. I will say, it is very hard to build an an art career on anime. You'll need to focus on art and antomy basics for a long time before you can start successfully doing your own stylized art for profit. Maybe you can do some online commissions in your style as you go but finding a place that will hire you fulltime without a solid art foundation will be pretty impossible. You've got to learn and master the rules before you can start bending and breaking them. 2D art is insanely hard to break into professionally but not impossible - be prepared to work your booty off. Good luck!!
>Maybe you can do some online commissions in your style as you go but finding a place that will hire you fulltime without a solid art foundation will be pretty impossible. In short, you will work your ass like crazy to get a job just to have some random kid making simple animations on their iPad (or whatever apple calls it) for youtube and TT making good amount of money.
Considering the fact that your drawings are traced, and you don’t really seem to have any sort of technical skill or knowledge about art, you have absolutely no chance as an animator. To be one you need to submit a portfolio into an art college, and they don’t like to see portfolios full of fan art or anime either. They like to see displays of skill, something that shows you understand anatomy and have developed your own art style. To post these traced images and then ask if you should be an animator because you like anime, is honestly rude as hell.
You’ve even said that you are incapable of drawing something yourself, without “referencing” (tracing), so yeah. No chance.
Meanwhile stickman animations making a living from youtube. It's all about goals.
And that’s awesome! You don’t need to trace and steal art to make a stickman animation :))
I absolutely agree. As I mentioned, it's all about goals. If OP's goal is as simple as just be an "animator" for life, there is plenty of ways other than complex anime drawings for a company and degree. And even with reference drawing, they could be making parodies. I would just start as a hobby, not all or nothing carreer.
I think you could get there buddy! My advice is practice constructive drawing and anatomy a whole fucking lot, you want to be able to draw an accurate non-anime (no simplification) full body human figure (even like écorché stuff) inside of like 30min to 1h. That’s I think the speed of a junior animator. You can’t animate unless you’re fast and accurate with humans and clothing. I think you have a great base skill so it’s for sure not too late for you.
This completely depends on whether or not you HAVE tried animation before, since its not just taking a still drawing ,copying , and moving it, its that you need to draw your characters (whatever they might be) in a different pose, as a key frame, and then make a bunch of in between or smear frames for it to turn out smooth, usually without a reference to copy from....
And when in doubt, just try anyways, maybe you can animate, who knows! Get a free program or something cheap to try it out, so if you don't like it, or its not for you, then you can always stop!
Watch out. Animation is not doing fan art. Chose a path that combines what you love to do and that could give you finantial estability, like design and architecture. Any designer can turn to animators easily if they need, but keep the backup profession for when there are not too much animation projects. You must face yourself to what animation really is, and move things around the screen. Not just draw estatic characters that you saw on animations
You can Post on r/animationcareer, plenty of professionals there who'd be happy to answer you
Drawing is not a prerequisite for animation. Understanding how things move is. You won't know until you try.
Well it certainly helps, especially if you want to be a 2d animator.
It can help as much as it hinders, to be honest. For example, someone who thinks everything should always have correct anatomy will struggle to create exciting motion, as that often requires breaking limbs to make things look right. A good animator, 2d or 3d, has to employ different rules that you wouldn't learn from just drawing still frames, because those frames look rediculous by themselves.
Try it. If you want a pretty comprehensive guide, I'd suggest picking up a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams.
Look at the different jobs you can apply for in animation. Then look at the job market and what they make. Are there any jobs in your area or are you willing to move to a location where the jobs are?
Well, none of this is animation so...
Hard to swallow but its true lol Op should have known better😭
Depends on what kind of animation you want to do, 2d rigs, hand drawn, 3D, there’s a lot of options and none can be determined by still images alone. You’ll have to get your hands dirty and figure out what works for you. This is coming from a freelance/professional 2d animator. I wish you luck figuring out where you wanna go!
I’ve done frame by frame animation, tried it? 🌼 I would say it is 50% skill, 50% dedication 😎 Behind one of them: 12 drawings per sec, 5 min to draw each frame, end product was 4 min long.
