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Here's a harsh truth, folks. Unless you're extremely lucky, there's really no money to be made working in indie animation. I've written for some of the biggest shows out there, including TADC, Lackadaisy & Hazbin Hotel's pilot, yet I still struggle to live paycheck to paycheck.

It's extremely difficult and tons of hard work. You're basically making something for free, just because you love it and have a story to tell. If you're lucky, you have a successful crowdfund just so your project can see the light of day. But don't count on any return on investment.

I realize a lot of what I'm saying sounds depressing, but it's not to dissuade anyone from making your cartoon or show. You just need to understand the reality of what you're getting into once you do.

Straight up, I could go back to my job as a butcher in a grocery store TODAY and I would be making more money than I do now working on all these animation projects. I do it because I truly love cartoons, writing, voice acting, and entertaining.

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honestly the entire creative industry umbrella feels like this. when i sold my series to universal everyone assumed i got rich off it and it's like lol no i just made enough to pay medical bills and get a VERY used car, both of which were great but i wasn't suddenly sitting on a pile of cash

that's wild to me and really changes my perspective. so many of us have the mental model that creators are doing well the way, for example, the cast of friends is, and that simply isn't true anymore. thank you for your gift of creativity and i support your struggle for fair compensation

Yeah and this is kind of my dilemma since I really do wanna make animations but either I do everything myself and take a while or save up just to pay people well. I love to do it but yeah.