Your topics: Life as Professional Animator.

 Wouter: how is your life as a professional animator? Are you able to have a life
outside the studio? Do you feel the life washing out of you each year? Are the
standards brutally high to maintain a balanced life? Is it more a dream of a
nightmare?

I wanted to make sure I still follow up (and don't forget) with whichever questions you guys had.
Sometimes it's a lot easier to answer to some of these to everyone on the blog, as this seems to be
one of those questions many people have.

Wouter, my life as a professional animator has been exciting, difficult, inspiring, challenging,
gratifying, special, rewarding...all together. It's been unique and special because of the people
you meet and the movies you get to work on. That in itself, has no price. At the same time,
because it's not always easy to stay creative constantly, you have to find ways to keep the
momentum going. You get a shot every week, and with every shot, a lot of creative energy needs
to be put in it. It's so truth the quote "You are as good as your last shot". It's not a job where you
can relay in what you did 5-10 years ago. And to keep yourself motivated and excited year after
year is not always easy.

In a place like Pixar, where people are really talented and passionate for this, you have to
continue finding something exciting in every single shot you get...regardless of whether it's a
great juicy shot or not. Sometimes you'll get great shots, and other times you may not.
Sometimes a production needs certain shots to be done sooner than later...they may not be the
most exciting shots, but the bottom of the line is, they need to get done and when you work in a
team, you have to help your neighbour in whichever ways you can sometimes. There has been
productions where I worked after hours (even if I was in a different film), just to help the
remaining crew finish a film, as so did many other people. As years go by, it's difficult to
continue doing this as it can be physically exhausting to be in front of the computer for that many
hours especially for those who have families to get back to.

That said, I've been trying to balance what I do. Since it's my job, I've been paying more
attention over the last few years at how I'm taking care of myself, physically and mentally. This I
hope it doesn't sound too new age. But back 10 years ago, I was easily spending 15-18 hours a
day on some projects. Barely getting any sleep...and going out with friends on the weekends.
Pretty soon my body starting telling me that I had to chill the hell out and figure out a balance
between work, personal life and health. I still struggle with that balance to tell you the truth.

Like you said, I had to find a life outside the studio. Otherwise, I would of burn out fast. I've
seen it happen with other friends, and didn't want it to happen. For me doing things outside work
kept bringing me back to work with energy and motivation to do things. This inspiration outside
came in a variety of ways: Live-action, shorts/videos, photography, music, artwork, teaching.
The AnimationMentor School I co-founded, was great for me, because I found myself going
back to really figuring out what I was doing everyday in order to pass my findings to other
people as clear as I could. Additionally, doing other projects and learning things outside
animation but whithin the world of Filmmaking, has become an amazing hobby and personal self
learning process that has helped my animation as well. So my life outside the studio these days, I
keep myself busy learning things I always wanted to learn, but never had the chance/luck to
learn. I never went to Film School...so when I started working at Pixar, I told myself I was going
to study it on my own and learn what I could from different areas, projects, films, Directors, co-
workers. I'm still there...and hope to be there for a long time. I love what we do. I try to pass on
whatever I can, but I also try to keep myself learning. What I sure don't want to do is to be at a
place where I'm done learning.

As for Pixar, it's not a brutal place. People there have a life, and they do maintain a balance. Are
there standards? Of course there are. Are they high standards? Yes I think they are. And I'm glad
that they are, because that shows in the work the animators put in these films. A shot will not go
by if it's lacking. Too many people will catch it. As an animator/artist there I'm always
challenged professionally and it's the best creative environment I've been lucky enough to be.

The Story of a Disney Animator

The following article appeared in the September 1991 issue of The Peg-Board, a publication for
professional motion picture screen cartoonists, and has since been reprinted in the Official
Bulletin of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees in spring of 1993.

I cannot provide an author credit for the article, since it was published anonymously. Whoever
the actual author is, I'd like to thank them for their fine article. I hope they've also had an
opportunity to find a better job in the meantime.
In the beginning while I was in art school, the thought of working at Disney Feature Animation
in Florida was appealing. When their representatives came to my college we were told that they
were looking for only the best artists or "players for the team." This was very exciting to me so
with no hesitation I applied for a position.

Several months later my portfolio was reviewed and chosen along with several others. I couldn't
believe it! This was the opportunity of a lifetime, an opportunity to work in the fantasy place of
my childhood dreams, and I hadn't even graduated from art school yet! I was to be trained in the
top animation studio by Disney artists and I was told that if all went well after several more
reviews, I would have a full-time career with raises and promotions. To top the whole package
off, I would be working at the sunny vacation-like atmosphere of Walt Disney World Resort.
What more could a young and ambitious artists from a small town want?

I know what I have said so far sounds fine and dandy. But now that I've been there a while, all
the pixie dust has worn off and I feel I should share my experiences with everyone in the
animation business. This is also a good example of the old saying, "When the cat's away (the
union), the mouse will play."

