Is Being a Freelance Animator Still Viable in the Era of AI?

In a recent survey from the entertainment data platform Luminate, 84% of respondents said they expected AI to have an impact on animation in the entertainment industry, with 55% saying it would be “major” and 29% saying it would be “minor.” 1 Just 16% thought it would have no real impact at all.

Some of the most popular new animation tools include AI video generation platforms like Seedance 2.0. While many people use them to create photorealistic videos, they can also generate animations in any style, from seemingly hand-drawn 2D cartoons to more modern-looking 3D CGI videos.

The traditional animation software giants are also adopting AI. Adobe made its Firefly AI video generator publicly available last year, claiming it had only been trained on licensed data (a big debate when it comes to creative industries and AI).

For many animators, the rise of AI is a worrying prospect.

Side Hustles spoke with Brian Kouhi, a Toronto-based YouTuber and CG animator who also runs TOAnimation Academy, which offers courses in the animation program Blender. Kouhi said he believes getting started as a freelance animator is “definitely harder now,” partly due to AI.

“The fear has definitely had an effect on us,” he said. “Fewer people want to be animators right now because of the fear of AI.”

Kouhi went on to state that while he believes the fears of AI are somewhat overblown, he’s noticed the number of students signing up for his courses has decreased recently. He also claimed that he’s aware of “several schools” in Canada that have been “pausing their animation programs because of a lack of applicants.”

Although Kouhi declined to name the schools in question, some large animation institutions have admitted that they are struggling with enrollment to their courses.

For instance, in August 2026, Animation Magazine reported that the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, which runs one of the top-ranking animation programs in the country, is facing a $22 million structural budget deficit. The SVA has also seen its enrollment decline by 34% since 2019, the highest decrease the school has ever recorded.

Which animation tasks can AI handle?

Although AI is having an impact on the industry, it isn’t equally good at all types of animation work.

The biggest pressure appears to be on simpler, lower-cost animation. Kouhi told us that AI tends to be used more for smaller projects, like advertisements. “You don’t really see it in TV or film productions,” he said.

However, that still affects many animators, and hits freelancers disproportionately hard. “Usually, when you freelance animate, you’re freelancing for ads or short cinematics.”

He added that the likelihood of a given client attempting to replace human animators with AI depends on that client’s “quality.”

“If the client has no idea what they’re doing, or they just have a little bit of money and want to make something, they’re probably going to go with AI if they don’t know any better,” he told us.

Kouhi told us that while he believes AI may take “20%–25% of the jobs” producing short-form animation content, high-level productions will still require humans.

“I have friends working on high-quality productions at places like Disney or Netflix, and they tell me that, behind the scenes, these companies aren’t touching AI for the visual side of things with a 10-foot pole,” he said.

Part of this is due to the lack of control animators have when using AI tools. “Sometimes, a frame or two in a 10-second clip can make or break the lip sync or a body mechanic move,” he said. “We want to go in and adjust the arm just a little bit like this to make sure the arc is smooth, otherwise it feels jarring.”

He told us that fixing AI’s “one-off assets” often isn’t possible.

“You have the models, then you texture them, you rig them, you animate them, you light the scene … you spend 30% of the time animating, 70% of the time revising the work you did, and you can’t really do that with AI right now.”

The importance of the “human touch” for animation

Many animators also believe that AI technologies can’t compete with the charm human creatives bring to projects.

Side Hustles spoke with Stephanie Hardy, a professional 2D animator and illustrator, who’s been freelancing since 2020. Hardy told us that while “AI has definitely taken over a bit,” it isn’t able to replicate the charm of human animators. “It can’t understand emotions, only mimic them,” she said. “It can’t give charm and feeling to artwork or animation like a real person can.”

An AI tool like Seedance is capable of animating a cartoon character telling a joke, for example. However, it will often struggle to get the comedic timing and other small details right, and it’s hard to correct that even with careful prompting.

Hardy went on to state that AI isn’t capable of originality in animation, stating that “it only knows what you give it or what’s already out there.”

These sentiments are fairly common in the field. In an article published by Carnegie Mellon University, Moshe Mahler, an assistant teaching professor of animation at the university’s Technology Center, argued that AI systems lack the “control” necessary to reliably convey human emotion.

