Careers in Animation:
More Than Just Pen and Paper

The realm of commercial animation is as diverse as the styles and techniques of animation itself. These days, animators can find work in feature films, television, the Internet, CD-ROM production, as well as product design/visualization, architecture, and interior design. And within each of those industries, animators can perform a variety roles.

In a future article, we'll discuss some of those varied industries but, for now, we'll go over a few different career paths that a film/television animator may choose from.

2-D Animator

2-D Animation may sound old-fashioned in a day and age when computers are everywhere and 3-D animation has taken Hollywood by storm, but 2-D animation continues to be an expanding and popular medium -- especially since classical 2-D skills are the foundation for most 3-D work. 2-D animators develop their skills through life drawing, composition, and perspective courses -- studying proportion, line of action, structure, and basic anatomy -- while working in areas as varied as animation, character design, clean-up, doping, modeling, slugging, and storyboarding.

3-D Animator

3-D animators are occupied with many of the same considerations at their 2-D counterparts -- computers don't get rid of the need for skills in life drawing, concept drawing, composition, character design, etc. 3-D animators will also deal more extensively with modeling, texturing, and lighting in a 3-D environment, often with the use of such software tools and packages as PhotoShop, SoftImage, Alias/Wavefront, Maya, and others.s

Storyboard Artist

The Storyboard Artist interprets scripts to create storyboards. This usually means planning shots, visualizing the story before drawing it, and being careful to maintain continuity among the shots. Starting out on this career track as an assistant, you'll typically start out by doing clean-up and revisions, eventually working up to preparing some parts of the story board under supervision. This work involves a lot of cutting and pasting, drawing and quick sketching, perspective and composition, and perhaps most importantly, story development and interpretation.

Layout Artist

The Layout Artist creates the foundation for the animation by rendering background layouts for each scene -- usually referring to storyboards and additional research materials. These layouts don't appear in the final production, but are critical for the positioning and perspective of the animation. Layouts are usually done with graphite pencil on punched animation paper; the aim is to provide a stage in which the animators will animate their characters and effects, as well as a blueprint or underdrawing, to be rendered in color by the Background Painters.

Inbetweener

Most artists enter the world of animation by starting as Inbetweeners -- the artists that help the animators and animation assistants complete the action of a scene. It may not sound like much, but it's an important step where you'll learn the basics of animation. An inbetween is one of the transition drawings between two extreme drawings -- the key drawings that distill the essence of an animated action. The inbetweens fill in the action between these key drawings. You'll usually work in a team and learn to imitate the animator's drawings and line quality.

Choosing an Animation School

So, you want to be an animator? Are you ready for the endless hours slaving away as an assistant to an assistant's assistant? Are you ready to spend every waking hour living, breathing, and drawing animation? If you answered "yes" to those questions, then it's time to start your career and find an animation school or training program. But with so many schools out there, how do you choose one?

The Fundamentals

First of all, you need a solid foundation in drawing -- undoubtedly, the most important element of an animator's education. All the computer skills in the world can't mask a bad artist, so make sure that you find a program where you'll spend the long, necessary hours honing your craft. Ideally, you'll want a program that offer a combination of drawing opportunities -- including life drawing, layout animation, and fundamental drawing studies.

In addition to drawing skills, you'll need a program that covers the requisite animation skills like storytelling, layout, character design, direction, design, editing, acting and visual communication. Animation skills should include not only a knowledge of fundamentals (weight, movements, timing, reversals, motivational forces and thinking time, etc.), but development in posing, breakdowns, in-betweening, clean-up and special effects (wind, rain, shadows, water, explosions, etc.) as well. A general background in visual communication -- including design, composition, texture, color theory -- is also key.

And don't forget science! Creating believable animation requires that you understand the properties and effects of gravity, momentum, inertia, friction, fluid dynamics, and so on. Knowledge of mechanical engineering principles and a thorough understanding of physics and mathematics are absolutely necessary. For example, the more you understand about mechanical linkage, sliding and rotational joints, power transmission, and so forth, the more realistic your machines will be. The same holds true for the anatomy and kinesiology of humans and animals.

The Secret about Software

Everywhere you turn, you hear about how computers are revolutionizing the industry. Computer animation -- led by films like "Toy Story", "Monsters, Inc." and "Shrek" -- have dominated Hollywood's box office the past few summers. So it makes sense that any prospective animator should concentrate on learning the latest animation software packages, right?

Well... not really. The truth is that, while computers have become an increasingly large part of animation education, they're no substitute for the fundamentals -- learning the nuances of drawing, shading, lighting, and storytelling. While you should know enough about computer graphics to know how they work in general, you should avoid just learning packages of software. Today's packages will be rendered obsolete as quickly as you learn them, and many studios use proprietary software that you can't learn in school anyway.

