Best Cities for 2D Animators

When starting a career as a 2D Animator, you may want to consider your willingness to move to find a job. Salaries are far higher in cities than elsewhere, and most 2D animation studios are located in major metropolitan areas. While you can freelance from anywhere in the country, it is unlikely that you can find stable employment at a large animation studio without living near a large city. However, these cities can be excellent places to live, and there are many vibrant metropolitan areas in which you can try and find 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. 

What Makes a City Good for 2D Animators?

Aspiring 2D Animators might be wondering what factors they should consider when looking for a career in a new city. Certain factors apply to almost all jobs, like starting salaries and job opportunities, and there are factors unique to creative fields, like adjacency to other creative industries

Job Opportunities

The most important question when looking for a job in a new city is to ask how many jobs exist in that city. You’ll want to consider the employment outlooks for 2D Animators to gauge whether or not moving will open up more job opportunities than it would foreclose. For example, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Los Angeles and Seattle have far more job openings for Special Effects Artists and Animators than any other cities in the country. This is also important to consider because the list of cities with an abundance of 2D animation jobs doesn’t always map neatly onto population or overall growth (for example, Washington DC is generally a pretty good place to find employment, but that metro area doesn’t even make the top 10 for 2D Animators). As a general rule, the amount of 2D Animator jobs will correlate strongly with the presence of the film and television industry.

High Salaries

The next thing to consider is whether the salary you can expect to earn in a given city is commensurate with the cost of living. Almost all salaries will be higher in a major metro than in a smaller city. Still, since the cost of living in a city is higher, aspiring 2D Animators will need to consider whether or not the increased pay compensates for the increased costs. For example, most of the highest-paying jobs in the industry are on the west coast, and even cities like Portland and San Jose see 2D Animators making more than they would in New York or Los Angeles on average. However, these cities also have fewer positions in the industry, which is another issue to consider.

Strong 2D Animation Community

A more intangible concern that 2D Animators need to consider is whether or not there is a strong community of like-minded creatives with whom they can network and collaborate. You don’t want to feel alone and adrift, especially in a field like 2D animation, where job opportunities often require substantial networking. In most cases, the cities with the largest communities of 2D Animators are the cities that are most closely associated with the film and television industry (Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta) and those with large cultural and artistic communities in general (Austin, San Jose). You may also consider looking at cities with significant arts education programs or major design colleges, such as the California Institute of Arts (Santa Clarita) or the School of Visual Arts (NYC).

Clusters of Adjacent Industries

2D Animation is an increasingly niche part of the creative design industry, so aspiring 2D Animators may want to consider looking at cities with strong communities in related creative industries. Oftentimes, there is a great deal of overlap between industries, so this isn’t too much of a concern. For example, New York, LA, and Atlanta will have large communities of every kind of artist associated with the film and television industry. However, you may want to consider your long-term career goals and consider cities like Chicago or Seattle if you are interested in digital design or tech work and cities like Austin for those interested in working in or around the game development industry.

Personal Preferences

It should be said that your job is only going to be one aspect of your life, and if you move to a new city, you should prioritize looking at cities that you might desire to live in. For some people, this means looking at cities with rich artistic and cultural traditions (like Boston or Austin), while for others, it could mean looking at cities close to nature (San Francisco, Miami, or Denver). Suppose you move to a new city for a long-term job. In that case, you will be spending years there, possibly the rest of your life, so it is important to consider whether or not you will be happy living in a given city before you start to consider things like starting salaries and companies you can work for.

Top Cities for 2D Animators 

Los Angeles, CA

Home of Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, is the premiere city to find work for virtually all creative professionals, including 2D Animators. Home to MGM, Disney, Sony Pictures, and Dreamworks, among many other small studios, LA houses most of the world's major animation studios. Owing to this, LA is home to by far the largest number of animation jobs (in total) in the country, making it an obvious choice for anyone looking to work in the entertainment industry. As of 2021, LA was the location for nearly 5,000 animator jobs, nearly triple the next city (Seattle), according to the BLS.