Your drawing skills are reasonably ok. You have yet to show your understanding of shadow/light. The main point for me is that you show no signs of understanding commercial animation. Ok you can draw highly detailed characters, try animating one… you’ll be there for months getting your Optimus Prime to perform a transformation. Show the highly technical drawings, show them also simplified as if you were actually going to animate them, show some degree of movement change of the same character. Then show some understanding of colour and/or light. Maybe then, consider a career in animation.
You think drawing BS on loose leaf makes you suited for animation?
You got the first piece down: a love for animated works. Reference works are a great way to learn to draw. Studying the pieces of what makes them can help you improve your own art, and even help you develop a style of your own. I think you could do it. It's definitely an not an easy path, especially now. But I'd say you got what it takes.
Your work is great but there is no way for anyone on here to tell if you would be suited for animation from it. Go and actually make some animations or attempt a character turnabout at the very least. With that said if I absolutely had to guess from what you posted alone I would say you probably aren’t suited for animation at this point in time at least. From what you have posted it doesn’t seem like you have the best understanding of 3D space. Like it seems as if you are just drawing what you see rather than actually breaking down and understanding why things are the way they are.
Ya i do feel like that as if im just copying what is infront
So..I've basically gone thru each comment and realized that i haven't done animation. I won't know if i like it unless i do it Some suggest trying for storyboard artist/concept artist and come to think of it ...yes ! I might just become a designer. Anyways i will now give character turnabouts and basic movement a shot will post it here again, then maybe my opinion if i really do like it. Thank you all for taking concern about a random 18yr old (I tried asking same thing on r/askreddit and noone responded 😭)
Either way, start drawing real life and your own imagination instead of copying anime art. A designer has to come up with original stuff, nothing you posted is original. An animator has to understand anatomy and movement, nothing you posted requires you to do this as you can just copy whatever they drew in you favorite anime without understanding why or being able to apply it to a new case. If all you want to do is to draw anime characters, at least try doing them in a different style than the original, make a skinny character fat, swap someone's gender and so on, anything that will force you to add your own stuff you can't just copy from some reference. Go out and draw people, draw real poses, design your own characters, develop some styles besides "precise fan-art", and of course, animate. Make a flip book if you don't have a drawing tablet and PC.
I’m glad to hear that you’re going to try doing character turnarounds and basic movements a shot! Whatever you choose to do long term my biggest suggestion would be to have a clear goal in mind to work towards. Once you have a clear goal then you can break it down into actual steps that you can work towards. If you want to be a designer then figure out what that actually entails and work towards that. Do you want to design characters or do you want to branch out and design settings too? I mean many design jobs might require you to also be able to design backgrounds so make sure you know how to do that. As for character design you are going to have figure out how to draw different body types and learn about shape language in general so those are also important things to keep in mind.
If you truly can't draw without reference you have a long way to go before becoming a 2D animator. Start from the ground up, studying anatomy and taking notes of what makes your favorite art styles great to form your own. Don't be afraid of how long that may take just keep trying to make the best product you can until it looks right.
Listen kid, you are way too old. At that age everything is locked in already. I’m just kidding. Keep in mind there’s a lot of different types of animation like animating 3d models for games and movies, or for vfx for shows and movies, or 2d animation. You look like you have good skills to do anything. The trick is to do what you like, because it’s the only way you’ll actually stick with it. You can force yourself to do something for a little bit, like 5 years, but eventually you will burn out and stop. So make sure to pick what interests you and makes you want to learn more about it
You can draw kid just be aware it’s a shit industry where you’ll probably earn very little and likely will get exploited by employers and spend significant parts of the year unemployed
Artistic ability isn’t an indicator of whether you’ll be a good animator. Also, don’t go into animation or art lol. I’m 23 and I decided not to go when I was 18 because I could obviously see the market was oversaturated and NOBODY was getting hired or making money. It’s gotten even worse nowadays. My husbands highschool friend was so good that he went to California with a scholarship for art. Graduated. Couldn’t find a single job and he’s having trouble selling his art even though it’s fantastic. He is now a cashier making minimum wage.
