I’m writing this having just opened the latest @digital_arts magazine. I flip to the contents… ‘ooh an animation master class’ I quickly turn to it and see that the masterclass has been written by Vida Vega an incredibly talented animator who graduated in Animation at UCA Farnham the same year I did. This is in fact the second time in the last year that I’ve seen someone from my year appear in @digital_arts magazine. The other being the equally talented Jonathan Topf.
This got me thinking. When I first started University there were quite a few people on the animation course, probably 70-80. If I’m honest the course wasn’t in the best shape when I started. Classes weren’t very well organised, some staff were leaving and as new students we had no idea what was going on. It is of course in a much better state now and I highly recommend the course! Anyway, one of the first things I remember was being gathered for our first lecture. We were told in no uncertain terms that, as much as we all love animation, the reality was that if we were lucky only one of the people on the course would end up working in the animation industry. As you can imagine, we were left feeling less than enthused…
Nearly 5 years have passed now and on top of Vida and Jonathan I can think of at least 4 other people who are now making a living from working with animation. So, including myself, that’s 7 people and I don’t doubt that a few other people are having fun working in the animation industry too.
All I wanted to say is that if you really love what you do and you can genuinely sit back and think ‘Yeah, I’m good enough to do this for a living’ then stick to your guns and go for it. There’s no doubt that it’s a difficult industry to get into and people will doubt your chances of success, but if you keep at it and make the effort then the chances are that you’ll get where you want to be. The important thing is that you seriously believe you’re a cut above the rest, if that’s the case I think you’ll be alright.
