2D Animator Salary:

One of the most important questions that you will want to have answered before you start training to become a 2D Animator is how much you can expect to make. While it is a creative job, it is a job nonetheless. Your starting salary is something you should consider, especially if you are planning on moving or paying for elaborate professional development training. While a slew of individual factors will impact how much money you can earn as a 2D Animator, the median salary of a 2D Animator in the US is about $60,000 a year.

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 Affects Your Pay as a 2D Animator

Starting salaries are sometimes difficult to judge because so many different factors go into determining the market rate salary for a 2D Animator. These can include the kind of educational background you have, the amount of work experience you are coming to the job with, and the city in which you are working.

Education

As a general rule, the level of education correlates strongly with overall earning potential. This is, in large part, because many high-paying jobs have a strict education requirement and because highly educated potential employees will have more job offers and be more competitive on the job market, giving them more leeway to negotiate for higher starting salaries. This not only accounts for the kind of education you receive (college-educated employees will tend to make more than their non-degree-holding counterparts) but also the general reputation of the college you attended.

Experience

Experienced 2D Animators command significantly higher salaries than their novice counterparts for a few straightforward reasons. The most obvious is that experienced animators are more likely to be hired by large studios and are more likely to start in more advanced professional roles. In addition, there are just fewer experienced animators on the job market at any given time. Hence, employers pay slightly higher salaries to convince experienced animators to work for them than a different design studio.

Industry

Another important factor that helps determine a 2D Animator's salary is the industry in which they work and the studio that employs them. 2D Animators working for major animation studios like Disney/Pixar or for large game design studios are likely to be paid more than 2D Animators at small advertising agencies or contractor studios. Still, these jobs will also have higher requirements and be more competitive in terms of applicants.

Freelance 2D Animators will have greater control over their starting salary since they set the price of their labor. Still, they also risk not generating enough business at that rate to sustain their freelance work.

Location

As with virtually all careers, 2D Animation salaries are affected by local economies in such a way that working in a large city, like New York City or Los Angeles, will correlate with a higher salary than working in Butte. This has less to do with the field of animation than it has to do with the nature of metropolitan economies. It costs more to live in a city, so wages are higher to compensate. Whether or not the wage increase is sufficient to outweigh the cost of living increase is a question you’ll need to ask yourself when looking for 2D animation jobs.

Specialization

The final major factor that contributes to salary ranges for 2D Animators is the concern of specialization. This is fairly similar to industry concerns, but animators who specialize in a specific style or form of 2D animation will have more expansive job prospects and be more competitive within those subfields. This means that their salaries are likely to increase to compensate, assuming that the skills they specialize in are in high demand.

Pay Range for 2D Animators

According to job listing aggregator Glassdoor.com, starting 2D Animator salaries begin at an average of $58,000 a year and they have a median national salary (with common pay raises for location and experience included) of about $62,000 a year. Entry-level salaries can, depending on the employer, go as high as $78,000 dollars a year, with posted salaries reaching as high as $97,000, though these are outliers. For example, on Glassdoor, The Walt Disney Corporation has several posted jobs starting at $40 dollars an hour, which is significantly higher than the national average but requires relocation. These jobs would be incredibly competitive relative to other jobs only paying $24 dollars an hour. 

Highest-Earning Job Titles for 2D Animators

Most senior 2D Animator job titles are those held by team leaders or animators who have more control over the creative direction of a project and are hired for their expertise. These job titles include Lead Animators, who earn a median salary of $78,000 a year and Senior Lead Animators, who earn a median salary of $102,000 a year.

Highly skilled, experienced 2D Animators will also compete for very high-ranking creative roles, such as Chief Creative Officer of a studio or firm, which is a highly competitive job that commands a median salary of $225,000 a year.

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

• Becoming a 2D Animator is a good way to enter into a relatively well-paying career field, with median animators making about $60,000 a year.
• Like most careers, however, a 2D Animator’s salary heavily depends on things like education, experience, and where the job is located.
• Average pay for 2D Animators is fairly variable, but entry-level positions commonly reach as high as $70,000 a year.
• 2D Animators can embark on a career path leading to several careers earning more than $100,000 a year and a few rare jobs that pay as much as $300,000 a year.