Where's best to freelance as an animator?

I have been looking into what to do after graduating for quite some time now, and where is best to be for animation (even if I am only freelancing). I know that moving back home to live with my parents in Telford would be counter productive, as I have already started to build up my name here in Leeds and moving back to an area with no animation let alone art ventures would be awful. Therefore I am aiming to look at living alone for a couple of years (or finding like-minded flat mates in different areas of the UK), before settling somewhere.

My first plan would be to stay in Leeds, mainly due to the network of creative people I have already got around me here. But I think it is important for me to look into where it would be best to do animation, which would perhaps mean moving to a different area of this country, or to another country all together.


From researching into this I have found that the best places in the UK to work in games (as my backup plan) or animation are..

Games- Edinburgh, London, Manchester 



Animation- London, Bristol, Manchester, ~ Other countries which are good for animation in no order are France, USA (Oregon, California), Canada, Japan

From this I realised how much of a creative hub Manchester is, and had a further look into what they have on offer for animation. I mainly chose to focus on that area as it is a relatively short distance away from Leeds, giving me the opportunity to commute, or if I choose to move there then it is a short distance to travel back to Leeds if needed.


Manchester Studios




http://www.wearemi.com/

http://www.the-box.co.uk/portfolioAnimation.html

http://www.editz.co.uk/

http://www.redvision.co.uk/

http://fettleanimation.com/about/

http://www.flixfacilities.com/showreel.php

http://kilogramme.prosite.com/71460/home

http://www.studiodistract.com/

http://www.studioliddell.com/reels/

http://www.the-neighbourhood.com/

Although some people may think I am looking into this far too early, as I have only just finished my first year, I think that it is important to have an end goal allowing me to start saving enough money and planning to the future. I also need to have a goal as to what level I expect myself to be when I graduate, making sure that if I am not on the path to that, then I need to put in extra time over holidays and free time to make sure I reach that.


My next post will be looking into how easy it would be for me to live the dream after graduating, and bite the bullet and move to Japan.