[...] This contest turned a little ’scammy’ after all. Check out why I don’t participate in contests to see [...]

Yes, I remember you (OK, I had to go check my old student sheets…glad I kept those). And when I checked out your blog I definitely would have remembered you because of your film. Love those designs!

Rant away! You know you’re a true animator when you’re ranting about something.

Thanks for your input. It’s great for people to hear it from the folks right in the trenches. About what is possible out there.

Congrats on the steady employment! That’s great to hear. Hope you come back with more input (and rants).
K

Im sure you won’t remember me now but you taught me storyboarding a few years back! Just wanted to say great site and your right on about this contest…I never entered nor had any intention of entering but after reading about this mess, its apparent there was a complete lack of planning on Anibooms part. I think you did the right thing by removing the banners and separating yourself from them.

And for the few people who said they entered because they really wanted to do work of their own, there are other opportunities out there and ways to at least give yourself a chance to do your own thing. Be very careful with contests. So often you end up doing a lot of work so that someone else can make a buck of it. Even with the limited amount of experience I have had in this industry, I recently have found that if your persistent enough, have good ideas and really believe in your work, some of the bigger studios down in the US WILL give your ideas a chance and at least get them into development. Whether they go anywhere, who knows but its a start and in my opinion, a much better use of your time and talent than many of these contests!

Sorry about the rant Karen I just get real upset when people get taken advantage of in this industry. I have been very lucky to have been employed by the same studio since school ended but I know if I were desperate for work, I may work for a lot less than deserved.

-Justin

Thanks for that input Debi. It’s good for folks to hear it from others besides me. Hate to say it, but I can’t totally relate to having it really tough *knocks wood* in this (animation) business.

They say luck really is just when preparation meets opportunity. Keep working on the ‘preparation’ then when that opportunity comes, you guys will be ready. If you want it enough, it WILL happen.
K

I too am in the trenches with you, though recently it has been getting better. Everyone always says it comes down to luck, of being in the right place at the right time…only problem is some of us have a knack of always being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m one of those. My suggestion is just to try to be everywhere, all the time. Luck can’t hide all the time.

Just brainstorm all you can, find places that might need your work, think outside of the box too for places to look. Ask anyone you can for suggestions. Take what jobs you can to build up a resume and portfolio. Slowly you should see more and more jobs coming..and by slowly, I mean years. As Karen said, its all about who keeps at it and who gives up.

And one last suggestion, (I know this is just a blog and I’m sure you’re better in professional letters, but just in case…) make sure when you’re contacting anyone about any job/question/anything job related over the net, watch your typing. Your first impression on the net is your typing and grammer. It’s your “dress suit”.

Oh, and Karen…CURSE YOU AND YOUR LUCK!!! j/k

I wish there was something to say here to help you out but this comment section is probably not the place. I will try to write a post along these lines soon.

But the short version is that it is tough right now. It’s slow. This is the true test of who keeps at it and who gives up. You may have to do something else in the meantime to pay the bills. Many others have and it’s not failure. It’s surviving. This business goes in cycles and we had a big boom a little while back and now it’s on the down turn, but hopefully not for too long.

I’ll try to give you something more in the near future about this issue. To be honest, I’ve been very lucky in my career and my biggest hardship has usually been burn-out from over-work (don’t hate me). It’s either a feast or famine out there!

And don’t ever be afraid to email me direct too. Chin up.
K

On a different note, and maybe a possbile future topic to write about? i know you talked about how to be succesful in the industry, but what about trying to get work when you have little experience, this might just sound quite dumb of me to ask but i’m in that jam right now i think, i’m not sure if its because i lack enough experience or flat out right aren’t good enough ( because you never get an answer back after you reply, unless they hire) or maybe because its slow and lots of more experienced people are also looking for work, so what kinds of things can one do in hopes of finding a way in? i wouldn’t mind to hear some of your hardships ( if you don’t mind writing about them) because i find those are fairly useful in terms of getting a handle of how things work.
Speaking of work, you wouldn’t know of any places looking? i’m tempted to try AKA but i’m not even sure if they are working on anything

just some thoughts~

Considering you’re in high school that’s a pretty good video you have there. Keep at it!

