2D Animator Career Path

If you are interested in becoming a 2D Animator, you are probably interested in learning about the long-term career prospects of the field and the kinds of career paths you may take as you gain experience. For most 2D Animators, there are two career paths to follow. You can either become more specialized in your work or you can become more involved in the overall creative process (many animators do both, but if they do both, their work is likely to fall under a different category of job titles).

Getting Started

The first step is to become familiar with the basic responsibilities of a 2D Animator to judge if this is the right career path for you. There are many free resources available for students looking to learn 2D animation, and these are ideal places to start becoming familiar with the ins and outs of the field. Not only should you familiarize yourself with the tools you will need to use in a professional context, but you should also familiarize yourself with the basic principles of 2D animation as a field.

Another important part of the process is ensuring that you have the skills and training necessary to be competitive on the job market. While most 2D Animators have a college degree, there are viable paths to become a professional animator without a college degree. You’ll need to receive professional skills training, such as the training offered in one of Noble Desktop’s motion graphics certificate programs. These training programs will help you build the skills necessary for finding an entry-level position in 2D animation.

Do I Need a Degree to Become a 2D Animator?

Most 2D Animators enter the field with a college degree, with the most common majors being computer animation, media arts, illustration, or digital arts. While most 2D Animators will have a college degree in animation or another related field, like visual arts, it isn’t a strict requirement to get your motion graphics training through a four-year degree program. Many successful 2D Animators got their start without a college degree, and you shouldn’t be turned off from pursuing a career in animation if you didn’t major in it. Whether you have a degree in an unrelated field or no degree, there are still viable paths you can take to build your career in 2D animation.

Students without college degrees will need a significant amount of supplemental training to demonstrate that they have comparable skills to prospective candidates who did graduate from a college computer animation program. This training is most commonly acquired in a career-focused skills development program, such as the career-certificate programs offered through Noble Desktop. These accelerated programs will teach students how to work as 2D Animators and set them up for success on the job market with targeted professionalization seminars. Students without degrees will still lag in terms of things like networking opportunities, and they will need to do more work to build their portfolios and job materials. Still, they will be well-positioned to enter the job market as competitive candidates for 2D Animation jobs.

Read more about if you need a degree to become a 2D Animator. 

Internships

One of the first steps many aspiring animators take is gaining industry experience by working as an intern. Interns are temporary workers brought into a company to do simple tasks and assignments while building on-the-job experience and networking skills. While unpaid internships are slowly falling out of favor, working an internship will likely pay much less than the market rate since the job is expected to be temporary and of mutual benefit. How much an internship will benefit you is hard to gauge without knowing the specifics, so you’ll have to judge whether or not the experience you gain on the job is worth the lowered pay. 

Entry-Level 2D Animator Jobs

Entry-level 2D animation jobs, tend to carry titles like 2D Animator, Associate Animator, Junior Animator, or more specialized titles like Concept Artist or Character Artist. Most of these positions are filled by rank-and-file animators who receive assignments for any given project and are tasked with completing those assignments within the specifications laid out by team leaders, project managers, or stakeholders. Outside of a few large studios, it is likely that these animators will frequently move from project to project, performing the manual labor of animating projects and assets as part of a team of animators. In the US, entry-level 2D Animators can expect to make around $58,000.

Mid-Level 2D Animator Jobs

There are two common paths that 2D Animators take once they have enough experience in the industry to start searching for mid-level positions. Many animators strive to find work as Lead Animators or Team Managers. These animators are given increased creative responsibilities, and they are charged with leading teams of entry-level animators. Many Lead Animators work directly with other creatives, such as storyboard artists, directors, editors, writers, actors, and other stakeholders, to plan a project and decide precisely how they want the finished project to appear. While they will still be working alongside creatives and have a large part of the project mapped out for them, this is the first level of 2D animation jobs where you really start to have creative control over the whole project.

The other common route that 2D Animators take is to learn complementary skills and expand into a related career field. The two most common paths are learning 3D animation and video editing. Learning these skills will open up new opportunities on the job market, and they will expand the scope of creative projects that an animator can work on. Learning 3D animation skills, in particular, will be invaluable for aspiring animators since more and more projects are shifting from traditional 2D animation to 3D animation, including many film and television projects. While not necessarily required to compete for a job, learning these skills is a useful way to expand your knowledge and talents without leaving the world of 2D animation behind.

Senior 2D Animator Jobs

The most senior 2D Animator jobs are reserved for creatives whose original voice becomes a sought-after commodity among studios and other animation houses. Senior Animators will be tasked with leading large teams of animators and contributing significantly to the early stages of a project's design and conceptualization phases. Senior Animators are brought onto a studio or firm to have the added creative freedom to guide projects in the direction of their choosing. This is a far more creative role than earlier design work. Still, it comes with the caveat of expecting more detailed skills from 2D Animators (including team leadership skills) and placing greater responsibility on them and their decisions regarding the success of a project.

Especially skilled 2D Animators may try to find work as Chief Creative Officers (titles vary from one firm to another). CCOs are responsible for steering the creative direction of all aspects of a studio or firm. They will be responsible for selecting the kinds of projects undertaken, potentially working with clients directly to decide whether or not a given project fits within the scope of the studio’s mission statement. CCOs have a challenging job and receive fairly decent compensation for their work, with CCO salaries hovering around $225,000 a year nationwide.

