Nabbing your First Games Animation Job

I was emailing a Junior Animator re: breaking into the Games industry today, when it occurred to me I may as well blog my response to her query, as seems quite a common one  (That position being: I ain't no gamer, but I'd sure like a crack at being a games animator.' This was the position I found myself in some ten years ago and it caused me a world of pain for several months. Hopefully this will help someone else avoid that pain! ):

'I have long had an issue with the fact that games companies seem to expect animators to be eager gamers, but i'm afraid it's the case that they often do! (I have lost at least one potential job due to this, even after they had seen and liked my animation!) 

In my view this is nonsensical, as you want the person to be passionate about animation first and foremost, and any gaming passion should be a bonus (the exception to this is if the animator is applying for a more senior position in which they are obliged to be familiar with how animation works within a game environment - but this is all easy enough to pick up during your first game job, if you are taking the right level of pride and interest in your work). 

Unfortunately, my view on this is not the prevailing one - or at least it wasn't back when i applied for my first games job. :0\ 

What you can do is this: carefully research the companies you apply to; whatever you do, dont turn up for an interview having played none of the company's games if you can possibly avoid it. If you dont have the game (or platform) beg, steal or borrow from a friend who does, or at least research it online and form some thoughts about the game and art style from that. 

If you're already playing casual games, that's a good start: it's not uncommon for interviewers to ask you what your favourite game is, so have a think about these games in advance, from an animation perspective. 

You'd be amazed at the amount of people that turn up for an interview with no clue what the company really does or has done in the past. Frankly, I'm surprised these people haven't more interest in the place they could end up working in every day for years! 

So don't turn up and say that you're just there to get trained up in animation. Saying you want to learn and push your animation skills is great - but also express an interest specific to that company and the work they do. 

Once you've got over the hurdle of nabbing your first games job, you should find you naturally become really submerged in the game you're working on, and fascinated by the challenges games animation presents as opposed to commercial animation (One of the first helpful lessons every games animator learns, I think, is: 'keep it short and to the point' :0) Try to play the game you're working on as much as you can, to experience how your animations look and respond first hand. 

If you're anything like me, you might even find yourself still happily working in games nearly ten years later, with no plans to defect at all! 

Hope that helps, 

Good luck! 

~Tam :0)