Getting a good career is of the essence in the growth of an individual. There are different factors and conditions that people look at before making a career choice. Some make their career choices based on monetary and financial gain; some make their choices based on passion and what they love doing, and some on their talents and innate skills.
Whatever the reason for choosing a career, it has to be a very good choice so that the person making it would not look back years later and regret making that career decision. I’m very sure you have seen an animation before or at least heard about one.
What Is Animation About?
Animations can be created digitally or, they can be hand-drawn. The reality and fact is that being very artistic goes a long way in helping an animator’s career; art is the rock on which animation is built. Animations come in different types they are:
● 2D Animation or Vector-based Animation.
● 3D Animation.
● Stop Motion.
● Traditional Animation.
● Motion Graphics
What Do Animators Do?
Animators are basically artists who create images on a couple of frames depending on the length of the animation, and these animations are run in a sequence so that it looks like a movement of scenes. Animators create or produce their work in either 2D form, 3D form, or digitally.
Animators have a lot of responsibilities; from understanding the concepts that their clients want them to work on, to creating content that would be in sync with the story and plot the client is trying to portray. They also have to choose the right models, sets, backgrounds, materials, and many other things.
Anyone can work as an animator as long as the individual has the required skills and qualifications. There are certain degrees that give an edge over any other basic animator, some of these degrees are Art and Design, Film and Video, 3D Design, Animation, Graphic Design and Illustration, Spatial Design, and so on.
There are skills that are also relevant to animation that every animator must have; some of these skills are – a creative imagination that would be able to tell good and relatable stories, they must be able to pay good attention to detail, must be artistic and technically sound, must be able to network with people who are also in the animation space and even those outside of it to get more jobs, an animator must also be very innovative.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Being an Animator?
Choosing to be an animator has its advantages and disadvantages, just like any other career or profession. In this article, we will be discussing some of the pros and cons of being an animator.
Pros Of Being an Animator
1. Highly Valued: In this world where technology has gained and is gaining much more ground, there are still many developments that are going on around the world. Unlike when animation first came up, where just a small number of people were involved in it, it has become one of the most trending things today.
Many animated movies are being created and watched worldwide in these recent times, putting animators in high demand.
- Well-Paid: Because of how highly valued and sought-after animators are, they are among the highest and well-paid professionals. A highly skilled and very talented animator will find that different animation agencies in the United States would want to hire such an individual and offer him a large salary.
- Creative Thinking: Being in the career field as an animator brings out the creative part of an individual. An individual cannot be an animator without having any form of creativity; as an animator, you have to think deeply and come up with different artistic content that would be pleasing to the eyes and ears of your audience and viewers.
- Job Security and Self-employment: A fact about being an animator is that you do not have to be employed by a company or agency before making money. Many animators in the marketplace today are self-employed, making their own money without any dependence on government employment and the likes. As an animator there is often no such thing as being out of a job because you have been laid off. The demand for animators is on the rise in the United States; there is no way a good and highly skilled animator would be unemployed.
- Flexibility In Schedule: Just as mentioned above, many animators are self-employed. Because an animator is self-employed, he has the luxury of choosing his work schedule. There is no pressure from anyone on how he should carry out whatever task he has at hand. The animator doesn’t have to have a physical office, especially where the work is done digitally.
Cons of Being an Animator
Just as everything has its advantages as well as its disadvantages, so also does being an animator also have its disadvantages – or cons. Some of the cons are:
- Extended Hours of Work: Creating animation content and creating the animation itself takes a lot of time. Animators spend almost every hour of the day drawing images, editing them, shooting them into a video sequence, editing the videos, and so on. There is hardly any time for them to do anything other than work.
- Overwhelming Responsibilities: There are a lot of responsibilities on the shoulder of an animator, especially a self-employed one. Animation requires quite a number of essential and vital pieces of equipment, equipment that costs a lot of money. While trying to meet deadlines, the animator also has to balance his responsibilities to ensure that his business keeps running.
- Animation is one of the trending jobs in the United States and even the world in general today. Being an animator is an excellent career choice. However, you must have a passion for it because it comes with a lot of stress and hard work.