HaZ Dulull: How to Set Up Your Own Indie Studio

HaZ Dulull "How to Set Up and Run an Indie Studio"

At last week's EscapeVerse Live event, HaZ Dulull - founder and director at "Beyond The Pixels" - explained "How to Set Up and Run an Indie Studio with Your First Game".  

HaZ's journey into the games industry has been one of an independent entrepreneur, setting up his own company, his first game "AstroBurn" and figuring out the nuts and bolts of running a business. 

Pete Nicholson Starts Anchor Animation

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice Pete Nicholson who has founded a new startup animation studio - Anchor Animation.  Anchor Animation specialises in "high-quality animation that enables brands to communicate with confidence.”  We wish Pete every success with his new venture; you can find out more here at the official site: www.anchoranimation.co.uk/

How Much Do You Charge Your First Client?

 

One of the most common questions I get asked at Animation Apprentice by students and recent graduates is this: "What should I charge for my first freelance job?".  First of all - congratulations! You have your first client. Now you have to figure out the scope of the work, and how much to charge.  Generally, at the start of your career, you want to keep your rates as low as possible. Work as cheaply as you can afford to in the beginning, do a good job - and your clients will come back for more. Before you know it, you'll be building up a portfolio career as a freelance animator.

How Much Should I Charge for a Freelance Job?

One of the most common questions I get asked at Animation Apprentice by recent graduates is this: "What should I charge for my first freelance job?".

First of all - congratulations! You have your first client. Now you have to figure out the scope of the work, and how much to charge.

Generally, at the start of your career, you want to keep your rates as low as possible. Work as cheaply as you can afford to in the beginning, do a good job - and your clients will come back for more. Before you know it, you'll be building up a portfolio career as a freelance animator.

Autodesk Launches "Maya Indie License"

Autodesk has launched the "Maya Indie License", allowing students who have learned to animate using the free student version of the software to enter the marketplace at a much-reduced price.

This new low-cost commercial license costs just £275 for a single seat, and is good news for graduates of Animation Apprentice; Autodesk now offers junior animators the chance to "become a pro at a price you can afford".

Why Animators Still Need Business Cards

At the VFX Festival yesterday I found myself asking a number of my students - have you brought plenty of business cards?

Almost none had. In this digital age, you might think that business cards are a little old-fashioned, but actually, you'd be wrong.

Charge sync is Looking for Investors!

Chargesync, the tech company which commissioned a short film from Nano Films for their new product launch, has now gone live - actively looking for investors at investor.com.  Our students at Animation Apprentice made the short film (see above) for Chargesync as part of our Nano Films project, where we bring in small animation commissions to get our students live industry briefs for real clients.

The Perils of Freelancing in Los Angeles - The Taxes You Never Knew You Didn't Owe

LA City Hall. Wikimedia

Any animator who lives and works in Los Angeles needs to be aware of  the laws relating to freelancers in the City of LA.  These local rules are not well known and very easy to fall foul of, as I know myself from personal experience.

In a nutshell, if you do any freelance work at all while you live and work in LA, make sure you register with City Hall.  If you don't, scary penalties will follow.  Here's how the system works.

Sole Trader or Limited Company - Which is Best?

As a freelance animator, considering whether to set up a Limited Company or become a Sole Trader can be a tricky decision. There are many things to think about when identifying which route would be right for you.  So, what is the difference, and which route is best?

Sole Trading
Becoming a Sole Trader (self-employed) is the simplest way to run a small business, especially if you’re just starting out. Many contractors and freelancers - including animators - operate as Sole Traders at the beginning of their careers. As a Sole Trader you will be operating your business as a self-employed individual.

Radio 4 Series on the Business of Film

BBC Radio Four ran a recent series by Mark Kermode on the Business of Film, which you can still catch up with via podcast.

Specifically, how do films get developed, financed and then distributed? It's a handy and informative series which simplifies much of the apparent complexity of the film business. We recommend that any student who is interested in making their own independent animated film (why not? We should all aim high) listen carefully. And take notes!

What Sort of Deal Terms Do Film Investors Want?