Focusing on Film, Multimedia

If you intend to pursue a job animating for television or film, then you should probably look for a program that matches that interest and provides the background the potential employers are looking for. Check for programs that focus on traditional skills like drawing, painting, and sculpture, as well as "film knowledge" such as cinematography and composition. Find out how the school will help you build an effective portfolio of your work: not just a collection of assignments, but a well-developed presentation of your unique point of view, and your technical skills. You should also check to see how well integrated the school's theatre and film departments are with their 2D and 3D art departments.

Likewise, if you want to focus on producing multimedia animation, you should find a program that covers the constraints and peculiarities of producing animation for the web, CD-ROM, and various other media.

Other Factors

There are numerous other factors to consider -- the quality of faculty and facilities, school reputation, access to hardware and software, and, perhaps most importantly, cost (don't forget: you need to eat too!). But as long as you keep these various factors in mind and remember to ask questions of school representatives, you'll undoubtedly find a school from which to launch your animation career. Good luck!

Animation Schools (Arts and Entertainment)

A Cartoonist or ofter referred to as an Animator provides drawings or animations used in advertising and promotional efforts, to amuse audiences, or to meet other needs. Uses various methods to communicate the organization's efforts through an assortment of freehand artwork. May prepare artwork for printing or mass production. No formal experience or training necessary.

Cartoon animation is one of the most popular forms of entertainment. It is a very special form of media, in that every aspect of a cartoon is created from someone’s imagination. The cartoon animation industry of yesterday has paved the way for a newer cartoon generation. The cartoon artists of yesterday had almost no help from technology, all they had was the bare essentials. Paper, pencils, and other pre-dated equipment were used to create their cartoon artwork. The cartoon drawings of today are much different than those drawn during the early years of cartoons. The first cartoons where done in black and white. The cartoon pictures of yesterday were not drawn on the specialized paper of today. Also there wasn’t much detail put into the characters and the settings originally. Using regular paper and pencils, the cartoon art of yesterday paved the way for the cartoonists of today. By turning a piece of paper with a few pencil scribbles on it into a charming lively character, the cartoonists of yesterday became magic makers at work.

This animation production industry is flourishing, and presents many different types of animation jobs for people who are interested in animation from both the technical and the artistic aspects. Over the next months I'm going to explore the different aspects of this industry, and some of the animation jobs that they present.

Education and training are both vital to your career, and animation is no different. Your animation training will vary depending on the kind of animation job you want to work in, and the way you receive your animation training can vary too.

We will be exploring traditional classroom and online training, and when it is appropriate to use distance learning modes and person-to-person instruction. We will look at the skills you need, and how you can put them into practice to create a career that you will be successful in and enjoy.

Animation developments have only just begun to impact the entertainment and communications industries, so we are going to be exploring a topic that will have a myriad of topics to explore.

Careers in Animation

2-D Animator
2-D Animation may seem old-fashioned in a day and age when computers are everywhere and 3-D animation has taken Hollywood by storm, but 2-D animation continues to be an expanding and popular medium -- especially since classical 2-D skills are the foundation for most 3-D work. 2-D animators develop their skills through life drawing, composition, and perspective courses -- studying proportion, line of action, structure, and basic anatomy -- while working in areas as varied as animation, character design, clean-up, doping, modeling, slugging, and storyboarding.

3-D Animator
3-D animators are more or less occupied with many of the same considerations at their 2-D counterparts -- computers don't get rid of the need for skills in life drawing, concept drawing, composition, character design, etc. 3-D animators will also deal more extensively with modeling, texturing, and lighting in a 3-D environment, often with the use of such software tools and packages as PhotoShop, SoftImage, Alias/Wavefront, Maya, and others.s

Storyboard Artist
The Storyboard Artist interprets scripts to create storyboards. This for the most part means planning shots, visualizing the story before drawing it, and being careful to maintain continuity among the shots. Starting out on this career track as an storyboard assistant, you'll typically start out by doing clean-up and revisions, eventually working up to preparing some parts of the story board under supervision. This work involves a lot of cutting and pasting, drawing and quick sketching, perspective and composition, and perhaps most importantly, story development and interpretation.

Layout Artist
The Layout Artist creates the foundation for the animation by rendering background layouts for each scene -- usually referring to storyboards and additional research materials. These layouts don't appear in the final production, but are critical for the positioning and perspective of the animation. Layouts are usually done with graphite pencil on punched animation paper; the aim is to provide a stage in which the animators will animate their characters and effects, as well as a blueprint or underdrawing, to be rendered in color by the Background Painters.

