Tips and Tricks for 2026

For those just graduated , or between gigs. It can be tough keeping your momentum or focus month to month. During the year, try and put sometime aside for one or some of the following…

  1. Update your portfolio/demo reel keeps you on top of your practice… use a monthly challenge to add some new content to keep reel fresh or work on some classic animation fundamentals.
    Added bonus of sharing work with the community, and potential feedback
    Check out:-
    11 sec Club
    Loop De Loop
    51 Animation Exercises
  2. Look at doing a microshort to get work out on the festival circuit or explore teamwork, workflow and pipelines – under 1 min can be a bit more achievable. You never know whose watching, and you might get laurels too
    Check out:
    Cardiff Quick Draw – new updates soon
    Hot shorts
  3. Attend community socials in your area, find your tribe!
    Share your work, get involved with any animation challenges they have
    Check out some of these:
    Animates ( Manchester )
    Animorsals ( Nottingham )
    BAM ( Bristol )
    Overlap ( Birmingham )
    Festivus ( London & others )
  4. Attend or Volunteer at conferences / summits.
    Keeps you upto date with trends in industry, and connect with others
    Check out, but not limited to
    Motion North
    Move Summit
    Children’s Media Conference
  5. Attend of Volunteer at an Animation Festival
    Great for seeing new inspirations, connect with others, panel Q&As, socials
    A great database resource here – https://www.animation-festivals.com/
    and here’s some recommends
    Manchester Animation Festival
    Cardiff Animation Festival
    Brighton International Animation Festival
  6. Learn something new – check some of these
    Agora Community – courses and tutorials
    Courses on Artstation – this ones cool – Ed Hooks’ Acting for Animators
    The Rookies – courses and competitions

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