Its happening again!

Don't know if you have heard the news or not,but DreamWorks Animation is laying off between 150 and 400 of its employees at the Redwood City and Glendale campuses! This is to cut cost as they did in 2003's round of layoffs. DreamWorks has been putting out a few great films leaving us to wonder why cut cost if they are making profit off of recent releases. Could it be a preventive move in wake of the Lawsuit that plagues most of the top tier animation studios? Who knows, one can only speculate. That is one of the reasons why so many of us enjoy the freelance status that shields us from such broad stroke layoffs, but that too comes at a risk. What effects one of us basically affects all of us. I do support and wish the best to those who will be looking for work in other studios, be strong and it will subside. My mentor once told me, pursue the art first, the money will follow. Animation, regardless of being 2D or 3D comes from the same place, the imagination and hearts of all animators. Politics and studio policies sometimes cloud an animators thoughts due to preservation being one of the strongest survival instincts known to man (and woman). An animator will become distracted, start loosing their focus and fall into a creative block. Seek out your peers, get your connections working and keep producing the next project for your portfolio and/or demo reel. Maybe someday we all can network together to collaborate (World Wide) on an epic project and reap the rewards from our efforts. Image having the power of 10 studios while remaining independent and have the ability to choose the projects you would like to work on. That would be Epic indeed. Leave a comment or and idea, we would love to hear from all of you!