I survived my first year in animation!

To a very rough 2025, and a better 2026

Whew! What a year it’s been! This post is my attempt to make a time capsule of the world of animation in 2025 - a year in which the industry continued to self-combust through mass layoffs, GenAI poisoned the internet with slop forever, and, coincidentally, happened to be my first year working in animation!!

Quick disclaimer: everyone’s first year in the industry will look different, but I wanted to offer my experience and perspective!

My first job!

I graduated college in November 2024 with a degree in Animation. I was living in a tiny apartment just off campus and wondering what to do with my life when an email popped up in my inbox. It was for an internship I’d applied to a few months earlier at Elk Studios, a small studio gearing up for a new production with the BBC.

I was invited to an interview, and a few weeks later found myself moving across Dublin to a slightly bigger apartment in the city center and starting my internship! It was a hybrid job, so most mornings I woke up early to take the long train up to the studio. I’d set up my laptop and do my daily film study, which usually inspired my work for the day. At lunch, I’d go out for tacos with my coworkers, or I’d sometimes stay at my desk and work on personal projects.

the team!

At the end of the internship, I was hired as a Junior Storyboard Artist/Revisionist. My job was addressing the director’s notes on other, more experienced artists’ work, but occasionally I got to storyboard chunks of episodes myself!

I started this job with so much to prove—the studio was small and relatively unknown, but I was even smaller and more unknown, and wanted to show what I could do! My director and seniors were serious - all powerhouses of story! I was sure everyone would find out I didn’t know what I was doing, but as I kept going I discovered how patient and willing to teach so many people in the industry are.

Taking classes after work was something else I’m so happy I had the time to do! Classes are a great way to develop personal sequences alongside a dedicated group of people. And I took a lot of them this year! Stephanie Stine’s stands out, but Allen Zhang’s and Ian Abando’s were also incredible!

Some days I would finish work and barely have time to eat before getting into classwork, and there were many weekends I spent shrimped away at my desk, rushing to finish a sequence in time.

I wrote a full write-up of my experiences in Steph’s class here:)

The wrong way to make a storyboard sequence~

Life outside of animation

Maybe this was a misconception on my part, but I was surprised to find that so much of your life in animation happens outside the studio you work at. And I had a busy year outside my studio job. I made so many great friends by attending weekly life drawing sessions and running the Film Study Club, which let me chat with some of my favorite artists. Even this blog led to some unexpected friendships! Going to Annecy, getting drunk and hunting for food at 4am, and having online study sessions with my friends made me feel like part of the animation community.

Working in animation means you can find yourself almost anywhere in the world and discover that you have an online mutual who lives there. Or attend a random animation festival and bump into an artist you know. I’m sure other fields are like this too, but I definitely found it surprising and delightful!

snippets of my year!

The real reason to get into animation is the people. The warmest, kindest friends you’ll ever have work in animation! There are so many communities you’re already a part of if you’re even just interested in animation - comics workshops, online classes, life drawing groups, and artist collectives all exist because we share a love of our craft.

The rest of the year

What I haven’t mentioned so far, of course, is the backdrop of the general state of the industry. There’s been enough doom and gloom about it online for me to add to it, and I really wanted to write this to someone who’s graduating this year, or just starting to learn about animation. I wanted to reach out and share my experiences, share that working in animation seems to be working out okay for me.

This year felt like the first very small step towards my dream of becoming a director! I learned so much, met so many amazing people, and got to earn my first credits in the industry; I really believe it’s irresponsible to tell students or younger artists to quit animation just because you’re out of work.

I’ve seen people coping with the industry collapse in so many different ways, the best of which has been seeing so many people make TV show pilots, fund incredible short films, write great comics, and start tiny indie studios! There’s maybe never been a year with so many stories being shared online for free.

It feels like the industry is changing rather than dying - as the big studios try to cut costs, so far it’s just created more opportunities for independent creators to find new audiences.

So sure, I’ll remember 2025 for all of its horrors, but I’ll also remember screening my graduation short in front of people for the first time, feeling like I belong in the industry, and the optimism of seeing my friends pursue their dream projects. In any case, I couldn’t have asked for a better, more memorable first year in animation.

What a cracked field we get to work in!

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Thank you so much for reading my blog this year - I have some big things planned for 2026 and can’t wait to share them with all of you! If you enjoyed any particular post this year, feel free to share it with a friend - that’s currently the best way to support my work!

- Wren