Coming up with stories, creating characters from scratch and bringing them to life is something a lot of people dream about. In animation, this is going to be your daily work. We’re going to show you what it’s like to be a video game animator and how you’ll find your way into the industry.
What is Animation?
Animation is creating an illusion of movement by using a sequence of pictures or so called frames. Every animated movie or tv series contains thousands of frames to create the feeling of motion. They can be created by multiple media like stop motion, 2D paintings or 3D models. The possibilities are endless. Animation is a very complex field and requires both creative and technical skills to be able to produce a quality product. Due to its very time consuming nature, an animator rarely works on a project alone but rather collaborates with multiple people at once.
What does a Video Game Animator do?
An Animators job is very versatile and includes a lot of different aspects reaching from character design to creating keyframes for the final product.
There are a lot of different things that flow into animation like:
- Animating with 2D, 3D & stop motion elements
- Making concepts and sketches to visualize your idea
- Come up with storyboards to show the script & narrative of the story
- Build animated backgrounds, objects, sets & more
- Create keyframes, inbetweens & finished frames for the project
- Collaborate with the team & customers
- Clean up animation
- …
Animation is a very deep and complex craft which can be very fulfilling and frustrating at the same time. Working together as a team, trying to solve problems together is very important to be able to produce something you’re proud of. After all communication is key to keep the animations consistent throughout the scenes even if dozens of people work on the same project simultaneously.
What kind of skills do I need as a Video Game Animator?
As mentioned before, an Animator has to have both creative and technical skills to be able to work in this kind of field:
- Great knowledge of anatomy, motion, lighting, compositions, etc.
- Good drawing & painting skills
- 3D Modeling & sculpting
- Technical proficiency
- Great researching skills
- Excellent collaborations skills
- …
A lot of people pursue Animation because they love things like Disney, Pixar or Anime, but often are taken aback by the technical aspect of this career. It can be challenging and daunting for someone with no to little technical background to get a hang of things, but once you do, it’s going to become second nature to you.
How do I get a job as a Video Game Animator?
Most companies require you to either have a diploma or bachelors degree in animation or some similar field of expertise. While sometimes they make an exception for very talented individuals, it doesn’t hurt to enhance your skills and grow your network by visiting a college or university.
Aside from your educational background and previous work experience, you also need to provide the recruiters with a portfolio:
- Go for quality of work, not quantity
- Include demo reels of your work to stand out
- Make sure everything works properly and that it’s easily accessible
- Build your portfolio around the company you want to apply to
- Make sure it looks professional & up to date
- …
If you’re aiming to apply to a certain studio, make sure to look into the projects they are currently working on. It’s essential to show them that you’ll fit their style and vision for the project. If you want to apply for a AAA game studio like Ubisoft, sending in a stylized portfolio for the newest Assassin’s Creed might not be the right way to go. Instead aim for a photo realistic approach. For the studio it’s easier to show you how you can improve your current skill set rather than teaching you a whole new style.
What kind of programs should a Video Game Animator look into?
As an Animator, especially if you’re going to aim for a position in the video game industry, you need to look into a variety of programs:
- 3D DCC Tools ( Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Houdini…)
- 2D DCC Tools (Photoshop, Illustrator,…)
- Video Editing Softwares (After Effects, Premiere,…)
- Game Engines (Unreal, Unity,..)
- Project Management Software (Trello, Nuclino,…)
- Writing Software (Scrivener, Evernote,…)
- …
Knowing how a game engine works is a valuable skill to have. Knowing how to implement an animation into the game helps you to get a better understanding of the game pipeline. This can help to prevent certain problems in advance which will both benefit you and the team in the long run.
How much money does a Video Game Animator make?
Those numbers can vary greatly depending on the company, genre, style, experience, skills etc. but according to Zippia an Video Game Animator makes between $40k – $101k and the average income is around $60k per year.
If you want to look work as an animator but aren’t sure if you want to animate for games our movies, look at this blog to see how close those fields truly are:
From Game to Movie – The Success of Five Nights at Freddy’s
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