Animation : How do you find new clients in the animation space? by Cyrus Sales

What's been most effective for me is networking/being active on Stage 32, Cyrus Sales. That's for animation projects and live-action projects. I also network on Twitter/X.

I only have a couple of really good contacts when it comes to animation Cyrus Sales. The first one is the president of a local studio that did work with Marvel, Disney and others. I've known him for about 12 years or so and we communicate via email. The other I met through him. All other contacts came through Stage 32.

Try Fiverr.

Bob Harper, interesting, though in this case, Fiverr would own the "client relationship", right?

Patrik Gyltefors Yes at first. I know many freelancers who cultivated relationships outside of Fiverr after initial gigs. Plus it is still a good platform to find work.

Following for some insights since I am trying to do my own animated series.

Although I will add (Phone app doesn't let me edit) that when I was looking for an animator, I found one on reddit for my trailer. They live in Brazil. for VAs I used a myriad of websites but one of the most used was castingcallclub.com. :) Best of luck!!!

Maurice Vaughan - thank you for the feedback. I know you are extremely active on stage 32 - has this lead to paid client work or collaborations ? I personally have networked with a decent amount of individuals on the platform however it tends to lead to more collaborations (which are welcomed) than actual client work. Leonardo Ramirez 2 I tend to do well in-person however I can only meet so many people in a 24 hour span in peson, branching out into virtual options to continue to fill the lead pipeline.

Bob Harper great suggestion! I have used fiverr in the past for inquires however I haven't used it to obtain clients, although I did have the thought that the website has been around for quite some time and would be filled with more established individuals. Patrik Gyltefors you mind expanding on Fiverr owning the "client relationship," what exactly does this mean and translate to?

G.R. Barnett - I hope this post has helped you. It gave me additional options to explore and others to double down my efforts. I don't tend to have problems with hiring individuals for projects ( a lot of networking has been done to collect contact info and hire indie creatives) but we as a studio get a great deal of inquires from individuals with no budgets with the hopes of collaboration.

You're welcome, Cyrus Sales. I've gotten a lot of paid jobs (ghostwriting jobs, pitch deck jobs, and script feedback jobs) and collaborations (co-writing scripts) by networking on here.

Cyrus Sales Hey, I sent you a network request. :)

Cyrus Sales, sites like Fiverr do not allow you to make direct contracts with clients they have introduced, so you would have to pay the 20% commission (depending on site) for all future work for those clients. This is one of the main reasons I have avoided working through these sites, but also, you will have to compete on price with freelancers all over the globe, so it would be hard to make a profit if you are located in a place where your living expenses are high. Personally, I have found that referrals from people you have worked with in the past is the most reliable source, as they know your worth. I have been playing with the idea of collaborating with a few creatives to create a shared storefront, so that the marketing burden can be divided, and everyone could spend more time on creative work...

Maurice Vaughan that gets me excited, let's me know I'm headed in the right direction. G.R. Barnett I accepted your request.

Patrik Gyltefors thank you for the insight. That was one of my "concerns," with Fiverr. I'm located in the states, specifically Texas so I had a feeling attempting to compete with people across the global was going to be a challenge. I'm going to lean more into referrals as well, haven't ventured down that path yet.

Cyrus Sales Actually, I have a colleague who has been in the industry for decades, and he's getting top rates on Fiverr while living on the East Coast. People will pay for quality, and many times American clients prefer working with American providers. I did well when I was on it. Also, although I'm in Los Angeles, I'm originally from Texas! It doesn't hurt to have a presence there and adjust your rates to handle the fees associated with the platform.

Bob Harper - thank you so much for this insight especially with having someone who has had success within the states on the platform. I might shoot you a DM with additional questions later down the road.

Cyrus Sales Contact me anytime.

Mostly linked, my website and word of mouth. My past work has kept people recommending me. So, the more work you do, the more work it attracts.

Are there any ‘virtual studios’ out there? I have started animating my 3D feature and it would be great to have a resource of an experienced team. Previously in my post house I had excellent people to access. A team with depth of experience and skills would be invaluable.

Chris Schwarze, can you elaborate a bit more on 'virtual studio'? I assume you are not referring to virtual production, but rather a fully remote team? Also, what specific skills are you looking for?

I get contacted by studios in Europe, China and India pitching their services. Another option would be a group of freelancers who could expand or contract depending on the requirements. I could work with them collectively and individually. They would have contacts with other freelancers to add to their team. When I had my team in my studio, often they would be able to recommend additional people, which was very helpful. Trying to evaluate people remotely is difficult, so a collective would be very helpful. My current situation is my Animated Film has been designed by my ex team. I am now recording voices and creating scenes (in iClone) with editing, animation, camera angles switching etc. I would have a small team in my studio but would want to outsource advanced animation lighting environments, etc. (iClone animation can be exported to blender, Maya, Unreal etc).

Chris Schwarze, this is interesting, as I have been thinking about creating such a collective (which I referred to as a 'shared storefront' in my earlier comment above).

Agora Studio has a global team and offers freelance remote animators. https://agora.studio/

Characters offers vis dev and char modelling. https://characters.design/#about

These two are experienced in high end features. I'm sure there's more.

For individuals you could post on LinkedIn with targetted hashtags for specific crew. Additionally there are animation job board groups on LinkedIn.

Chris Schwarze Based on what you mentioned in your prior message, my studio would fall under a virtual setup. We don’t have a physical location, but we operate as a remote team that collaborates on various projects together. Our core team has been working together for a little over a year now and has built a strong rhythm in animation, post-production, and sound design. How do you usually decide which parts of your project to handle in-house versus outsourcing to a remote team?

That's a very good question. In an ideal world I would outsource everything. By ideal, I mean very good people, excellent communication.

Many years ago we were working on the VFX for Romeo and Juliet. The director was at skywalker ranch, we were Australia. We developed a system to send shots and then have two way control of the images and communication. Obviously, the tech has improved vastly since then. It should be possible to set it up like a in house team. Access to each computer, easy communication with individuals and the team. Easy briefing and followup. Access to the team for problems with my workflow and setup. A properly structured file system accessible to all. Transparent billing. etc.

Chris Schwarze, interesting, is this similar to Shotgun/ShotGrid/Flow/... and ftrack?

I haven't used any of those, we always used custom spreadsheets in house. My sense is that while you may adapt them depending on the project, a more immediate easy to adopt system would be the starting point (and finishing) for a lot of projects. (Maybe they are easier to use than my initial impression.)

But please make sure you have a structured file system. Losing elements, not using the latest revision, overwriting files being used elsewhere...

My studio is using Shotgun (the name changes every year since the Autodesk acquisition), which has a bit of a learning threshold, but is customizable to do whatever you want, and has a decent Python API. ftrack is very easy and intuitive to use, but not quite as flexible.

We always had to adapt to the production if we were a contract VFX house, so for a large project they sometimes determined the workflow.

We worked on our own project development with our in-house editors, VFX animation, colour grading, sound design. As it was all in-house we were able to use the workflow I mentioned above. On a few occasions since I didn't have my team, I used unknown to me outside people, with very average results. A studio in India, a 3D modeller in Morrocco. I found both via Freelancer if memory serves. Both recommended by the host. I was unable to readily track process and was at the mercy of the website service and reassurances by the remote team. Not a viable way to work. On the other hand, I have used people I knew and trusted remotely and that worked fine.