Inbetweener
Most artists enter the world of animation by starting as Inbetweeners -- the artists that help the animators and animation assistants complete the action of a scene. It may not sound like much, but it's an important step where you'll learn the basics of animation. An inbetween is one of the transition drawings between two extreme drawings -- the key drawings that distill the essence of an animated action. The inbetweens fill in the action between these key drawings. You'll usually work in a team and learn to imitate the animator's drawings and line quality.

Animation Schools
If any of these careers are of interest to you, consider checking into amination school options available to you below.

The Art Institute (Online) - Online Animation Training and Degree Programs

Alabama Animation Schools
Virginia College* (Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile) - Animation and Game Design

Arizona Animation Schools
ITT Technical Institute - Animation
High-Tech Institute (Phoenix, AZ) - Animation
Collins College (Tempe) - Bachelor - Animation
The Art Institute of Phoenix - (Phoenix, Arizona) - Media Arts & Animation, Game Art Design

California Animation Schools
Academy of Art College (San Francisco) - Video and Computer Game Designer, 2D and 3D Animator, 3D Modeler, Visual Effects Artist, Compositor, Storyboard Artist, Concept Artist, and Character Designer
Art Institute of California (San Diego, CA) - Media Arts & Animation
California Design College (Los Angeles, CA) - Interactive Media Design, Graphic Design
ITT Technical Institute (Anaheim, CA, Lathrop, CA, Oxnard, CA, Rancho Cordova, CA, San Bernardino, CA, San Diego, CA, Sylmar, CA, Torrance, CA, West Covina, CA) - Digital Entertainment and Game Design
Laurus College (San Luis Obispo, CA, Santa Maria, CA )
American InterContinental University (Los Angeles)
Brooks College (Long Beach)
Brooks College (Sunnyvale)
Brooks Institute of Photography (Santa Barbara)
Platt College (Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Ontario)- 3D Animation Design
The Art Institute of California (San Francisco, CA) - Animation and Digital Media Arts Programs
Western Career College (Fremont, Emeryville, San Jose, Walnut Creek)
Westwood College (Anaheim, Los Angeles, Inland Empire)

Colorado Animation Schools
Westwood College (North-Denver, South-Denver *) - Bachelor Degree - Visual Communications, Associate Degree - Graphic Design and Multimedia, Bachelor Degree - Animation, Bachelor Degree - Computer Network Management, Bachelor Degree - E-Business Management, Bachelor Degree - Game Software Development, Bachelor Degree - Web Design and Multimedia
The Center for Professional Development at the Art Institute of Colorado (Denver) - 3D Animation Principles and Techniques 3ds Max 7 Advanced Lighting, 3ds Max 7 Animation 1 and 2, 3ds Max 7 Essentials, 3ds Max 7 Rendering 1 and 2
The Art Institute of Colorado (Denver, CO)Visual Effects & Motion Graphics, Animation

Florida Animation Schools
Florida Metropolitan University (Brandon, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Melbourne, Orange Park, Orlando, Pinellas, Pompano Beach, Tampa) - Film and Video, Commercial Art
DMAC: Digital Media Arts College (Boca Raton, FL) - Animation, BFA in Computer Animation
High-Tech Institute (Orlando) - Digital Design & Animation
International Academy of Design and Technology (Orlando) - Computer Graphics, Game Design and Development, Multimedia Production and Design: Interactive Media, Visual Communication, Recording Arts, Digital Movie Production
International Academy of Design and Technology (Tampa) - Bachelor - Computer Graphics, Bachelor - Game Design and Development, Bachelor - Multimedia Production and Design: Interactive Media, Bachelor - Visual Communication ,Bachelor - Recording Arts, Bachelor - Digital Movie Production
Keiser College* (Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Kendall, Lakeland, Melbourne, Orlando, Pembroke Pines, Port St. Lucie, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Tampa, West Palm Beach) - Computer Animation and Design
Southwest Florida College (Ft. Myers) - Animation
The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale - (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

Georgia Animation Schools
American InterContinental University (Buckhead, Atlanta) - Animation, Bachelor - Visual Communications: Digital Design
Westwood College (Atlanta) - Visual Communications, Associate Degree - Graphic Design and Multimedia, Bachelor Degree - Animation, Bachelor Degree - Computer Network Management, Bachelor Degree - E-Business Management, Bachelor Degree - Game Software Development, Bachelor Degree - Web Design and Multimedia
Florida Career Colleges (Hialeah , Lauderdale Lakes, Miami , Pembroke Pines , West Palm Beach)
Herzing College (Atlanta, GA) - Animation
High-Tech Institute (Atlanta) - Interactive Graphic Arts
The Chubb Institute (Alpharetta, GA) - Animation

