Animation requires great craft and therefore encourages an 'apprenticeship' approach where people who have had some training in animation learn from their more experienced colleagues.
‘Apprentices' enter the business as Production Assistants and are usually required to have some skill in drawing, digital imaging or model making. However the largest companies that deal with a wider range of clients employ full–time Runners. Some of the larger studios also offer on–the–job training to Runners.
Runners are seen as an extra pair of hands and spend most of their time in the office or delivering and collecting materials. The experience that a Runner gains, especially during a busy production period, is an invaluable foundation for a career in animation production.
There are also opportunities for Runners who want to work in animation post production with companies such as The Mill or Moving Picture Company, although opportunities to progress into more specialised areas, such as 3D, are rare.
The Animation Directory, published by by Wildfire Communications in association with BECTU, has more information about the companies working in this sector. They also produce a quarterly magazine Imagine.
The trade press that covers animation includes Televisual and Creative Review.
Runners say
- "It's fantastic to work on a feature film - it's such an enormous project, and you start to see how everything fits together and find out about the different jobs."
- "Everything has to be documented. I'm learning to be quite organised, but I realise that management is not for me."
- "I started on a three month contract, with a few days handover, which was mainly dedicated to learning all the back routes in Bristol."
- "I worked in the admin office of a department store on Saturdays whilst I was studying. It's proved invaluable."
- "I loved the model-making side and spent more and more of my free time there. Now I'm hoping to get a junior assistant job."
- "I've decided to do a scriptwriting course following my running experience - I learnt a lot about the importance of storytelling."