“Animation is fundamentally a medium of control. Everything the audience sees is carefully planned and executed by the animator to maximize the animation’s performance and tell the story as appealingly as possible,” he wrote. “When you remove that control, you’re inherently left with a lower-quality experience.”

Like many other independent animators, Hardy relies on Upwork, one of the world’s largest freelancing marketplaces, to find animation gigs.

Although Hardy told us that getting started as a freelancer has become more challenging, partly because AI “has saturated the market,” she’s still managing to make the platform work for her, and has earned over $40,000 on it since starting back in 202.

“Upwork has a lot of competition, but if you find the jobs that you have confidence in and [have] the portfolio to back it up, it’s pretty easy to get work,” she said.

Hardy believes that most clients on Upwork “don’t understand the process” of animation, but told us that “as long as you’re open about your workflow and time frames so they know what to expect, you and the client will be on the same page and have a successful project.”

When not using AI can be an advantage

Hardy told us that she doesn’t like to use AI and tries to avoid using it for art and animation tasks. Interestingly, she believes this approach may actually be helpful for finding animation gigs.

“There are still so many people out there that don’t want AI or don’t support it, so it’s not impossible to find work,” she said. “A lot of job posts on Upwork specifically say ‘no AI.’ I’ve still been able to find jobs that want hand-drawn characters or animation.”

Kouhi shares that sentiment, adding that many animation studios prefer their creative work to be done by humans. “They want to make sure all the creative work gets done by artists, because it does take artistry,” he said.

Hardy isn’t completely opposed to using AI and acknowledged that it can be useful for certain tasks. “I do think it’s important to understand it because it’s not going away,” she said. “It can help with experimenting with new ideas or for mockups or testimonials where people don’t want to show their faces.”

However, she still isn’t a fan, and prefers to abstain from using AI “when possible.”

While many animators market themselves as AI abstainers, some have been using it to start their careers.

On Upwork, many freelancers now offer AI video generation services, including for motion graphics, UGC (user-generated content) marketing, and animating 2D and 3D designs. How much these Upwork freelancers charge varies, but Side Hustles found people offering their services for between $15 and $70 per hour.

Side Hustles spoke with Denis Kochkin, founder of the motion design studio Motion Bloc and a freelance animator based in Los Angeles, who got started on his animation career back in 2015. Since then, he’s logged over 4,000 hours and earned over $300,000 on Upwork.

Unlike freelancers like Hardy, Kochkin is happy to incorporate AI into his workflow, which he believes has benefited his career. “Personally, AI has created more opportunities for me than it has taken away,” he told us.

How some freelance animators are using AI

Not all of Kochkin’s AI use directly relates to the actual animation process. He told us he used it to automate many of the tedious parts of freelancing, such as communicating with clients.

“Freelancers spend an unbelievable amount of time reading briefs, organizing feedback, writing emails and trying to understand exactly what a client means,” he said. “AI can dramatically speed that up.”

However, Kochkin also believes AI has its place in various stages of the animation process, such as pre-production. “Years ago, a client might spend 20 minutes on a call trying to describe a visual,” he told us. “Now they can generate a rough reference and send it to me. It may be completely unusable as final artwork, but I immediately understand what’s in their head.”

Kochkin told us that he sometimes offers “an AI-assisted approach” for clients with smaller budgets, claiming that jobs which would ordinarily “require three weeks of production” can be completed much faster. “The client saves money, and I regain time for another project or simply for life outside my computer,” he said.

Are AI animators actually creating quality work?

One prominent argument from animators who don’t use AI is that those who use it are not producing high-quality work.

Hardy told us that  “AI is only as good as the person using it,” citing the example of someone creating a poster. She said that while “anyone can use AI” to produce one, those without knowledge of principles like color theory or composition are going to get one that’s “poorly designed.” The same holds true, she said, for animation.

Kouhi concurred, saying that while he wouldn’t classify himself as an “AI-hater,” he believes that freelancers can’t effectively use AI tools without having the skills necessary to produce high-quality animations themselves.

Kochkin acknowledged that knowing how to use AI tools effectively is important, and that AI’s rise doesn’t mean just anyone can produce high-quality animations.

“I think people sometimes frame this as animator versus AI, and I don’t see it that way at all,” he said. “If you’re already an animator, designer, editor, or VFX artist, you have years of knowledge about composition, timing, storytelling, and taste … AI doesn’t erase that foundation. It gives you another way to apply it.”