Illinois Animation Schools
International Academy of Design & Technology (Schaumberg, Illinois) - Animation
The Illinois Institute of Art - Schaumburg - Animation
The Chubb Institute (Villa Park , Chicago , Quincy) - Animation
Westwood College* (DuPage, Chicago Loop, O'Hare, River Oaks) - Bachelor Degree - Visual Communications, Associate Degree - Graphic Design and Multimedia, Bachelor Degree - Animation, Bachelor Degree - Computer Network Management, Bachelor Degree - E-Business Management, Bachelor Degree - Game Software Development, Bachelor Degree - Web Design and Multimedia

Illinois Animation Schools
Laurus College (Jonesboro, KY) 3D Animation, Business Applications, Web Design.

Louisiana Animation Schools
Herzing College - New Orleans, LA - Animation

Massachusetts Animation Schools
Clark University Computer Career Institute (Cambridge, MA) - Animation
Gibbs College (Boston) - Visual Communication Graphic Design (Associate)
The Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University (Waltham) - 3D Animation, Digital Filmmaking

Maryland Animation Schools
Computer Career Institute at John Hopkins University - Digital 3-D Design, Digital Video & Animation Design
Hagerstown College Hagerstown, MD - Animation

Michigan Animation Schools
International Academy of Design and Technology (Detroit) Bachelor - Computer Graphics, Bachelor - Game Design and Development, Bachelor - Multimedia Production and Design: Interactive Media, Bachelor - Visual Communication ,Bachelor - Recording Arts, Bachelor - Digital Movie Production
ITT Technical Institute - Southfield MI

Minnesota Animation Schools
Herzing College (Minneapolis, MN) - Animation
Brown College (Mendota Heights) - Bachelor - Game Design and Development, Bachelor - Interior Design,Associate - Visual Communications
The Art Institutes International Minnesota (Minneapolis) - Media Arts & Animation

New Animation Schools
Fairleigh Dickinson University Computer Career Institute - Animation
The Chubb Institute (Cherry Hill , North Brunswick, Parsippany, Jersey City) Animation Degrees
Katharine Gibbs School (Piscataway) - Animation
Herzing College - Animation

New York Animation Schools
3D Training Institute - New York (New York, NY)
Briarcliffe College (Bethpage) Bachelor - Graphic Design, Associate - Graphic Design, Bachelor - Information Technology: Computer Networking and Telecommunications,Bachelor - Information Technology: Applied Computer Programming
Katharine Gibbs School (Melville ,New York ) - Animation, Game and Web Design (Associate)
NetCom Information Technology (Manhattan, Queens) Animation
Skidmore College (Computer Career Institute) (Whiteplains, NY) - Animation, Digital 3-D Design, Digital Graphic Design, Digital Multimedia & Web Design, Digital Video & Animation Design
The Chubb Institute (Westbury, NY) - Animation
The Chubb Institute (New York , NY) - Animation
The College of Westchester (White Plains, NY) -- Multimedia Development, Computer Applications Management, Computer Applications Specialist, Computer Network Administration, Computer Networking Specialist, Computer Programming

North Carolina Animation Schools
Art Institute of Charlotte - Animation

Ohio Animation Schools
Ohio Institute of Photography & Technology - Dayton, OH - Animation

Oregon Animation Schools
Art Institute of Portland, OR - Animation

Pennsylvania Animation Schools
* Browse Animation Schools in Pennsylvania
Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts (York, PA)

Rhode Island Animation Schools
Katharine Gibbs School (Providence) - Animation

Tennessee Animation Schools
International Academy of Design & Technology - Nashville, TN - Animation

Texas Animation Schools
Westwood College of Technology - Fort Worth - Animation

Virginia Animation Schools
The Chubb Institute - Reston, VA - Animation

Utah Animation Schools
Utah Career College (West Jordan) - Multimedia, Computer Graphics - Animation

Washington Animation Schools
The Art Institute of Seattle - (Seattle, Washington) -

Wisconsin Animation Schools
Herzing College - Madison, WI - Animation

International Animation Programs
Canada Animation Schools
International Academy of Design and Technology (Toronto) - Animation
Herzing College - Animation
CDI College / Delta College - Laval - Animation
CDI College / Delta College - Longueuil - Animation
CDI College / Delta College - Montreal - Animation
The Art Institute of Vancouver - Burnaby Location, (Burnaby, British Columbia) - 3D Modeling for Animation & Games
The Art Institute of Vancouver - Burnaby Location, (Burnaby, British Columbia) - Animation

United Kingdom Animation Schools
American InterContinental University (London) - Animation