Hello, 22M here. I'm from India and I have a Bachelors degree in Animation & Multimedia as well as N3 certification and studying N2 currently.
I've been wanting to get into the anime industry for a while. So unfortunately my university did not focus on traditional animation as much as I would've wanted and my drawing is decent, not too good but I can animate short quick scenes and working on my portfolio. I would say I'm good at After Effects and Photoshop as that's the main source of income I have had since I was around 13. I've researched quite a lot about jobs related to my skillset but truthfully I'm not really interested about graphic design.
My passion is drawing and animating and I'm working on making a good portfolio but I do not feel confident that I'll have a decent one for a working visa to move to Japan. So I was wondering if I could find a course in a senmon gakkou (vocational school) which would help me improve my drawings and teach me the basics of anime like timing sheets, genga, douga etc. I did look at the KyoAni school program but it seems applications are closed and I'm planning on moving to Japan next fall. Definitely keeping that one in mind.
So my question was, are there any other relevant jobs I could get into for eg. game industry or advertising, where I can use my skills and get liveable wages compared to the anime industry? I could live in India for longer and find jobs here but I feel like a burden on my parents who have already spent a lot for my, to be frank, stupid dream.
Honestly I just want to get to Japan because there's not really a future in the Indian animation industry and I've been studying Japanese for too long to not make use of it at all. I did make a few connections with anime producers on LinkedIn and did find out that I can make a showreel and DM producers on Twitter for jobs so I don't really care about going into big reputed studios as long as I can get a working visa and move there.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Also open to criticism, especially since I know the anime industry does not pay well.
by TheVarrio