Without a doubt, modern animations and animated characters are contesting the mainstreams spanning Hollywood to child games and education. Still being naïve as a career path, it offers a fairly good chance for success, obviously, if one is good enough as an animator. The best way to describe the excellence of animation as a career is the branching of opportunities for applied creativity in this sector. Almost every form of the media has its
own scope for animation. In fact, being a successful animator involves much more than just having the best laptop 3D animation. So, many are inspired, and the aspirations of young animators may full the computer screen or canvas but to flourish it professionally – there are a few steps one has to follow.
Educate Yourself and Know Your Focus
A Diploma or Bachelors in Art, Design or Animation is the step first for anyone seeking a career as an animator. As the industry here basically looks at the actual work from the candidates, hence there is no big emphasis on where you got your degree from. So, get yourself started with the admission in a nearby art or design school or a good online course may help too. As you go along the school curricula, get focused on your specialty amongst the various options like 3D animations, 2D animations, computer-aided animations or hydrotechnics. One may discover his/her best in making movie backgrounds, and another may be better in making animations for video games. So, do your experiments, learn and practice the way you can express your creativity in the best form.
Build Your Skills
To be a successful animator, you need a comprehensive focus-oriented set of skills. To build a strong animated character, one must know the body languages and face expressions needed to portray a specific emotion, and this comes naturally to an actor. Drawing, painting or other ways of replicating reality is necessary to make one’s foundation solid in animation. As well as to build on the foundation, strong software skills are a necessity in the modern animation industry. Do not compromise the traditional art for digital platforms rather learn how the programs work and make yourself competent for utilizing computers in your works. Strengthen your communication skills and teamwork ability as animation, unquestionably, stands on strong team effort and wherever you work you have to work as part of a team of animators.
Develop Your Portfolio
To better your chances to get hired in a market that is global, show casing your best works in a formal setup is necessary. Portfolio for an emerging animator is almost like without a do, and this is the place where employers will get the glimpse of your creative mind. Not only your projects but also your personality is a part of the portfolio. A little bio describing yourself, an up to date resume, an exemplary album of your works both digital and traditional, and contact details primarily form the extended body of the portfolio. A well-designed website complemented by a hard copy version could be the best way in presenting your file. So, assemble the portfolio in the best way possible, and you may start building it during your education phase, and this will give you ample time to make it richer as you get enriched artistically and personally.
Get Some Work Experience
Practical work experience through internships or similar courses, is critical in the field of animation too, just like other career paths. Large animation companies, e.g., Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks has competitive intern programs for novices. These types of intermediary programs may extend from six weeks to six months based on their structure and format. This step is strongly helpful as it provides the opportunity for learning by working in a proper workplace, which not only sharpens your working skills but also helps you boost your personality traits in line with the future career path. This stages you in a network environ that could help you positively in relating to your next position. As well as, working with the big shots in the industry puts weight on your skill, expertise, and portfolio.
Check Out Your Options and Get to Work
Your creativity and experience will take you through this competitive step. First choose from the different animator career paths such as Computer Animator, Storyboard Artist, Painter, Game Designer, Modeler, Movie or Technical Animator, etc. and you would be doing it according to your focus. Individual clients, studios, and galleries are always looking for outstanding candidates. However almost half of the animators are self-employed. So, no worries, if you are good at making animations, your career development is most-likely guaranteed in this novel career path.