Animation....going to the dumps?

[Zonas]

In my early childhood days, I'd often make paper-animations in class, and some odd stick figure animations in Paint. I grew older, eventually realizing that animation was actually a career option; someone had to make movies and TV shows. I learned a lot in animation - and often I'd use terms that would confuse my parents - like "inbetweens" or "key frames". I really want to become a 3-D animator; I love art, and I love to make artwork in my spare time - usually digitally, though. I've done a lot of research on how to become an animator - like how to assemble portfolios, etc; but that's not what concerns me.

I'm afraid that animation is going in the "dumps" to other countries, where people can be hired to do the same amount of work for much less money. I'd love to animate in movies or a video game - but what if game/movie companies start to hire in other countries? Now don't get me wrong - I don't care about the money one bit; no true artist would, but I'm afraid for my future. What if I plan to have a family with a wife and a few children? I'm afraid that I won't be able to make enough money as an animator to support my family - or even myself. I'm only in high school right now; but I'm scared that if I become an animator in ten or so years, animation would've gone to poorer countries, and I wouldn't be able to even find a job. What I really want is to just be financially stable - not rich or anything.

Can anybody help me out by disproving me? I know this has (somewhat) happened to 2-D animation - who says it won't happen to the 3-D animation in movies and video games? I really want to get a job in animation - but this is the only thing that I feel is really holding me back.

[FourTonMantis]

Be an exceptional animator. The work that is outsourced is the grunt work. Writing, character design, and storyboarding is all done in the United States while the tedious stuff is done by outsourced workers.

Don't freak out. Outsourcing is a better thing than you would think. With the grunt work freed up, American employees have better opportunities to work in more specialized fields.

[Meloncov]

Don't freak out. Outsourcing is a better thing than you would think. With the grunt work freed up, American employees have better opportunities to work in more specialized fields.

Precisely. Generally speaking, the jobs going overseas are not the jobs you want.

Also, as computer animation takes both technical and artistic expertise, there isn't a pool of cheap foreign labor that could easily take over much of the work.

[Maxine Schacker]

There are no guarantees in life. Get a broad based general art/animation education. Be sure, as Pixar suggests, that you study classical drawing and animation and understand the principles of 2d and 3d computer animation.