so what am i doing to help me progress to a future in animation? im glad you asked...

well i do a variety of different things which i believe may be helping me develop my skills and knowledge of the animation pathway.
Because i come from a graphic design background, 3D is new to me, i'm used to designing in 2D or photography, i've never worked with 3D software or thought of making a moving image.
anyway... to develop myself...

I go on a variety of websites quite regularly just to keep up to date with arty and animation type things, www.awn.com the animation world network, is great for keeping up to date with films and reading about news in the animation industry, information about films, software, anything that may be relative in the animation world.
Im also a member of DeviantArt and AREA (which is the autodesk 'area' for learning anything about the autodesk products such as maya and 3ds max, articles and blogs and member portfolios on this are very good)
Another obvious site would be youtube but that is pretty much expected now, any animated short films will probably be on their.
The adobe website also has a section dedicated to tutorials and articles which helps a lot, and will hopefully help a lot when i want to learn more, but i feel the tutorials on the autodesk website will be more useful to me when doing animation.
I currently have many tutorial videos on my computer for MAYA and 3DS MAX, i haven't watched these yet but i know they will come in handy when i get the chance to use them and develop my skills with these programs.

Im also a fan of movies, i love them, and especially love animated films, which is something i hope to get into, so i am constantly watching films, with 1 side of my brain enjoying the film and the other side analyzing the film and understanding the creation, and how i could develop these, and create better ideas for films.

I think i have a massive thirst for knowledge, but am quite lazy to actually learn, so this needs to change, i am trying.

I also have a contact in manchester who is an animator and we have pretty much agreed to arrange something over the summer holidays so i can go and learn and watch how the animation industry works, either just by watching him, or possibly doing some stuff myself.
I also have another contact, a friend of my cousins, who is a well known architect, he is 1 of 3 main architects at www.fparchitects.co.uk, he has also told me he would teach me 3DS MAX when im back in manchester, so getting in touch with these contacts is definitely helping me develop in the industry.