Freelance Animation 101

In between full time animation work is a world known as "Freelance". This is often an exciting place when the job you have taken on is working in your favor, however it can turn into a dangerous place when things aren't going so good. I think everyone should freelance now and then to help them use their knowledge and talents they have gained during those full time years of employment.

I have discovered that there are two different laws of Freelancing. One Law is when you really need to find a job, it seems impossible to actually find one at the time. The other Law, is when you finally find a job, several other job opportunities pop up.  I always grumble,"Where were you two months ago?!" I'm sure there are other laws on the subject, but these two seem to be the most common.

When you first are contacted by a potential client, you must find out as much information as you can without sounding too desperate. You're at a party, people are interacting with one another and some approaches you in casual conservation. You aren't going to talk their ear off by telling them everything you did that week and so with the first contact email or phone call, you need to let them tell you what they want.

Here are three important questions you need to find out first. 

1) What is the job? 2) How long will the job last? and 3) What is the budget?

Depending on the job, the last two questions may be answered by the first question. If they are look for an animator to be a part of a team, they will usually ask you what your rate or day rate is. This is where you can loose the job if your rate is higher than what they are willing to pay. By asking if they have a budget sometimes gets them to tell you what they are willing to pay. You should also have some idea already what people are making for the job they are offering.

Here's a really good blog for Animators or any creative freelance person showing why you need to have some sort of contract before you start any project. After you have a contract, you should sent up a payment schedule to make sure you will be paid for the work you do. A good payment schedule is to start with 1/3 of the payment upfront. This will let you know if your client is as honest as you are. You shouldn't start the project until the check is cashed and everything is a-OK.

Be wary of animation jobs or gigs on websites like craigslist. You really have to be careful and make sure you understand the terms of the work. A lot of ads promise that you will be paid on "the backend". This means, you do the work now for free and later, when the theme park opens, you will get a % of the profits. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is a bunch of BS. Not all ads are posted by bad people, you will find a few hidden jems out there every now and then. Bottom line, always have a contract of some kind. If they don't want to sign it, you probably don't want to work with them.

Recently, I began a freelance job, have gotten thru all of the above and now, I'm waiting for my first payment to arrive. Yes, "the check is in the mail," only 8 days and counting. Then I get that email, "What's your address again and how much is the first payment?" Welcome to Freelance..

Next Time: The check arrives...
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Free Laika Event in LA area!

Happy New Year everybody and if you live in the Los Angeles area, love stop motion animation and Portland weather, rsvp and drive over to the Pacific Design Center this Sunday!

It was a pretty packed all day event. I arrived to see the BoxTroll's screening and the entire theater was filled up before the screening. I liked the film's story, characters and the stop motion is always amazing. The real surprise came at the end of the screening, when Jerry Beck introduced the film's directors, Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable, CEO and Lead Animator Travis Knight, Actress Elle Fanning and Actor Sir Ben Kingsley.

Kingsley was the voice of Archibald Snatcher, the BoxTroll's worst enemy. He explained that he did most of his voice work lying down in a comfortable chair and gave his performance thru his voice, allowing the animators to come up with the gestures and face expressions. Here's a very brief clip of the panel, Ben Kingsley is speaking about the characters in the film.

Reference video is usually shot during the voice recording session to give the animator reference during the actor's performance. Actors will gesture or make facial expressions when recording audio and this is for the benefit of the animator to use or not use later on. Mr Kingsley only had his voice recorded and let the animators come up with his performance.

After the screening, they had a table setup displaying the actual stop motion models to show how big they really are. Here are Snatcher, Eggs and Winnie.

Liaka has pioneered the facial animation by inventing a series of animated face plates which are used in lipsyncing dialogue and making facial expressions easier for the stop motion animator. Here are some Eggs' facial expressions used in the film.

The upper row are for Eggs's Brow expressions, which snap together to the lower eyes, nose and mouth row below. The full face expressions are both showing how the entire face can change expression.

Here are a bunch of animated faces from ParaNorman. Notice the four faces in the middle are of a bubble gum popping onto the face. You can also see the very squished face of ParaNorman as well as the stretching of his cheek. These are replacement facial expressions which saves the animator a lot of work, so he or she can concentrate on animating the character's performance, one frame at a time.

These are replacement facial expressions which saves the animator a lot of work, so he or she can concentrate on animating the character's performance, one frame at a time.

Which Liaka film is your favorite?

Happy 2015!

Wow, its a New Year already and I can't believe there have been 4323 visitors to this site over the past 2 years from all over the US and the world. Hopefully, you found something of interest here and will feel free to send a comment now and then.

Last year, I attempted to document a small freelance job which I thought I was going to be working on. Unfortunately, this project fell through, which happens a lot in animation, but It looks like I have another project I can document in the new year.

Rockademix is a really cool educational program for teachers to help kids learn different subjects using music and dance. I will be animating a 2 minute promo to explain this concept to interested educators. So, join me in 2015, as I take a storyboard and a narration track and go from pre-production to final animation in making this explainer video. It should be a fun little project which we both will learn from.

Happy New Year 2015!