Quit the Job. Leave the Program. Make the Art. Terry Ibele’s Animation Career Journey
- cgoucher
- 12 hours ago
- 7 min read
At its core, this is a story about the Terry Ibele animation career and the decisions that shaped it.
Terry did not grow up assuming he would become an animator. In high school he made stop motion films for fun, then put it aside. A decade later, a Christmas gift for his brother turned into a 365 day comic challenge. That challenge led him to quit a marketing job, enrol in animation school, and eventually leave school for a rare studio opportunity.
This conversation is about risk, emotional pivots, and the decisions that change everything. It is also about something else: how learning to ask better questions can quietly reshape a creative career.
When did animation stop feeling like something you enjoyed and start feeling like something you needed to pursue? Was there a moment or project that made that clear?
In high school I was very interested in art and animation and made a number of short stop motion films, but never pursued it other than a hobby.
Fast forward a decade, I was working a marketing role at a software company in Toronto when my brother asked me to make him some art like I used to do in high school for Christmas.
The art I made my brother inspired me to take on a 365-day comic challenge.
Near the end of the challenge, I realized I could make art consistently and still enjoy it. I started researching how I could make money from my comics and that led me to follow other artists on Instagram who turned their passion into a career with some becoming animators.
I reached out to a number of random professionals in the animation business on LinkedIn and asked how they liked their jobs. One responded and invited me to their studio which happened to be close by where I was living at the time.
The studio was called Toonbox Entertainment, and they were working on The Nut Job 2. I did a tour and sat down with every animator who was willing to show me their work. I asked how they got to where they were and they all recommended going to animation school first instead of trying to make it on my own.
I realized there was a booming animation industry in Toronto – something I didn’t know existed – and I had an idea of a path to enter it. When I got home I decided to quit my job and go to animation school and from there everything changed.
You work across stop motion and 2D animation. When you begin a new project, what usually comes first for you? A sketch, a sound, a question, or a feeling?
I always start by doodling some characters. Once I have a funny looking character I like, everything else seems to come out of that – their voice, the story, their world, etc. When I’m designing for stop motion, I tend to think about what can be created with tactical materials like clay/felt, etc. even though I'm doodling with pencil/paper. When designing for 2D, I tend to think about how to play with lines in a 2D space – like how I can squash and stretch a character while keeping form.
You’ve spoken openly about stepping away from animation school and finding your own path into the industry. What part of that journey was the most challenging for you, especially early on?
The most challenging part of my journey was deciding not to finish school. It was already such an emotional journey to quit my job and go to school. Sheridan College is also prestigious and very hard to get into, so I felt like I was throwing this away. Plus school offered a defined path into the industry: study, internship, thesis film = hired as a junior animator upon graduation.
In year 3 of school I got a call from a studio that wanted to hire me as a full time stop motion animation for 5 months. It was quite a rare opportunity, but with no guarantee for anything afterwards – I wasn’t sure it was worth quitting school over. However, I talked with school administration and I could take a year off and come back the next year, so that left me with a good option.
Overall the most challenging parts of my journey have just been to make decisions. It’s taken me so much emotional energy to decide to stop pursuing one path and go down another. It always feels like stepping into the unknown.
Ex: to go to school I had to study after work for 6 months straight, hire a private tutor, move, etc. all while giving up relationships I had built with my coworkers and in the industry over a decade + start completely fresh in a new industry that didn’t know who I was
Ex. to quit school I had to say bye to my classmates who I’d been with for years, give up making a thesis or getting a degree, etc.
You’ve spent years having conversations with people across the animation industry, which is something I’m now doing in my own way. What advice would you offer someone who’s building connection and insight through creative interviews?
Something that was hard for me to learn in my podcast was how to ask the “right” questions. What are the “right” questions anyway? For me, they would give insightful, interesting answers. They would connect me with the person I was interviewing, and be interesting for my audience to listen to.
I had an awakening when I was interviewing one of my long-time animation heroes. There was dead-air for a few seconds, because they stopped talking and I hadn’t been paying attention. I was bored.
From that point I started trying to figure out what went wrong. I started listening to other podcasts, even talk-shows like Oprah to figure out how they always connected with their guest and brought out interesting answers.
I realized I was deeply invested in interviews when I felt emotionally connected to the guest – and as a host it was my job to bring that out.
When I re-listened to my interviews, I was only asking very technical questions like “tell me about your process,” or “what tools do you use?”
These kinds of questions get very technical answers which aren't always fun to listen to.
Instead I started asking more emotional-based questions like “as a dad of 3-kids, what did you have to sacrifice to meet the studio's deadlines?” or “as a junior animator, what was it like drawing 9 hours a day at the studio knowing you were at the bottom of the ladder?”
My goal was always for one of us to be crying at the end (not that that always happened. Sometimes it did!) – to me that meant the talk was interesting, dug deep, and brought out some real emotions about the journey and sacrifices it takes to make it in this industry.
Afterwards, my interviews got more interesting, listens went up, industry people started to know who I was, and people would write in with appreciation.
Looking back so far, what has surprised you most about staying in animation and creative work over time?
The most surprising thing is where new work comes from.
In the 9-5 full-time job world, work is consistent and getting a job is somewhat straightforward. In the creative freelancer world you never know who or where your next job is going to come from.
Ex: walking my dog in the park connected me with a video game animator who was walking their dog at the same time. 2 years later they put in a good word for me at a studio who hired me.
Ex: a short film I made in animation school was seen by a producer on Reddit who showed their director, who hired me for a number of projects
Ex. I did an online animation collab with someone in New York for fun. A year later they happened to know someone looking for a stop motion animator in Toronto that led to a bunch of work
etc.
When you feel stuck or unsure, what helps you reconnect with making? Is there a practice or habit you keep coming back to?
When I feel stuck, the biggest thing that reconnects me is to make art to share.
It never feels like it's going to do anything, but it always ends up connecting me with new people, ideas, and motivation. Just putting something out into the world has always brought me down paths I never expected.
Bonus Question: You’ve had hundreds of conversations with people across the animation industry over the years, which has given you a front-row seat to how creatives think and talk about their work. Is there a question you’ve found yourself coming back to, or one you think tends to unlock something meaningful when people answer it? What makes it work?
The biggest question I wanted to answer with my podcast was how people got to where they were.
Answers like “I went to school, got an internship, started as a junior animator and worked my way up to director” tell me the results, but not the journey.
I wanted to understand what was the sacrifice they had to make to go to school, what made their portfolio stand out to get hired, how did they prove their chops as a junior animator, what was the change in mindset that allowed them to rise above their colleagues, how did they gain enough trust to become a director, etc.
I found questions like these make someone self-reflect on their motivations, personalities, goals, etc, plus it gave me better confidence in how to pursue my own career.
What I keep thinking about is the second leap. Leaving a stable job is bold. Leaving a prestigious program when you are already inside it is something else entirely. Terry’s story is not about chasing certainty. It is about choosing momentum over validation. Creative paths rarely unfold neatly. They unfold through decisions that feel uncomfortable in real time.
This series grows through word of mouth and the creative people who nudge me toward the next conversation. If someone comes to mind whose creativity inspires you, send them my way.
Until next week, Christine.
