The Industry That Learned to Bend
When the pandemic swept through the world, few industries pivoted as seamlessly as Animation and VFX. Major studios went from fully in-house operations to remote teams working virtually overnight. The transition seemed almost frictionless from the outside.
Now, on the other side of those strange years, the landscape has shifted. While key personnel are still required on-site full-time, there’s a new openness to conversations about flexible work arrangements that simply didn’t exist before.
This is the view from Australia, looking back at what changed—and what that means for how we work now.
Pre-Pandemic: Chasing Work Across Continents
The life before the pandemic was adventurous, if you could afford the instability. If you weren’t available to move locations to chase the work, your options were limited. Want to work on full CG features or long-form series outside of Sydney or Melbourne? Good luck.
Like many artists from that period, I chased work around Australia. Six-month contract in Sydney. Eight months in Adelaide. Another eight months in Sydney, then land something overseas. Rinse and repeat.
I was fortunate to have a supportive partner during that stage of our relationship. We didn’t have responsibilities that grounded us to any particular location. I moved—not always together with my partner—and we made long distance work for extended periods before reuniting for the next project.
We were getting tired of this way of life. But I’d been chasing one particular adventure for over a year. The stars were aligning. Dates and flights were booked for a period in Canada. We were set for a year apart.
Then borders started closing.
Travel restrictions were falling into place rapidly, and I managed to get out before international lockdowns solidified. The adventure continued, but not in the way we’d planned.
Pandemic Experience: The Empty Studio Floor
I was fortunate. I’d just started a one-year contract in a foreign country when everything shut down. My employer wasn’t going to let knee-jerk restrictions stop an imported talent from being able to work. I was a ten-minute walk from the studio.
For four months, I was usually the only one on a studio floor that typically housed fifty artists.
Eerie? Absolutely. But I’m grateful for that unique experience. There’s something surreal about working in a space designed for collaborative energy when you’re the only person there. The render farms still hummed. The screens still glowed. But the room was silent except for my keyboard and the occasional creak of the building settling.
Post-Pandemic: The Magic Returns (With New Rules)
As restrictions eased, people returned to the floor, and I rediscovered the flow of working with a team in the same physical space. There’s magic in that shared environment. The energy of working alongside other talented individuals pushes you to stretch and grow. Seeing the collective result is exhilarating.
Since my return to the beautiful shores of the land down under, attitudes toward in-house requirements have changed. I’ve been fortunate to roll from project to project over the last few years while supporting my young family as they grow.
My memories of childhood are what pulled me into this creative industry. Now, watching my kids discover the work we produce is a different kind of magic. Having the ability to work from home—to experience a stay-at-home parent style of life while still collaborating with amazingly talented artists on projects that take my breath away—is a world that didn’t exist a few years earlier.
The Landscape Now
The pandemic forced a question the industry had avoided for decades: does this work actually require everyone in the same building?
The answer, it turns out, is nuanced. Some work thrives in shared physical space—the spontaneous problem-solving, the energy of collaboration, the mentorship that happens naturally when junior artists can look over a senior’s shoulder.
Other work benefits from flexibility—the deep focus sessions that happen when you’re not commuting, the ability to manage family responsibilities while still delivering world-class animation, the option to build a life that doesn’t require relocating every six to eight months.
Remember Kate Productions holds its projects to a high standard, and we’re open to creating the best way to bring a project together. Working life is changing. People have different priorities. We pride ourselves on finding the best approach to add value to projects—whether that’s in-house collaboration, remote flexibility, or a hybrid approach that serves the work and the humans creating it.
The wastelands of production are still there, waiting to be traversed. But now there are more paths through them than there used to be.
Your Turn
Got an animated project that needs professional input? Drop us a line. We can see if we can bring it to life — wherever you are, wherever we are, in whatever configuration serves the work best.
The magic is still there. We’ve just learned new ways to capture it.