Special Effects Artists and Animator Create special effects or animations using film, video, computers, or other electronic tools and media for use in products, such as computer games, movies, music videos, and commercials.
Special Effects Artists and Animator is Also Know as
In different settings, Special Effects Artists and Animator is titled as
- 3D Animator (Three-Dimensional Animator)
- 3D Artist (Three-Dimensional Artist)
- Animator
- Artist
- Digital Artist
- Graphic Artist
- Illustrator
- Motion Graphics Artist
- Multimedia Producer
Education and Training of Special Effects Artists and Animator
Special Effects Artists and Animator is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Special Effects Artists and Animator
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Education Required for Special Effects Artists and Animator
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Degrees Related to Special Effects Artists and Animator
- Bachelor in Animation, Interactive Technology, Video Graphics,
- Associate Degree Courses in Animation, Interactive Technology, Video Graphics,
- Masters Degree Courses in Animation, Interactive Technology, Video Graphics,
- Bachelor in Web Page, Digital/Multimedia and Information Resou
- Associate Degree Courses in Web Page, Digital/Multimedia and Information Resou
- Masters Degree Courses in Web Page, Digital/Multimedia and Information Resou
- Bachelor in Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation
- Associate Degree Courses in Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation
- Masters Degree Courses in Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation
- Bachelor in Digital Arts
- Associate Degree Courses in Digital Arts
- Masters Degree Courses in Digital Arts
- Bachelor in Graphic Design
- Associate Degree Courses in Graphic Design
- Masters Degree Courses in Graphic Design
- Bachelor in Game and Interactive Media Design
- Associate Degree Courses in Game and Interactive Media Design
- Masters Degree Courses in Game and Interactive Media Design
Training Required for Special Effects Artists and Animator
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Special Effects Artists and Animator in different industries are
- Graphic Designers
- Film and Video Editors
- Video Game Designers
- Art Directors
- Desktop Publishers
- Producers and Directors
- Web and Digital Interface Designers
- Craft Artists
- Media Technical Directors/Managers
- Commercial and Industrial Designers
- Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators
- Prepress Technicians and Workers
- Photographers
- Audio and Video Technicians
- Writers and Authors
- Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
- Set and Exhibit Designers
- Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers
- Web Developers
- Sound Engineering Technicians
What Do Special Effects Artists and Animator do?
- Design complex graphics and animation, using independent judgment, creativity, and computer equipment.
- Create two-dimensional and three-dimensional images depicting objects in motion or illustrating a process, using computer animation or modeling programs.
- Make objects or characters appear lifelike by manipulating light, color, texture, shadow, and transparency, or manipulating static images to give the illusion of motion.
- Assemble, typeset, scan, and produce digital camera-ready art or film negatives and printer's proofs.
- Apply story development, directing, cinematography, and editing to animation to create storyboards that show the flow of the animation and map out key scenes and characters.
- Script, plan, and create animated narrative sequences under tight deadlines, using computer software and hand drawing techniques.
- Create basic designs, drawings, and illustrations for product labels, cartons, direct mail, or television.
- Create pen-and-paper images to be scanned, edited, colored, textured, or animated by computer.
- Develop briefings, brochures, multimedia presentations, web pages, promotional products, technical illustrations, and computer artwork for use in products, technical manuals, literature, newsletters, and slide shows.
- Use models to simulate the behavior of animated objects in the finished sequence.
- Create and install special effects as required by the script, mixing chemicals and fabricating needed parts from wood, metal, plaster, and clay.
- Participate in design and production of multimedia campaigns, handling budgeting and scheduling, and assisting with such responsibilities as production coordination, background design, and progress tracking.
- Convert real objects to animated objects through modeling, using techniques such as optical scanning.
- Implement and maintain configuration control systems.
Qualities of Good Special Effects Artists and Animator
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Tools Used by Special Effects Artists and Animator
- Digital paper
- Digital pens
- Panoramic digital cameras
- Personal computers
Technology Skills required for Special Effects Artists and Animator
- Ability Photopaint
- ACD Systems Canvas
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe ActionScript
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe AIR
- Adobe Creative Cloud software
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Adobe Director
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Adobe Flex
- Adobe FreeHand MX
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe ImageReady
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- AJAX
- Ambient Design ArtRage
- Apple DrawBerry
- Apple Final Cut Pro
- Apple macOS
- Aqsis Renderer
- Autodesk 3ds Max
- Autodesk 3ds Max Design
- Autodesk Alias Design
- Autodesk Alias Surface
- Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D
- Autodesk Combustion
- Autodesk Maya
- Autodesk MotionBuilder
- Autodesk Mudbox
- Autodesk SketchBook Pro
- Autodesk SoftImage
- AutoDesSys form Z
- AutoQ3D
- Blender
- Bohemian Coding DrawIt
- Bunkspeed HyperDrive
- Bunkspeed HyperMove
- C
- C++
- Caligari Corporation trueSpace
- Cascading style sheets CSS
- Celsys RETAS
- Chaos Group V-Ray
- Character Studio
- Cheetah3D
- Code libraries
- Component libraries
- Corel CorelDraw Graphics Suite
- Corel Painter
- Crytek CryEngine
- Cybermotion 3D Designer
- DAZ Productions Bryce
- DAZ Productions Carrara
- Drupal
- DX Studio
- Dynamic hypertext markup language DHTML
- e-on software Vue
- Electric Rain Swift 3D Xpress
- Extensible hypertext markup language XHTML
- Extensible markup language XML
- Figma
- Freeverse Lineform
- Google Sites
- HASH Animation:Master
- Hypertext markup language HTML
- Indigo Renderer
- Inivis AC3D
- JavaScript
- jQuery
- Luxology Modo
- Luxrender
- MagicTracer
- Massive Jet
- Maxon BodyPaint 3D
- Maxon Cinema 4D
- MaxScript
- Maya Embedded Language MEL
- Mental Images Mental Ray
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Expression Design
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Silverlight
- Microsoft Visio
- Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Word
- Nevercenter Silo
- NewTek Lightwave 3D
- Next Limit Maxwell Render
- NodeBox
- NVDIA Gelato
- Object-oriented programming languages
- Perforce Helix software
- PHP
- Pixar RenderMan Studio
- Pixarra TwistedBrush
- Pixelmator
- Pixologic Zbrush
- Python
- Quad Software Grome
- QuarkXPress
- RealFlow
- Satori Paint
- Serif DrawPlus
- Side Effects Software Houdini
- SideFX Houdini
- sK1
- Skencil
- SmithMicro Anime Studio
- SmithMicro Manga Studio
- SmithMicro SoftwarePoser
- Social media sites
- solidThinking
- SplutterFish Brazil
- Sunflow Render System
- TechSmith Camtasia
- Three-dimensional graphics software
- Trapcode Particular
- Trimble SketchUp Pro
- Two-dimensional graphics software
- Unity Technologies Unity
- UNIX
- Unreal Technology Unreal Engine
- VectorDesigner
- Xara Designer Pro
- XML User Interface XUI
- YouTube