How do you truly become a Professional Animator?

Some people think that once a person gets their first job as an animator, they are then a 'professional' animator. Yet by this definition hundreds of 'professional' animators are continually out of work and struggling to get back into the industry.

The problem is that every day, 'professional' animators are used up and burnt out by the industry. In fact, some project managers and producers feel that it is their job to burn out animators on their project. But if you're truly a professional then you should know how to deal with the demands of production.

What is a professional animator?

In order to define that, we need to define what a professional anything is. Let's start with a professional athlete, how would you define them as a professional rather than a hobbyist?

Would you define someone as a professional athlete merely because they were paid to play their chosen sport? While they may be paid to do this for some time, if they did not train regularly they would quickly lose favor and cease to be paid.

No, we know that if a professional athlete stopped showing up for practice, they would soon lose their skills and abilities and also soon lose their employment. So really, being a professional could be defined as regularly practicing in order to build & maintain the skills needed to be employed.

Of course, regularly practicing anything is useless unless that practice is effective. If you don't engage in the types of activities that will effect change and improvement in your skills, you might as well not practice at all.

Finally, this practice must be structured in order to be effective and regular.

So that brings us back to our original question: How do YOU become a Professional Animator? With the obvious answer of: Regular, Structured & Effective Practice!

But how can you build such an 'exercise' regime for your animation? Let's go through these 3 keys to find out.

1. Structured Practice:

   Structure is the framework on which everything hangs. Without purposeful design, your exercise can have no real targeted impact. In order for your practice to truly strengthen the areas in which you are weak, you need to structure it that way and target your weaknesses.

2. Effective Practice:

   If the practice you are engaged in doesn't exercise your weaknesses in a way that strengthens them, again you might as well do nothing. Your practice must be effective or 'able to effect change'.

3. Regular Practice:

   Life is made up of gradual changes. We don't shoot up from a baby to adulthood overnight. Rather we gradually grow over 20 or more years. The same is true of developing any skill. We cannot gain a skill overnight. It will take weeks, months, perhaps even years of regular practice.

But how does all of this apply? How can you use this information to build YOUR practice and training regime?

You should start by just animating! That's right, there's no way to learn without doing.

The second thing to do is to learn about your art form. Read about how others do it. Read interviews and watch 'making of' documentaries. Don't try to reinvent the wheel, someone may have spent years solving the same problems you face.

Finally you need to apply what you have learned, thus completing the cycle.

Combining these 3 steps and building them around the 3 keys is the fastest and easiest way to not only keep up with your peers, but to surpass them.

The cold fact is that if you keep going the way that you are, then you will be stuck right where you are. So get off your duff and start practicing! Then start building your training program.

If you want to save yourself the effort, then you could sign up for my Guardian Training Program.

In fact, if you want a detailed description and video stepping you through how I became a professional animator, working for Walt Disney by the time I was 21 years old, then you will want to watch my video on How to Animate in The Zone.

Happy animating!

-DJ