Why I left Animation

I graduated Ballyfermot College in 2019 after 5 years and in October I started my first day in one of the most famous Animation studios in the world, Cartoon Saloon. I had been accepted into a Trainee program and I literally couldn’t believe it. I had to move to where the Studio was based, about 2 hours drive away from family and friends so not so bad, but I would have to rent, shouldn’t be a problem when I’m working full time. Looking back now I still go crazy for all the artwork that Saloon produces with their incredible artists. The cream of the crop, from all over the world were concentrated in a small town of just 25k people in which many staff used to complain about the lack of any sushi restaurant, and I was going to be a part of it! I got to work on an Oscar nominated movie, and sat just a desk or two away from Animation Legend Tomm Moore. Meanwhile I produced a lot of artwork for a Disney TV Show where I was the only Irish Artist. Actually I was the only artist who English was their first language. My last project was a still unannounced TV show for Apple with a crazy high budget and we got to splash on intricate designs. The cool projects, the unique people, and (I have no problem in admitting) the prestige, I loved all of it.

But why I left. When I started the Traineeship, I learned that I was being paid below minimum wage and only every 2 months. By the government that is, not by the Studio. It turns out you get a tax break if you take on a recent graduate as a Trainee. That’s fine I thought, I literally didn’t have a single day experience as an animation professional so it’s understandable. I lived very cheaply, which was fine by me because I was only just unemployed before and before that, a student. I worked hard, and when covid hit, worked from home in the hope that I’d get employed as a real employee, and I did after 6 months. Then I got my contract, 26,400 euro a year? Minimum wage was 21,000 euro at the time. But I didn’t worry, I’m only starting and would move up. I was now a Junior Location Designer. I won’t go into the details but my salary never increased even after 2 years. I blamed myself for not being good enough, and still today I think I was an average artist. After my 3rd project a gap opened up and being naive as I was, thought I could take some time off to travel after covid. I believed that I could come back full time to Saloon or some other studio and have no issues. I was completely wrong, that is not how the Animation industry works.

The whole time I worked in Cartoon Saloon, my friends and colleagues told me about the precarious nature of this industry that no one explained while I was in college. That old phrase “if you just get your foot in the door”? That’s not true of animation, the average animation professional has to chase work for their whole career, competing against hundreds of other professional applicants, for low pay. You never stop feeling like a desperate student. Networking is mandatory, business cards are everywhere, people are constantly upskilling to stay ahead of the game, very few can negotiate a higher salary, are you crazy? They’ll give it to someone else. Of course this is not true of everyone, I met the superstars that were always busy and sought after. Even these however were subject to low pay and long hours. The superstars all overwork themselves. I met a lovely guy in Saloon who managed a team on the feature film who had to work hours overtime every single day for months. You also don’t get paid any for any of it, everyone is only paid their 40 hours no matter how much you actually do.

Why would any want to work in these conditions? Because you get to make Art for a living! It’s “the dream” that many nerds like myself wanted so badly. This is 50% of the reason why the industry is awful for workers. There is simply way too much competition for a tiny number of actual jobs. People are moving around different countries chasing the next gig. One guy I knew pretty well who would be considered pretty successful did a talk to a bunch of graduates and I listened in. I got an awful realisation. He discussed his history of approximately 10 years, he bounced from studio to studio, taking on small projects. At one point jumping on the car of some employers so they would consider him. Just so he could keep working and for what? He said “yeah I don’t have a mortgage or wife or anything” while showing a drawing he did of himself with a mattress on the floor of a Belfast rental. Is this what we were supposed to aspire to? The other reason is that Animation TV shows and Movies outside a select few are just not that profitable and never have been. The feature film I worked on had all kinds of tax breaks and subsidies with Government help. In Ireland there is a Tax Credit called Section 481 which they can claim back 32% of all expenditure spent in Ireland, be it staff, services, or goods. There was Tax relief for being based in a small town, for making an Irish Language version etc. One studio is based in Dublin and Belfast simultaneously to avail of UK relief as well.

Animation nerds have this dream that someday there will be some kind of renaissance and it will be like Japan where even normal non-nerd adults will consume as much animation as they do. The problem with this is that even in places with high consumption of Animated media like Japan, they are still not very profitable. What about America & Canada? Not much different I’ve heard. I don’t know any Americans but I heard the exactly the same rhetoric from workers, with the caveat they still have a higher salary since their country is just ridiculously more rich. Even then they had to live in not so cheap California. And they actually are very profitable sometimes! Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks are some of the few studios worldwide that are consistently very profitable and can have a normal working conditions for their workers with high pay. Aside for these big American studios, from what I heard about Irish people I know who moved to Canada, it’s not much different than Ireland. Two friends of mine recently who emigrated let us know they had gotten retail jobs after 2 months of looking for animation work.

Can it be fixed? I think as long as it’s a dream for people, i.e. if it’s competitive, and there is not enough demand from the public for animation content. Then no. Basic laws of supply and demand. With AI and other advances making it possible for people to make content from their bedrooms solo, the competitiveness might accelerate even more since the barrier of entry gets lower. But it could facilitate more content for connoisseurs. Japan has so much content that every once in a while, something breaks through and becomes a sensation on a shoe string budget.

Anyway, after a string of other projects, I decided to do the cliche of “learning to code” instead. My twin brother was making 70,000 after 2 years while I was on Social Welfare after 3. He was coding in python everyday and showed me how easy and lucrative it is. I read the book “Zero to One” and it completely changed my perspective on what I wanted to achieve with a career. 1 year and 1 month after I typed “print(‘hello, world!’)” I have landed a graduate position in Ryanair for a much higher wage, with free flights, no overtime, a salary increase after 6 months, and pretty much guaranteed job security (I was told this explicitly). I still love Animation, and get a bit emotional seeing a well crafted piece unfolding in front of me. But doing it for a living? Not for me. I want to have a career.