November 2025 – Debotriya's Journal

22nd November 202523rd November 2025

Building a career in the animation industry: Where, What and How III

Part 3: How

Now we come to the hardest question of all, how do we get there?

Reality is that it is incredibly hard to land a first project, get your foot in the door so to say, but now in recent years the road ahead from there also seems quite challenging.

In the previous post, I mentioned I spoke to two professionals specifically about their roles and how to make it in the industry, Gaurav Wakankar and Bianca Ansems. Bianca mentioned how it is hard for even seniors to find work right now with less opportunities overall in storyboarding. In my recent visit to Inmotion, I had met and spoken with several graduates who were trying to find jobs in animation, and most of them had day jobs in unrelated industries, some moving to digital marketing or software coding entirely. Since animation jobs have become elusive and take so much time to come by, our alumni and us, we are all competing for the exact same jobs and entry level opportunities. If global recession was not bad enough, really powerful AI tools are now also competing in the same race. Not to be dramatic, but things seem really hopeless.

So what can we do now?

The answer seems to be trying anyway.

Both Gaurav and Bianca advised that there is no linear path and if you keep working and developing your skills, opportunities come from unpredictable places. I had the opportunity to speak to Wesley Louis from The Line at their showcase recently and he also happened to iterate how unexpected the journey can be. He also mentioned things are harder now, but we have to keep trying and keep making things simply because we are here because we are passionate about animation. So I will have to simply keep drawing, keep watching movies, making things to build my skills, and keep approaching people in the industry to connect and share work with.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I am here on a visa, the choices I make have to be very much rooted in the reality that I will need to make a certain income to continue to stay and build connections in this country. I have been keeping an eye on motion design roles as well, with some previous experience in the line, as a backup line which is related to animation and would allow me to still hone my skills and meet animators and producers. I am also expanding my search outside the UK.

In the last two years, I have been learning Maya and Blender alongside 2D to expand my toolset and be able to work in mixed-media projects as well. A few years earlier, 3D and 2D character animators were distinctly different roles, however motion design and gaming studios now also look for 2D/3D animators since they now extensively mix the mediums in their work. I am also looking at learning popularly asked softwares from recruiters like Toon Boom Harmony or Storyboard Pro.

Following animation producers and recruiters online, along with signing up for social events, newsletters and keeping an eye out for opportunities and mentorships.

I intend to keep developing my own skills, sensibilities and gain more clarity on what kind of stories I would like to tell, as a personal practice alongside professional projects. An animator who has achieved this remarkably is Louie Zong who is a storyboard artist for Cartoon Network, and has his parallel set of short film productions, 3D illustrations and even several funktronica albums!

As you might have guessed in these posts, I have quite a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about my path ahead. In all this uncertainty, the only thing I can count on is to practice, make more work and not let my passion die out. At the end of the day, I am here for my love of animation and I have come far from where I started. I am constantly learning new skills and if resilience is another skill needed to be an animator today, I will have to learn it too.

22nd November 202522nd November 2025

Building a career in the animation industry: Where, What and How II

Part 2: What

Now that I have wrangled with the ‘where’ of the kind of work I wan to do, the next question is what roles in can I work in?

The part of animation that I had fallen in love with in the first place was preproduction. I would pore over behind-the-scenes videos from Lion King, The Incredibles and Tangled, to see how they came up with the characters, how they designed the world, how they developed the story. I would see footage of the story and concept artists put together sketches and thumbnails in meeting rooms, piecing together and arriving at the films I had come to love so much.

I have identified my interests and abilities in two possible roles— storyboard artist or character animator.

As an animator I could work in film, television or video games and as a storyboard artist I would also have the opportunity to board live-action projects alongside animation. Starting out I would prefer to compile portfolios for both kind of roles given the uncertainty of actually landing roles in the industry currently.

Looking at storyboard portfolios and how artists present their work

I reached out to animators and storyboard artists online, and though I didn’t receive a lot of responses, I had the chance to speak to animator Gaurav Wakankar, and story artist Bianca Ansems. I had asked them about how they arrived at their roles, skills they had that helped them in their practice and advice on how to get work in the industry. They were kind enough to give very thoughtful answers and helped me ground my conjecture in reality.