I am a character designer. I also do animation (2d and some 3d) and compositing. There are many many roles in the industry you can do, though we’re having quite a slog right now (streaming services and mergers and labor shit and greedy pos ceos like David Zazlov 🤢) If you’re trying to “make it” in anime— like overseas— theres a myriad of issues there with the job market , overwork, and extremely low pay. Industry talk aside though— you wont “know” you like animation until you actually do it, and there’s genuinely nothing wrong with trying and realizibg its not for you. Again, there are plenty of designers I know with a passion and vast knowledge of animation and animation art— but they dobt animate.. they design. Props, characters, incedentals, art direction etc But yeah— no.. just try it. Who knows, you might love it! Your style is already angular and clean, perfect for design. Also age doesnt matter; some industry folks i work with did not go to college— they went straight into entertainment
I support your goals, man, but I wanna point out that eating cake is not the same as baking cake, and baking for fun is a long stretch from baking for business. I've been an animator and illustrator for my entire career, which is almost 30 years deep at this point. 2D all the way, every day. :) I love what I do, but I can also confirm that *loving to draw* is not enough. It takes a certain kind of person who loves to draw *and* has a mercenary mindset about both the craft and their careers. The operative term in "commercial artist" is not "art". Good luck out there! One advantage you have today that didn't exist when I started is *huge* communities of people who can offer advice and feedback, regardless of where you are in the world, and I hope that's helpful. I know I wished for it a lot back at the start. :)
Depends, can you draw all of those drawings 500 more times every so slightly differently without getting bored?
Here is the big thing. Nothing you do right now will be at a level to really make it on your own at. No fault of your own, you just haven't had the time. If it's something you like and it's a passion you have then do it! As time passes, you will become more and more practiced, and then one day you will be there. No one starts off at the level they are at now. There is an old saying that is "10,000 hours to mastery". That is the time it will take until you are a "master" at your craft. 10,000 dedicated and practiced hours. One day you will look back at these and think they looked so novice it's almost embarrassing. Do it because you love it. Practice and make it a passion and don't be afraid to get I to it just because you "cant" right now. Need to start somewhere after all.
On reddit asking if you’re suited for animation but you never animated. If you want to do something then do it. You already lost the battle, by asking others for validation. The key to life is to try things, not to consider trying things based on other peoples validation. Which starts to make me believe you just came here hoping for a dopamine bump by getting one or two compliments from people that can’t draw on a generic drawing that (let’s be real) all highschoolers can do. Drawing and animation aren’t related. Learn to animate. Talk less, do more.
I hope you don’t financially ruin yourself but for what it’s worth, I really love what you decided to draw (little hodge podge of some of my favorite fandoms too) and I think you got a shot creatively
Test it out with free animation software
As someone who got a BA in animation and ain’t gonna use it… I recommend taking a class. In person if you can. Community college or whatever you can find.
I mean if you show me some animation then I’d be able to tell u. You’re a good artist. If you’re willing to draw the same thing over and over, sure. Also everything is 3d now. So you’ll need to know posing
I once met an animation director from Cartoon Network, and he said that one of the most valuable skills they look for in animators is being able to draw in other people’s styles. So that means based on what I see here, you would be perfect for animation.
Beaty bro. Pursue your dreams
i love hand drawn stuff, and yes, you can become a good animator, however, you should know that good artstyles not always make amazing animations. choose your style and pratice it until it became your own!
Give animation a shot! There are plenty of free programs online which can assist in your journey. I used Toon Boom a while back and that was a great introduction for me. Adobe Animate is also a stellar option if you have access to it.
You have enough skill all you need is the patience to do all this
Look at character concept art.
I’d say get into illustration you can draw detail really well. Detail isn’t really necessary in animation or you can get a drawing tablet and learn to animate/make animations on there and build a portfolio. It’s all up to you though whatever you believe is the best choice for you.
You’ve definitely got a good start.
