Hi all, I'm new to Spine, though I've animated in different software for years, including Flash, etc. The question I have is, how does someone find paid work using Spine, and what is the pay like?
This isn't an idle question. There is a lot of software out there, not just for 2D character animation, but for motion graphics, html5 animation, interactive animation, etc. There may be some student aged people out there who say to themselves, I want to learn this 2D character animation software just for the fun of it, or as a part of a 20 software expertise repertoire, and don't care about career or earning a living.
But if one is generally interested in creating graphics professionally, or even specifically working on games, there are a lot of options of software to which one can devote one's time. It's one thing if you created a character animation studio, or a video game studio, so you need to learn it for your business. But if you're considering many options for making a living, is there a demand for Spine to justify the time it'd take to master it? Research and quick scan of the forum suggests not.
I was recently looking on a job aggregator site, all kinds of jobs listed on there. You might be able to use Photoshop as a keyword to find Photoshop jobs. But you certainly cannot use Spine as a keyword. If you put in 2D animator, almost no jobs come up, or 2D is one of ten things listed in a particular job posting, on a list that includes 3D mastery, and Unity programming.
So, how to find out where the Spine jobs are? How to get an understanding of the demand to actually make money using it?
I see on this forum, that there are occasional postings of what I'd call "gig" jobs, like "I need ten animations for a kids app due in two weeks, please message me with your bid." Which is essentially like crowdsourcing. It's not steady work of any sort.
So, I guess part of my question of where can I find job postings for experts in this software—strictly to work on Spine, and maybe Illustration as a part of it, but not Spine as one small part of a huge range of skills—outside of this forum? Are all the jobs gig jobs?
These questions are very important for consideration in actually deciding whether to devote the time and money in becoming an expert at this software.
