Since Estonia is such a tiny place, there are barely any animators who are trained in classic animation style/ US type mainstream. I looked for animators for years, but there was never anyone good enough to handle the projects I was running. I even tried to train the people by giving them exercises and homework, but there is just no interest in anyone here. I am surprised I still have this burning desire to animate after such bad luck when it comes to hiring local animators. Any sane person would have given up years ago.

The most success I’ve had was with students I hired as interns/trainees for Summer. These were all my students from the animation school, and while they were all inexperienced at animation, they could at least trace so the production was going faster. I think they did learn a lot over the years, though I have not heard from them in years, especially since Covid disrupted their studies.