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An animator creates animation by creating sequential images on a frame that make an illusion of movement of images. Animators create the images and decide the flow of motion in each image to put into the frame. There are several animators may be required for an animation movie or presentations. There are varieties of animations are required in film industry, television, the Internet and video games. Animators have wide fields of career and exploration.

Knowledge for Animator

An animator should know all the relevant activities like storyboard preparation, layout fixation, sound incorporation, background music sense, lighting, and camera angles etc. Hence, the animator can keep everything in mind when design and can instruct the respective artists whenever required. Animators are specialized in two categories. One is character animator, who is specialized in character (human, animal) movement, dialogue, acting, etc. and other is special effects animator, who animates objects that is not a character such as vehicles, road, and natural phenomena such as rain, snow, and water.

The job

Animators create sequential motion based drawings that communicate a message to the viewer. Animators should be graphic artist, or knowledge on graphic principles. They have to draw cells, which are individual pictures strung together to create the illusion of motion. Most of the animators are computer aided or technical animators. They may be involved in the graphics motion work or if less graphic design expertise, can work on animation programs such as the Macromedia Director, Flash and others. All most all animators work as part of a team and have a specific area of specialization such as drawing skill, color compositions, animation software tool expert.

The modules are divided among the animators in a animation project. Some of them work on certain characters, sequences, scenes, objects; storyboard, screen play and others have the job of assembling these pieces into a coherent whole. Scripting and planning are critical to success for the large picture animator. Most animation jobs are in commercials utility, where more than 20 percent have animated sequences and rest in form of cartoons.

Qualifications and Skills

The basic qualification should be a graduate in fine arts and followed by computer or digital format knowledge. The formal education or training is better for working in good firms. Some exceptional talent having very good of sense of art have also opportunity in animation industries. But professionalism is expected in this industry in both the cases. A bachelor's degree or graduate in graphic design with computer skills is can be a part of any animation project. An animation project needs senior and junior animators to work in different modules. A senior animator has responsible to make a quality product as per requirement or designed.

Exceptional Skills

There are some exceptional ideas help a lot like idea on camera angle, decision of light setting in graphics, or using of computer workstations and software tool etc. Maintaining standard quality and compatibility are most important for an aspiring animator. Working under an excellent animator teaches a lot on these. There are many established animators, game designers, and programmers guide aspiring animators. The Animation industry is very popular and hot, so any creative fine arts students have keen interest must go for a career as animator. But the success comes to them who are excellent and extreme in this.