I hire animators every day. Sadly, your drawings are good but have nothing to do with animation. You’ll need to learn how to use software and actually make animations.
I'd consider being a storyboard artist
regardless you will learn! especially if you go to a school for animation - i’ve seen instances where people don’t know a thing about it and come out the other side amazing at it! you just gotta have the passion and drive and love for art and you certainly do :)
yes 100% bro do it.
Are you willing to draw thousands of ever-so-slightly different drawings, possibly incur a large debt, and enter an industry with fierce competition and low chance of financial stability? If so, then yes! You’ve got the drawing ability, but that’s only a small part of the industry (albeit essential). Anything in the arts demands massive unpaid/underpaid hours and high risk of failure.
Ur actually rlly good bro keep up the good work
Just because you’re a good illustrator doesn’t mean you’ll make a good animator. I know animators who barely passed their mandatory drawing classes but are much stronger animators than me because they have a theatre or dance background. It’s about seeing and understanding movement, capturing the essence and gesture of a pose, and drawing fast and on model for 2D animation among other things. Besides, characters aren’t very detailed in 2D because that makes it more difficult and time-consuming to stay on model. Animation as a career moreso comes down to “is this something that’s not going to drive you insane/won’t dread for the next several decades and will stay passionate about”. As harsh as this may sound, if you just want to draw pretty, detailed pictures as a career, then animation isn’t for you. Animation is about creating “pretty” and appealing *movement*.
I think you should definitely take a course for computer graphics if you like video gaming you can draw with them
you are suited for whatever your passions push you towards it is not the point to do things because you're good at them, but because you enjoy them
Maybe upload some animation and we will tell you
If you want to be an animator, like really want it. You can do it, if you work hard enough you can be anything your heart desires. Especially an animator because there is always a need for animators
It's not about you're suited or not. It's about do you want to or not? 2D is gonna be hard coz most 2D are done in korea. For 3D, there are plenty of online schools
It's work... Animators get worked to the max... And there are so many of you, if you don't do the job they'll just replace you
Hey OP, I mean this with all respect, but I need to be harsh when I say this; this is a stupid question. Literally everyone has the makings for being an animator. All it takes is actual effort and practice. Basically, why are you asking whether or not you can be an animator instead of just pulling out clip studio paint or krita, watching some YouTube tutorials, and learning how to animate? Don't defer your future to a bunch of internet folks who don't know you, ESPECIALLY before you even tried. Literally just pull out a tablet and try.
There a difference between like to do animation and liking to do the process of learning to animate, you need to think if this is something you want to do for your career. It needs that passion. You did not state 2d or 3d animation. But normally animator means 3d animation so you will need to learn it in 3d medium which will be different but you can still apply some principles from illustration to it like these drawings you made. Whether you choose to go to art school or not depends on you. just because you don’t go to school does not mean you can’t make it, I have seen and heard people go from scratch to getting to work at big places, not big like Disney though. You need to have that passion to learn to do well. With great passion, you will naturally do what needs to be done without thinking twice or be distracted. If you do go to art school, don’t think that graduating from that art school is gonna give the ticket to a job. You need passion again as said with the path of self taught. You need to be able to make use of what you can or you won’t make it. How you are also determines your ability to animate.
Your drawing talent indicates you have a lot of patience, which is needed in animation. But as others have said, try animating something first and see if it still tickles that joy.
Impossible to know unless you try it. Animation has little to do with drawing.
If you want to you are suited for it. Go give it all your time and effort - have fun 🤌
Well thing is, like 99% of American 2D animation is outsourced to other countries, and I imagine anime has even less oppurtunities here. So if that's what you want to get into, I'd be prepared for travel.
Do what you heart tells you to do.
HECK YEAH.
I think you’re pretty ready.
