Demand for Animation Skills Increase 25%

 

Here is some good news for animation students. During the past 90 days, more than 4,000 jobs were advertised online that required animation skills, according to real-time business intelligence outfit Wanted Analytics. Demand for animators is growing due to increasing need for vfx in video games, movies, television and online outlets. Hiring over the past 90 days grew 25% year-over-year versus the same time period in 2011 and reached a new high during March.

These skills are most commonly required for technical and creative occupations, such as Web Developers, Graphic Designers, Multi-Media Artists, and Computer Software Engineers. In addition, with the high growth in hiring demand by employers for animators, the volume of job ads for teachers at colleges and universities to teach students these skills has grown 39% over the past year.

Potential candidates for animator jobs are often required to have knowledge or experience of several tools and technologies, including:

1. Adobe Photoshop
2. Motion graphics
3. Microsoft PowerPoint
4. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
5. JavaScript
6. Microsoft Office
7. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
8. Adobe InDesign
9. Oracle Java
10. Adobe Dreamweaver

The five metropolitan areas with the highest volume of job ads for animation skills were Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington (DC), and Seattle. Although recruiters in Los Angeles posted the most ads of any city, hiring demand over the last 90 days actually declined about 2% compared to the same time period in 2012. In comparison, recruiters in Washington, DC saw the most year-over-year growth over the past 90 days, with 77% more job ads than were seen online during 2011.

Nationwide, companies sourcing candidates with animation skill sets are likely to find them hard-to-recruit, with varying degrees of difficulty in each location depending on the available talent supply. According to the Hiring Scale, employers in Washington, DC are currently experiencing more difficulties than average when recruiting candidates with these skills. While growth in demand for this skill has grown, the local talent pool of qualified professionals does not meet the needs of employers. Recruiters in this area are likely to compete heavily to attract talent and may experience a longer time-to-fill than many other areas across the United States. The Hiring Scale also shows that the best places to recruit Animators are currently Grand Rapids (Michigan), Oxnard-Ventura (California), and Allentown (Pennsylvania). These areas are likely to fill job openings faster than the rest of the United States. Job ads in these areas are posted for an average of about 5 weeks, almost 2 weeks shorter than in Washington, DC.

The Hiring Scale measures conditions in local job markets by comparing hiring demand and labor supply. The Hiring Scale is part of the WANTED Analytics platform that offers business intelligence for the talent marketplace.

To see additional charts and detail, please visit www.wantedanalytics.com/insight.

The Hiring Scale is available at www.hiringscale.com.

Henson Rides with Lobel’s ‘Frog and Toad’

 

L.A.’s Jim Henson Company has picked up the film and consumer products rights to 1970s classic children’s book series Frog and Toad, written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel. An animated film featuring the comic adventures of the reptile pals is in development, while a licensing program based on the series’ original artwork is underway.

The Lobel series consists of four Frog and Toad books and five short stories that have sold more than 13 million copies over the years and continue to sell in excess of one million copies annually for publisher HarperCollins. The characters inspired two wonderful claymated specials in the mid 1980s, directed by John Clark Matthews and produced by Churchill Films.

Lisa Henson will produce the animated film slated for release in 2014, while Adam and Adrianne Lobel are on-board as exec producers. Craig Bartlett (Dinosaur Train and Hey Arnold!) is writing the script and Cory Edwards (Hoodwinked) is attached to direct.

“Frog and Toad has tremendous value with parents who read these charming stories when they were children and are now sharing them with their own kids,” said Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company. “With such high caliber talent on board, the delightful and funny adventures of these two great friends–with a nod to the classic ‘buddy movie’–will bring a whole new audience to their big screen debut.”

‘Aqua Something’ Premieres June 24 on Adult Swim

 

 

If you’ve got a hankering for new adventures starring those tasty toonsters Frylock, Master Shake and Meatwad, we’ve got good news for you: Starting June 24 at midnight, the stars of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 are back and better than ever in Aqua Something You Know Whatever on the ever evolving Adult Swim block of Cartoon Network. In the meantime, check out this tasty promo vid:

The latest series of foibles from creators Dave Willis (Squidbillies) and Matt Maiellaro (12 Oz. Mouse) will find the boys embarking on their most dangerous mission yet: Parenthood! Pepe the Pepper, an adorable rugrat abandoned in lieu of treasure in far off Argentina, is newest member of the Aqua Something family…and just as troublesome as the rest of them. The premiere episode “Big Bro” features classy neighbor Carl resorting to desperate measures to avoid responsibility.

Disney Offers First Look at ‘Wreck It Ralph’

 

Disney has unveiled some pretty rad first-look images at their highly anticipated in-game(s) CG adventure Wreck-It Ralphdue out November 2 of this year. Directed by former Simpsonsanimation director Rich Moore, the flick will follow Ralph, a videogame villain voiced by John C. Reilly, who goes on a cross-arcade journey to prove he can really be a good guy. Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman also star. Check out the pics!

 

Pinocchio!

First look at Guillermo del Toro's 2013 "Pinocchio" adaptation, which is co-directed by Mark Gustafson

Six Point Harness Kickstarts ‘Dick Figures’ Movie Campaign

 

Six Point Harness has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a feature-length Dick Figures movie.

The animated Dick Figures series of about 40 shorts has recorded more than 115 million views since debuting just over a year ago on Mondo Media’s YouTube channel. It has become one of the most-viewed and highest-rated animated series on YouTube.

Written and directed by Ed Skudder and Zack Keller, Dick Figures is about two stick figure friends, Red and Blue, who make up for what they lack in smarts and sex appeal with a really long string of bad decisions. The Dick Figures audience is largely comprised of teens and young adults between the ages of 13 and 24.

“YouTube is the biggest and most powerful interactive and shareable entertainment platform available,” says Brendan Burch, CEO of Six Point Harness Studios. “Our audience has been begging for this, so it was only natural that we would reach out directly to our fans on YouTube to help us fund the growth of Dick Figures.”

Dick Figures: The Movie Kickstarter fund will remain open until 8 p.m. on July 16, with a target of $250,000 for a half hour special. If the fund raise is oversubscribed to $500,000, Six Point Harness will produce an hour-long movie, and for $700,000 the team will produce a full-length feature film. Pledges of $15 will receive a digital download of the movie and access to exclusive behind-the-scenes content and community forum. Pledges of $100 will receive a DVD, T-shirt, soundtrack, an exclusive making-of documentary, and more. For $1,000, donors will get the lower pledge level rewards plus an original portrait of the backer with Red and Blue, illustrated by Skudder.

As of this posting, the campaign had raised more than $41,000 toward its goal.

The YouTube promotional push will be supported with regular Facebook and Twitter updates on the progress of the Dick Figures: The Movie fund raise, including intimate, day by day details of the campaign.

Six Point Harness Studios and Mondo Media plan to translate the movie into German, as they have been doing on all Dick Figure’s episodes. It is a strategy that includes a worldwide fan base with 50% of the show’s audience originating from outside the U.S