No this isn't some SPAM about how you can make money working from home.
I am curious how many animators here work from home. I was reading where Heyvern and Slowtiger had some interesting and comical comments on the dynamic of working from home versus being in a studio environment. (Seventh Day Adventist making up excuses to leave?) LOL! SO I started wondering...
How many of you use AS in a studio and how many work from home entirely?
I have done both. After three years at home I returned to the studio, and I did miss that dynamic of being in a group and bouncing off ideas etc. At the same time I am thinking of returning to work from home too. How about you?
I work at home... if you really want to call it that...
I don't do animation as a "job", I am primarily a freelance web guy. I have branched out again into some print work, but animation is an ongoing education and hobby for me at the moment.
I currently have several large personal animation projects going (personal as in NO MONEY DAGNABBIT!).
Working at home... alone... is pretty much the same for any job.
I should get a cat. I use to have Sea Monkeys but they died... doesn't bode well for the cat does it?
p.s. Sea Monkey colonies don't really "die". The unhatched eggs dry up and go into stasis for many years. I plan to "revive" them at some point.
See? This is what COULD happen to you working at home alone!
I hate working alone, I can't wait to get to college, hopefully Cal Arts, because I like the creative energy from a bunch of motivated artists motivating each other further with merely our collective passion.
I would strongly reccomend that anyone in a group work environment who has never worked "at home" or "alone" be very careful if you plan to do this.
I had always worked in a group studio design environment and thought it would be cool to be "my own boss". It isn't all it's cracked up to be. You want to make sure you are suited for it.
Remember you have to do ALL the work, all the paperwork, all the calls, all the bill keeping, client contacts, paperwork... I mentioned paperwork? You have to scream at the clients who don't pay, you have to pay the bills... not just your OWN bills but ALL the bills. If you need new software it has to be budgeted etc etc...
Working FOR someone, a ton of that "non-artistic" stuff was taken off my hands. I did my job and I got paid, regardless of the pain in the arse clients who complained about every single teeny tiny minuscule thing, and wouldn't pay on time. I miss that.
I would do anything to get back into a team situation again. I've been looking but have not been successful finding anything yet.
Some people are perfectly suited to running a one man shop... I'm not one of those but I'm kind of stuck with it for the time being. Also... I've gotten use to having control over my time. I can work in the middle of the night if I want to.
I don't want to deviate the thread but I worked from home for 5 years - internet business. Tanked when the net blew up a few years back. I am drowning in paperwork and numbers at an office -which helped me decide to return to school to study animation. I will probably start with some studio jobs to get experience but I'd love to eventually do my own thing from home. For all the downside I did get to spend a lot of time with my wife and kid. I was also able to have some flexibility traveling, as long as I have access to the net and a computer.
Maybe joining some sort of association or group could fill that gap -any of you guys live in Southern California (and don't mind giving out that info online)?
I've done both, and it wasn't my choice. Working at home has a lot of advantages: work at comfortable times, in comfortable clothing and so on. The most important thing you need is discipline: get up in time, start working right after breakfast, don't forget to write (and send!) bills.
Several animators I know who work independently still go to work every day. They just share an office. It's much better to work with 3 to 10 people in the same floor, each on his own project, or sometimes even join forces.
