Are you looking for a job in Los Angeles? Well get your comic books out the closet because, animation jobs are on the rise.
With the recent success of ‘Frozen’, and ‘Despicable Me 2′ Hollywood is driving into fifth gear looking for animators to work on film productions.
Steve Hulett from the Animation Guild commented on the rise of animation jobs. “As more animation product is created that makes money and profits, more producers want to get into the act, and producers already in are increasing the amount of work they’re doing, so you have more work created and more employment.”
There are now 3,350 people now working in Hollywood doing animation, that is more than ever before.
But, film productions are not the only thing that producers are looking into. TV animated series are extremely popular and with the success of Netflix, more and more series are being produced for streaming.
Jobs in TV animation are also on the rise. “The work has really increased on the television side,” Hulett said. “There’s more storyboard work and design work, and it’s all driven by animation’s profitability. Animated television shows have been a great cash cow and profit stream for the conglomerates. They can make them for at a competitive price, and they have a long shelf life.” New media is also creating jobs for animation workers, he said, noting that DreamWorks is producing Internet content for Netflix. Hulett noted that the good times in animation are creating many good-paying jobs for other workers in the industry as well, including voice-over actors, editors, and sound technicians. “The growth here,” Hulett said, “is coming from all the preproduction work – the storyboards, layout, animation scripts, character design and key backgrounds.” [Deadline]
But, job security may come into question. As producers are seeking to create more animated shows, they are also seeking to cut labor costs. A lot of the frame-by-frame” animating is done in foreign countries such as the Philippines, China, South Korea and Japan. Also, with the tax incentives in Canada, many animated TV shows have moved north of the border.
