h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello!

You're an , too!!?

I really want to get into animation after high school.
Any advice for a snot-nosed kid looking to earn her way through college to an awesome career?

Hi there!

Well, first of all, blow your nose already!

I kinda fell into the whole web animation deal. I was in print advertising for a newspaper, and they had an opening in the web department. It was the right move to make! Now I have lots of experience in print and web.

What kind of animation do you want to do?

I think the most important thing is to learn as much as you can, and if there aren't classes teaching what you want to learn, then get some books and teach yourself! That's pretty much the way I learned. I was able to take one animation class in college, and built on that. Also try to meet some people in the field. If your college or high school offers internships anywhere, see if you can get involved. It's a great way to learn, and an even better way to network. You never know who you might meet, and how they might help you in the future.

In college they love to tell you how people make $60,000 a year doing this stuff. Not many people fresh out of school make that kind of money, so don't let them fool you on how easy it is. Most of the time, it's paying your dues entry-level. It took me 15 years to get a truly terrific job in the field. I hope you have better luck in finding something wonderful faster than I did!

*leaves snot in a tissue*

I really want to get into movies and entertainment. I want to write my own stories one day and bring them to life.

The school I want to go to has a degree just in media arts and animation. But it's really, really, reeeealllly, expensive and I'm afraid that I will be in debt forever if I go, but then again, I'm afraid I won't be able to do what I really want to do in life if I don't

Your advice makes me feel better, though !
Thank you!

*uses hand sanitizer*
*shakes shea's hand*

So what's it like living in New York?

Is it fun?

The whole vast amounts of money to get to do what you love is really a drag, isn't it? You'd think there'd be a better way.

Train yourself as much as you can, do tutorials online, and put together a dynamite portfolio. They'll take someone with knowledge and skills over someone with a piece of paper most times! At least, I would!

It's thoughtfulness like that hand sanitizer that will get you far in life!

I love living in New York! It's very expensive though, and sadly, it looks like I'll have to move away to afford a home of my own.

There's always something to do, or not do, if the mood strikes you. It's great to be able to sit on a beach or hit the City for a museum or a club. We might tawk funny, but we're okay!

I've always wanted to live in a city. Where I'm from isn't really anything to look at. I'm surrounded by and soy bean fields. It's all flat and boring and I have to drive at least 45 miles to find something entertaining to do.

Apparently, Midwesterners have a funny accent, too. But I've never heard it. I guess we have the tendency to end our sentences with prepresitional phrases.

I'll see if there are any online courses I can take in the area, but I won't hold my breath . It will be really hard to do without a computer of my own.

I could check into getting a library card this summer and ordering books That would probably be easier.

One of these days, I'll find someone with a scanner and post some of my artwork somewhere so you can see it. I would really love to have a professional critic my work.

and soy bean fields! You should get into alternative forms of fuel! I hear it's the next big thing.

My husband is from Ohio, and the way he tells it, Midwesterners don't have accents at all. I hear it from him all the time, but he insists it's not there.

Maybe you could try to check out adult ed courses. They're usually pretty cheap, and sometimes you can find a decent course.

I'd love to see some of your work!

sorry to but in here and tell me to bugger off if you lie, but the whole money thing that in its self is not a reasion to hold you back. I have always wanted to work in radio productionthe same as animation it is a verry closed industry so i never botherd started stufddying somthin els becuse i knew i would be good at it and could get a job dropeed out of that and worked in other places never being happy doiung anyhing els. now i am going to studdy what a want and try because that way i know i will have done evtrything i can to do what i want to. yes its expecive and yes i dont realy have the money but on the other hand i am going to ace my caurse and at the end of it being doing what i want to with the means to pay it off. yea i know that may not happen and i can still be stick in a call center for a bank on the pther hand if i dont study it will not hapen and i will rgret not trying

Actually most of the fuel in my area already is ten per cent ethonal mixture. But that doesn't really make it cheaper (between 2.89 and 3.02/gallon and climbing)

I know you're right, Bob. This really is my dream and I shouldn't let anything stand in my way, but at the same time, I already know what it's like to do without money and a lot of the basic nessecities in life (it's never a good sign when bread, milk, cheese, and meat are luxuries).

In the end, it's my choice and I know that but I don't know if I'm going to be able to make the right choice. It all comes down to what I'm willing to live with.

I think in the end, I'm just going to go for it. T'hades with it!

I just have to trust myself enough to do it and I have some doubts since I've never had to do something this big before.

Thankyou for your encouragement. I could really use a lot of that these days.

any time

and the trusting yourself thig is hard i grant you if you areanything like me you dont trust yourself so hide behinfd logial expliations to stop yourself from trying

Hey! Bugger off, you!

Just kidding, Bob ... but I couldn't resist!

Fornia, I think the most important thing is to do what you love. I've been in the graphic/web business for 25 years, and I've always loved it, and still do! I struggled for many years not making much money, but I survived, and now I'm doing well, and still happy in my work. I know people who hate what they do, and still don't make much money, so I think it's more important to be happy. You never know what will happen. When I was working two jobs, still struggling, and wondering what I could do to make my life better, this job came along, and now I'm doing okay. You never know!

I once told my dad when he discovered that I really wanted to work in the art field that I would rather be happy than rich.

He told me to tell him that again when I was hungary and homeless(jerk ).

He also told me to go into advertising where "the money is"



But,I think I can manage. I'm more resourceful than I first appear.
And you're very right, Bob, I do mask my fear with logic and make myself very unhappy in the long run.

It's a terrible habit I really need to break if I want to get anywhere in life!

i like your dad sence of humer but not rell suportive huh

and what is the advatisig thing about, if you want to be a computer artit why would you do anything with advatising ah well i supose in his wy he was trying to help

Well, I really don't talk to my dad a whole lot anyway.

He is funny, but also very much emotionally absent from my life.

My mom is really supportive of me, but she's also worried about me getting into a whole lot of debt and trouble. She's still praying for me to come to my senses and become an art teacher, so I can teach other artistic people to be art teachers, too.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with being an art teacher, but there is more out there in the field of art than teaching. I also tend to believe that you should only teach if your heart is really behind or else you're really no use to anyone, espcially yourself. I've had both kinds of art teachers (usually more of the crappy kind than not). I know the importance of having a good, supportive teacher. I'm not really cut out for teaching which is why I really want to be an animator.

I once watched an episode of Oprah (everything in the universe goes back to Oprah) where she talked about when she was young and was still a reporter. She told a friend that she really wanted to be an actor. Her friend looked at her and said, "No, if you really wanted to be an actor, you would quit your comfortable job and wait tables for a living so you could have more time to act."

I always thought waiting tables might be fun...

Hey, advertising is a good start! That's where I started. You can do some lovely illustrations in advertising, and the most important thing is to build a portfolio. And money is nice ...

My parents (who are pretty old-fashioned) told me that if I had been a boy, they would have tried to talk me out of getting into the art field. After all, I'd have to support a family. Well, I still had to support myself, and I did okay! Now I'm the bigger breadwinner in the family! So much for that theory!

I love Oprah!

I have a lot of friends that waited tables ... don't do it if you want to go into art. It's a great way to get carpal tunnel syndrome. Maybe if you stick to serving cocktails ... they're not as heavy!

how about not waighting tabels ata ll work as a usher in the cinma that way you get free movies to

Actually, I used to work in a video rental store in town. I got to rent all of the free movies I wanted, but the manager was a terrible person and the owner was absent from the whole scene and it got so bad I eventually had to quit.

Now I work at a Dairy Queen where I do things to ice cream. It's not as much fun, but the owners are really good people.