BY CASSIDY NOWOSAD
Until someone is up at 2 am bending over a tiny art pad, hand-cramping and having to hit Control+Z to undo repeatedly so the frames would look right, they really won’t understand the dedication animators have. An animator will spend months or even years working frame by frame on pieces the audience will see in a span of two minutes. This is one of the many reasons animators are really unappreciated and should gain serious recognition for the time and effort their craft takes. In about a second of an animation, it will usually have up to one hundred frames at the highest quality. Basically, that means one hundred different sketches, lineart, and colored pictures; taking that into account it is an extreme amount of work for sometimes little reward
“I have a lot of respect for animators. They’re able to make art come to life and move, they have such a large amount of patience, it’s amazing,” sophomore Madison Gailboord said.
Many freelance animators will spend most of their time drawing and improving, They do this because the amount of time and effort it takes to making a good piece is painstakingly long, the work however is made easier in larger companies like Disney or Pixar due to the massive amount of people that focus on either backgrounds or specific character details. Despite this ideal situation, the animation industry is horribly competitive; multimedia artists and animators held about 64,400 jobs in 2014. A little more than one-half half of workers were self-employed making it extremely difficult to land a position like this. This forces many artists to freelance; making little money off of their work using websites like YouTube, which are algorithmically not designed to benefit them. Or some artists will set up a Patreon, a website where a given amount of money is donated to the artist or creator and often the donator will receive rewards. Lastly, some people will result to commission forms to make money off of their work, where art pieces or animations are given in return for cash.
The competitiveness can really discourage many want-to-be animators because some people are so far ahead stylistically due to their talent being fueled at a much younger age. This is the same with many things like dance or sports, but the issue that weighs heavier on artists is that even if you make it big, many people won’t even recognize your name. You will hear names of professional dancers, singers, or athletes, but most people when given the name of an animator of a famous Disney movie won’t know who they are: for example Joseph Barbera animator and Storyboard artist of Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, The Smurfs, and the Jetsons. However, strangely enough, this unforgiving industry can still often be a motivator more than anything else for many artists. They will see kids shows with animation or online artists and will attempt to achieve what others before them have. The harsh critique and competitive nature surrounding artistry pushes even professionals to strive to be better and motivate others as they were.
