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Why are animators so jaded?

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Why are animators so jaded?

Is it just me or is there a tendency for animators to become jaded, cynical and obnoxious as they get older? I noticed this when I first came into the Industry in 1990 and keep seeing it all the time to this day. Am I just imagining this, is it like this in every industry, or is there something about the animation industry that makes a lot of these older guys so obnoxious and bitter?

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Hello.

Hey Lamont, that one person you mentioned...well, I don't think it is animation that jaded their attitude. Some folks seem to head in that "jaded" direction no matter what they do for a living.

I know for a fact some folks think the world of that individual and only have nice things to say - again, sometimes it has alot to do with where you work.

If someone is accomplished, does a great job and is not recognized because of politics and petty attitudes...that can grind on a person. By the way, that person and their minions are being VERY successful at other places.

I really appreciated that person - from an artistic standpoint, they were the only person I could learn something from in my area of expertise.

Thanks

1. maybe it is because animation is hard work...and the reason we all do it, is because we love it
but most other people start out doing ok jobs and as they work hard and get older, they move up the ladder and get more money and do less work...but it isnt like that in animation...the harder we work...the more work we get.....as we get old, we just continue working hard....

there is no light at the end of the tunnel for animators....just more animation

2. .....we spend our entire time observing the world....and when you look around long enough....you notice all the crud and hypocracy, the futility in everything people do

3. people not taking what we do seriously

4. dealing with someone who has spent only a couple of hours putting a song together/writing a shitty script/book/"hey i have a great idea for a film" and then listening to them utter the words "can you animate this for me?" like it only takes a day and like we have such disregard for the art form as to not do it properly...and then they focking moan when you tell them its going to take a few months....

5. or maybe it is just contagious.....way back in the early 20th century all animators were happy.....then someone came back from an exotic holiday with a moaning disease and it spread....being passed on by infected pegbars and paper

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jaded

hi I was about to write a big post on adult themed cartoons and how adults are a new audience but are you writing about the animators themselves or cartoons like southpark etc.

cheers
steve

I think to some extent it's the same in any field. Animation as Victor wrote has some special issues. Like most of the visual art fields, it's rare to be taken seriously no matter how many years experience you have. I wonder why that is. Everyone just thinks we have fun drawing or painting, etc., so we should be paid less then the people that fix our drains or vehicles.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

I think negativity is a personal choice. People who are bitter and negative are that way because they choose to be. It has nothing to do with what their circumstances are.

The best way to deal with people like that, in my opinion, is to get away from them as fast as possible. LOL ;)

I think negativity is a personal choice. People who are bitter and negative are that way because they choose to be. It has nothing to do with what their circumstances are.

I disagree. Many times people that become jaded or bitter, started out as young enthusiastic adherents. It would be worthwhile to try and sound them out about their feelings. To ignore or write off anyoone that doesn't espouse your own feelings is to intentionally limit your knowledge of history and all the causes and effects that go with that, just to enable your fuzzy feel good place in the world.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

Having worked both in studios and in corporate environments, it's been my experience that animators aren't any more bitter or jaded than the general population; they're just more vocal about it. It's what you'd expect from a personality type that deals in self-expression for a living. :D

Jaded?

Hello.

I don't know too many 'jaded' animators. I agree with others that it is a job you choose to do...and where you work has a alot to do with your feelings about your job.

By where - I mean not only the company or studio but also geographically. It does boil down to - what's important to you...the work, the art, your family, relationships, etc.

The work is intense... and for some - runs in production cycles. I do know several folks who have decided to take a break by freelancing, teaching or other work.

Thanks.

I have been jaded, bitter and cynical, I have loved this job and I have despised it. Not sure if I ever got obnoxious.......though I trust my colleagues and peers to let me know if I do.

I know I'm not alone in that thinking either, but not everyone thinks or gets that way.
It is like any other industry, on the face of it, there's no differences in the numbers.
I've been in the biz for over 2 decades now, and I know people that are as giddy and passionate about it as they were when they were new. I also know of people that have been soundly, brutally broken by this business. Most fall somewhere in between.

I feel that becoming jaded is easier in this field, because it has so many personal aspects to it.
Animation.......hell cartooning in all respects is personal expression, and yet its a craft were very few of us get to see that personal expression to its end without someone else tinkering in it. This is performance art and because that performance comes from within, any judgment of the work is a judgment of that inner voice.
I've done work were I've put my soul into it, really enjoyed the thing, put what I thought was some feeling into it--and then seen it handed to someone who is either indfferent, incapable or imcompetent to muck it all up.
That's a prime breeding ground for resentment, and its all too common and pervasive.

There's a constant voice saying........whispering, that you need to give a shit...but not everyone else does, and that starts begging questions as to the point of it all. Its an infuriating dichotomy, that is nearly-impossible to recitify.
Once the work leaves our hands, it is outside of our control, and divesting oneself of the emotional attachment is hard at times.

The defense against becoming jaded is personal: my solution is to feed my inner 8-year old.
When I work, I try to let that 8-year old out to play, to imagine and to help me bring something to the work.
Its about injecting something of me into it, IN SPITE of what I mentioned above--in spite of the work being out of my control once I hand it off.
You put in the stuff for yourself, and try to avoid seeing the stuff after that.
That's really just the saving grace: to do it for yourself.

Oh, I've watched cartoons I've worked on, my curiousity always does me in.
I've seen the most bizarre 'effin shit imaginable come from stuff that should have been straightforward, if somebody only had a brain.