The studio is located in a corner of the Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park and is one of the
attractions. The park is jam-packed with tourists each day and so is the "Animation Tour." The
studio itself is a very clean and sleek design inside and out, almost to the point of being sterile.
The artists, or "cast members," are contained in what we call "The Pit," which is the exposed
studio floor that is visible to the Animation Tour. It is here that we sit in our exposed work
stations, visible to the thousands of curious tourists that pass through the tour corridor every day,
three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. The tour is guided by video-projected tour guides
Walter Cronkite and Robin Williams. Their images are projected on large Sony television
monitors that are suspended from the ceiling inside our work area. The work environment is
highly unusual and full of tension and many distractions.

Imagine: you're being pressured by the production manager to crank out a scene that was due the
day before when suddenly a tourist's camera flash goes off in your face blinding you for a few
seconds, or else you're distracted by a tapping from the other side of the glass by a tourist who
wants to get your attention to see if you're real. The worst is when you've had a hard day and you
want to just sit and collect your thoughts, and you look up and someone in plaid Bermuda shorts
is videotaping your every move. These are conditions that no artists should be subjected to in any
situation.

The private offices, furthest away from the viewing windows and the public eye, are where the
management and accounting people work, and where our sophisticated computers work that I am
under oath not to mention.

Our head studio manager, or "show manager," is a former manager of Snoopy On Ice and, like
most Disney managers, is hardly seen on the floor. He is somewhat reclusive and only emerges
to escort very important investors, celebrities, and officials through the various departments,
boasting the wonders of Disney animation and wining and dining them for their respect. When
these VIPs are shuffled past our desk we are made to feel like sheep in a petting zoo.
Second in charge is our production manager. He paces up and down the aisles between our work
stations to make sure we have work on our desks and that we are not slacking behind. He
reprimands us and encourages peer pressure if we don't put in at least twelve or fourteen hours of
work a day in our six- or sometimes seven-day-a-week work schedule. This ex-army sergeant
with his old field hat on reminds us that all this is important to "the team," and if you don't play,
you lose the game. This was not the animation shangri-la I was sold on. This so-called teamwork
sweatshop ethic is what this article really boils down to.

After some research into proper union wages and work ethics, I discovered that my colleagues
and I were making almost half of what the standard wages are in the business and that we were
working twice as hard. I also found that our medical benefits are substandard compared to those
of the Motion Picture Health and Welfare Fund in Hollywood. On a brief visit to one of the local
hospitals I developed a case of "Tummy Trouble" when I found out that we are not covered until
the minimum two-hundred-and-fifty dollar deductible is paid first.

Perhaps the saddest part of the Disney Teamwork plan is the interns. Every six months or so a
new group of interns arrive and I just want to cringe. I know that at least four interns were hired
full-time with five-year contracts at the intern pay scale, which is extremely low even by our
Florida standards, not to mention what's paid in California. When they first arrive, they boast to
all their friends and family that they've been "chosen" to work at Disney. This scene is all too
painfully familiar. Those of us who have been here a while can clearly see what is happening.
Perhaps the most upsetting part about the interns is that the tactics management uses on them is
starting to rub off on the full-time artists.

Recently, we worked double-time hours on a Sunday. The next day we were given the marvelous
choice of shifting the hours to the following week's pay period as time-and-a-half, or trading
eight hours of double time for a paid day off at straight time. We are often told that we have to
come in under budget and that we have to make ourselves look good to the California studio.

And if the wage tampering isn't enough, they tamper with our job classifications as well. A
layout trainee from Taiwan does layouts during the day and then must do character cleanup in
the evening. When he protests he's told that he has to work both shifts "like it or not," that he has
a severe attitude problem and that he has to finish the scene at four a.m. the following morning...
"like it or not."

So far, most of the work done in Florida has been on the Roger Rabbit shorts, Tummy Trouble
and Roller Coaster Rabbit. The Florida studio handed small chunks of work on the Rescuers
Down Under and Beauty and the Beast theatrical features, both of which were lacking in
character and action compared to the Burbank studio. The most recent project announced will be
a major chunk of the Aladdin feature which, of course, will be done under a lower budget than
that of Burbank and will probably produce the same quality as the last two.

What is the reward for all this "teamwork?" The Florida unit has been given the green light to
expand into a full-length feature unit, producing a feature every two years. It was also announced
that the studio might have its own built-in university to train more upcoming Florida animators.
This studio has become a side-show novelty for tourists and a sweatshop for young and naive
artists fresh out of school.

