I'm not an animator, but I have been in the visual effects/animation industry for the last decade, so perhaps I can answer your questions.

The short version:

With lots, and lots, and lots of very hard work, and probably very long hours.


You are going to get absolutely nowhere without a demo reel, if you're trying to go the animation route. To get one of those, you have a couple of routes -- go to a school that offers an animation program. Be prepared to shell out a lot of money, work with quasi-qualified instructors (depending on the school), and work a lot of hours. There's no guarantee that you'll get a job, once you finish, no matter what the marketing material says.

The second option, is to download the student versions of one of the big 3 software packages (more on that, in a minute), and spend your spare time learning the software. Even if you want to focus on animation specifically (as opposed to learning everything), you're going to have to learn a bit of modeling, and a bit of rigging (putting the skeleton in your character) on your way. There are a number of websites that offer training material -- one widely respected site is the Gnomon Workshop.

The three big software packages:

Softimage is kind of a niche package. The company used to have a pretty solid lock on the industry, but through a bunch of bad corporate transitions, lost its hold. Autodesk now owns them, and they largely get lost in the shuffle, from what I've seen. I have heard very good things about XSI, though, and its use is growing.

Maya is the current industry leader for animation. If your heart is set on animating, this is the one to learn. It's not my cup of tea, though -- it's starting to get a little long in the tooth, IMHO, but there are a wealth of resources out there for it, owing to it's number one status. And it's a near guarantee that this is what you'll be using when you get a job.

Autodesk also owns 3D Studio Max, which is used extensively in gaming, and, I think, growing in the commercial world. I don't think you really see it much in visual effects land.

Houdini is kind of the underdog of the three. Owing to its roots, it's mischaracterized as "being too techy" or only being good at particles. Perhaps true in the past, but much less so, now. It's been used for animation, but it's primary use is VFX -- in part due to the aforementioned attitudes.

Note the trend? Autodesk owns a lot of the 3D (and related) software out there, and the fact has a lot of people unhappy. SideFX is really the only competition for Autodesk in that realm, and a lot of people think it's not enough to keep Autodesk driving forward like they should. FWIW, SideFX has far, far, far superior tech support than Autodesk, too. Houdini is my favourite, by far.


Hate to say it, but not likely. Studios expect applicants to be able to demonstrate that promise, and the way that happens in the industry is with the demo reel. Junior animators do get hired out of school, but most new-hires get groomed, anyway.

With your described capabilities, the route I'd suggest isn't to totally switch careers, but start on a migration path. The animation/visual effects industry also needs programmers. The big thing that's started in the last four or five years is a recognition of the need for pipeline developers. That's a role where you'd be writing libraries and tools that other people in the studio use, whether animation, or rigging, lighting, or whatever. The need to know much about the 3D world is much less important in that role, since you'll be exposed to small bits at a time (generally). Depending on the size of the studio, and the pipeline projects that you get, you may end up focusing on a particular area so much that you have the ability to actually do shots competently -- just from picking up the skills while you work on the pipeline projects. I suspect that's generally less true of animation, than things like lighting, though.

If you know system-administration, then that's a good thing, too -- lots of small studios are under-served in that department. If you get in at the right studio, you can plonk along on the animation software, and ask for small shots here and there, to act as your training ground. I spent 8 months animating at a small 3 person studio, because the software development I was hired to do never really materialized, and I had to do something (I was in a contract, so they couldn't get rid of me). Major studios are on Linux, smaller studios are often a lot of Windows, and/or OS X. Some of the smaller studios are also running Linux, too, though -- it (or OS X) is a far superiour platform for animation/VFX, than Windows, owing to the



Be willing to move. You don't say where you are currently, other than East Coast, but there are really only a few centers for animation/VFX (game studios are a little more widely spread). The major centers are New York (lots of commercial work, there, plus Blue Sky), Toronto (mostly small studios), Vancouver (a number of large VFX studios have outposts there), the Bay Area (Pixar, ILM, and IMD), and Los Angeles. There are also studios in London, Australia, and New Zealand (not to mention the smattering of places scattered throughout the Asian continent).

Know someone who knows people (hi!) and who can get your resume in the right hands.

Consider something in the industry, other than animation. Visual effects, for example, requires pretty much everything you listed. With no direct animation experience, you might also consider rigging.

Learn the foundations of computer graphics, from the start to finish. I'm not saying that you need to know matrix math inside and out, let alone be good at it, but you should understand local and world transformations, for example. Understand the process from modeling through to compositing.

Be ready to be a junior, again.

Do your homework. Know where the studios are, and how they hire. Each studio has their own set of hiring practices, though they're all generally the same. They're usually easily found on their website. Go to SIGGRAPH, and talk to all the recruiters there, too.


Yes, sometimes -- but I fight my hardest to get people to discourage it. The truth of the matter is, however, that it's a (mistakenly) sexy industry, and there's no shortage of people trying to get into the business. Many of them are young, with no family, and have no issue sitting at work all day, then playing at work, and working some more -- and many employers take advantage of that. Some studios consider their normal work-day to be 10 hours. Others don't. It's like the game industry -- some places suck, some don't, and you'll never know 'til you get there, because places also change over time. Some places that start out good end up sucking, and some go the other way. Some have a reputation for sucking because of a couple disgruntled workers.

Hope that helps a bit.