Running your own computer animation business can be a dream come true if you love animation and don’t want to work for a studio. Instead of relying on a studio to generate clients, you’ll instead bring in your own clients, do your own work and enjoy both the freedom and the financial gains that comes from owning your own business.
What Skills Do You Need to Start an Animation Business?
On the most basic level, you need to be proficient in both modeling software and animation software, such as Maya or 3D Max. You’ll also want to be well versed in motion graphics software like Adobe After Effects.
If you want to be targeting high budget gigs, you’ll probably want some agency or studio experience under your belt. While you can just go straight into freelancing after getting an animation education, you probably won’t be able to land high ticket clients without some studio experience.
Finally, you’ll need to learn a bit of business skills in addition to animation skills. You’ll need to learn how to find clients, how to keep in contact with clients, how to setup your own invoicing and billing systems and so on.
If your animation business is going to be a team effort, you’ll also need to learn how to manage a team. You’ll need to learn how to manage larger projects that have multiple milestones distributed among different people.
The Equipment You’ll Need
To start, you’ll need to have extensive hard drive space, especially if you’re working in high definition video. You’ll probably also want your data to be backed up on a RAID drive, so you’re probably looking at purchasing about 2 terabytes of storage.
In addition, you’ll also need a fairly high end computer. Doing animation work is very processor intensive, especially when rendering.
If you’re buying computers for several animators, you’ll need to also factor in the costs of multiple software licenses. You might also want to consider purchasing a render farm to cut down on render time for multi-person projects.
If you’ll be shooting your own video, you’ll need high end cameras, lighting equipment, green screens and so on. If you’re going to be creating digital characters modelled using real actors, you’ll also need to purchase both the electronic equipment as well as the makeup equipment for that.
Your Demo Reel
Perhaps the most important thing you need before starting out is a compelling demo reel. Your demo reel is essentially a short, 3 minute or less video showing what you’re capable of. It should showcase many different kinds of animations and effects that you and your firm can produce. In addition to being technically amazing, it should also be artistic and “wow” potential clients.
In short, it’s both more fun and more profitable to own your own architectural firm.
