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Animation · Stage 1

Animation Runner

A foot in the door of an animation studio, and a clear route from the kitchen to the production desk.

What an animation studio makes, what its runners do, and how to land a first running role in UK animation. The pipeline from story to delivery, the software to learn first, pay and unpaid work, trainee schemes and shadowing, and a Stage 1 CV. You leave with three real routes and a dated plan.

2 hours · 6 modules · 18 lessons

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What you’ll learn

  • Be able to describe an animation studio's pipeline in order, from story, voice and design through modelling or fabrication, rigging, layout, animation, lighting and comp to delivery, say where the production team sits, and say what a runner does in that building hour by hour.
  • Have built a shot tracker and a schedule in Google Sheets, installed Blender, chosen a lane (production, CG, 2D, stop motion, or story and design) and have a twelve-week plan that produces one small honest piece of work.
  • Know where Stage 1 animation experience really comes from (your own work, student films, shadowing, the ScreenSkills and apprenticeship routes, festivals, related jobs) and the UK rules on pay, hours, unpaid work, the union and safety.
  • Have a Stage 1 runner CV outline modelled on the site's nearest example, a plan for a one-page website, and a three-paragraph approach you can send to a named person at a named studio.
  • Know the map of UK animation studios, the production and artist ladders out of running, where else the same skills get you hired, and be able to say Sam's five Stage 1 statements honestly for this role, then do the next thing on MFJF: mentor clinic, Academy workshop, then the HotList at Stage 2.

Where this leads

By the end you will have written your own Stage 1 plan, checked yourself against MFJF's five Stage 1 statements, and know exactly what to do next: a mentor clinic, an Academy workshop, and Stage 2, the HotList.

Finish the course and you can build your personal plan: MFJF's three-stage planner for this role, ticked from Your Profile and your CV, with dated next steps and the CV line each one becomes.

Module 1

The animation studio and the runner's place in it

20 min

What an animation studio makes, how a film moves through it, who works there, and what the runner actually does from opening the building to typing the notes in dailies.

  1. readWhat an animation studio makes and how a film moves through it8 min
  2. readA runner's day in an animation studio, and the production assistant's8 min
  3. checkCheck: the pipeline and the job4 min
Module 2

Before day one: software, kit and the words

20 min

The spreadsheet to learn first, the free animation software and how far to take it, what to own, the paperwork, the jargon, and the ten tips turned into habits; then an honest, scored self-audit.

  1. readGoogle Sheets first: the software that gets a runner noticed7 min
  2. readKit, paperwork, the words people use, and the ten tips6 min
  3. taskTask: your skills self-audit, scored out of 367 min
Module 3

Getting experience at Stage 1

20 min

The routes that actually produce animation experience for someone with no film job, the UK rules on pay, hours, unpaid work, the union and safety, and a task that finds you three routes this month.

  1. readWhere animation experience really comes from8 min
  2. readThe rules: pay, hours, unpaid work, the union and safety6 min
  3. taskTask: find three routes to experience this month6 min
Module 4

Your CV, website and first approaches

20 min

What a Stage 1 animation runner CV contains, the title on it, the website for each lane, the three-paragraph email, how to approach studios without annoying them, and what a reference means here.

  1. readThe Stage 1 animation runner CV, website and approach8 min
  2. taskTask: draft your CV outline and profile line8 min
  3. checkCheck: the CV, the website and the approach4 min
Module 5

The industry around the role

20 min

The map of UK animation studios, the two ladders out of running, the three-year plan read across from the site's VFX planner, where else the skills go, what the people in the nearest case studies did, and the library for this course.

  1. readThe map: studios, the two ladders and the three-year plan8 min
  2. resourcesThe library: do-first to do-later8 min
  3. checkCheck: the map and the paths4 min
Module 6

Your plan: Stage 1 to Stage 2

20 min

Your plan, saved; the five statements as a self-certification for this role; and exactly what to do next on MFJF.

  1. plannerYour animation runner plan10 min
  2. readHow you know you are ready for Stage 26 min
  3. checkCheck: the self-certification4 min
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Sources and references

Where this course comes from. Open any of them yourself.

What this course was written from

Every link checked 19 September 2026.

You are not doing this alone

You have your own personal career mentor

That is us, the MFJF team. Book an MFJF Mentor Session with us every month: we guide you through this journey and answer all your questions, from which job is yours to your CV and your next application.

Book my MFJF Mentor Session

Where next

Your recommended next steps

Picked for Animation. Signed in, they follow your stage and the roles your answers point to. See your whole MFJF journey, step by step →

  1. My MFJF JourneyOne page for everything MFJF has built, in the order you need it.
  2. My Reading ListThe books, blogs and bodies you have saved, in one place.
  3. Start the Stage 1 course: AnimationTwo hours on what the job is, how people get in and what to do first.
  4. Get on the HotListPut yourself in front of productions looking for crew.
  5. Join MFJF DayPlayersDay work on productions for crew with the credits and the skills.
  6. Find your role in the career plannersEvery entry-level job by department, with a three-stage planner for each.
  7. Read the career guidesWhat each job is, the day, the way in and the pay: one guide for every role.
  8. See how it all fits on the career maps17 maps of how films get made: the people, the process and the departments.
  9. Who works whereEvery department on a shoot and every kind of film company: who is in each and what they do.
  10. Industry EssentialsThe books, industry bodies, websites and blogs worth knowing, department by department.
  11. Read the MFJF Survival GuidesStraight answers to what everyone starting out asks: how long it takes, what you get paid, and what to do every day.
  12. MFJF Academy workshopsLive sessions with people who do the job, and the monthly career clinic.
  13. Build your CV with the CV BuilderThe industry's format, built from your profile and your current CV.

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