Animation Introduction Eligibility Job Prospects Remuneration Institutes Watch Video

A strong portfolio of work is an essential part of landing a job in computer animation and becoming an animator. Numerous job opportunities are available in India as well as abroad in the exciting field of animation. It opens the door to film industries such as Hollywood, which is the world of special effects and imagery for films. Specialized computer knowledge and skills are essential for various jobs in the field of animation.

It is a booming industry with wide job openings and one can work on full length animation movies or any other related fields like television, advertising industry etc. An Animated feature film, which offers considerable employment prospects, is a combined talented effort of a wide variety of artists. A typical animation film requires around 500 animators. Some of the jobs offered in the industry are :

 •  Content developer
 •  Modeler - Modeler is the one who makes the models for animation. They should have a solid understanding of anatomy, form and volume.
 •  Story Broad Artist - Those with strong drawing skills could be hired as storyboard artists who can visualize a sequence of events from frame to frame.
 •  Character animator- They brings characters to life and generally has knowledge of traditional animation, stop-motion animation as well as claymation
 •  Background artist- The background artist is the person who specialises to paint the background of the characters and sets the background for the project.
 •  Layout artist- layout artist is just like a cinematographer of that animation project as they are decides the lighting and camera angles and he is sketching the background design for the animation.
 •  2D animator - They involves the creation of a high volume of separate drawings that define a sequence.
 •  In-between animator- In between animator one can learn all the basics of animation and it is the beginning position of an animator.
 •  Scanner operator-The scanner operator does the scanning of the clean up artist’s drawings.
 •  Compositing artist - Compositing consists of layering individual frames of animation on top of one another to create final images. These images are then strung together to create complete shots or mini animated movies.
 •  Special effects artist - They integrate live-action footage with Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) or other elements (such as model work)
 •  Audio & video specialist
 •  Visualiser
 •  Texture artist - They applies a surface to the 3D modeled character, object or environment.
 •  Rigging artist - A rigging artist takes the modeled, textured 3D character or object and sets it up with a skeletal system or joints (if required). Without this step, the 3D model would not be able to animate, talk or move fluidly and correctly.
 •  Clean-up artist- The clean up artist checks the accuracy and consistency of the designs and drawings. To be a good clean up artist, he should have good draft-man skill with the knowledge of density, width, volume and mass.
 •  Lighting artist - They create variations of shade, colour intensity and shadows
Digital ink and paint artist- It is the duty of a digital ink and paint artist to give colours to each frame.
Compositor- It is the compositor brings together all the different characters and backgrounds in to single frame.
 •  Editor
 •  Key frame animator- Key frame animator draws the pictures of a movement’s beginning and end.
 •  Rendering artist - They take all the data in a scene such as models, textures, animation, lighting, etc and output the correct combination in the form of individual frames of animation.
 •  3D animator - They takes the sculpted, textured and rigged 3D model and breathes life into it. This is done by putting in order the key frames such that they appear to be in motion.
 •  Image Editor - They assembles various visual and audio components of the film into a coherent and effective whole

Website designing, CD-Rom production, graphics designing and three-dimensional product modeling are some other fields where animators can gain employment. Though entertainment through film and television is the main area of application in this profession, animation is also needed in other areas like business, sales, engineering, education and advertising. It has chances in fashion designing and interior designing and even in medical, legal and insurance companies for their presentations and models. The gaming industry that includes video and mobile games are looking forward for good animators. Some animation institutions appoint students for teaching assistance, so they can take ir career in to teaching profession also. Animators could even find jobs at print media and publishing firms. Free lance work is another option for animators, particularly those specializing in web animation.

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India has over 300 animation studios employing over 12,000 animation professionals. Besides this, Indian companies are creating a number of animated films and cartoons for US and European studios. There fore the chances for good creative animators never ends.

Nature of Work :

Creating an animation consists of idea development, pre-production, production and post-production. The characters are created in idea development. In pre-production, the ideas are converted into layouts. Scriptwriting, storyboarding, character development, backgrounds, layout designing, animatics and voice comes under per-production. The actual result of the story can be visualised in the production stage which is a blend of animation, in-betweening or tweening (i.e the creation of intermediate frames between two main images to give the appearance that the first image flows smoothly into the second one), scanning, compositing (i.e combining images from different sources to create a finished frame of animation), background preparation and colouring. Final sound recordings, colour editing, testing and special sound effects are all added at the post-production stage. Post production stage activities includes editing, special effects (SFX), colour correction, compositing, voice and music editing and rendering. Rendering is the final touches to an animation scene, in which the data is converted to the raster image or animation.