Reality check: An extraordinarily small percentage of artists will ever work on a handmade animated film from a major studio. You have a better chance of making it to the NFL. If you do work on one, it’s work-for-hire, which means you don’t own the IP. You get paid, and when the project is over, you’re laid off. If you’re lucky and the film does well, you get to work on the next one. There are only a handful of jobs available on these projects, so opportunities for new artists are rare. Guillermo will get paid for his films until he dies. Most of the crew will get paid once and then hope they can find another job. My son started a stop-motion channel when he was 12. At 21, he gets paid every month from his library of 552 videos. He owns everything and has hard-earned skills. Guillermo isn’t an animator, model builder, storyboard artist, or character designer. Disney couldn’t draw better than his worst artist. And that’s okay. They are master storytellers who use skills they don’t personally possess to realize their visions. Here are your options if you have stories to tell through animation: start making films on your own. I don’t care what medium you use, including AI. Build a fan base that can support your work. If you’re among the tiny fraction of artists who get a chance to work at a major studio, go in knowing that you’ll get paid and own nothing. Don’t act shocked when you’re laid off. Plan on adapting, and use your time at the studio as social capital. I still get a lot of mileage out of having worked on Space Jam. Use AI as a force multiplier. Prove Guillermo wrong. Show that you can tell great stories using skills you don’t personally have, just like Disney and Guillermo. You now have the power of an entire studio on your computer, and everyone is underestimating you. Show them you’re making stories by humans, for humans. You can die with the ideas in your head, or you can use AI to help bring them to life. Whatever you choose to do, ignore the internet mob. They can’t tell stories better than you. They can’t draw. They can’t create characters. They’re not there on principle. It’s a social contagion. They all repeat the same chants and slogans they’ve been programmed to regurgitate. They won’t be there to pay your bills. And if a big-shot director looks down on you, tell him his opinion might matter when he starts sharing the life-time profits from his movies with the crews who supplied the skills he didn’t have.