the art industries are kind of in the shitter. It’s not so much because of AI (though that doesn’t help) but because studios just aren’t hiring people and funding projects anymore. People who’ve been in the industry for decades are finding themselves struggling, and once you have a mortgage or kids it’s harder to do something as risky as making something on your own.

completing projects is hard. it takes a lot of time and effort, and most people can’t afford it. so if you CAN afford to make art, even at the risk of no financial gain, I strongly encourage you to be as resilient as you can. We’re at a point where these industries are not going to turn around by themselves, and waiting for jobs to open up again in order to get experience and portfolio work might not be realistic.

people have been making art and telling stories longgggg before we were getting paid for it, and people aren’t going to stop just because no one has hired them to do so.

for everyone else: support indie artists when you can!!!! That person who made that cool indie game or youtube animation or webcomic might be doing this full time! your support might be the only reason they’re able to keep doing it.

this is what networking is!!!

if you’ve been looking into these industries, you’ve probably been told to ‘network’, but sometimes it’s hard to know what that actually means. “Doing indie projects for fun with your friends” is 100% networking!

I had already been planning to form an animation studio with ~20 of my classmates to do a project over the summer, and today my professor just let us know he may have ???? already hooked us up with a real actual job ???!!?!! SO SOMETIMES IT PAYS OFF!

Thanks to everyone who’s posted their projects in the comments!!!! I hope everyone gets the chance to look through and find something interesting!!