Animex: Feature Animation for Adults: Now is the Time

Ed Hooks. Author of Acting for Animators.

Now is the time that animation is changing. "Animation has been efficiently commercialised. Disney is at the front of that."
Ed Hooks believes that Dreamworks might not be around for much longer.
Animation has always been thought of as for children. Kids cartoons etc. Now animators are focussing more and more on adult animation themes. Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks spend upwards of $1.5 million per movie. They need to make 5 times what they spent on the movie in the box office. Dreamworks haven't made as much as they needed in the box office. They're in trouble.

Frozen cost $200 million. 
Coraline cost $60 million.
Spirted away cost $30 million. The latter two are low budget movies. 

You don't need to spend huge budgets on making a movie, the software and everything you need is more readily available for making a good movie in your own home.
A lot of the most exciting animations aren't coming from the USA.
Advice: Make sure your passport is up to date. Travel. Don't spend your life waiting for a job at Pixar. Animators should work like actors, and attach themselves to projects they like. 
Look at what Walt Disney did, not what Disney is doing today. Today, Disney is a big corporate machine. Walt Disney in the 1930s made Snow White even when no one thought he should/ thought no one would watch it. Walt Disney didn't have anyone to follow. He was a pioneer. We don't have anyone to follow. WE are pioneers. Don't go to work at Disney if you want a career instead of a job. 

KICKSTARTER. Find people that you want to work with, who's work inspires you. Not who you want to work for and trying to convince a company to hire you. 

A good animation is art. "Big Hero 6 is a feature length commercial." "Art has something to say." "Art presents questions." "Art is hard, it puts things in your face."

Your showreel, coming out of animation school. Don't show the world what you think they want to see. Show them who you are and what you are giving them. Have something to say. Put your opinion into your animations. 
Don't come out of the school and not feel like you belong in the animation world. Believe that you belong. 
It doesn't start with your ability to draw, it starts with your ability to think. Have ideas then think of how you can get these ideas to other people. Know who you are and show the world who you are.

Don't hope to be an actor or an animator one day. You are an animator/ actor from the minute you want to do that. 

The animation industry is in a state of transition today. 

Is 3D replacing 2D? No. "I don't see the reason for animating something in 3D if you can do it in live action." Animation is for the magical, for the things that you cannot do in live action.
"Being an artist is risky but you're gonna die anyway." "There is no good reason to become an artist. If you care about feeding your family, become a lawyer or a doctor. Being an artist is enjoying life." 
If someone asks if they have what it takes to be an artist or an actor, say no. If they are dissuaded then they should do something else. You become an artist because you have to. You have no choice.