Solo Animator: Skills Required?

[daney7g]

Hi all. Could anyone please inform me as to what essential skills are needed to become a competent solo animator? Thanks your feedback is appreciated.

[ThaAnimator]

Depends on what kind of animations you want to do. What skills are "needed" depends on the style and complexity of the animation.

[impossibilia]

Besides learning to build a rig quickly or one that's very diverse and developing excellent timing and posing skills, time management. Working on projects on your own is hard because only you will keep yourself on track. This is where I fail every time I start an animation project.

[daney7g]

Thanks for your reply's peep's. I am just finding my animation feet so im not exactly sure what style/type of animation i will be perusing as a primary focus yet. I thought along similar lines about timing and pose skills as well as project management/time management, story boarding & video editing as basic skills, although i appreciate it will take time to develop to good standard.

[slowtiger]

Drawing skills. No matter how much you'll rely on software in the end, if you're not even able to do quick sketches you'll most likely not become a good animator. You need to be able to get your imagination out of your brain, and drawing is the fastest way. Doesn't matter if it's technically a good drawing - it just has to contain the idea.

Observation skills. You should be able to watch people on the streets, remember their movements, and re-create those at home.

Acting skills. Learn to dance, just a little. If you can't feel the movement from within, you're not going to be a good character animator.

Storytelling skills. Have you ever written a script? More important: did you ever reworked a story over and over again until it was really perfect? Do you read a lot, can you tell a good story from a bad one immediately?

Everything else is just the technical stuff which can be trained. But if you don't have at least 2 from the above list, you'll most likely not be a successful creative animator. There will be still lots of other jobs in the industry: for example, a good project manager is worth her weight in gold.

And if you really want to go solo, you need one other skill as well (which I suck at:) you have to be a good businessman. Be organised, know how to write quotes and invoices, and do your taxes.

[daney7g]

Thanks again for the reply's. I am right at the beginning of my journey so as of yet i don't have all the pre requisite skills you mention but i'm going to be patient and effective in my studies and i know for myself that any skill including creativity can be learned and developed if the right approach is taken. Right now im just forging a mental image of the path i need to travel to achieve my goals, hence the question.

Your reply's have helped me to fill in some gaps and im grateful for that. I know that this is not a quick fix occupational path to learn and be good at but there will be enough milestones along the journey to keep the light burning.

<3

[slowtiger]

You have so much advantage, compared from how it was 30 years ago.

When I was 7 years old I wanted to become an animator. But it was nearly impossible to get any reliable information about that, and the few places where I could have studied it didn't accept me. So I grabbed my father's camera when I was about 12 and started to do my own films, tried all techniques, and became good enough to show my shorts at festivals when I was 19. But I was only good in delivering an idea, create a technically correct movie, and organise all that screening stuff. When I was 27 I was accepted in a big studio ("big" in Germany) and had to learn animation in earnest. After 5 yrs there I really felt like an animator for the first time.

You need to clearly separate the skill sets: one is about animation, the other is about being a successful freelancer. I can only recommend some time in a real studio (but not a too big one, you need to be able to switch jobs inside the studio to get the most out of it). The other stuff can be learnt at nearly any freelance job.

[daney7g]

Thanks slowtiger your feedback is appreciated and im glad you made it as an animator! Indeed there is a wealth of information available right now in the field of animation and as i'm not exactly sure what my primary choice will be, im casting a wide net in order to gain some perspective which i can refine down after more research. Im starting with the fundamentals while i do this research, this is going stand me in a good position to expand from as my choices become clearer. Your suggestion about working in studio to gain a broad experience base is very interesting, thanks for the advice and sharing your story with me.

Dane