Gaurav mentioned how he enjoyed animation because focusing on the motion was the part that gave him the most joy, rather than researching and designing characters or painting backgrounds. He had directed a short film and realised that directing was not his preference, and he would rather pursue animation roles. He also spoke about how there is no one set path, and he had initially started a studio before changing direction and working as a freelance animator.

Bianca advised to apply to jobs of all kinds of roles to start with, even if I wanted to be a storyboard artist eventually. She spoke about how she had worked in a variety of positions which not only gave her a better understanding of the whole production process, but it helped her earn a living and brought her contacts. She kindly gave me a list of skills and resources that would help if I want to be a storyboard artist.

Compilations from storyboard artist job listings on LinkedIn, Indeed, animated jobs and Glassdoor

Compilations from character animator job listings on LinkedIn, Indeed, animated jobs and Glassdoor

Before this course, I have worked for a year at an animation studio, on a number of roles including visual development, character design, storyboarding and 2D animation. Following Gaurav’s approach, I think I enjoy the processes where I can draw the characters in action and see the story unfolding. I also understand that standing here, I only have an idea of what I can do based on my existing experiences and I still have several specific skills I will need to learn to be better suited to the roles I want to have. While I am aware the chances of me getting to work in my preferred role from my first job after this course are not likely, it is important to identify which way to veer to.

22nd November 202522nd November 2025

Building a career in the animation industry: Where, What and How

Part 1: Where

I will have to honest on this subject, my ambitions and plans will be coloured by the fact that I am an international student on an education loan, in a time when the political climate in the country is not in my favour.

I had moved to the UK because of its prominent animation industry, where they actively promote the industry and nurture the growth of new artists, and where so many talented animators and agencies are based, which I didn’t see back home.

Turns out there really are tons of talented people in animation here, even just in London. And they are all looking for jobs at the same time and at the same places.

So many animators and artists I have met in the past year have to juggle day jobs to still be able to earn a livelihood alongside their practice.

As you may imagine, this is more discouraging news and also a reality marker for me. My abilities are not suited for independent film-making, and while I would like to become a director in the future, I don’t think I am there yet. Ideally I would want to get recruited at a studio here and work with them full-time, however that seems almost impossible today. My current goal is to be able to get freelance work with animation studios and keep improving my skills, hoping that I can get consistent projects and get to meet and work with more and more interesting and talented people.

Attending the National Film and Television School Graduate Showcase in March, at BFI Southbank and seeing the wonderful films and the teams behind them

I first looked at opportunities in film and television animation. From online interviews with the artists onboard, the format seems completely contract based, where you’re with the studio or the production house only for the duration of the process, and then move on to the next project. While I will be applying and aiming for these opportunities, there is again an incredible lot of competition, and consistently getting signed for projects enough to earn a living is difficult.

Attending The Line’s Director Showcase in October

Coming to commercial studios, I have been a fan of The Line Animation for many years, and I find their positioning in the industry very exciting. I think it would be vey interesting to work with studios who make commercial films, music videos as well as develop original IP. I am also aiming for studios like Golden Wolf, Blink Ink, Passion who make a mix of diverse projects across subjects and mediums.

Golden Wolf’s Mixer event at Cafe FM in July

I have also been looking at how international projects work and how animators get signed by big names like Titmouse, Netflix, Passion Pictures, Sony Animation and the like on contract basis for projects remotely. Applying for and getting work visas in foreign countries is becoming increasingly expensive and harder, so being able to work in this format would mean access to a larger pool of opportunities. A lot of production work also gets outsourced to smaller studios, which would also be a way to gain experience of working on larger scale projects.

I have also been looking at game industry roles as well, and the work portfolio requirement are different. Given the softwares and formats are different I would try and give it a shot, but it will be harder competing with animators who have tailored their practice toward gaming.

I have really enjoyed the privilege of being in the thick of things here in London, being able to attend animation events, attend screenings, visiting studios and meeting people in person, after being an admirer from afar for so long. As dreary as the odds are, I still want to be based in a place that is a hub of film and animation. In the long term, I would like to feel in the thick of things without moving a continent away from home, but till then I am open to relocating to cities as long as I can adequately sustain myself.