Training is the most essential and important aspect for the creation of a skilled professional in the field of animation. To become an animator, one doesn't require any specific academic qualification. Those with a basic sketching skill and a passion for animation can enter this field. For getting a better job prospect, one should have a degree or diploma in animation.

Degree and Diploma courses in animation are abundance nowadays apart from online services. Minimum education qualification for a degree and diploma course in animation is plus two or equivalent.

Any graduate preferably arts graduate could apply for Post Graduation in animation. But some institutions such as Industrial Design Center (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Design (NID) follows eligibility criterion that only graduate of architecture, technology and engineering, fine arts can apply for the PG course in these institutes.

Besides these graduate and post graduate courses, there are several professional courses that focus on various styles and techniques. These courses, i.e Courses in Traditional animation , Stop-motion animation , Rotoscoping , Computer generated 3D and 2D animation , Clay-mation , Photoshop , Human anatomy , Drawing etc helps one to specialise in a particular area. One should also have a basic knowledge in computer handling.

Apart from professional training, there are several personal skills also that one must possess to be a good animator. What makes to go a long way in making a good animation is a good sense of colour, proportion, size , design etc.

Personal skill:

An animator should have an artistic bent of mind with a lot of passion and imaginative skills. Creativity is the most wanted quality for this career as animation starts with developing an idea to a story. The art of sketching or drawing is another basic skill one should possess. Patience, discipline and dedication to work is a vital ability as this field involves lot of hard work and long hours of thorough planning. He/ She should have a sound understanding of anatomy of humans, animals or birds and body movements and lighting effects. Good communication skill is also needed as most of the time it will be teamwork. One good animator should be one good actor also. So that only he could express the character well through his animation.

An animator should have a good sense of colour, proportion, size, design, visualizations, knowledge of background art and layout. They must have expertise in computer design software. Knowledge of programming languagues (C++, Java) will be an added benefit. It is advantageous to understand photography, lighting and movement for those planning to work in computer animation. They must be able to visualise how an object will look in three dimensions and have the know-how to make an animated object look real.