One of my first posts on this blog was titled Life of an Animator Who Is Trying His Best. In this post, I gave you guys an insight on what it was like to be an aspiring animator and the struggles I had to get my skills up to to company standards and to break into the industry.
Well a lot of time has passed since that initial post and I have some updates I want to share with you about where I am right now and what my plans are in the future to obtain this dream of being a videogame animator. So, let’s get right into it!
(P.S. I’d recommend you read the first post I made in this ongoing series so you know what's up. You can check it out here!)
New Job
When I wrote my first post of Life of an Animator, I left off telling you guys how I was working as a Contractor for the Point Church doing media projects, such as videography, animations, and graphic design. I did that for a few months, but unfortunately the Point wasn’t able to continue paying me so I had to leave that position.
I came back to the Point as a contractor temporarily for a few weeks, but again it was a short lived voyage and I had to sail onto new ventures. Well after nearly a year of graduating from college I finally got my first full time job in December! However, it had almost nothing to do with the 4 years of education I worked so hard to obtain a degree in! Isn’t college great?
Currently, I work at Protolabs, a 3D printing manufacturing company, as a Model Finisher. Basically, I’m a Quality Assurance person who breaks out 3D prints along with doing finishing work such as drilling and taking measurements to make sure the parts are good to ship out to customers across the world. I’ve worked here for about 3 months now and I enjoy the people that I work with and I get to work on some pretty cool projects.
But, as you might have guessed, a Model Finisher for a 3D printing company has nothing to really do with game design or animation. After a year of applying for animation and game development jobs with no luck, I had to face reality and focus on getting myself a job even if that job had nothing to do with the field I studied for the past 4+ years.
My best friend, Zeke Love, had been working at Protolabs for about a year at the time, so I called him up to see if he would be a reference for me. A couple months and some interviews later, I became the newest employee of one of the best 3D printing manufacturing company in the world. It’s not my dream job by any means, but at least I’m starting somewhere and not relying on floating freelance gigs as my main source of income. Speaking of which…
Freelance Biz
While I have a new full time job now, I haven’t given up on my freelancing career. I still want to work on what I enjoy and get my name out there. So, in my free time I’m brushing up on my skills and continuing to build my brand.
I’ve been doing a few gigs here and there, such as helping the Point Church out with some projects and doing some odd jobs through online clients. Most recently, I did some videography work for Redeeming Homes, which is a company that takes old homes and flips them into modern suburban paradises. I filmed the different housing projects around the Raleigh downtown area and am gearing up to edit a promo video for the company soon!
To increase my reach, I designed some snazzy looking business cards that I can hand out to people looking for freelancers like myself to make them some awesome content. Who knows, maybe it will even get in front of a hiring manager at a local game company.
Unfortunately, my freelance business is slowing down a bit, due to this whole coronavirus pandemic. But, that’s what remote work is for! So, if you know a guy who knows a guy who needs some creative content done, show them my website and send them over old Dean’s way for me will ya? I’m always looking for opportunities to brush up my portfolio as I’m trying to keep up with my animation work
The Old Portfolio
I’ll be honest, I struggle with finding time and motivation to work on my portfolio. Animation is a tough art to learn both on the artistic and technical sides. As I continue to learn the ins and outs of creating compelling animations, I realize just how difficult creating something as a simple bouncing ball or basic walk cycle can be.
Sometimes I can get very discouraged and frustrated when I’ve worked on an animation for hours on end and it still looks crappy and unrefined. After several failed attempts at making a pendulum swing back and forth, I’ll step away from my computer to catch a breather and find myself absent from my computer for days, maybe even weeks at a time nowhere closer to where I feel like I need to be.
When you’re doing animation, you have to face a lot of failures because there’s so many factors in creating compelling movement and it’s not something that anyone can just pick up and do on a whim. It requires patience, diligence, and a lot of minutiae detail work to get it just right.
I’ll be real with you guys, there’s been times when I’ve thought about hanging up the old animation thing and moving onto something else. Preferably, something that doesn’t make me want to bang my head up against the wall on a regular basis. However, I find that, despite my periods of absence from animation at times, I always find my way back. I’ve committed myself to this art form and want to master it.
So, while there are times that I really don’t want to sit in front of my computer for hours animating, I do it anyway. I force myself to do it because I know for a fact I won’t get better if I don’t do it. You know the old saying, you miss all the shots you don’t take? Well I’m still missing a ton of shots, but occasionally something will click and I’ll start making some baskets here and there. Right now they’re just free throw shots, no 3 pointers or slam dunks, but it’s better than sticking on the bench the whole time.
Not too long ago, I updated my animation demo reel, refining some older animation pieces and adding some new ones to spice things up and I have to say it doesn’t look too shabby. It’s a long way from being Pixar good, but it’s getting there. The only question is, am I getting there in the best way possible?
Animation Mentor
I realized that, at the rate I’m going through trial and error animation projects, it will take me forever to break into the animation field and get anyone’s attention. So, I made the decision to enroll in an online animation school called Animation Mentor.
I’ve heard many great things about Animation Mentor and learned that industry professionals who animate on the daily take time out of their day to teach aspiring animators like myself the skills to work in places like Disney or top notch game companies. I figured if I wanted to get a job as an animator as soon as possible, this would be the way to do it!
I really wanted to get into an Advanced Placement course because I felt like I had the basics down, since I’ve been self-taught for a year and wanted to get right into creating some awesome animated scenes. So, I submitted my snazzy little demo reel and was hopeful to hear that I got in and start working on some cool stuff!
However, it didn’t really pan out like that. I got a brutally honest review of my demo reel by the co-founder of Animation Mentor and to put it simply, my skills were just not there yet to get me into the higher classes. I was disappointed at first. I thought I made an awesome demo reel for someone who has only been learning animation for a little over a year now, so I had to swallow a big reality pill when I was told my animation wasn’t close to the industry standard.
But, after I digested the feedback and gave myself a nice pet talk or two, I realized that, while my skills aren’t where I thought they were, this animation school would help me to get there. My first day is this Monday, so I’m excited to see how my skills grow in the months to come!
That’s pretty much the 411 for what’s been going on with me lately. I’m not sure exactly where God is leading me on my career path now, but I’m alright with that. No one has it all figured out and it’s better to enjoy the ride instead of worrying if I’m ever going to reach the destination. I see the progress and, even though it’s just baby steps right now, as long as I’m moving forward I’m optimistic about where I’m headed!
I’ll end it here, but feel free to check out my website to see my work and I look forward to next time!
Dean Willms
~Gamer. Designer. Friend.
