Experiencing burnout in the animation industry
After graduating, a lot of people think that they have a clear vision of what they want to do in their career. They have learned so many things about a certain field and they are eager to do their job for the rest of their lives. Many jobs today involve using technology, such as the job of a computer animator. If you really like animation, this job can be the best in the world, but if you are not careful you may experience burnout.
Many people are familiar with what burnout means. In short, it is a state in which you have no energy or enthusiasm because you have been working too hard. There are a few factors that can lead to burnout in the animation industry.
Dangers of deadlines
Even those people who do creative jobs, such as animators, can experience burnout due to deadlines. Many animators are given short deadlines to create animations that will impress the world with their unique graphics, and it can be really hard to achieve it when you have such little time to do so much. You have to work every day for multiple hours to get the product which you can be satisfied with and which you think will have a lot of success. Unfortunately, when you work so much for such a long time, you eventually get sick of it and you just want to take a break.
Burnout in the gaming industry
Most recent games have amazing graphics and animations, but they still have certain bugs that can spoil the experience of playing the game. One of the reasons for this is the fact that animators are not given enough time to complete all their tasks so they inevitably make mistakes. They work too much and they are bound to experience burnout.
A lot of people choose to work as animators because they truly love to create animation and make people happy despite all the pressure and stress this job may include. For example, Jim Zub, one of the main artists working for Marvel and an art professor at Toronto’s Seneca College, has said that he can never get fed up with animating because his passion for this job is so great that it can overcome the feeling of being exhausted from work.
How to prevent burnout
If you want to prevent burning out in the animation industry, Jim Zub states that the main thing is to learn to do it consistently and to organize your time in the best possible way. Apart from art, this is one of the most important lessons he wants to teach his students at Seneca College in Canada. Thanks to Zub, many people who have attended this college have learned that animation is a passion and the job of an animator is not the same as other jobs. With the help of amazing teachers and professors, these students learned how to avoid experiencing burnout and how to develop and nurture the love for their job.
The bottom line is that animators can’t always be consistent and always in their best work mode. Sometimes it is necessary to take some time off and get away until you recharge your energy. When you run into a problem and you get stuck, you should not get frustrated right away. Instead, you should take a break, do something you enjoy or spend some time with your family and then you should start over. The best way to avoid experiencing burnout is by not worrying about it. Everyone deserves a break from time to time.
