California and Animation: The Jobs Out West
Posted by powerhouseanimations on February 17th, 2014
Certain careers tend to have homes or hotspots where countless people in that field live and work. These tend to be few in number but hold numerous individuals all doing the same thing. Silicon Valley holds high-tech businesses and New York has Wall Street.
For animation, there has always been Los Angeles.
California has been a major state for animation production and development, and will most likely continue to be one for years to come. With Hollywood as the de facto movie capital of the world, many animation companies have established Southern California as their headquarters. Most of our favorite media come from the West coast state, and that is no different for animation.
Several sites and sources place Los Angeles as the main city in America for animation careers. Even without those rankings, it should not come as a much of a surprise; the number of animation production companies in California is impressive. DreamWorks, Disney, Blizzard, and Activision, among many others, all call Los Angeles and its surrounding area ‘home.’
That is not to say that finding a job in animation will be easy in Southern California. Considering some of the top ranked animation schools in the country are in California, prospects should remember that there will be competition with graduates of those schools for jobs at top companies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports that animation job growth will not be as fast as other sectors in the next ten years, due to hiring being done overseas. It is becoming an increasingly competitive field.
Los Angeles is not the only place to find work in the animation field. The field is growing and has established cities all over the world, including Canada and Spain. Many other cities in America, like New York and San Francisco, all boast animation production. Austin, Texas, the place we call ‘home,’ has several animation companies and will most likely see more in the future.
With the countless professional companies out in California, the west can be considered the go-to destination for animation jobs. But with so many other cities around the world becoming viable options for production, the options are great for animators. The future of animation will be an exciting thing to witness.
Author's Bio
Powerhouse Animation is a traditional 2d animation studio based in Austin, Texas. Since 2001, Powerhouse has been making ideas come to life through animation, illustration, and motion graphics. With a staff of 35 in-house artists, animators, videographers and designers, Powerhouse works on a wide variety of projects and has created animation for companies including Disney, Sony, Marvel, DC, Old Spice, Coca Cola, Miramax, the USO and more. To learn more about some of these projects visit www.powerhouseanimation.com.
