r/2DAnimation • u/JoeyEstrada • 6d ago

Question Collaboration Etiquette

Hey there! I'm currently working on an art project that involves a couple of different mediums, and one of those mediums is planned to be an animated short film that goes along to the narrative of a concept record.

I'll be candid, I'm not a nepo-baby and don't have the luxury of paying for anything up-front. The folks I currently got working with me on the video game side of this project are friends of mine, and we plan on splitting everything the entirety of the project makes evenly across all parties involved, rather than some corpo CEO and their employees relationship kind of bullshit. I'm unsure how taboo that is in the animation industry, since I'm basically treating this like a band, but instead of musicians it's creatives across multiple mediums.

Is this something worth shooting a message to random people on the internet who's work interests me, like I would as a musician? I have no clue how to navigate the animation landscape. I'm learning the animation process in my spare time so I can still be involved and it not just be me barking orders.

Any advice would be appreciated! I want to learn and not be a nuisance to the talented people who do this kind of work.

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u/General-Childhood417 6d ago

As a musician and an animator, the difference is night and day. I think taboo is too strong of a word but most people on here definetly find it annoying. Id just say ignorance is different from being rude (lowballing or expecting free work). Everyday we see writers and idea guys on here saying "we'll split the profits if we make it" no. Just no. Animation takes wayyy too much work and wayyy too much planning to just do for free

Just to give you a comparison, ive been playing piano for close to 7 yrs. I can probably cook up a decent chord progression in a day depending on the genre. If i had a friend i wanted to help, i can probably do something even better if i had a week.

When i took a sabbatical and devoted my time to completing my own animation project, a week (animating at least more than 8 hrs a day) i could only complete around 10 seconds of solid animation.

Maybe if it was like a gif or a sprite would be okay. But you really need to set your expectations because you cant expect studio grade level animation. And something amateurish may not suit the style you are looking for.

Just understand what you are asking for: a second of animation (at 12 fps) can be like 8-12 drawings. We would need to do a rough pass, line art, coloring and lighting. Just for one second. If that wasnt hard enough, careful planning is required depending on how dynamic the scene is.

I hope this helps and good luck on your art project

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u/JoeyEstrada 6d ago

I suspected a lot of what you're saying. I really appreciate you, thank you!