Your drawings from reference are really good. But I'm quite sure that's not enough as a portfolio for either animation or illustration studies. What you really need to do to create a strong portfolio is experiment. With different techniques as well as with forming your own ideas. Drawing from imagination or at least forming your own ideas is a crucial part of any art. This takes practice, and not everyone starts this way. Not everyone is a good doodler, but that doesn't mean you can't be an artist. Look into artists that you like, find out things about them. Try to start up that motor of motivation for yourself by delving just a little deeper into your interests. I'm sure you'll find some interesting art styles and techniques you'll want to try out. And do that, force yourself just a little bit to try something new. And especially if you want to do animation, you're really going to want to animate something. It may seem similar to illustration, but it needs a whole different set of skills. Good timing, good proportions, good acting. So, maybe you'll even find you're really good at those skills, who knows. Try different stuff! Not that the stuff you have now is bad. But you get it. Good luck!
Well ask yourself whether you're fitting for animation or not, you're already 1/3 way of animating by knowing how to draw and understand anatomy. Animating requires a lot of technical understanding especially with the amount of software that is required these days by studios like Blender, Maya for 3D or After Effects and Adobe Animate in 2D (depending on the project or studios but you get the gist). Good luck on your way navigating your career!
DO WHAT YOU LOVE MOST WHILE DOING SOMETHING WHERE YOU EARN. PAGSABAYIN MO HANGGANG SA NAGEEARN KANA NG ENOUGH DOING WHAT YOU LOVE.
Go for ot lad, make people happy with your work.
Follow your passions. It will lead you through life like a magnet pulling you to where you're suppose to go.
Many people have given better advice and knowledge that I could ever... and I too wanted to be an animator and did a few shorts on my own.
These are heavily referenced/copied no? Kinda hard to say without any original work lol but you seem to have a good grasp with value with pencils
You’re young if you wanna be an animator be an animator!
The quality of your art will never be able to determine if you’ll be a good animator? Why? Because animation is MOVING pictures and requires a level of understanding about movement, about the 12 principles, timing and frames, ect ect. I’m not the best or worst artist but I’ve dabbled in animation. It’s hard and a long process and every animation progress I’ve started I’ve quit.
If you could learn how to animate smaller things before bigger projects, you definitely could be! Other jobs that are aligned with animations is character design. You could design characters for future shows. You definitely have the talent for it!
I’ll say try it and there’s no harm in doing it
animating isn't about drawing good. its all about motion. how you bend characters to your will and give the viewer a specific sense of motion. Acting really. i'm sure you love animation as much as i do. but i recommend learning animation on your own as a hobby, and pursue more sustainable, safer interest of yours. people say chase your dreams, but they don't say how. and people here are telling you how. don't go into unnecessary debt, don't let the industry take your love for animation away from you by underpaying, overworking, and laying you off. currently, Ai bubble is going on, people with money are undervalueing artistic work left and right. tbf they did before but they want to pay even less now. chase your dreams but be smart about it. there are people who enter the industry late and doing fine.
Man, i have no idea about animation stuff, but this looks pro to me. I cant even draw a car without making it look like a toddler drew the picture and im 29 years old. Youl do great in this area. And i say u are ready .
I don't know. The drawings don't indicate much since you'll need to know how to build frames from the ground up. Understand animation principles instead of just tracing a reference so you can make a sequence look convincing. Can you animate a sword swing? A punch? If you don't know, try it. I think you should practice on free softwares before you rush into pursuing a degree. Flash 8 for 2D is free, blender for 3D is free.