At the end of the day, for me, this is just a JOB that involves a craft. I hold no illusions about its reality, and I subscribe to no hopes or wishes about it either. Its something I can do, I'm told I do it well, I get paid for it and try to get a modicum of enjoyment from it as best I can.

Some people have pointedly accused me of being jaded in these forums. To them I say horse-hooey. If I was jaded, I'd see no point in coming here, participating and guiding as I do. I would just do my job, go home at the end of the day and indulge in my distractions. I still give a damn--and hopefully always will.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

If something especially self expression means a lot to an individual, then when a suit or anyone else holds control, certainly you will have individuals that become less than enamored with the industry, when they see their work modified to meet some sort of marketing guidelines that show no consideration for the whole or initial vision of the production. It happens in all fields including medicine where doctors are told how many days a patient may occupy a bed.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

This is performance art and because that performance comes from within, any judgment of the work is a judgment of that inner voice.

A very good point, Ken. One of my long-ago bosses put it similarly, to paraphrase: you put a bit of your soul into everything you do, and when it gets critiqued it's like someone's saying "your soul stinks."

If I was jaded, I'd see no point in coming here, participating and guiding as I do. I would just do my job, go home at the end of the day and indulge in my distractions.

Indeed, and I think that's probably true for anyone who participates in forums like these. As bitter and jaded as they may sound, they still care about what they do and want to make an impact in some way.

I also think it comes from a series of bad experiences. Constantly being laid-off, lack of appreciation, watching newcomers with less experience and skill breeze in to get a job that you've worked for years to get, etc. I think it boils down to a feeling of being cheated and not getting what you think you are due. I think not being able to cope with and overcome the situation opens the door to being jaded and bitter.

A very good point, Ken. One of my long-ago bosses put it similarly, to paraphrase: you put a bit of your soul into everything you do, and when it gets critiqued it's like someone's saying "your soul stinks."

This is so true.

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I don't work around a lot of other animators since I mostly work freelance at home, but I've worked with our own Larry L. before. And a more optimistic and enthusiastic animator you will not find.

At 35, I'm not sure if I'm considered old or young for an animator, but I'm certainly not jaded. I get frustrated sometimes by tight deadlines and low budget, but I consider myself extremely lucky to be doing what I love to do professionally.

I'm not jaded , I'm just .... careful . :D

"EustaceScrubb" has left the building

I'm not jaded , I'm just .... careful . :D

And I'm not bitter either.......I like to think of myself as......tart.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Is it just me or is there a tendency for animators to become jaded, cynical and obnoxious as they get older?

In every industry, there are people that rub other people the wrong way.
Maybe, since we expect animators/comedians/chocolate factory workers to be happy-go-lucky, based on the content they produce, we're more surprised that they're just as irritated by their responsibilities as everyone else.

Also, people in every industry bring their anger - over family, health, finances - to work with them.
If a co-worker appears to be angry at the supervisior, it's possible they're just transferring the anger from their convoluted domestic life.

I agree with most what is said here.

As I told my Kid, who is getting jaded in work; no matter what one does in life, the honeymoon will always be over. That's not cynicism but reality.

SPeaking personally, no matter how realistic I am about animation there is this almost subconcious romaticised expectation of what it should be ..probably based on anecdotes I have read about the shenanigans and personalities of the "Golden Age". Truth is the "golden age" was not that Golden. WOuldn't it be great to work for Warner Brother's back then? Yeah sure? Now if you didn't produce 35* ft a week you'd be turfed? Not so great.

I may have said this before borrowing from RObert Frost on what he said about writing: "Animation is not a job; it's a condition."

*uhhh...maybe 25. The point is a huge quota.

...ANd isn't this internet great? WHo'd a thunk 20 years ago I could be meeting up and talking among two old animation friends about animation with me, the degree of seperation?

...ANd isn't this internet great? WHo'd a thunk 20 years ago I could be meeting up and talking among two old animation friends about animation with me, the degree of seperation?

Hah, and t'think back then, if you had asked me if I thought I'd still be in animation come 2007, I would have laughed, danced a quick lil' jig, then fallen straight to the floor dead.

Fakin' it, of course.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

It is merely a matter of personality. Take me for example. I was jaded way before I started working with animation!! :D

It's not animation that makes people jaded... it's life!

(whisky & wimmin', mostly)

I just like to think of myself as...too perfectionist. If something minute goes wrong with my work, I'm ready to stab myself in the back. If some digital painting goes wrong, and doesn't work, and I end up not enjoying things not going my way, I end up thinking I might not like art at all. But, then again, when I've ever written part of my novel, I've not enjoyed slogging through the crap parts, but I've loved writing the great parts. I just need to realise...there is enjoyment in my art and animation, but it will usually be if it goes my way and not down the crapper or into 'okay-ville'. I'm usually too hard on myself, jumping to conclusions. I have...anger and perfectionism issues.

Of course, I have lots of political views, so I get angry because of that, and that's probably what affects me most of all. Hmmm...maybe if I conquered the world first...yes, that would work. LOL! Now, where did I put that doomsday machine Hank Scorpio lent me last time he was over for a chat...

Get to know me more through my blog at http://kaidonni.animationblogspot.com/! :cool:

It's not animation that makes people jaded... it's life!

Ha! That's EXACTLY what it is! And I dunno Larry... I know a few 'jaded' animators... one we BOTH know. ;)

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