Animation Nation

As of this writing on April 14 2026 here's an update as to the current condition of the Hollywood based animation industry. My information comes from a highly reliable source who is intimately familar with several aspects of the business.

The unemployment rate of artists within the Animation Guild which is the union for studio based artists is 85% from its membership high of a few years ago. Membership peaked during the Covid lockdowns. 

Cable TV production is almost non-existent. At one studio there are 6 development executives overseeing a department with no artists. 

Feature production is faring better.

The Animation Guild will be insolvent in 3 years. As such they are forced the raise union dues even though the union executives are quite frankly being paid obscenely high salaries.

AI production is being developed more and more. This will replace outsoursing to studios in foreign countries who've been doing production for TV for many decades. They will be replaced with AI.

AI production systems still need character designers, storyboard artists and other designers. The ability to create character rotation models, lip sync models and walk cycles and so on is necessary to train AI for a specific production. So these artsts will still be needed.

The concept of creative labor is changing. Focus more on authorship.

Be aware friends and adjust accordingly.

Keep Creating! 

So how did it turn out for you animation industry of Hollywood?

With a reported 70% unemployment in your union. When will it turn around? Still waiting for the studios to give you jobs that may likely never come back? Still the tough talk about going on strike?

Maybe you should have heeded my warning all those years ago. That the studios will someday fail us. That the future is in independence. Prepare for an Independent Economy. 

And you animation historians. Your failure to even mention the AN Movement which you were a part of. Maybe you should re-read The Articles That Started This from 1999. Shame on you.

Enjoy the future. I wish you good luck and happiness.

Keep Creating !!

Another year has passed since February 25 1999 when AnimationNation.com was launched. The word we were spreading was many times mocked and ignored by entrenched studio creative labor. The word was we need a strong independent community to create an alternative to studio employment and the negative aspects of it.

I will leave you with this. It's a video of a very talented and successful artist who used to be my student many years ago and got his start in teaching at The Animation Academy in Burbank. This says it all for the studio side of things. 

The day has come my fellow artists. We must stand on our own and adapt to the new reality. Keep Creating. This is the way.

We are a very fortunate artistic generation to be living at this moment in time and space. There are so many powerful resources available to us to create that it staggers the mind.

I broke into the animation industry when production methods and the distribution system were far different than what we know today. It was a foreign world in comparison to our contemporary age. The creative technology we take for granted could not even be conceived at the time of my early years in the industry.

Today you can carry an animation studio in your back pocket as well as a television and movie theater all in one device. The advancement of animation production technology in comparison to what I knew within my lifetime is an awesome thing. And it is available to all. Not just those with capital but to everyone.

We think of animation in terms of the big Hollywood studios. Especially if one is a union artist. Many are not aware of the independent projects that have achieved great success outside of the Hollywood scene. Projects that utilize the advantages offered today through our advanced creative technology.

Some of today's biggest hits in animation have nothing to do with the major studios. Many in the studios have never heard of these shows. The biggest hit in animation today is "The Amazing Digital Circus" on YouTube with 325 million views in 7 months. This project was created independently with animation software that's available for free. The creators use the internet for content distribution and marketing. The second episode was released a month ago and has 88 million views as of this writing.

There's the great example of "Lackadaisy" which was created by an independent artist as an online comic. Today the property has a vast fan following that funds the animation production into the millions of dollars. Another recent success in the independent scene is "Ramshackle" which had its beginnings as an online comic as well. They've recently released the pilot episode that was funded by fans and has 5.6 million views in one month's time.

What do the creators of these and other independent projects have in common? They are authoring their own properties.

Today's successes in animation have nothing to do with Hollywood and are becoming as popular as anything the major studios can come up with. Even more so. These are great models for our community and deserve as much attention as studio generated content. They're working remotely and in teams. They're doing their own voice overs. They're creating original music. They're marketing their own characters. They're doing everything that a studio would do only more efficiently and with more creative freedom.

They're taking full advantage of the power that technology is giving them. They put in the work to make it happen.

Let's not be enslaved by the failing Hollywood model. Let's create a new way of doing things on both an individual and group level.

There's nothing hindering us anymore. Make the most of the new opportunities available to us today. Get creating and keep creating!

Respectfully submitted.

Charles Z
June 6 2024

A tale of two towns.

One had years of glory and abundance but is now troubled and can no longer feed all of its people. The other is populated by folks who grew up hard scrabble and know how to weather difficult times and flourish in challenging conditions.

Two different towns. One that is employee based and the other being independents.

One is experiencing deep layoffs and lingering unemployment and is ruled by corporate executives. The other uses powerful and affordable technology that allows creators to produce content they own. Content that attracts a fan base. Content that can be as culturally relevant as it is entertaining and can rival or exceed the quality of any Hollywood studio.

Citizens of the first town work for non-creative corporate managers who tell them what to do. Citizens of the second town create original and imaginative content that is creatively pure.

Town 1 citizens receive a weekly stipend and in turn give up ownership of what they create. Town 2 citizens form their own studios and generate revenue directly from their fans through crowdfunding and from the merchandise and product sales of intellectual properties which they own.

Citizen 1 has no control over their employment destiny. Citizen 2 has developed revenue streams through a dedicated fan base and has more options.

Citizen 1 is not positioned for the wider market beyond studio employment. Citizen 2 is well positioned and set to produce.

Many of the people of Town 1 believe they can only operate as employees. The people of Town 2 know you can live either way if you're independent.

The citizens of Town 1 are finding that sooner or later if they want to stick around they will have to cross the bridge and learn to live like they do in Town 2.

If you're heading into animation why not think of yourself as something other than a cog in a corporate studio machine. You are a creative individual. It's your creative individualism that gets you to a studio employee level in the first place. Make the most of your art.  