Motion

The Hard Life of an Animator in New Zealand

It all began when a friend of mine invited me to work in New Zealand thinking that it was a
western country I thought it was a great opportunity to be stable and still do what I love,during
the 1998 animation work was beginning to become scarce I was mostly doing freelance but
thank God for skills and experience we (my family and I) was able to survive.Then my friend in
New Zealand whom I had worked before in the Philippines gave me an opportunity.He asked me
if I could work for him and also train new New Zealand animators,I thought”this is great” so I
went ahead of my family in May of 1998 and worked for my friend for 7 months until I thought
it was ok to bring my family over.When they were here everything continued to go well the
studio was booming there was a lot of work but then in 2001 things started going bad our boss
isn’t able to pay us our weekly wages anymore  and then to the point we had to shut down.So
here I was a Filipino animator trying to look for any animation work but to no avail there was
none then a friend of mine told me that he’s openning up a studio but it would only freelance
work but he assured me that there would be a lot of work.As usual like any other projects we
reached our final date and I’ll be jobless again,the thing also that hurts is that I’m a multi-task
animator,asides from animating I also do storyboards,Sheet directing,Layous and slugging but
still no work.So of course worried about my family going hungry I had to take other odd
jobs,like being a waiter in a casino just that we had money for our everyday needs.Since 2002 up
to 2003 I did this job.Then I was able to teach in an animation school but only as a freelance
tutor then again did some animation it continued  until August of 2004 and here I am again no
job so a friend of mine told me there was an opening for a records clerk in a certain hospital I
worked there until 2005 then I felt like I’m being suffocated then another studio opened up and I
was able to work in animation again even though it was only freelance.It was a bit ironic though
there was this animation studio I applied before in 2003 but when I worked for them as a
freelancer I saw some animators there that I trained before but are now full time employees of
that studio even though when I learned that I applied months ahead of them and they’re the ones
who got in and what I noticed is that they were only employing white people.I don’t know if its
favoritism or racism but when I came to this country I thought that there was no racism here.But
thats how it looked and the people they employed were even under qualified but still they are the
ones who are full time and I’m only a freelancer.Still thinking of my family of course I had to
swallow my pride and just be thankful that I have animation work to do.What hurts more is I’m
been in the animation business for twenty years and guys who’ve been only animating for less
than five years are getting full time position wherein I know I can offer a studio a lot more if they
only gave me a chance to prove it.Even the director of that studio that checks my work he had
only five years experience in animation and here he is telling me what he wants to happen in a
scene,he was even happy with the work results I’ve given him.Well,as I was freelancing for this
studio a friend of mine called me and offered me a job as a life drawing tutor in the school that I
was tutoring before but I had to decline because we were so busy finishing the other project
which is my mistake.So he called in someone else and he took the job,then after about 5 months
that friend of mine who offered me the life drawing tutor job and was also the head of that
animation school resigned and the one next in line was the current life drawing tutor who had
only less than 6 years working in the animation industry to tell you the truth I haven’t even seen
that guy animate and he’s the head of an animation school,how ironic.Then when the project I
was working on during that time finished I went to the Overall head of that school and asked if I
can work for them as a tutor,thankfully they gave me a full time job as an animation tutor.I did
my best to teach my students and share them what I have learned in my past experiences as
animator for the last 21 years but the head of the animation school also a co tutor and I were
having a hard time undrestanding each other and he even changes my tutorial after I have worked
so hard to prepare them saying that they weren’t effective.Man,how can he know if its effective
enough if before I even try it he shuts me down and changes my work. What also I noticed is that
he’s too much of a perfectionist and even the simplest thing he easily gets irritated before i
worked as a head of storyboarding and I also get my share of problems with my staff but I don’t
get irritated right away if there is a way to fix it that’s what a true manager is about not get
frustrated and then become sarcastic with your crew or staff.He makes you feel not only
incompetent but stupid I even got to the point of maybe talking to a psychiatrist and maybe tell
him what’s troubling.how would you feel everytime you come home your exhausted not only
physically but also mentally and emotionally.Thank God for my wife and kids they were there to
help me out.Then he even had the gall to tell our superiors that I’m not doing my job
anymore,how can I do my job wherein everytime you do something its always wrong to him.He
suggested to my superiors that I am not reliable anymore and they had to let me go and the
school season hasn’t finished yet and I don’t have a job and its already November and nearing
Christmas. Its a good thing my superior still had faith in me and ask me if I wanted to promote
the animation school for them,I said just as long I’m paid for my efforts,of course.So here I am
helping my ex boss fill up his school wherein he knows its going down the tubes,but honestly
what I’m earning form promoting the school isn’t enough to cover our home expenses that’s why
I’m still looking for a full time job,any job enough that it lasts until the end of January next year
so if any of you out there that has some 2D animation work to give or storyboarding and sheet
directing I would really appreciate it.You can also contact me at al.cez@vodafone.co.nz or my
home number which is 06498180039 and here’s also my mobile 0211542550 and thanks for
listening guys.AL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcbYQrB_ODM A day in the life of a VADA student