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Job Prospects & Career Options
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 :
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Content developer
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Modeler - Modeler is the one who makes the models for animation.
They should have a solid understanding of anatomy, form and volume.
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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.
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Character animator- They brings characters to life and generally
has knowledge of traditional animation, stop-motion animation as well as
claymation
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Background artist- The background artist is the person who
specialises to paint the background of the characters and sets the background
for the project.
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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.
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2D animator - They involves the creation of a high volume of
separate drawings that define a sequence.
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In-between animator- In between animator one can learn all the
basics of animation and it is the beginning position of an animator.
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Scanner operator-The scanner operator does the scanning of the
clean up artist’s drawings.
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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.
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Special effects artist - They integrate live-action footage
with Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) or other elements (such as model work)
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Audio & video specialist
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Visualiser
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Texture artist - They applies a surface to the 3D modeled character,
object or environment.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Editor
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Key frame animator- Key frame animator draws the pictures of
a movement’s beginning and end.
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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.
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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.
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