Hey m8; just wanted to say that it's really great to see such an awesome animator/character designer coming out of Pratt. I'm going through sophmore year over there r/n; I just related to so much of what you were saying in those asks you answered, lol. Will try to nail down that Storyboarding class next semester for sure. I was wondering; do you feel like it's at all possible to have a decent career in animation while staying in NYC? Seems like a lot of ppl migrate to Cali after their thesis.
Hey thanks for the kind words! Best of luck to you in your journey through the land of Brooklyn!I have a lot of friends who have been consistently employed as animators living in NYC, they’ve balanced freelance with the (comparatively low) wages they get working at studios like Titmouse NY and Augenblick to make a great living for themselves. So I would say that if you are aiming to work as an animator, game artist, or general freelancer for the rest of your career, NYC is definitely a possibility!I would say that if, in the future, you wanted to get into character design, story dev, writing, storyboarding, or background design in the animation industry, those careers are almost nonexistent as studio positions in NYC. Mostly they exist in LA (and, more recently, Texas and Seattle). LA also has the only animation union in the United States, so wages here are higher. So, for the same price as an apartment in NYC, you can get a bigger apartment in LA and make more money. If you are employed at a union studio, you’ll also get adult-y stuff like healthcare and pension plans/401k investments taken care of as well.
I’ll never tell anyone that NYC is not feasible for animation careers. It’s perfectly legit and an amazing city to live in. But I also want every animator to have every tool at their disposal, and let them know everything I would have wanted to know when I was in college, so I do tell all my friends that, in general, LA has shown itself to be a bigger hub for animators who want to do more than just animate.