I certainly hope they’re not deleting any comments. I have to say at least they’re keeping up all the negative forum discussions…it would be really bad for them to delete anything there.

The decision to keep going is up to you. But my opinion would be just do it for yourself as a portfolio piece. I certainly wouldn’t give this contest any more of my sweat if I were you. But as a personal accomplishment, go for it. Start your own site or blog and put it up there.

Thanks for coming by and I hope you come back. I’ll be putting up more content for beginners as well. Not just people with training. So maybe you can pick up a few tips to improve your work. Keep me posted if you do go forward and good luck!
K

Seeing the semifinalists was a total bummer. I remember first watching the Faust Arp video by Dany Saadia and thinking that it looked like previously existing footage with a Radiohead song edited into it. I didn’t comment about it, but later I went back to the video’s page and saw that some had posted a quite lengthy comment about how the footage was created by an animation team and was intended for some completely different project. I replied to this comment agreeing with the person who wrote it, as well as some other’s who felt the same way. When I went back to that page a few days later the ENTIRE comment was deleted concerning the fraud within the entry. I couldn’t find any function on Aniboom that allowed a person to delete the comments on their video, so I’m assuming that Aniboom themselves deleted the comment.

There was another video that I saw that was also created by an animation team and done at least a few years earlier for another project (http://www.aniboom.com/Player.aspx?v=197778, a video originally for Radiohead’s “The Gloaming”, however, the entry was submitted using the song “All I need” and it was entered by the guy who produced and designed the costume in the video. He wasn’t the animator nor do I think he did any animation in the video at all.) Anyway, I decided to post my opinion on the video, as well one other viewer, and the comment also became very lengthy, yet it hasn’t been deleted.
I’m just wondering what got the comment on Dany’s video deleted and not the comment on the “All I need video” deleted? Essentially it was concerning the same sort of fraud, however, within a few days the comment on Dany’s video become nonexistent. It just seems suspicious to me.

Some people have been saying that the people complaining about the semifinalists are sore losers. I’m sure that there are some sore losers out there, but for me personally, I didn’t care if I won or lost, in the end, I was just really hoping a really interesting Radiohead video would come out of this competition. A video that could visually represent what Radiohead’s songs musically and lyrically represents. What I am most disappointed about is that I do not think that any of the chosen semifinalists can accurately and justly represent the song that corresponds with their video. All the semifinalists appear to lack any interesting or complex storyboards…plus most of them were cheats.

I think that I will finish my animation eventually, because I would really like to see what I can do with it. I’m not a professional animator at all, nor am I trained in animation. I’m just a high school level visual artist who learned how to use flash, and as I personal goal, to see myself complete an animation that I have honestly put a lot of thought and time into would be a great accomplishment. But if I finish my animation, or get to the one minute point, do you think I should submit it to the contest anyway? I know I won’t get anyway within the Aniboom community, but just for the sake of showing what my storyboard has translated into, should I submit what I create? Hm.

Anyway, I really enjoyed you’re post about the contest, and appreciate everything you’ve written about your opinion on what’s going on. Thanks!

-Halie

Sorry to hear you were yet another to waste their time. My feeling is they launched the thing and got overwhelmed with entries. Then the folks deciding the winners are probably not artists or in the industry (heck, maybe they are…I don’t know). So they couldn’t look past what a storyboard is and just went for the ‘bright, shiny thing’ that looked nice (in their eyes) and went “Whew! OK, that was much easier.”

Now they just keep blowing smoke up your butts saying how awesome and talented you all are and how could they decide between all that awesome-ness?

The most insulting thing is in their last response (thanks roger) when they say they “leveled the playing field” by ALLOWING previously made animation. Huh? Wha??

They just don’t get it. It’s too bad.
K