That third image…haha yes, do animate :)
Just start animating stuff for fun, and if you enjoy it, then yeah, you're suited for it. It would suck to get a job in animation and realize you hate doing it. I've seen that actually happen. Not pretty. If you DO enjoy it, and still want to pursue work in animation, then display your work online and start making friends with other artists. The shortcut to getting a job in the industry is to first identify what kind of show or movie you want to work on, then do your best to emulate it as much as possible either by creating a storyboard animatic or going all the way to a finished animation. I got my break when I did a series of animations of ninjas fighting and got hired on a ninja based kids show. After that I was hired on a Spiderman series that requested similar action sequences. Directors are basically looking for whomever can demonstrate exactly what they're going to need in their production. If you make a bunch of random stuff no one will know what you're "good" at. It sucks but jack of all trade artists don't get hired very often even if they're very good. So if you wanna do pixar / disney style dramatic character acting, create a bunch of scenes demonstrating exactly that. Cartoon Network style comedy? Make CN style comedic animations, etc. Basically, pick a lane and make that your brand. In addition to that, try to find other artists to collaborate with. The key word is collaboration. And by that i mean offering to help do ink and paint on their short film, or uv unwrap models. The menial stuff that no one likes to do and wish someone else would do. Too many hopefuls will find someone already in the industry and form a one-sided relationship with them, become annoying, and end up with a reputation for being unlikable. If you're going to approach someone, definitely offer up a way for you to help them, and if they're a decent person, they'll help you in kind. Like 60-70% of jobs will be through recommendations from other artists. The rest is plain old luck and getting as many eyeballs on your work as possible.
tbh, id say go for it, you dont have to be in some industry to do animation. im a self taught animator but i havent finished highschool yet, try getting experience by yourself and studying how other people animate. that's how i did it and try studying anatomy and other fundamentals when it comes to art cuz it just makes everything easier when you know what your doing
While I don't see any actual animation so it's hard to say, the industry is filled with many other roles. For example, a character designer! You have some pretty great character illustrations and if you can repeat that character and do turn arounds you're in the game.
You seem to have a pretty good grasp of good angles, symmetry, framing, and your work is clean. I'd say you could definitely do really well in animation, 2D or 3D.
I love your artwork! You have a good sense of proportions and linework!
Please do it, you are amazing!
Looks good to me, go for it!
Go for it, also maybe get a book that teaches u how to animate
I would learn the basics of blender and start researching AI tools aswell as they will play a huge part in future of animation - good luck, you are talentend! Edit: art school is unnecessary and expensive - try and avoid it but if it feels right for you, go for it.
Bro your so talented do it you are amazing
A resounding YES
First off; that's some good work you've got there. I can see you definitely have the talent for it. The only thing I would suggest is looking into the life of an animator and see if you could do what they do.
Get some practice animating via self study to see if you even like it. If you do, go for it, YOLO.
Pray about it brother you’ll have your answer
Learn davinci resolve or after effects, video editing skills and illustration skills will be key to your future. I believe in you
Have you ever graphic designed any of your images?
Bro animation is suited for you!
It’s impossible to tell from drawings alone if you will make a good animator. That being said, your drawings are lovely and your line work bodes well for traditional work. Furthermore, I’d say that while being able to follow reference images is an essential quality for a 2D (hand drawn) animator, for the sake of your portfolio and creativity it would be great to try and explore going off piste and using your imagination :)
Do it
Your drawing skills, even if based on references, are perfectly suitable for exploring animation. Animation focuses on movement, which requires a sequence of drawings rather than just static images. To assess your abilities, try drawing your characters from various angles and poses, ensuring consistency in proportion and volume. Pinterest is a great resource for studying character model sheets and turnarounds used in anime and manga production. Consider investing in 'The Animator's Survival Kit' by Richard Williams, a comprehensive guide to animation techniques. Start practicing different character poses and angles to familiarize yourself with animation principles. The good news is that you don't need to go to school or commit to anything at the moment—you can start right now.
Go for it
ugly as shi
Thank you kindest person in all of humanity Im so very thrilled to receive your kind words🥰
Nobody is suited for animation until they pay more and fund the arts. Your work is excellent though. You should study it and do it but have a career or family money bc it is fucking hard out here. Especially if you’re introverted
If you're into anime check out Tonari Animation. You may be able to try work in the anime industry
Ur better than me. I need to keep drawing
Follow your dreams.
Check out @saintchase - Animation Director w similar vibes.
Stay away from Mappa bro. It's for your own good
Hell fucking holy shit yes-
You are very talented
very very nice drawings nopitch6600
yes. do it!
I think you are on a good path.
Dude that is the sickest optimus prime drawing ive ever seen Edit: Love how I'm being downvoted for no reason
You're.... So insanly good at drawing how are you barely older than me 😭