2D Animator Job Titles

Since 2D Animation represents such a diverse range of professions and industries, it can be important to consider the job title listed on the application. This is both so that you can gauge what kind of career specialization you are looking for and help you expand your job search. For example, rather than finding work as a 2D Animator, you may find work as a Concept Artist or a Character Artist. While all of these careers fall under the general banner of 2D animation, and they all work with many of the same tools, they use those skills for different purposes, and they work on different parts of large animation projects. For example, a Concept Artist works with producers or clients to visualize the look and feel of animated assets. In contrast, a Character Artist works on principal animation work on animated elements such as characters and props.

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 Skills

2D Animators rely on many technical skills to bring their designs to life, though the importance of these tools will vary depending on the project you are working on. The most commonly used tools include Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Cinema 4D. They may also use Illustrator and XD to work on animated designs for web applications. 2D Animators will use Photoshop and Illustrator to create basic visual assets that are given motion through the traditional process of creating the illusion of motion using sequential images, and After Effects and Premiere Pro are used to alter film files to include more elaborate animated assets digitally. The amount you need to use each skill will vary depending on the job title and firm you are working for, but most 2D Animators will be expected to learn all of these tools in some capacity.

2D Animators must also demonstrate several soft skills to succeed in their long-term career goals. 2D Animators must have a creative eye that helps guide them through their design process. It doesn’t help to use a tool like Photoshop or After Effects if you aren’t making informed decisions about your design choices. Building off of this, 2D Animators should have a background in animation theory and history. The art form has developed its lexicon and theories over the last 100 years, and while you don’t need to be an expert, knowing broad trends is an important skill. Finally, since most animation work is done by teams of animators working together, it is important to master basic teamwork skills like communication, deadline management, and responsiveness to feedback.

Read more about what skills you need to become a 2D Animator.

2D Animator Career Path

There is no single path to start a career in 2D animation, though there are a few common steps that most animators take over the course of their careers. The first step is to complete the necessary skills training required of a professional animator. There are a few ways to go about this. While most animators attend a four-year college or university to receive their training, this isn’t strictly necessary, as it is possible to start a career in 2D animation without a degree. However, you are likely to need some kind of professional skills training, whether that be a college education, a career-focused training program, or a substantial amount of on-the-job training in another position.

According to the BLS, most 2D Animators are either self-employed, working as freelancers, or working for a studio firm that takes on contract work. This means that at the entry level of your employment, you can expect to be working on a wide variety of disparate projects and handling different aspects of those projects as the need arises. As you gain experience and begin to develop your own creative voice as an animator, you will have the opportunity to either start working for a studio or company whose output matches your creative interests (perhaps in the film industry or the gaming industry), or you can start taking up a management position at a contracted studio. With enough experience, you may be able to find work in a significant higher-up position as a lead animator or even a chief creative director in which you will steer the direction of significant projects. Particularly motivated and successful animators may even be able to start their own studios.

Read more about the typical 2D Animator career path.

2D Animator

2D Animator is the baseline job title associated with animation and it is often related to positions like Junior Animator or Animation Assistant. These are your rank-and-file animators who work on a diverse range of different projects, often handling the most straightforward elements of the creative process. 2D Animators aren’t the assembly line of inkers and artists that they were for decades, but they are still going to have minimal creative control over the kinds of projects that they work on and the overall design of a finished project. Most 2D Animators will be employed by large design studios. They will move from project to project as they gain the experience sufficient to start working on more advanced projects or in a more directorial capacity.

In the United States, 2D animator salaries stand at about $58,000 a year.

Lead Animator

Lead Animators are the 2D Animators responsible for more of the development, pre-production and managerial aspects of the animation process. These animators will be tasked with overseeing teams of other animators and ensuring that the work that their team produces looks and feels consistent and coherent with the work of other animation teams. They will also be more involved in the pre-production process and will likely meet with storyboard artists, concept designers, actors, and other professionals to help make the decisions that will impact how a project is meant to look and what kinds of tasks will be required of the rank-and-file animators. Lead Animators may also be responsible for regularly meeting with these professionals and stakeholders to ensure that the animation process is completed at the desired pace.

Lead Animator salaries in the US average about $78,000 a year.

Character Animator

Character Animators are specialized animators who work primarily on designing and animating principal elements of any given shot, usually characters or props. Character Animators, as the name implies, will often spend most of their time working on designing than animating the characters that make up an animated project, and they work most frequently in the film and television industry or the video game industry, with a smaller portion working in the field of advertising. Like 2D Animators, some Character Animators will work as individuals or as part of teams, while others will be given a more managerial role, leading teams and working with other creatives and stakeholders to map out the path that a project will likely take. Character Animators working in this kind of managerial capacity will need additional training in project management skills.

The starting salaries for Character Animators average about $69,000 a year.

Concept Artist

Concept Artists are narrowly focused kinds of animators who work primarily in the pre-production stage of any given project. Concept Artists are responsible for creating rough sketches, early renderings, and first-stage animations that will serve as the creative roadmap for other animators and creatives to follow when building assets for the finished project. Concept Artists tend to work on the kinds of film, television, and advertising projects (as well as game and mobile development) that utilize showy and elaborate animated models, and the profession is most often associated with genres like Science Fiction and Fantasy, but Concept Artists are employed on almost all major animation projects. Concept Artists will make less use of the technical skills involved in animation and will be tasked with more of creative work. Still, good Concept Artists know what an application is capable of, since those limitations will guide their designs.

Concept Artists make approximately $55,000 a year.

Chief Creative Officer

If you are looking at the long-term career prospects for a 2D Animator and are willing to learn other design skills, one of the highest job titles you can aspire towards is Chief Creative Officer or CCO. CCOs are high-ranking managerial positions that oversee and guide the creative output of a firm or studio. They are responsible for making the big-picture decisions that will impact the creative identity of a company, firm, or division and their creative voice serves as the guiding principle. For example, CCOs won’t simply decide how a project should be undertaken. Still, they will be in charge of deciding what projects are ultimately greenlit and what project ideas are discarded. They have many years of experience in the field, and these positions tend to be incredibly competitive since they are few and far between and are among the highest-paying positions in the industry. They are also the job that gives you the most creative freedom since you will be hired because you believe your creative voice is the right direction for an entire company or studio to follow.

Chief Creative Officer salaries vary wildly based on the firm's size, but most earn about $250,000 a year.

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.

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.