What Careers are Available for an Animation College Graduate?   by Samantha Wiles

in Education / College and University    (submitted 2011-03-21)

Have you seen the Pixar films such as Monsters Inc.? Viewed any blockbusters lately and wondered how the crowd scenes are built up? That is all animation and it is everywhere, not just in video games but also TV, commercials and films. Look on the internet and you will see short videos everywhere. If you want a career working with animation then you really need to graduate from college in a good, recognized animation program.

Once you have your Animation qualification you can work in 2D or 3D animation in so many types of medium.

You could be helping create feature films. Movie studies employ hordes of animators who are kept busy behind the scenes adding special effects, crowd scenes and helping add to fight scenes. Take two recent block busters – The King’s Speech and The Black Swan. Both of these movies had crowd scenes which were added by animators. The Black Swan gained her feathers from the animator – they even won awards (The BAFTA) for their work on the movie. Take any major block buster and, with a trained eye, you can see the animation that has been added. Why hire hoards of extras when you can animate them in. The beach scenes that so accurately portrayed the Dunkirk evacuation in the movie The Redemption, were created by animators from just four extras.

Pixar of course has made animation an extremely popular career and they started as a few Disney animators and in a few short years now produce several block busters a year. A job with Pixar would be many people’s goal.

Video games software houses, which are now multi-million dollar companies, always want good animators that can produce the millions of animations that make up a good game nowadays.

Television, particularly children’s television always wants animators, not just for children’s cartoons but also for those large multi million dollar series that need good backgrounds and great chase scenes.

Look at many TV commercials and you will see the animator’s work, making cartoon icons, packages look real, cars move fast and people do almost impossible things.

If you want to work more behind scenes they perhaps character design or story boarding is for you?

Marketing, of course always requires animators, not only in story boarding but also in adverts and branding.

So if you are artistic you should consider enrolling in a recognized animation program and becoming an animation expert.

About the Author

St. Clair College's animation program is a great choice for anyone looking to attend an animation college. To read more about St. Clair's animation program, see http://www.stclaircollege.ca/programs/postsec/animation/