To be honest, right now I still imagine myself working in China in the future. Sometimes I daydream about making my own short films and maybe one day living from my own work. But I know that at my current level this is not realistic. I don’t have the skills, experience or money to run an independent studio. I have only studied animation in a more serious way for about two years, so I still feel like a beginner who is catching up in every project.
Most of my work at the moment still relies a lot on observation and intuition. My understanding of animation principles is not very strong yet. In 2D, sometimes I can use common sense and “what feels right” to make a movement look okay. But when I started to try 3D this year, I felt very clearly that it is much more demanding. If my timing, spacing or body mechanics are a bit off, the shot immediately looks wrong and stiff.
I also looked at some job ads from Chinese animation and game studios. What I see is that many companies are mainly hiring for 3D and CG roles, such as 3D animators, CG generalists and VFX artists, while pure 2D positions seem fewer. At the same time, storyboard artists appear in many areas: some jobs are for feature films or series, some for game cutscenes, and some also cover commercials and promos. Many descriptions say that the storyboard artist has to turn the script into a visual storyboard, plan shot sizes, camera angles, composition and camera movement, and sometimes follow the work through to the animation stage to check the pacing.
For me, this shows two things: 3D/CG is clearly the main trend, but storyboard work itself can move between 2D and 3D and different kinds of projects.
As someone who came into animation quite late, I feel that my first few working years will still be a learning phase. Because of that, I would like to choose a role that is challenging but still possible for me right now. The first role that comes to my mind is storyboard artist – more specifically, a junior storyboard artist on a larger project. I am not a very strong script writer, but I really enjoy using images, camera language and rhythm to tell a story.
I also feel that experience as a storyboard artist can move between different fields. I could work on storyboards for 2D or 3D animation, but also for advertising, or even for live-action shoots. This feels more realistic for me than jumping straight into a pure 3D animator role. It would stop me from getting stuck in a technical area I am not ready for, and at the same time it would let me learn inside a real production pipeline. Step by step, I could build a mix of skills in story, performance and camera, and then decide later whether I want to lean more towards 2D, 3D, or maybe something in between.