Jkoseattle wrote:Thanks. Respecting deadlines and all the professionalism that goes with it is second nature, that's not really an issue for me.
Oh, sure. Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I just meant that animation is very time-consuming and it’s even harder to do as an ‘after hours’ thing, if you're already working full-time. (At least I think so. But that shouldn't stop you.)
Are there established companies who have a bench of freelance consultants they call on when work comes in?
I've worked at a number of studios and they're all a bit different when it comes to hiring freelancers and working part-time.
This is going to be another super-long post but FWIW:
I’ve been fortunate enough to hold staff positions for most of my career but many artists and animators I know and have worked with are freelancers. I have freelanced between my staff positions though.
The first time I was a freelance artist and illustrator was back in the late 90’s when I arrived to Los Angeles. The jobs came sporadically--sometimes way too often and sometimes not often enough--but usually clients would contact me. Most of my calls came from having an online portfolio and physical ads taken in artist directories. (At the time, I occasionally had to send a physical portfolio through the mail--thank goodness nobody asks for
that anymore because it got expensive.) I would also send illustrated post cards and other self-promotional material to companies I was interested in doing work for. Networking with other artists I met along the way helped a lot too. I think any of this (except mailing a physical portfolio,) still works for many artists.
For a short time, I also used an artist rep. The rep was pretty good in my first year, especially when I was starting out in L.A. and had no contacts--they got me gigs at studios like Disney and Klasky-Csupo (my first character design job!) but I dropped them when they started sending too much ‘inappropriate’ work my way...by that, I mean work I wasn’t interested in or felt unsuitably trained for. This made me feel the rep just didn't 'get me' as an artist. I also dropped them because I learned from a client that the rep was taking about 40% of my pay instead of the 25% we had agreed on, but that’s another story. The quality and trustworthiness of a rep will vary of of course. If you go that route, it would be good if you can talk to other artists who use a rep, and get recommendations.
When I was freelancing as an illustrator, I usually worked from home. I had one ad agency client who insisted I come in and work on-site for them. After doing a few jobs there, I told them I had better equipment and software at home and that I could work more efficiently there, so they agreed to let me work from home. I worked off and on for that agency for almost two years.
When I decided to go into the animation biz, I made a demo reel of personal work and sent that out to various animation and vfx studios around Los Angeles. The reel was mostly made up of 3D animations based on scenes from a handful of personal projects I storyboarded. I never made those films but the animation clips served their purpose--the variety of scenes and characters on my reel made it appear I had worked on several professional productions already.
After I sent out the reel, I had expected to continue freelancing as an illustrator for a while, but the first serious offer I got turned into a staff position as an artist and animator at a small movie studio that specialized in action and science-fiction movies. That job was fun but it took a lot of time and energy, and I had to drop all my freelance work.
Three years later, I left that movie studio and went back to freelancing for a few months for various clients. After that I was offered a staff position as a digital artist and animator at Rhythm & Hues, which lasted for the next 12 years.
While I was at Rhythm, I often participated in hiring decisions for the crew in our department. Except for one other staff artist in our department, our department typically staffed up with freelancers. Depending on the production (usually commercials and video game cinematics,) the crew size requirement could fluctuate from two to 20 artists. (One video game trailer job we did had almost 40 artists!) We tended to hire the same artists from job-to-job as much as possible. In our department, we really prized collaboration and being able to respect and work well with teammates. The feature film side of the studio also mostly hired freelancers--several hundreds of artists at peak production. With very few exceptions, every artist at the studio, freelance or staff, worked full-time on-site though, not part-time. I think this is typical at bigger studios. (I think I mentioned some exceptions in an earlier post.)
After Rhythm, I went back to freelancing for awhile. Even though I was a freelancer again, I worked continuously for 18 months as a visual fx artist and animator at an independent movie studio that specialized in monster movies, so it was practically a staff position. In that situation, the vfx supervisor was a friend who learned I was available and asked me to come work with him. So personal contact and networking is definitely an important factor in getting regular freelance work. That studio had about 5 animators on staff, and 5 or more freelancers working full-time or part-time depending on how busy they were.
So, being able to work full-time or part-time, on-site or off-site, varies from company to company, but there's probably a lot more flexibility at smaller studios and companies. At big and small studios, word-of-mouth plays a big part in getting hired--many artists have worked with each other at many different studios before.
But I think the most important point of entry is always going to be your reel. If you can't show what you can do, you're not going to get hired. Nowadays, I don't think it's necessary to make a physical DVD though. Most vfx artists and animators put their reels on Vimeo or YouTube since anybody can access those services easily. (That reminds me, I need to cut a new reel myself. I'm not looking for work right now but it's fun to show your stuff in public.)
Hope this info helps.