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Forum - View topicNEWS: Animator's Salaries
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DKL
 Posts: 1962 Location: California, USA |
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Dang...
I knew they didn't get paid a lot... But I didn't think they earned that little annually... how the hell do people live like that?... like... they live on passion or something? |
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VOX
 Posts: 64 |
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This should be a wake-up call to all of those people who really want to be an animator for anime in Japan. Trust me, you don't. You'll make a much better living (a really good living compared to a lot of people in the USA) by being an animator in the US. Unless you like working 10 1/2 hours a day for pay equivalent (if not less) to that of a McDonald's cashier.
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Truth_Teller
Posts: 14 |
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That's pretty low considering the Japanese standard of living is higher than the U.S.
North American animators use to make up to 6 figure salaries when the ressurgence of animation took place in the early to mid-nineties. The peak of it was probably when The Lion King conquered the box office. Disney animators like Glen Keane and Andreas Deja probably make up to a million or more per year. But it's a different story now since traditional animation is almost dead. I have animator friends who are out of work - desperate to find any decent animation job they can get. With the mouse house studios in burbank in shambles and other studios dropping off the planet, traditional animators will be even glad to find something decent. I wonder how much an average salary is at Pixar or Dreamworks animation is these days. |
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VOX
Posts: 64 |
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Pretty good. They come to my school every year to recruit and since 3d animation is the main deal right now, They have to compete with each other to get the "good" animators. In other words they won't ever tell us how much they'd pay when we ask them at the presentations but they always say "It's competitive." |
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ladholyman
 Posts: 56 |
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I sense some nonresponse bias.
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Haru to Ashura
 Posts: 617 Location: Termina |
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Yeah... these days, animation in the US is a well-paying job, but only for limited number of people. There are plenty of people who want to get into the business, but not that many jobs. And oddly enough, as far as art schols go, I believe that animation is one of the majors with the most drop-outs - it's a tough job. Hopefully small resurges in the public's animation interest this decade will create more jobs. |
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TiredGamer
 Posts: 246 Location: Florida |
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There's just one problem: the U.S. doesn't have a 2D animation industry anymore. Comparing Japan's mostly-traditional 2D animation with the U.S.'s mostly-computerized 2D/3D hybrid animation is apples and oranges. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1608 |
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Most people I've seen around here who want to do something in Japan want to create a manga/anime, not animate it. This is a wise choice, as creators stand to make waaaaaaaaaaaay more than animators if thier manga/anime is a hit. Of course, your odds of actually getting published in Japan, let alone publishing something successful enough to be animated, are still insanly low.
That's an excellent point. Practically all American hand-drawn animation is shipped overseas these days. They only really use Americans for feature films, and the hand-drawn feature film is pretty much dead in the US ever since Disney closed up its last traditional animation studio-these days, American animation means CGI films like Shrek or Incredibles. And since CG animation is a completly different field than regular animation, it's really not a comparable job at all. |
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Cheesemon
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Good God, you cannot live in Tokyo on $8500 unless you're living on the streets. In fact, $25,700 is still rough. And working 10 hours/day doubt they have time for a side job either. Oh well, maybe if you're the official animator of Naruto, you'll get better-than-average commissions money?
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Cloe
Moderator
 Posts: 2728 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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True and untrue. Yeah, most of the TV stuff is outsourced now, but there are still plenty of opportunities for American 2D animators in the commercial industry. The trick is finding the work. 2D animation is also still booming in the indie animation industry as well, but that's been the same for ages and is never really going to change. And hardly anyone makes a grand living off of independent work.
Totally true. They're apples and oranges. An animator could get a job doing 3D animation at a studio and find that they're actually not doing any animation at all, but just model building and rigging. *cringe* I guess it's not bad work if you're into it, but it's completely unintuitive for people who just like to draw. Does anyone know how insurance works in Japan? Here (in the United States), artists have to pay for their own health insurance. Is it the same there? If so, those animators are even worse off. |
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bluechibi
Posts: 137 |
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Do you think Studio Ghibli pay such terrible wages as well? I'm sure that'll stop fans from wanting to work there.
There is lots of animating done in the US not just feature films. As most are done on the computer now I think they arent getting shipped overseas like they used to. |
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Gamelore
 Posts: 76 |
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I've probably spent about $8500 on anime DVDs in the past year. I should have just hired my own personal animator.
But seriously, how could this be? Assuming just 1/3 of my money trickled down to the Japanese studios, and if it takes 15 animators to produce an anime, what are you looking at: 1/3 * $150/series * 1 series/year * 1/15 animators * 1/8500 = 1/2550. 2,550 patrons before they're paid off just from DVD sales alone? Sounds fairly ridiculous. Maybe with OVA's, but with TV series there should be enough to pay them 2-3 times as much. |
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Gauss
 Posts: 519 Location: Finland |
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It's kinda difficult to believe that they would do this for long even as a labor of love. Perhaps they employ some kind of apprentice system? Basically they would have to prove their skills (and loyalty?) before the higher wages can be earned. Could be quite a turn-around of animators if people are quickly disillusioned. On the other hand, it's quite common in Japan to live with your parents, so that takes care of food and lodging.
But, with only some 80 responding it's difficult to say just how representative this poll is. |
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lledra
 Posts: 52 |
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Yeah, I was aware that Japan located Animators didn't make a whole lot of money, but I truely didn't believe that it was that little.
My brother is an Animator here in Toronto, and he worked on a couple of shows, Sons of Butcher (Teletoon Fridays) and Odd Job Jack (Comedy Saturdays). But right now he's out of work, cause the two shows he was working on havn't started their new "season". It's a normal thing for animators to work, then be out of work for a time due to what their working on finaly being done, but wow, I can't imagine having a break of 2 - 3 months after having made so little during the year. Maybe the animators of Naruto arn't too displeased with the whole thing not going on hiatus like it was going to before, becasue they still get to work. |
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Izlude
Posts: 323 Location: Wherever The Wind Takes Me |
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Bah, I could live on a 8,000 dollar minimal income. It's called being froogle!
I am sure they get some kind of benefits though, insurance, aid, etc. |
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