Daily Life of a 2D Animator

The day-to-day tasks of a 2D Animator will differ substantially depending on the type of project you are working on and where in that project you currently are. However, while a 2D animator working for a television animation company will have a very different workday from an animator working for an advertising agency, some daily tasks and responsibilities will be relatively similar. Entry-level animators will have minimal involvement in the creative planning and will be expected to work on disparate projects as needed. While this will change over time, aspiring 2D Animators just beginning their careers will have to become used to a fairly standard cycle of assignments and workflow. Learning these processes and standard working conditions will be important for acclimating to the job and setting yourself up for long-term success.

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. 

2D Animator Specializations

2D animation is a varied enough career field that there are a ton of different job titles and specializations that you can pursue to find the career path that is right for you. Whether you want to specialize in a specific field or medium or hope to find a job that prioritizes your creative vision, there is likely a career path that fits your needs within the field of 2D animation. Some basic job titles include 2D Animator, Animator, Visual Effects Artist, and Character Animator. These positions will require you to demonstrate proficiency in motion graphics design skills, including using programs like Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro.

More specialized job titles include jobs that deal with pretty specific mediums, such as Visual Designers who work to design web applications, digital interfaces, and mobile applications, or Game Designers, who work on video games and mobile games. These animators will have many of the same job responsibilities, but they may require additional training to specialize in their given field. There are also job titles reserved for larger studios that need individuals to specialize in a specific element of the animation process. These range from jobs like Storyboard Artists who work on the pre-planning stage of an animation project to Compositors and Inbetweeners who work on ensuring that the digitally animated effects added to a project come out looking like the production teams desire them to look.

Read more about other job titles related to 2D Animator.

Starting Your Day

Most 2D animation work is done on computers and takes place either in a dedicated animation studio (for larger firms) or in a home office (for animators working from home or freelancers). The layout of an individual studio will vary from firm to firm. Still, generally, you can expect to be working near your colleagues, especially if you are collaborating on a project.

9 AM:

How a 2D Animator starts their day will mostly depend on the size of the project they are working on and the current stage of the project they are in. If a 2D Animator is working on a large film project for instance, they may have little direct oversight of their assignment and they will simply need to update a supervisor on the progress they are making before going about their animation work. If they are at the beginning of an assignment for an advertising campaign, they may receive detailed instructions pertaining to the work they need to start that day. If they are just completing a project, they may receive notes on their final animation and be tasked with addressing the feedback before the project is finalized.

Regardless, it is likely that a 2D Animator will need to start their day by checking in on a group message or workflow system to see if there are any specific tasks laid out for them for that day. They may also need to communicate with direct supervisors or have live or digital team meetings where they are given their day’s tasks. Many projects often take multiple days, so sometimes, this can be pretty minimal.

11 AM:

Since 2D Animation is most commonly associated with the film and television industry, these are the largest and most elaborate projects they may be involved with. However, even 2D Animators working in other industries may be tasked with designing and animating significantly elaborate assets for things like online advertising campaigns or video games, depending on the industry you are working in. These projects can be challenging to manage but they tend to be reasonably discrete tasks, which can make breaking them down all the more simple. You may need to draw or illustrate various aspects of a larger design vision or they may be tasked with something specific, like adding movement to a specific character sprite. The specific tasks will vary from industry to industry, but the overall process of working on small aspects of a large project will carry over relatively consistently.

2D Animators are likely to be working directly with their colleagues on collaborative projects to distribute workload on a massive animation project. They may work with one another face-to-face in an office setting or regularly share their work using a collaborative design platform or distributed workspace chat (like Slack). Entry-level 2D Animators are unlikely to regularly interface with clients (unless they are freelancing). However, more senior animators may be heavily involved in development processes like meetings with clients, storyboarding work, or pre-production work.

2 PM:

2D Animators may also be tasked with very small animation projects that don’t require a lot of work or attention but do need to be completed in a short period of time, such as modifying a given asset’s color scheme or pace of movement if it needs to be used in a slightly different context. For example, a 2D Animator working in game design may be asked to make the same animated sprite several times in different color schemes. 2D Animators may also be tasked with pre-editing work, such as making changes to a given animation to ensure that it is on model with another similar asset to preserve continuity between scenes. This work is often fairly minor and supplements the larger creative aspects that take up most of their workday.

Another critical aspect of a 2D Animator’s workday is responding to feedback from supervisors or other stakeholders. It is most likely that you will receive direct feedback from an immediate supervisor or team manager, and they will be fairly direct in telling you what needs to be changed for the project to be finished. Less commonly, you may receive generalized feedback from higher-ups and editors who pass along feedback for your later work. This feedback tends to come much more sporadically, but it is also important to consider.

5 PM:

For most 2D Animators, wrapping up your workday will mostly likely consist of informing a direct supervisor that you are done and communicating to them what work has been accomplished during the day so that they are aware of whether or not the project is on pace for completion. This can often be as simple as producing an end-of-day report, or it can be as complex as submitting files for review. This is likely to change depending on the stage and scope of the project as well as the individual firm an animator is working at.

For the most part, 2D Animators won’t have to do any significant rendering or other computer power-intensive tasks, so they are more or less free to leave their existing work in its current state overnight. Unless they are reaching the point where they need to start preparing their work for final submission or they are needing to present their work to a specific stakeholder, it is unlikely that 2D Animators need to do any special work at the end of the day.

After Work

Crunch time is unfortunately very common in many animation and design industries because of how deadline-focused these jobs tend to be. Most 2D animation work is done on projects with fairly tight launch dates, meaning that all of the principal work needs to be completed by a specific time to ensure that the project isn’t delayed (and when some of these projects can cost millions of dollars, delays are viewed as unacceptable). This is especially true if you work for a large firm or studio since they tend to overpromise the pace at which they can deliver to win a contract or appease stakeholders.

If there is any silver lining to this, it is that it becomes clear fairly early on when a project is falling behind schedule, so it is unlikely that crunch time will sneak up on a 2D Animator. This isn’t always the case (sometimes, a significant part of the project unexpectedly collapses), but mostly, crunch time is predictable.

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.