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.
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.
