Animation Schools - Animator Training

Animators are visual artists who produce and capture individual frames of film using a drawn image, models or computer graphics. Computer animation has speeded up the process considerably, and has been responsible for the intensely realistic and complex animation we now see in movies, advertisements, and the Internet and computer games.

If you are an artistic and creative person and want to get involved in this fascinating, fast-growing area, animation schools are the ideal place to start.

Animation Schools

Although a great deal of animation is now computer-generated, most animation schools will require a portfolio of original artwork along with a good high school record. Programs can take the form of degrees or intensive courses built to fit round an existing career.

There is a wide range of courses available, and animation may be part of a wider study, but you should expect to cover some physics, psychology as applied to 2D or 3D characters, the laws of human motion, life drawing and rendering techniques, and the application of audio and video to an animation project.

Job Outlook for Animators

The days are gone when animation was a niche area with few openings. The proliferation of animation in all types of electronic media means opportunities are growing all the time. A large proportion of animators are freelance, however, relying on temporary contracts.

A fortunate few can end up working for companies such as Pixar. Competition for most jobs, however, will be strong and the number of people interested in these positions usually exceeds the number of available openings. For this reason you should aim to find the best animation schools.

Trained animators often enter at the bottom, but hard work and perseverance can bring lucrative rewards. This is very much an area where you have to love what you do and, if you do, can become part of something special.