You're asking all the wrong questions. NEITHER is easy, let's face it. Animation is a tough field to get into, and so is getting published. And as for "what type of work is the easiest route to becoming published" - that's a non-question. The answer is nothing. The quality of your book sells itself. That, or you have some really good friends in a publishing house, that works too, but that's a matter of getting the right contacts, not a kind of work. I suppose if you wanna look into an industry that'd get you the right contacts, it'd surely have to be in the publishing world, and then in the right sector too. But none of this has anything to do with animation. I doubt even working for Pixar is gonna land you a publishing contract - the two have nothing in common. Animation in and of itself doesn't even *have* to tell a story, and even if you do use it to tell a story, the way of going about it is so different that being good at one is really irrelevant to being good at the other. Basically, I'm really not seeing the link. Is it wiser to pursue one or the other? That depends on why and what matters to you. In terms of recognition, I'm gonna have to say publishing. Think about it, while we can all name James Patterson, EL James, JK Rowling, Jane Austen, Lee Child, Tom Clancy - can you name one famous animator? I don't mean the person who necessarily designed the characters - those do get famous but even then most of us don't know their names - I mean the animator. In terms of money, I guess it depends on what you're animating - the grass and background butterflies or are you animating Rapunzel and Finn from Disney's Tangled? In terms of career progression, however, this would seem to have a slightly more concrete ladder than publishing, since whether you make big bucks in writing is really all on your popularity, and fame fluctuates wildly for no reason sometimes, and fans get bored quickly. But lastly, which one do you actually care about? If your dream is to be an animator, even publishing something as successful as Harry Potter, while it'll make you proud, still wouldn't fulfil you. It wouldn't be the thing that actually brings you joy. It'll bring you money, but little satisfaction. On the other hand, if your dream is to be published and yet you're an animator, well, you see where I'm going. If it's money and recognition you want, be a doctor or lawyer or an accountant or a banker or something. Stop faffing about with animation. My husband works for a company that designs the cyber environment for the military, and I'm pretty sure nobody knows who the designers and artists are. If you're doing it cus you love it, then the answer to your question is irrelevant because you will inevitably pursue your dream regardless anyway, and so you should.
Nobody meaning you and most likely only you. I wanted to see what ignorant comment by you Laze was responding and saw this bit of...confusion on your part. Mam knew I meant INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY when I said IP. He was just try to get down to the heart of what I wanted to consider INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. The purpose of this forum is writing and authoring in a general sense, so IP by context means INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. If the forum's purpose was computer networking and programming, IP would mean internet protocol somewhere over 50% of the time, but certainly < 100%. Have I cleared it up for you?
Actually it does. Imagine I have a novel written, a decent cover and have published it on Amazon. I want to bring attention to it. I create the characters in CG. Let's say it's a reasonably complex scene, but not thousands of characters like Helms Deep. Assuming I have a machine that can handle the work load (About 32 to 64 Gb RAM and a higher end graphics card... let's say I spent about $1800 on the whole machine less monitor...) The rigging and plotting of the motion, including the swaying grasses and maybe explosions per se, would take a month or two. The machine does the work over the next month or so 24/7. I end up with a 5 or 8 minute clip of some high point in the novel. Last scene? The cover and the webpage where to buy the novel. CG involves tricks (there's that stealth) that use a previously rendered portion on a surface. The viewer doesn't know. It's moving artwork. Someone who can't do CG much at all will see it as a bigger task than it is. I'm not saying, nor have I, to go out there and compete with Pixar. Disney invented the art. (Didn't pay squat either.) I'm saying find something a little better than a mere gimmick to draw people to your work, indie or otherwise. You've certainly shown me a lot of failure on your part. You've certainly cleared up that I should click on your ignore button. If I start a thread, you hate my guts, yet still post to my thread? That sure seems a lot like trolling for a fight. Not here. Poof! Ignored!
I see all as a necessary component of getting the job done. It's like building a house. You have a budget for the property and the materials alone? You have a lot of hats to wear. If you gave 20 people the pieces of land, the materials and tools needed for the house they chose out of a catalogue, how many of them would get the job done? My guess? 3 or 4 would actually finish. 1 or 2 would have done the job with marketable excellence. Of course we didn't say that the people couldn't help each other. 40,000 people on this forum. How many actually bother to post? How many of those actually try to do something non-destructive to help the ones with a goal achieve it? Maybe a handful are like minded enough to tell others what they are doing right more often than what they are doing wrong. That handful just might succeed. As for illustrations? To get on Amazon, you'll at least need a cover. To get people to go to your book, you'll need a lot more. Friends? How many friends do any of us have that will really help us succeed? If you have a few you are doing well. Chances are you have what just about everyone else has; their self and maybe their mate, assuming the mate gives a care. YouTube, on the other hand, grabs attention. Silly. Beautiful. Amazing. Tear jerking. Horrifying. Cute. It seems to reason that if you provide any of those, someone will notice. If what is noticed is attached to your writing, it will be noticed, too.
So when you said "film making" you were actually saying "commercials"!!!! The "versus" part was a bit confusing perhaps. Maybe you used it in a metaphorical sense?
i think you're referring to a 'franchise'... the 'star wars' franchise is now part of the media franchise, 'expanded universe,' which includes games, books, spin-offs, tv series, toys, et al.... what rights a studio or producer buys will depend on the deal your agent negotiates... it can be all of the above, or just the script alone, with all future related works and peripheral rights remaining with the screenwriter... or any combination of same...
That's "one trick pony" thinking. The above is to demonstrate that I'm not a one trick pony, but a many faceted, free thinker. All that work is "one man show" stuff, from the airbrush work to breaking and forming the sheet steel for channel letters and pole covers, welding, spray painting (used to do van murals) to the neon and electrical. Writing is an enjoyable career pursuit. Incorporating all that stuff above will make it far more enjoyable. I used to do animation the old fashioned way. Now I'm well along in learning a new tool aka the computer. The point is not what I can do, beyond defending my position. It's what we can do for each other. Let's say I have a whole 10 minutes of anime to present my books. Let's say I have the music written and recorded, ready to add the musical track. The area I'd need a helper or three is for the characters' voices. I'm gifted with some mimic voices, but I don't have that female or child's voice in here anywhere. I dated a young lady who was talented with those kid voice mimic skills. That's not the gal I settled down with. If some great CG work is expected in a few months, such expectations are unrealistic. A year or two, for my own work, is more reasonable. If someone wants a book cover, as a helping hand when most artists out there refuse to help an aspiring writer, feel free to ask. I'm not asking for pay. I'd expect some royalties if your work goes sensational.
