Episode 5: Making It as a Freelance Animator

05/01/16 • 29 min

This week, Mike and Matthew chat with freelancer Kyle Bernard about his experiences as a working animator. Along the way, they learn about the importance of networking and moving to Burbank, how to figure out what your client rates should be, and the one shot you should never include on your reel. Kyle also shares his process for finding the inner life of an animated character, and the reasons why he hopes to someday work for Disney.

Previous Episode

Episode 4: The Pipeline

This week's episode is all about the technical aspects of making your own animated short: asset management, naming conventions, file versioning software. Sounds boring, right? Well, actually yeah, okay, it is pretty boring. But that's part of the problem! If you skip over the boring stuff to get straight to the fun parts, you'll crash and burn before you ever get your production up and running. Mike and Matthew share some stories from their own animation experiences to drive this point home. Along the way, they cover Subversion vs. Dropbox, making sure your new team members can get started quickly, and a lively discussion about the best ways to keep your spirits up, even when you're staring down the long road of a multi-year production timeline.

Next Episode

Episode 6: Sacrifices

This week’s episode goes to some dark places. Many personal sacrifices are required when committing yourself to a major creative project. All that time and energy has to come from somewhere. Mike and Matthew share their tales of woe about poor health choices, missing out on great TV shows, and that moment when you realize you’re never going to learn a foreign language. They also cover Mike’s newly launched webcomic project, and how it fits into his dream to become a feature filmmaker.

Show notes: “5 Ways You're Sabotaging Your Own Life (Without Knowing It),” by David Wong

“Imagining your future projects is holding you back,” by Jessica Abel

“The Automan’s Daughter,” by Mike Stamm and Shadia Amin