Warner Bros. Animation in Sherman Oaks
I dropped in on Disney Toons, Disney TVA and Cartoon Network. Disney Toons is reputedly going to 100% digital storyboards, although good old paper is still being used by some artists now...
And at Cartoon Network, an animation director told me that Warner Bros. Animation is getting a lot fewer calls from freelance timers looking for work. One WB supervisor, who last year at this time got thirty inquiries, has this year gotten exactly one.
So how do I know that employment in L.A. Animation is up? I look at the hiring trends we get at the office (our new member lunches never stop), and I listen to what artists around town are telling me.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
End of Week Drive Around...
Warner Bros. Animation in Sherman Oaks
I dropped in on Disney Toons, Disney TVA and Cartoon Network. Disney Toons is reputedly going to 100% digital storyboards, although good old paper is still being used by some artists now...
And at Cartoon Network, an animation director told me that Warner Bros. Animation is getting a lot fewer calls from freelance timers looking for work. One WB supervisor, who last year at this time got thirty inquiries, has this year gotten exactly one.
So how do I know that employment in L.A. Animation is up? I look at the hiring trends we get at the office (our new member lunches never stop), and I listen to what artists around town are telling me.
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4 comments:
A friend of mine is working as an storyboard artist at Disney Feature Animation. Photoshop is the software he is using with Cintiqes running on Mac G5.
I don't know about Disney, but I know DreamWorks bought Cintiqs for all their story artists a few months ago.
Could you talk more about this...
"fewer calls from freelance timers looking for work."
What does this mean?
It means that, a year ago, there were a lot more timing directors looking for freelance work than now.
My take is, there's a lot more stuff going on at the present time (I get this from a wide variety of sources. Plus I can see it with my own eyes.)
This doesn't mean that everyone is as employed as they want to be, nor does it mean that robust employment will continue for a long while. It's just the situation now.
Although there is more work, the biz is still having its usual hills and valleys. Studios are laying off as shows end and hiring as new shows begin. (Warners, for example, has less work than a year ago...but more going on than two months ago.)
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