The State of Things.

SkillSet's Saint John Walker talks about the state of the UK Visual Effects and Animation industry.

"In terms of the health of the animation industry – we’re still quite a world leader in some of the activities that involve animation. Our computer games industry is still fourth in the World Table, which is incredible considering size of country we are. There’s still a powerful advertising animation block – the likes of Studio AKA, Passion Pictures etc. And we’ve got Europe’s biggest visual effects (VFX) industry in London. Double Negative have around 650 people for instance. So we are quite strong, but it’s just not thought of as an animation industry in the same way it used to be.

On the other side of the scales, there’s obviously the lack of broadcast commissions, the lack of TV advertising because of the current economic situation, the lack of children’s TV commissioning etc. So it’s swings and roundabouts. But we see it as still a very positive and very strong industry, made up of around 5,000 people. Two thirds of that are micro-companies and sole traders. "

He raises some interesting points. Perhaps the UK industry is not failing, but evolving? Studios seem to be adapting to the current market, specialising more towards advertisement production. The pressure for studios to adapt and broaden their employee's skill range seems to be more of a pressing issue than ever.

Saint John Walker is the Computer Games, Animation and Facilities manager at. Skillset

Source: http://www.apengine.org/2010/06/the-state-of-things-skillset%E2%80%99s-saint-john-walker/