It didn't work out, but I wasn't fired - I quit.
I would be happy to rant about the place, so it's not too personal. It was run by a former neuropsychologist who I suspect is a clinical narcissist. The only reason it still exists is his wife's father is still feeding him money. It's located in the middle of nowhere in the run-down office suite attached to his wife's father's pipe warehouse. That, I wouldn't mind, if it was producing any work with any remote fragment of vision or ingenuity. But it's not - it's all an absurd and tasteless mirror of his personal sense of humor. The most common response, when a new animator comes to work there, is to look at the playblasts and say quietly to a co-worker, "what the fuck? Is this shit for real? Are they really going to produce this?" at which point the co-worker says "yeah, I know it's awful, but what can you do?" At which point the owner walks up with the kind of fake-charisma presence of a politician, looks over their shoulders, and says "very good, keep up the good work".
He has set up his own little world where the only people to get close enough to see it for what it is are too cowed by him for one reason or another to give him the truth. Those who speak up get fired. There are plenty of naive young animation graduates desperate to get into the industry, who see "feature film" and "sean connery's voice" and are happy to take a minimum wage internship to take their places. The staff turnover rate is about 3 months - because I was there for 6, I was one of the senior members of the team. Because most of the employees aren't familiar with the industry, they don't realize just how bad the pipeline and organization is, and what it means that the project hasn't even been greenlighted yet.
I stayed because I'd signed a 6 months lease, and because I was in a foreign country and it would be a waste to leave sooner, and because the Scottish highlands are gorgeous.
This is the second time I've walked of my own free will into a situation like this. I'm really not as ignorant as I act. Somehow I need to pick up a CG job that I can actually be passionate about.
