Generalize then specialize

There are two different kinds of people I usually meet in Animation societies. The ones who want to learn everything on Animation (modelling,rigging,animating,texturing,rendering etc) and the other ones who want to specialize and enjoying working on only one aspect of animation ( usually Modelling for obvious reasons). Neither of those are bad but the best thing to do on my opinion, judging by the research i made and based on the lectures from Animation Studios we had till now is to first learn all aspects of animation without concentrating on one of them , so that you have a general knowledge of Animation techniques and then when you'll be familiar enough with that start specializing in what you like or what you think will give you a better career in the industry.

Now why i'm saying that? Because in the Animation industry there are both small studios and large studios. The small studios prefer generalists, that means people with some knowledge of different parts of animation , because they cannot afford to have many specialists for each section. On the other hand the big Animation studios prefer Specialist so that the quality of their work is much better. I believe that this is self-explanotary.

In a lecture from "Double Negative" Animation Studio (Which worked on movies like Inception, Iron man, Sorcerer's Apprentice) the lead animator emphasized the need for specialists in certain areas of animation in studios like Double Negative. I will talk about the method they are using to hire people in one of my next posts. So keep these stuff in mind folks and keep visiting my blog for more interesting info...