How do movies get financed? Image: Wikipedia

In a previous blog post about animation film finance we looked at what sort of investors put money into film finance, and how film makers and film entrepreneurs can find them. At Closing the Gap, a European film finance conference, Perrine Hamon of Media Deals and Thierry Beaugard of Peaceful Fish explained what sort of deal terms an equity investor would be likely to ask for when you are trying to raise money for an independent film. Sounds dry? Well, maybe. But any animator who is serious about taking their project to the big screen needs to know at least a little bit about how movie finance works.

What Does a Sales Agent Do, Exactly?

Sola Media - Sales Agents with a focus on animation

Any animator with dreams to bring their own project to the big screen will eventually need to understand the business of making and financing animated films. This includes the question of who, exactly, is going to sell your film for you. Are you going to do it yourself? Or are you going to bring in experts who know the business? Probably, you will do the latter. As part of our series on the business of animation, we take a look at what exactly a sales agent is and what they do

Five Rules For Dealing With a Tricky Client

How do you deal with a tricky client?  Difficult clients are so common that there are websites such as are clientsfromhell.net, dedicated entirely to horror stories written by freelancers about having to deal with hard-to-please clients. So, if you are starting off on your career, how do you handle a difficult client? Below are our five rules for success

Two weeks to go until Cartoon Business

Cartoon Business

Cartoon Business is the finance and business counterpart to Cartoon Movie and Cartoon Forum. If you are interested in the business side of producing animation, but don't know how to assemble, package and sell an animated TV series or feature film, then Cartoon Business is the place to learn. Supported by MEDIA, the EU fund for the creative industries, and backed by the French Government, Cartoon Business will walk you through all the steps needed to bring your ideas to the market. And you don't even need to speak French - the event is conducted in English, the international language of media and animation.

Should Freelance Animators Operate as Sole Traders or Set Up a Limited Company?

A freelancer

Part of our job at Animation Apprentice is to teach our students to be working professionals, which includes not only the ability to do excellent work at a high level of professional skill,  but also the ability to run a small business and tackle freelance work.

Almost all digital artists take on freelance work of one kind or another, and we help our students out by bringing in small commercial projects at our virtual online studio at nano-films.com, giving our students paid experience on live briefs.

Being a freelancer involves learning a lot of new business skills, and one of the most common questions asked by students is: "Do I Need to Set Up a Company before I become a freelancer?" The short answer is "no", but it's not quite as simple as that - it all depends on your personal circumstances.

How Do You Get Your First Book Published?

A good animator is also a storyteller, and it's not unusual for animators to be writers, graphic novelists, or illustrators of children's books. But how do you get your work published? The good news is, it has never been easier to get into print. The bad news is, the economics of publishing have never been worse for both publishers and writers. Plus, writing a whole book is going to be a major effort, so you don't want to waste your time on something that no-one wants to read. So what is secret to success? Like so many things in media, what you need is a great pitch. Below is our simple guide to getting it right and ensuring that a good publisher will (hopefully) pick up your first book.

Golden Street Animation - How to Found Your Own Animation Company

Golden Street Productions was founded by Scott Petersen in 2009

In this 2013 interview at our sister blog FLiP, Scott Petersen, the founder of Golden Street Animation, talks about the perils and pitfalls of setting up his own independent animation company. What are the obtacles to going it alone? And what should anyone hoping to set up their own independent animation business do to make a success of it?

What Questions Should You Ask the Client on Your First Freelance Animation Job?

What questions should you ask a client when you start work on your first freelance job - or indeed any freelance job? It's your job as a professional to keep everything on track and deliver what you promised.

All projects start off full of optimism and excitement, but the scope for misunderstanding is great, and the risk of things going wrong is considerable.

So it's worth asking the right questions up front, to ensure that the job goes well and your happy client comes back for more. Below is a list of useful questions to get you started.

Eight steps to start your own small animation business

www.nano-films.com

One of the most common questions asked by our students is "how do I start my own animation business?". Our job as an online school is not just to train animators and digital artists to do excellent work, it's also about helping our students to turn that knowledge into a successful career. The most obvious route to success is to get a job, but another possibility is to set up your own small business.

In media production of any kind, jobs for life are nowadays almost non-existent. Even highly successful artists tend to be freelancers of one kind or another. But there is another way of dealing with the perpetual uncertainty of finding paid work in the arts - and that is to start your own business. So how, exactly, might you go about doing that?