Jobs in Cartoon Animation

Dan Taylor is delighted that TV shows are now often inhabited by ‘animated’ cartoon characters. ‘On paper, the character you create is just a drawing,’ he says, ‘but then you give it movement, and it becomes a real TV personality.’ Dan passed his art exams when he was at secondary school, but for many years he treated his drawing as a hobby. He would create images for his workmates, to be stuck on motorbikes or leather jackets. Eventually, he signed up at the Arts Institute to start a career as an animator. ‘There is plenty of work around for people who can draw because cartoon shows can win sizeable audiences around the world,’ he says. Dan would like to create cartoons that cross the boundary from children’s animation to animated characters for grown-ups, with issues that interest them. Many of his ideas for future series will be on show at the annual animation festival in Bradford next September.

As head of animation of Grant Studios, Colin Grey sees his workload grow day by day. ‘There is a huge public taste for animation,’ he says, ‘but we still lack skilled artists because the publicity industry has employed lots of people who are now busy designing ads.’ Recognising the need to encourage training, Grey has just given some funds to the university for an art school qualification in animation. ‘This is a good investment of some of our profits,’ he says. Grey believes another problem is that many animators are often reluctant to go for jobs in big organisations. ‘They fear large-scale projects will take away their freedom of action,’ he says. He is trying to bring a bit more of the US way of working to bear on his current projects. ‘Of course, production methods have changed since Walt Disney put together his first animation. Now studios can create a character and have it animated in a different country.’

Despite the recent demand for cartoon artists in Europe, David Hoxton found that the only way to get his ideal job was to leave England and try his luck in the USA. ‘Their way of working is with large numbers of people working on each series of drawings,’ he says, ‘I’d always dreamt of working in such a way, producing the thousands of drawings necessary to bring characters to life.’ Hoxton thinks his job requires excellent drawing techniques, something he feels is often neglected in schools. ‘Colleges of art encourage independent thinking, which is good, but some of them have lost their way when it comes to teaching the essentials.’ He admits that computers can now do the translating of a drawing into a moving image, but he is convinced the skilled artist will always be in demand.

Carl Hughes is the owner and chief animator of Manton Hall Films, one of the biggest animator outfits in Europe. In the last three years, he has spent £10m on new machines to compete with international rivals. The reward has been a string of contracts to animate US shows at its offices in England. ‘We believe training our staff is very important,’ he says, ‘I offer them a series of classes within a 12-week intensive programme. After that, they join the teams on particular shows.’ Hughes believes what he needs most is artists who have artistic potential, not so much the ability to draw as the ability to develop the plot of a narrative, an interesting plot that will interest the audience. He knows that many people in the industry are crying out for highly-skilled animators to get involved in the development of shows, but he thinks the future of all that area of work lies with computers. ‘Eventually, they will do away with the need for artists,’ he says.