A career in animation is more than just spending your days hunched in a studio cubicle waiting for a paycheck. Develop yourself into a creative individual whose enthralling work attracts people. Make a creative statement. Build a community with your art.

You are the franchise. Learn to thrive as an independent. Make it real. Until next time ...

Respectfully submitted.

Charles Z
May 31 2024

Where land and sea meet. It is the end of one and the beginning of the other.

Animation has always been a labor intensive process. Since its very beginning the roots of the first studios more than 100 years ago the labor aspect has been the dominant force in the dynamics of production. Without it the creative conceptual side couldn't be realized. That has been the defining factor in the evolution of our industry especially at the organized labor level. Creative labor personnel far outnumbered creative concept personnel.

Then in the 1950's photocopy technology was introduced and eliminated the need for hand inking animation cels. In the 1970's video technology allowed animators to pencil test their footage for immediate review. The first step on the road to eliminating film. Then in the early 1990's digital production technology burst upon the scene and the need for ink and paint and camera services disappeared altogether. At the same time the internet emerged and provided artists with a creative outlet and the independent distribution of content worldwide.

Today it is AI and its implications are enormous.

Access to the levers of production and distribution are no longer a factor in determining what gets made and what doesn't. Advancing technology means the need for traditional support labor in animation is diminishing and in time may very well disappear altogether.
 
The balance is shifting from creative labor dominance to the dominance of creative individuals at the concept level. It's no longer a matter of completing the inbetweens or the need for a crew of 12 to back up one animator. Now an animation artist can handle the most complex production tasks through technology.
 
Things have shifted towards content creators. Artists who author and as such own their intellectual property. The need for huge numbers of people in one physical location to produce content has given way to small teams light on their feet who work with each other remotely. This is the frontier now and will increasingly become the norm. While the Hollywood system stumbles the pioneers are having great success and defining the culture for the new generation with their art.

It's all coming down to ideas. If you have an idea you can make it happen by simply engaging in the act of typing. We are seeing the emergence of the Age of Imagination. Where anything you envision can be realized. The competition will not be in the area of skill based creative labor in the work-for-hire market. It will be in the world of ideas and concepts and intellectual properties. What will matter is authorship.

It is moving away from service based creation to source based creation.

We've had several ages in the history of animation. The First Golden Age - The Television Age - The Second Golden Age - The CGI Age - The Internet Age - Now we're entering another. The Age of Imagination.

Adapt accordingly friends. Until next time ...

Respectfully submitted     

Charles Zembillas
May 28 2024

Reviving AnimationNation ...

In the beginning the AnimationNation Movement was at its core an industry reform effort intended for the benefit of animation artists everywhere but especially in the Hollywood arena. That was early 1999.

Here we are 25 years later and the industry we were familiar with back then no longer exists in the way we knew it. Virtually everything has changed. The labor intensive production heavy big studio system is diminished while smaller independent efforts flourish. In 25 years time the industry has indeed ... reformed.

The Hollywood system that we were accustomed to is not the center of the animation universe any longer. There has been a big bang and the universe has reformed into something different.

In 1999 AnimationNation was "The Voice of the Animation Industry". We gave voice to animation artists everywhere. We were a harbinger of change through that voice. Some took heed as the winds of change blew with a gale force. The storm has passed and reshaped the landscape. Some may see that new land as an end. I see it as a great new beginning and a new world to explore.

And that is what AnimationNation will do. Explore the age. Define the era. Help set a path for the new creative world we are entering.

This is the age we've been waiting for. The beginning of the Age of Imagination. An age of boundless creativity and limitless potential. Where creative labor transforms into content authorship and content ownership. Where the means of production become ever more accessible to all and opportunity abounds for individuals dedicated to creating.

Let's make the most of it. Until next time...

Respectfully submitted.

Charles Z
May 18 2024

AnimationNation.com was launched 25 years ago today on February 25 1999.

Everything we anticipated has since emerged. Everything we preached has come to pass.

A New Creative Age has arisen.

Animation Artists the future belongs to you.

KEEP CREATING !!

Greetings and thank you for visiting AN's homepage. Today marks the 24th anniversary of AnimationNation. The site was launched on this day February 25 in 1999. It started with a series of articles I published at an important time in the history of the animation industry dedicated towards initiating much needed reform. The articles were also a wake up call to our community as the dawn of a new age in animation media was fast approaching.

Today all these years later everything we were heralding has come to fruition. Independent artists arethriving. Technology has enabled creative individuals to do things that were unimaginable prior to our advent. So many things have changed in a very positive way that the systems we were subject to have become virtualy obsolete. We now have a much greater control over our individual and collective destinies.

As we move forward into the ever expanding future let's celebrate what's been accomplished and let's enthusiastically anticipate all the great things that await us.

The key to what the future holds is to... KEEP CREATING !!

Wishing you good fortune with all that you do!

Here we are with another year behind us. Celebrating the 23rd anniversary of the launch of AnimationNation.com.

Things were way different on this date in 1999. Animation artists were frustrated and angry. Dial up modems were our access to the Internet. Mainstream studios were the only place of employment. Independent projects were few and far between. Social Media wasn't yet a byword. Online communities gathered at message boards such as the one we hosted.

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blog technology, crowdfunding, all the content sites and systems we take for granted today didn't exist. Online videos were rare. Streaming was still in its infancy.

This was the environment we started with. And the things we said would happen and encouraged the animation community to prepare for have been around now for a very long time. Plus we can work remotely from anywhere in the world.

AnimationNation anticipated all of this! We initiated a movement of vision and consciousness that reverberates within our community to this day!

Enjoy the moment brothers and sisters! Let's go forward into the future with positivity, joy and encouragement as we Keep Creating!

Charles Zembillas

AnimationNation.com

February 25 2022