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So you want to be an animator?

There is magic in our profession. Where else can you get paid to make a ball bounce, to play with sweet smelling plasticine, or to make people laugh?

But beware! There is a flip side to this official line. Shameful, musty secrets swept under the rug. Things whispered only in dark corners, in even darker studios.

They are: 10 things no one ever told you about being an animator

1. The claw
Are the fingers of your drawing hand permanently clutched in a death grip resembling a chicken claw? Move over RSI, acute Wacomititus is thought to be affecting roughly 73% of the adult animation workforce.

2. The beard
Facial hair is compulsory. No one will take you seriously if you don’t have a nice full beard, or at the very least a luxuriant moustache. I’m a girl, and I have a lovely chin hair I stroke pensively while reviewing animatics.

3. Progress bar eye-Twitch
1000 yard stare of fear which comes from expectantly watching the progress bar make it to 90% then inexplicably crash. Over and over again.

4. Your computer becomes your new best friend.
Once upon a time you thought computers were for nerds. Now your macbook follows you everywhere. You find yourself comparing RAM and screen resolutions with the new intern. Its warm, apple-shaped glow even lulls you to sleep at night.

Exhibit A: The Claw

5. 80s cartoons
You’ve developed encyclopedic knowledge of 80s cartoons, and you can belt out all the lyrics to The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It may impress your fellow bearded colleagues, but it doesn’t go down too well in a classy restaurant.

6. Data loss
At least once in your working life, you will experience a hard drive failure so severe, you will want to tear your own heart out and stamp on it until it stops beating its miserable, pathetic, worthless rhythm. Sure, you could have backed it up, but you were too busy staring at a render progress bar. What’s 3 years’ worth of work?

7. You like robots
And dinosaurs, lasers, and space ships. You big nerd.

8. Quasimodo Posture, aka Animation Stoop Syndrome
Whether you’re slaving over a hot lightbox, or crouched in pain in front of your desk at an AFX project that just won’t render, your good posture is a thing of the past. No amount of pilates is going to help you now, punk.

9. Counting in twos
1,3,5,7… You can only count in odd numbers. Not very handy at the supermarket checkout.

10. “I hate animation”
is now your personal mantra. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Want to know more about being an animator? Read our interview with Tomm Moore, director of The Secret of Kells, or see how our 4mations directors are progressing with their short film commissions.