aNILEator wrote:

P.P.S Any tips on getting into the industry? In need of a job now. I've been applying to places but no responses yet, and they are almost all lo/no paying jobs as well

I'm not in the industry at all, but I've found it's still way more effective in applying for jobs and other stuff where you have to deal with companies, to either phone up, or go in person rather than emailing. Big companies get a lot of emails so I guess it's easy for them to just not pay attention to one.
Although in animation, you've got to give them a showreel, right? So not emailing them might be tricky!