Animation Career

3D Animation involves creating characters and objects in a 3-dimensional layout and adding visual effects to achieve an attractive and realistic illusion. 3D animators require strong traditional skills and storytelling abilities that can be applied to digital technology. There are several main areas of the 3D animation industry including video games, visual effects, Visual Development, 3D modeling, story-boarding, character animation, and 2D layout and background painting.

3D Animators are involved in a lot of media productions, although, they may still have their hands in a bunch of different things. Here are a few examples of what 3D Animators do:

• Develop web, film and motion advertisements


• Develop flash advertisements out of their print ads


• Confer with writers about development of story lines and actions and settings necessary to implement the plot


• Generate conceptual drafts


• Develop models and sketches to be used in selection of final scenes and characters


• Work with a team of animation experts to develop appearances, characteristics and movement for the characters in the animation

Median Salary by Job - Industry: 3d Animation (United States)

3D Animators are often hired by TV or movie production companies such as Disney, Dreamworks, and Warner Brothers (to name a few) looking to create animation. Some animators are hired by software developers, and others are hired by web development teams. As the need for creative graphical interfaces increases, more industries will need 3D animators.