Is 2D Animation Right For Me?

An obvious question you should ask yourself before pursuing the training required to become a 2D Animator is whether or not 2D animation is your career path. There are a few considerations you should consider, including the workload, standard job responsibilities, job opportunities, and other intangibles like where the jobs tend to be located. In general, if you are a creatively-minded person who wants to work on a diverse array of interesting and evocative art projects, 2D animation might be worth considering. Read on to learn about a few more of the important things to consider about a career in 2D animation.

What is a 2D Animator?

2D Animators are creative professionals who plan, design, and build two-dimensional animated assets in everything from traditional animation and video games to digital advertising and user interfaces. As long as a digital asset is made to move, it is likely that a 2D Animator was involved in the process. 2D Animators may also be involved in the development, design, planning, or storyboarding phases of a given project, depending on their level of expertise and the kind of project in question. On the whole, 2D animation is a versatile skill used in various industries and fields, making it an ideal career path for anyone interested in a creative career.

In today’s world, unless a project consciously uses the unique affordances of hand-drawn animation, almost all 2D animation work is computer-assisted. This shift means most animators have begun using computer design applications such as Adobe After Effects or Premiere Pro to add the illusion of motion to a set of static images. 2D Animators may also use tools like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to construct certain kinds of specific animated assets, such as moving digital logos or online GIFs. This emphasis on digitally aided animation tools means that your training as a 2D Animator will cover a lot of technical training.

Read more about what a 2D Animator does. 

Why Become a 2D Animator?

Becoming a 2D Animator is an excellent opportunity to turn your creative passions into a long-term career. Those with the dedication to work in the industry can find themselves working on incredibly elaborate and exciting projects. If you have ever dreamed of working on a major Hollywood film, an animated movie, a television show, a video game project, or dozens of other creative collaborative projects, becoming a 2D Animator is a way to make that dream a reality. These jobs are both in-demand and relatively well-compensated, plus, there is a great deal of opportunity for advancement within the industry.

For those not interested in starting a new career, learning 2D animation is still a great way to express yourself creatively and expand on your personal creative toolkit even if you aren’t looking to work in the industry. Whether you want to create your own animated logo for your small business website, animate your own online videos as a hobbyist, or just pick up a new creative skill for use in your future career or creative output, learning how to become a 2D animator will pay dividends in the long run. It can enhance your existing creative projects, and open the door to new projects and opportunities.

Read more about whether 2D Animator is a good career.

Blending Creative and Technical Work

Virtually all modern animation is computer-aided in one way or another. Whether it is simple touch-ups in a program like Photoshop or the entire work drawn and animated in a program like After Effects, working as a 2D Animator will require you to blend your creative skills with technical proficiency using tools like Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro. This makes the field ideal for anyone who wants to take advantage of the expanded digital canvas offered by a computer-aided animation application. 

This does mean that becoming a 2D Animator will require learning an array of design applications rather than learning visual art skills like drawing. Some artists may not want to spend most of their time sitting in front of a computer, making 2D animation a less desirable career path. This is especially true for aspiring animators who became attracted to the field because of its rich tradition of hand-drawn animation. These projects still exist, but they are much fewer and farther between.

Collaborative Creativity

2D Animators working in studios or other design firms will most frequently be working as part of a team. They will work horizontally alongside fellow animators on aspects of a project and vertically with other creatives working on different parts of the project, such as storyboard artists, editors, actors, or clients. Animation is a largely collaborative art form, and if you are working on a project of any size, you can expect to be part of a massive team working on the same project. This means that you can expect to build close relationships and create networks with the members of the studio that you work with most frequently.

This can be somewhat frustrating for artists who don’t like to rely upon others or aren’t interested in leveling off their style or voice to fit a coherent design philosophy. Entry-level 2D Animators will have little say about how a project develops and will frequently be assigned tasks without meaningful input. While being in the field long enough will increase your opportunities to contribute to a creative project's direction, you will likely work as a rank-and-file animator early in the process. In addition, working as part of a large team means that there is always the chance that things outside of your control end up making a project require more work.

2D, 3D, or Both?

An important consideration when looking to become a 2D Animator is the opportunity cost associated with that kind of training. While there are ample job opportunities for 2D Animators, with the rise of computer-aided animation, more and more projects are emphasizing 3D animation, which has become far more accessible and visually realistic in the past several years. Owing to this, pure 2D animation jobs are becoming rarer, and they are increasingly found in niche fields like television animation. This may not be a downside for many people, particularly those who aspire to work in the few remaining harbors of traditional 2D animation work, but it is worth considering.

The alternative option is whether you want to complement your 2D animation skills with 3D animation training or prefer to specialize in one or the other. Learning both skills will take a significant amount of time but it will open up more job opportunities since you can work on a wider array of projects. The choice to specialize will mostly come down to what kinds of projects you would prefer to work on. 2D animation will lead you to more traditional projects alongside more minor work on digital assets, while 3D animation training will likely lead you to working on more elaborate compositing and rendering projects.

Locations of Jobs

For non-self-employed 2D Animators, most jobs are either in the film and television industry or the software development industry. Since these industries tend to be clustered in certain metropolitan areas, working as a 2D Animator will most likely require you to move to a city where the jobs are. For example, since it is home to Hollywood, nearly 25% of all animator positions are located in Los Angeles. Another 10% are in Seattle (most of which are in the field of consumer software). This means that if you want to find work as an animator, you are likely to move to one of the coasts.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as there are many great cities for 2D Animators to work in. However, it helps to be aware going into your training that working as a 2D Animator may require you to relocate to one of the cities where most jobs are located. Overall, finding a job in one of these cities will correlate with a higher salary but also a higher cost of living.

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. 

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

• Before you commit to a training program to become a 2D Animator, there are a few things you may want to consider.
• Working as a 2D Animator will usually mean performing a lot of technical computer-aided animation work as part of a large team of animators. Especially for entry-level animators, this can make the work feel rote.
• You’ll also want to consider the opportunity costs associated with learning 2D animation skills, 3D animation skills, or both since each path has its own set of affordances and job opportunities.
• Finally, you’ll want to consider whether or not you are willing to move to find a 2D animation job.
• If you decide that 2D animation is the right career path for you, you may consider enrolling in an in-person or live online comprehensive motion graphics training program through Noble Desktop.