How do you effectively use AI for animation?

Kochkin told us that the bulk of what he produces with AI ends up on the metaphorical cutting-room floor.

“AI might give me several generations, and only a few seconds from each one are actually useful,” he said. “I still have to choose the right pieces, edit them together, control the timing, remove artifacts, replace elements, and make everything fit the client’s brand.”

He added that his background in “VFX, compositing, motion design, and editing” is what allows him to do this competently. “To me, an AI generation is often closer to raw footage than a finished product,” he said.

As an example, Kochkin told us about a personal project of his where he created a commercial for a “speculative” pair of Bose headphones. “I sat down and built it in about five hours using AI together with the filmmaking and post-production skills I already had,” he said. “That piece has continued to bring me inbound inquiries from people asking if I can create something similar for their products.”

Before you try to launch an animation side hustle on Upwork, Kouhi recommended gaining experience at an animation studio, even if you’ve been through animation school.

“Starting off as a freelancer with no experience … is going to be very tough,” he said. “You have no network. You have no connections, really, outside of classmates, and it’s going to take them several years before they can start giving you opportunities.”

He also stressed the importance of having “a big digital footprint” when looking for opportunities.

“All the projects I’ve been working on over the last several months came from my YouTube channel,” he told us. “People found out about my YouTube channel and then reached out to me.”

Getting started as a freelancer on Upwork

As the largest freelancing marketplace out there, Hardy believes that Upwork is a good place to start looking for animation gigs, especially since the startup costs are relatively low.

That said, you’ll need to buy Connects—Upwork’s currency that allows you to bid on projects—which will cost you $0.15 each.

Upwork forces you to buy a minimum of 10 Connects at a time, so at the very least, you’ll need to spend $1.50 before you can actually bid to work on projects. Bidding also doesn’t guarantee you’ll get accepted.

Once you’ve secured your Connects, the next step is to relentlessly check for jobs. “I check and apply to job posts a lot,” said Hardy. “Sometimes you’ll hear something, sometimes you won’t.”

Hardy told us that building solid relationships with the clients you collaborate with is just as important as consistently looking for work. This has allowed her to get repeat clients who regularly offer her jobs.

“They can come back to you when they need you or refer you to someone they know,” she said. “It gets easier as you get good reviews and successfully completed jobs on the platform.”

Kochkin also gets a huge chunk of his work from Upwork, and he advised newcomers to expect using the platform to take “15 to 20 focused hours per week as a realistic minimum.”

He cautioned against “spending all of those hours blindly submitting proposals,” and stressed the importance of refining your profile.

“Part of that time should be watching new jobs, improving your portfolio and profile, learning from successful competitors, sending proposals, and responding quickly when clients write back,” he said.

He said he recommended keeping the site open “throughout the day” if you possibly can. “Not because you need to stare at it constantly, but because timing matters. New opportunities appear all day long.”

He went on to say he believes “six months of serious effort is a good timeframe” to give yourself before you decide whether freelancing on Upwork is working out for you.

For would-be freelance animators, the shift toward AI hasn’t ruined their prospects, but it has damaged them. While pursuing animation can still be worth it, it isn’t as easy to start out as it was in the past.

Hardy’s success on Upwork shows that it’s still possible to make freelancing work in 2026, and she told us that she’d be willing to do it all over again. “It’s always worth putting yourself out there and showing the world what you can do,” she said. “You’re unique, and you’re the only one who can do what you do the way you do it.”

Still, she noted that freelancing can be “an up and down rollercoaster,” saying that she has periods where she’s inundated with projects and others where work dries up. For this reason, Hardy stressed the importance of having “multiple income streams,” and she also runs an Etsy store where she sells digital art pieces.

For his part, while Kochkin did acknowledge that freelancing has become more challenging as a result of AI, he reiterated that those with the right skills can still make it work.

“I actually think AI has raised the bar rather than lowered it,” he said. “Ten years ago, a client might describe an idea verbally and rely almost entirely on the designer to visualize it. Today, they may arrive with a fairly sophisticated visual reference already in hand. So if the client can create that, my job as the professional is to take it much further.”

“AI has increased expectations for speed and visual quality, but it’s also given professionals better tools to meet those expectations.”