Your Career in Animation (2nd Edition): How to Survive and Thrive

My background is as a 2D animation industry veteran- I’ve worked in digital cutout for television from the 2000s-today, but my full time job now is teaching 2D animation. I was wary of this book, but after hearing it recommended by some colleagues, I decided to check it to in order to see if it would be useful for my students. The answer? YES. A THOUSAND TIMES YES.

David knows his stuff, and his advice is fantastic. From starting out and networking, to senior management on production, to show running and pitching a show, he covers it all in an honest, accurate manner. Not only did I find myself nodding and agreeing with what he’s written, but I also came across new great advice for myself. I wish this book had existed when I was first starting out.

If you’re looking into a career in animation, especially 2D and television (and although all media is covered, I really appreciated that David represented my niche of the industry), then run, don’t walk to the “buy now” button.

Thank you, David, from one animation instructor/ industry vet to another!

Pedí varios libros a la vez pero los enviaron con poca protección y se dobló un poco, deberían considerar que los productos que pedimos son importantes para nosotros y esperamos que lleguen en buen estado. Fuera de los errores de Amazon, el libro está excelente.

This was for our granddaughter, she loves the book!

This a GREAT book to help your pre-teen or teen that is considering animation as a career. We loved it! It offered lots of ideas and more questions to research and consider.

First off — I am not an animator, but interested to see the inner workings of the animation industry. I have gotten through half the book so far. I have read enough at this point to give a pretty good overview. Here are my thoughts…

The book starts off by giving an overview of animation and talking about all the various positions that you can do in the animation industry. You quickly learn that each section is going to be a lot more than a high-level job description. Every position mentioned comes along with insightful interviews. Each position ends with book reviews and other resources if you are interested to learn more. I love it! I wish more books would add resources here instead of putting them all in an appendix at the end of the book.

This book is filled to the brim with interviews. I love everything about interviewing people, so realizing this about the book really got me excited. I had no idea how much the animation industry sliced apart positions. There is someone just doing animation timings? What!? For one, I have never even heard of that position, and to think that is someone’s day-to-day job. Fascinating. I have also wondered about all the “producer” type titles out there and what they actually do. This goes through quite a few of them as well as the super interviews.

This is NOT a technical instruction book. If you are looking for that, I would not recommend this. It looks like there are plenty of other books out there describing how to do that stuff. I would also agree with the author that after you have worked at enough companies over the years, you spend way more time worrying and thinking about other things: finding a job, feeling challenged, working with difficult people, having a life outside of work, and building friendships. This goes for any field you are in…not just animation. If you think that getting a job at Disney is going to be nothing but magical and perfect, you are going to be in for a shock. Life and people problems don’t go away because the name of the company you work at changes. You work with people in your life…not a company. That is the overarching theme in a lot of the messaging.

Depending on how long you have been working you will take away different things. If you are just starting a career and in school, you will be learning about a lot of the complexities of the real world vs. the school world. Life is much more complicated than just catering to your professor to get a good grade. Small things you say can get you fired from a job, or stop you from being promoted. Everything isn’t about your technical skill level — though of course, that is important too.

If you have been out of school for a bit of time, you will be able to relate to a lot of the things that the author has gone through. You don’t know when you will run into someone again. Someone that couldn’t get a job before might be your future employer. I think the vulnerability the author and interviewees share really is making this a great read. Seeing how relationship failures and communication failures impact your life can be a strong motivator to change your behavior.

In summary…BUY THIS BOOK. If you cannot afford it, just request it from the library. That is a great way to support the author and you can still read this great information. I wish I read more of these types of books when I was younger. The world is a pretty exciting place…once we can actually go out again after all this COVID-19 pandemic stuff blows over.