Re: Should I change careers to 3D animation?

[Trea Cotton] "I understand that it is competitive but a lot of people are making it seem impossible."

No, not *impossible* just really tough and improbable.

As some have said here, there are no guarantees and only the most driven and talented succeed.

Why?

Let me give you a story since I am a grandfather and we like to do that. ;o)

When I was in college liberal arts programs were all the rage and in addition to these mostly graduate-so-that-you-can-then-become-a-teacher-and-teach-some-else programs, one especially popular program was psychology.

The schools rolled out a ton of them. Me, I was at one time the top student in the psychology program at the school I attended in Portland, Oregon.

But I watched things closely even then and noticed that everyone around me graduating before I would, had a tough time getting jobs. The market was flooded with us "psychologists."

I know many people my age who have degrees in psychology and/or liberal arts programs from my generation who did nothing with their degrees.

Today's students all want to be animators, directors, models and artists of mass media. Psychology gave way in the 80s to MBA programs, and on and on -- until today mass media is the hot thing everyone wants to do.

As Grinner Hester says here in this forum (and though he is only a father and not yet a grandfather, we have grudgingly bestowed upon Grinner that he too is a storyteller of merit), he says that you do this job because you HAVE to. You wouldn't be happy doing anything else. It is in your cells and it possesses you and you would do it if you had to pay people for the privilege. THAT is when you will find it working.

Few find that it works any other way.

Can it? Yes. There are always exceptions to every rule. But will it? Well, most of us who have been around this industry for decades would tell you that the exceptions are rare.

That's the truth of the matter.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
- Antoine de Saint Exupéry