How does animation work in western animated shows such as FIM?

[sweetapple]

I recently learned that FIM's animation is done in a Philippines-based studio called Top Draw. Overseas studios animating popular cartoons is certainly not news, but I always figured this eventually died down in the early 00's when digital animation took over?
The reason I ask is that I'm interested in a career in animation, but, if most tv series' are sent off to be animated in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and so on, how does one make a career out of this?

[melodys_angel]

Just a heads up---its harder then heck to get accepted into animation.  You need to pretty much be at that level to even be considered.  Not to discourage you--but to educate, since I went on that path before settling on graphic design.

That said, theres still potential in it and many people are still interested.  Im sure there are studios where you are that will still work on things

[kaoskat]

I have no clue but I never knew that before. I wonder why it isn't done here. It seems we are capable. Must be a cost thing.

[NoDivision]

Where the actual animation is done depends a lot of the scope of the project and the studio producing it. There are studios that animate in house in the US, but yes, a lot of it also gets shipped out. But when you're talking about 'working in animation' remember that there are a lot of different facets to that other than being an animator. The animation may be shipped out, but a lot of the other work can still be done in house. I have a good friend in the animation industry and she's not an animator. She's done things like backgrounds, character design, prop design, color, and storyboards. She's worked on video games, webisodes, TV, and movies. It's a very diverse field - the actual animation part of a production is just one part.

That said, melodys_angel is correct that it is a tough field to get into. You have to be in the right place because the industry tends to be really clustered (I don't know about the industry in Australia, but in the US Los Angeles is the place to be) and you need to make connections. My friend has worked at a series of small boutique studios, as well as done freelance work. Since she graduated with her first degree she's also taken a lot of classes to further her education and gain new skills. She's gotten to know people through these jobs and she's also been taught by some of the best professionals in the field, and that opens up a lot of doors as far as getting opportunities to show her portfolio and interview at larger companies. And now because of all her hard work and determination she's working at Dreamworks.

If you DO get into the animation industry... well... be prepared. Be prepared to do a lot of waiting. Be prepared for not always having work. Be prepared to not always be happy with the work you do have. Be prepared to take any work you can get. Be prepared to be hired at the last minute for a very big project with a looming deadline. Be prepared to have short term assignments rather than long term employment. Be prepared for late nights. It's not an easy industry.

[Karma]

Honestly, the easiest way to get into the animation industry is with the much much much muuuuch smaller groups. The groups that animate tiny one shots or ads or stuff for websites.
Or, if you're okay working in 3-d animation, gaming animation is more prevalent in the US. I think there's like five in my state, probably because we're rather lax in the way of unions.
Buuut first you need a good school. And in that good school you need to intern for like four years. Most are non-paying and if they do pay it's very little.

And this is why even though I have a degree in animation, I haven't worked one animation job

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Also, one of the reasons why they send animation work overseas is because of time constraints.  While the LA team does all the storyboarding and layout and color keys, they can send it off to the other studio on the other side of the world at the end of the work day.  Because of time zones, that's at the beginning of the work day for the Asian studio!  They work on it all "day" while the LA team is sleeping, then it all gets sent back for the beginning of the next day!   

And yes, it is cheaper because of the economy difference.   

Also NoDivision is correct about the different things you work on as projects in an animation studio... it might be any number of things that need to get done, not just character design. 

[sweetapple]

Thanks for your help everyone. It's a long way off but I'm determined to have some part in the industry.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how much information these overseas studios are given about the scenes they work on? Are the key frames already drawn out before being sent to them, and they draw the filler frames in between? Or do they do the clean ups/colouring? (I suppose it depends on the show.)

Seems unfair that they do so much work and get little credit for it :/

[Karma]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how much information these overseas studios are given about the scenes they work on? Are the key frames already drawn out before being sent to them, and they draw the filler frames in between? Or do they do the clean ups/colouring? (I suppose it depends on the show.)

Seems unfair that they do so much work and get little credit for it :/

Basically, the key animator, so the animator here, will do the keys. Depending on the medium it will go to a cleanup artist either here or out of country (MLP doesn't strike me as one that needs much clean-up though. Apparently the hardest working clean-up people worked for Glen Keane at Disney. I've seen some of his keys. They're terrifying.) From there it will likely go out of country for the in-betweens.

Inbetweens are kind of the unsung heroes of all animation. They're easier but way more boring. Weirdly it's what I'm best at.

I'm unsure who does the coloring now with computer animation. It used to be a really precise art but now it's a bit easier, so it can be trusted to others without worrying.

[ashes]

My husband is a technical artist working in the video game industry, so he does 3D animation rather than 2D, but basically it's a cost thing.  It's cheaper to farm out animation to studios in India and China (and sometimes Europe).  But the sad thing is more often than not he and other artists still need to fix things when they are sent back, so I have no idea why sometimes the studios farm it out in the first place.  There are tons and tons of qualified animators in the US, but many studios feel it's more cost effective to farm it out than to pay a six-figure salary.  He also has a good friend who was the modeling supervisor on Frozen.  (They were in art school together).  He got his job at Disney right out of art school because his 3D models were crazy awesome. He also worked on Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, Wreck-It-Ralph, and Tangled.

It's also not a 9-5 job.  Most people work until 8 - 10 pm at night, and if there is a hard deadline that's approaching, that can easily extend to midnight or 1 am and weekends.  Right now my husband has been working a few hours later than normal because they are ramping up to release a commercial in a few weeks for their game (he's working on the next Call of Duty that will be released in November), and they hired an A-list actor to be the villain in the game.  He's featured prominently in the commercial, and my husband is in charge of the facial pipeline of the game.  So he's been working to make sure the animation, muscle deformations, and features of this actor are spot-on.

But if you want to break into the industry, you either need to be completely stellar and have a demo reel that is out of this world, or know someone. And sometimes at smaller studios they don't hire you because they feel your personality doesn't mesh with the group.  My husband has reviewed dozens of people for hire at his studio, but sometimes even stellar people don't get hired because of some weird thing they said during the interview, or the leads just didn't think they were a good fit personality-wise.  It can be kind of clique-y.