I'm a 3D animator, and I've been working in the industry for approximately 4 years in the same studio. As everyone may know by now, the industry is more or less in shambles, between the streaming platforms cancelling animated projects left and right, the theatres not doing as much entries as they used to, generative AIs putting our jobs at risk and the TV channels not being as popular amongst the younger audiences with the rise of YouTube tiktok and other streaming platforms. Many studios in Europe are struggling, mine included, and others are closing. My contract ends in May and they won't have any job for me until at least October 2027, which leaves me with no option until then and I have no idea what I'm gonna do.
And in a way... I feel weirdly relieved.
My job hasn't been very creatively rewarding for the past year, and even though I worked on animated movies and I felt very proud to see my name in a film's credit in theaters, I couldn't help but feel a bit defeated since I didn't LIKE the finished product. It's weird to love what you're doing and putting so much love in a character's acting only to be disappointed of the finished product to the point of being ashamed to mention I worked on it. Mostly because of the writing. It's not interesting, it lacks depths and creative ideas, and in general it just wasn't impactful in any way.
To give you a small taste in one of the movies I worked on, the female love interest literally decides to give up her dreams of travelling back to her native country she was forced to leave as a child, just to stay with her current boyfriend, the male protagonist, who acted like an awful "nice guy" archetype towards her the whole movie... And this is the message they're giving to little girls. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about the writing of this movie despite how much I enjoyed animating the characters.
I want to animate, yes. But I also want to be able to tell stories that I find meaningful and impactful and doesn't make me ashamed of what I'm doing. I want to find meaning in my art again, and right now it's lacking and making me so sad.
Recently, indie animation like Glitch studio are giving me a lot of hope that it's still possible to make smart and high quality animation series, and it's so inspiring to me right now. The Amazing Digital Circus fascinates me for the quality of its writing, and to think that it's a free indie series available on YouTube blows my mind when I see how much my studio struggles to get investments from TV channels. I don't know if people realize how alien this is to the industry.
I truly believe indie animation is what we desperatly need to change the industry, because right now it really lacks bold creative freedom more than ever.
I don't really know why I'm making this post, we just had a meeting with our boss today to discuss the gloomy state of the industry and it made me a bit nervous for my future. But I guess I needed to write this to remind myself of the hope I feel for my dream despite these difficult circumstances. Art isn't dead, I will find my inspiration again and tell more meaningful stories one day 💫
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