Another Path: Freelancing

An alternative career path for 2D Animators is finding work as a freelancer. Freelancers work outside of the studio system, accepting jobs as they see fit and working alongside clients to ensure that a given project is completed to the client’s specifications. Freelancers will be able to escape the humdrum work of a rank-and-file 2D Animator since freelancers will have significantly more control over the projects they accept and the creative direction those projects take. The drawback to freelancing is that you won’t have teams of professionals easing or eliminating the other aspects of the job. Freelance 2D Animators must locate and woo clients and handle invoicing taxes and other incidental costs. Many 2D Animators may not be interested in the public relations work associated with being a successful freelancer 2D Animator.

One of the ultimate goals of working as a freelance 2D Animator is the promise of starting your own professional design studio. Many 2D Animators strive to form their own creative businesses and work functionally as CCO of their own companies. This admirable goal is achievable with hard work, dedication, and perseverance, but it is also at the long end of the career path. Very few people can form a successful animation studio overnight.

How Do I Find A 2D Animator Job?

Finding a job as a 2D Animator can seem daunting at first, especially given how many different job titles there are for entry-level 2D animation work. Still, there are a few consistent things you’ll need to consider when looking for a job in the field. 

The first, and most obvious, step is to find a job opening that matches your interests and level of training/experience. Most job offerings these days are posted on aggregate sites like Glassdoor.com, Indeed.com, or LinkedIn. Since these are large job aggregation sites, you’ll need to play around with your search terms a bit to find the job that best fits your needs. You’ll also want to check things like posted job requirements to see if you fit the bill that the company is looking for and you’ll want to make mundane considerations like ‘how long ago was this job posted,’ to gauge whether or not you think that you might be too late to get your application noticed (a real downside to these sites is that many companies don’t frequently update their postings to account for a job being filled).

Once you’ve found a job posting, you’ll want to start building your job materials to have the most competitive shot at landing the position. Noble provides detailed articles on each of the major aspects of your job materials, and at minimum, you’ll need to ensure that your resume, cover letter, and portfolio are strong enough to warrant consideration. The portfolio in particular will be the most important part of your application since it is the part of your materials that demonstrate to potential employers the kinds of skills that you possess and the kinds of projects that you are best suited to work on.

Learn the Skills to Become a 2D Animator at Noble Desktop

Once you’ve committed to learning the skills necessary to become a 2D Animator, Noble Desktop is available to make that dream a reality through professional skills instruction. Noble offers a wide array of 2D animation classes, available in person or online, and all of these classes are taught by expert instructors with years of on-the-job experience. This structure means that regardless of how your course is delivered, you’ll receive real-time instruction and be able to ask questions and receive personalized feedback on your work. Similarly, no matter whether you take the course in person or online, you’ll benefit from small class sizes and all of the professionalization support options, including one-on-one career mentoring in the career-certificate programs. Finally, every Noble class comes with the option for a free retake within one year, meaning that you’ll have the chance to build your portfolio and get even more hands-on experience in preparation for entering the job market.

Students interested in a career change may consider enrolling in Noble’s Motion Graphics Certificate program. This class aims to teach students how to use tools like Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro to create evocative 2D and 3D animated assets for many practical projects. In this class, students will be guided through the process of using After Effects to animate text, photos, and videos, and they will learn how to modify these animations in subtle but perceptible ways slightly. Students will also learn how to create animated images using layered Photoshop and Illustrator files (this course does not include instruction in either of these tools, they are prerequisites for taking the course). Finally, students will learn how to use Premiere Pro to edit their animated assets into video files. All this work will culminate in a series of professionalization seminars, including a portfolio-building workshop and a one-on-one mentorship session, intended to prepare students for a career as a 2D or 3D Animator.

Students who aren’t ready to make a significant career shift but do want to learn 2D animation skills may want to consider one of Noble’s many motion graphics bootcamps. These classes include the Adobe After Effects Bootcamp, which provides students with guided instruction in the use of After Effects for creating animated digital assets and the Adobe Premiere Pro Bootcamp, which teaches students how to use that program to compile their animated assets into a completed project. These courses are excellent starting points for new animators looking to learn the trade. However, they don’t provide students with any of the professionalization services offered through Noble’s career certificate programs.

Finally, students who aren’t sure that they want to start learning 2D animation but are intrigued by the possibility should consult some of Noble’s free training resources to learn more. Noble’s Learn 2D Animation page, as well as their Learn After Effects and Learn Premiere Pro page compiles a weird range of articles, free seminars and resources that students can use to help them on their 2D Animation career path. Noble also provides prospective 2D Animators with a career information hub to help them decide if a career change is right for them.

Key Takeaways

• There are a few major career paths that a 2D Animator can follow to ensure that they are successful in the long term.
• 2D Animators can either build new, complementary skills (such as 3D animation or video editing) or learn project and team management skills to improve their standings as mid-level 2D Animators.
• Experienced 2D Animators may be hired as Senior Animators or even Chief Creative Officers. In either position, the animator will have a great deal of direct control over the creative direction of a studio.
• Another route that aspiring animators can take is starting a career as a freelancer. These animators will have increased creative control over the kinds of work they animate, but they will need to find and work with clients, handle payroll and tax concerns and generally work harder to get a foothold in the industry.
• Aspiring Animators wanting to learn entry-level skills or advanced techniques should consider enrolling in one of Noble’s in-person or live online motion graphics training programs to ensure they have the skills they need to succeed in 2D animation.