Not only is LA home to most of the country’s largest entertainment firms, it is also home to the country’s most well-regarded animation colleges, including the #1 school for animation, the California Institute of Arts. This means that there will always be a vibrant community of animators within the city, and being a part of this community will help you stay on top of the latest trends in the field, an important part of building solid relationships and networking opportunities.

New York City, NY

As with virtually all creative and technical jobs, New York City is a good place to start looking for employment in the field of 2D animation. New York City ranks 4th overall in terms of total jobs in the field of animation (but doesn’t scratch the top ten in terms of animation jobs per capita, which mostly speaks to just how big NYC actually is), and animators in New York have an average salary of over $95,000 a year, which is significantly above the national average (though the cost of living is much higher in NYC than the national average). New York City is also home to major animation studios like Viacom, Nickelodeon, and 4Kids Entertainment. It is the site of Broadway, where many professional creatives are employed in the theater industry itself as well as the promotional advertising industry that surrounds this cultural landmark.

Beyond Broadway, New York City is the cultural capital of the east coast and arguably of the country. No matter what kind of artistic, cultural, or social community you want to be a part of, New York City is likely to be home to multiple communities. New York also has the most museums in the country and is home to a few of the largest and most prestigious art schools in the nation.

Atlanta, GA

While you may not think of Atlanta when you think of the film and television industry, Atlanta serves as the production site for hundreds of films and television series every year. Thanks to generous tax write-offs offered by the state of Georgia, more and more studios are setting up shop in and around the Atlanta metro. Atlanta is growing so quickly in this sector that, as of 2021, studios within the city employ more animators than New York City (and in terms of per capita employment, Atlanta crushes NYC, at 0.56 jobs per thousand to NYC’s 0.15). Dubbed “the Hollywood of the South,” Atlanta is home to Turner Broadcasting and all of its subsidiaries, including studios like AMC. In addition to studios housed in Atlanta, many, many studios regularly film in the city or surrounding areas, including HBO and the Walt Disney Corporation.

Atlanta has a long history of being a cultural center of the American south and was the birthplace of many important artistic and social movements. If you are looking for a city with a rich cultural history and tradition, Atlanta is a good place to consider. Plus, one of the reasons that so many television shows film in Atlanta (aside from the tax breaks) is the wonderful natural beauty that exists in an array of national parks and preserves across Georgia.

Seattle, WA

While the film and television industry is the primary employer of 2D Animators, the software development industry doesn’t lag too far behind. Suppose you want to consider working as an animator for things like digital interfaces, web applications, new media projects, or interactive software. In that case, Seattle is a great place to consider looking for employment. Seattle is the #2 city overall in terms of animation job openings, and average salaries actually slightly edge out those in NYC and LA, with Seattle animators earning about $97,000 dollars. However, the jobs in Seattle are likely to be more tech-focused and require a slightly different skill set than those in the entertainment industry.

Seattle is home to some of the largest tech companies in the world, including Microsoft and Amazon. This means that large-scale projects are constantly being launched out of the city, and anyone interested in getting into these projects early will benefit from working in Seattle. Plus, anyone interested in working in or around the entertainment industry won’t be completely shut out since Seattle is only a few hours away from Vancouver, which is also a major player in the North American film and television industry.

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco boasts the highest mean pay for animators in the country, with jobs carrying an average salary of $119,000 a year. While it has the third highest cost of living in the country (behind fellow animation hotspots LA and NYC), this pay is almost exactly the city’s median household income. San Francisco is also at a pretty solid intersection of the tech and entertainment industries, housing movie studios like LucasFilms and Pixar Studios, very near tech headquarters for companies like Slack, Uber, and Reddit (not to mention hundreds of Silicon Valley start-ups). If you are looking for a city with a robust cultural center and a diverse set of industries to look for 2D animation work, San Francisco should be near the top of your list.

San Francisco is one of the country’s most beautiful cities, and is located on the San Francisco Bay, so if you want to live near the ocean, it is hard to do better. The San Francisco metro area includes Oakland, which has rich and vibrant cultural and artistic scenes. Living in either city and commuting to the other is a great way to open up the doors to many different career opportunities in the field of 2D animation.

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.

How to 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.