How To Become a Concept Artist

What is a Concept Artist?
A Concept Artist is a designer who visualises and creates art for characters, creatures, vehicles, environments, and other creative assets. Concept art is used to visualise ideas so that Modellers, Animators and VFX Artists can make these ideas a reality, ready for production.

What is the job?
The role of a Concept Artist involves getting the project started by imagining and sketching characters and worlds that don’t yet exist across film, animation, VFX, video games and advertising. You’ll have to apply imagination and artistic skill to create images of people, creatures, places and moods.

A Concept Artist has the opportunity to work across many areas of visual media, such as animation, comic books, and films. Any project involving a visual story will likely require a Concept Artist. You can choose to specialise in one area of concept art, such as character (producing mainly human characters), creature (illustrating non-human characters) or environmental (creating detailed scenes and worlds).

How To Become a 3D Generalist

What is a 3D Generalist?
A 3D Generalist is an individual who can work in any number of capacities on projects in the film, games and animation industries. They are fairly common in the field, and most students with little specific career experience will be prepared to start as a Generalist while they sharpen their skills.

What is the job?
The role of a 3D Generalist varies from studio to studio. However, in most positions, Generalists are responsible for modelling, rigging, animation, motion capture, painting, and sculpting. On top of this, the 3D Generalist will be responsible for anything else that the studio needs done at any given time. It’s not expected for the 3D Generalist to be an expert in every field, but it is expected that they have basic knowledge in a variety of niches.

How To Become a Junior Animator

What is a Junior Animator?
A Junior Animator, as the name suggests, is a junior member of an animation team, whether that be working on 2D, 3D model-making, stop-frame or computer-generated animation.

What is the job?
A Junior Animator’s role can involve several stages, including generating ideas, building models and rigging lighting. The role of a Junior Animator will often require the creation of storyboards that depict the script and narrative, which will involve drawing in 2D to create sketches, artwork or illustrations. On top of this, you will be responsible for developing the timing and pace of the movements of characters or objects during the sequence of images, as well as ensuring they follow the soundtrack and audio requirements.

As a Junior Animator, you will be expected to be able to use technical software packages, such as Flash, 3Ds Max, Maya and LightWave. The basic skill of animation still relies heavily on artistic ability, but there is an ever increasing need for animators to be familiar with technical computer packages.

How To Become an Animation Producer

What is an Animation Producer?
An Animation Producer is an individual who takes on the role of Producer for an animated film or TV series. The Animation Producer is responsible for ensuring the final end product is produced on time, and within the budget allocated.

What is the Job?
The job of Animation Producer involves acting as the pathway for communication between the executives who run a studio, and the creative individuals who are actually making the animated product. Therefore, it is the Animation Producer’s job to budget and control the costs of making the production, in order to keep the executives happy but also to ensure that the creative individuals are able to make a final product that meets their expectations.

The Animation Producer is usually the highest ranking individual who is actually available day-to-day on a production, and therefore anything that goes wrong is seen as their responsibility. They will have to discuss any problems that arise, or any budgetary issues that the company has, with the executives. It is up to the Animation Producer to ensure that the final product is not delivered late, and is not over budget – and if it looks as if it will be, it is their job to fix things.

How To Become a Texture Artist

What is a Texture Artist?
A Texture Artist is responsible for creating photorealistic textures for mapping onto 3D objects used in video games, films, television, music videos, or commercials.

What is the Job?
Texture Artists use a variety of software systems to create textures for environments, characters, objects, and props within animated films, television shows and video games. These textures will often be created from scratch, in which case the artist invents their own own textures using their imagination and creativity. Other times, the textures can be found in real life, such as wrinkles, fur, scales and sweat.

Texture Artists make 3D models look believable and life-like. They will often add imperfections, for example rust to oil cans, scuffs to trainers and reflections to windows to give the object an extra dimension. They are concerned with making surfaces realistic, in order to help the player or viewer forget that they are experiencing a computer-generated environment.

How To Become a Compositor

How to become a Compositor

What is a Compositor?
You’ll find Compositors working in animation and post-production. They are the ones with all the technical know-how, who bring the various elements of the production together – responsible for constructing the final image of an animation sequence. This is done by combining layers of previously created material together into the finished product. It is primarily a 2D role within the 3D world of CGI and Visual effects.

What is the Job?
A Compositor works at the end of the production process. They receive materials from other stages of the process, including rendered computer animation, graphics, special effects, live action footage, 2D animation, static background plates, and more. The Compositor is responsible for ensuring all these elements are united in a way that maintains a similar style for the final image.

Compositors work closely with other members of the team to ensure that lighting is right, colour levels and blacks match, shadows are convincing, motion blur is added if needed, mattes are created where necessary, and rotoscoping is completed. The primary roles of a Compositor include working to make sure the green screen seamlessly works throughout a film, as well as digital image manipulation. The secondary roles include physical computing and background editing.

How To Become an Animator

How to become an animator

What is an Animator?

While most of an Animator’s job today consists of working with design or 3D software which requires specific technical expertise, producing animation remains mainly a creative job, involving talent, inspiration and creativity.

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Tag: Animation