Creative Inquiry Report
Career Researched – Animator
Type/s of Work Involved –
The drawing of multiple frames to achieve smooth animation
is required. Adequate experience with computer programs (Photoshop,
Illustrator) is also necessary to correct and manipulate the animation to
maximum effect. Painting backgrounds for the motion and colouring scenes and
characters is also involved.
Working Conditions –
Animators usually work within a studio to combine their
efforts, inspire one another and check on each other’s progress. However it is
possible to freelance as an animator (although it takes much more effort) and
work from home.
Personal Qualities and Skills Required –
An animator must be a skilled artist/sketcher with
traditional hand-drawing skills. Along with this they should have a good
understanding of anatomy, since they will likely be drawing different
characters in motion. Due to the trial and error nature of animation, they must
also have a patient personality and be prepared to overcome mistakes. To clean up their drawings and review their
animations, they will need a basic understanding of computers programs such as
Photoshop and Illustrator. For their animation as a whole, they will need a
good sense of timing and composition and an understanding of motion, ratios and
perspective. The large amount of work that goes into an animation needs
multiple talents, so an animator must be able to work with a team. They must
also hold a high standard to their work, while being able to meet deadlines.
Employment Opportunities/Career Path Potential –
The potential career pathways for an animator has quite a
large range, with notable companies such as Pixar and Disney being renowned for
their animated movies and shorts. With the numerous cartoon series’ in
production, many are reaching out to animators to help them get started. The
entertainment industry has use for animators, with many movies that are
live-action still preferring to spice things up with some animation. Stylised
commercials can also implement animations, as well as game design.
Education & Training Requirements–
The best thing an animator can have is an impressive
portfolio, which flaunts various skills and techniques of art experience.
Animation skills can also be improved with a Bachelor’s Degree, Associate’s
Degree or certificate in animation or a related field.
Courses –
A Certificate 4 in Visual Art is usually accepted as a start
to further refine animation skills. Animation courses at RMIT also provide such
benefits.
Specialisations within chosen career –
An In-between Artist will take care of the animation frames
between the keys and possibly extremes; this job is usually given to animators
that are just starting out, since ‘in-between’ frames are the least noticed of
all the frames of animation. A Character Designer is responsible to creating
concepts of what could be the final product of the characters within the
animation. Many concepts are created to review all the options of what they
want the character to look like, to how they want the character to move. A
Storyboard Artist creates a rough set of drawings and sketches of how the
animation will progress. When showing the storyboard to the other animators,
ideas and concepts are usually tossed around if improvement is needed. A Layout
Artist will take care of the scene in which the animation takes place, usually
painting backgrounds or buildings.
Out of all the specialisations, the Character Designer
appeals to me the most. Being able to create numerous characters, concepts and being
able to experiment with shapes and figures would very welcome.
Resources-
Creativeskillset.org/animation/careers www.myfuture.edu.au
Animation.about.com
