Best Cities for 3D Animators

The future of animation lies in the illusion of three-dimensional pictures projected onto a flat surface, be it an IMAX screen at the Cineplex or the small screen on your smartphone. That future has been today since yesterday, and, while 3D animation careers can’t be made everywhere (unless you’re a freelancer with the good luck to work remotely), the number of hubs where you can work as an animator is larger than you might think. If you’re preparing yourself for a 3D animation career, you’ll have to put some serious thought into where you want to live and work. That can easily be either New York or Los Angeles, but there are other cities from which to choose, cities that are substantially more livable than the country’s two megalopolises. 

What is a 3D Animator?

A 3D animator is an illusionist who creates lifeless drawings that are seemingly imbued, not only with life, but also with the ability to inhabit a world with three-dimensional depth. Over the years, animators have striven to give 2D animation a sense of depth. One of the most successful experiments in this field was the multiplane camera invented by Ub Iwerks for Disney. As early as 1942, it was used to conjure up the gorgeous opening sequence of Bambi, but the 3D look to which moviegoers have become accustomed today is of far newer vintage. It really only began with Pixar’s experiments with computer animation that produced the first 3D animated feature, Toy Story.

Making images that created the illusion of a third dimension dates back to the 19th century, when stereoscopic viewers made it possible to view static images that appeared to possess depth. The Viewmaster of the 1960s was a later iteration of the stereoscopic viewer; it’s enjoying a bit of a renaissance as a curiosity in the 21st century. This stereoscopic technology was taken up by motion pictures as early as 1922, when The Power of Love was released and necessitated the wearing of red and green anaglyph glasses to create the illusion of depth. The anaglyph glasses have since been replaced by the clear polarized lenses you’re given to view 3D movies in cinemas and on theme park rides today.

Filmmakers have been playing around with 3D technology for over a century, and it’s caught on a few times (as in the 1950s), only to fade from popularity and be dismissed as a gimmick. There can be little question that the development of 3D animation has led the 21st century to embrace the latest 3D techniques, not only with the likes of Toy Story and Pixar’s other groundbreaking films, but also with live-action films such as Avatar or the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland, the visual fantasy of which was greatly increased by the use of 3D technology.

Although there’s been a drop off in live-action 3D movies since the 2010s, the technology is still going strong in the world of animation. Indeed, 3D animation has supplanted 2D techniques, which are now reserved mostly for lower budget television productions. 3D animation also lies at the core of video game design.

Into this world steps the 3D animator, or, rather, an entire army of 3D animators, as the process of creating this type of animation on the computer is painstaking in the extreme, far more so than the already painstaking process of hand-drawn 2D animation. The state of the art is such that 3D animators today can create photorealistic images that no longer look like drawings. However, a phenomenon known as the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis maintains that humans find animation that looks too close to real life to be unnerving or creepy. Thus the verisimilitude of which 3D images are capable is generally tempered using devices such as bigger-than-natural eyes so as not to disturb the viewer.

Because of the intricate nature of the work—you need at least 24 images per second to give 3D animation its illusion of life—3D animators concentrate on one aspect and one aspect alone of their work. To choose one example, animating human hair (not only Rapunzel’s in Tangled) is a discipline unto itself. Among the other roles taken by 3D animators are:

• Rigger (those who create the rigging, something like the skeleton of a character to be animated),
• Modeler (those who put the flesh, as it were, on the rigging),
• Key frame animator (analogous to the animators who did the principal drawings in the pencil-and-paper days),
• Background artist,
• Clothing animator (texture artist),
• Lighting artist,
• Clean-up artist,
• Digital ink and paint artist,
• Rendering artist, and
• Compositing artist.

That list isn’t exhaustive. There are many other roles and specialties, which explains why the credits for Disney movies go on forever. (Those for Toy Story 3 clock in at over six minutes.) 3D animation is still an experimental field, with many discoveries still to be made. To choose one example, no one knows how AI will affect the animation industry. There will probably always be a need for human animators to give soul to their creations, but artificial intelligence is sure to play a role in the animation process, the rule book for which remains under construction.

What Makes a City Good for 3D Animators?

Although they’re creative artists who perform prestidigitation on computer drawings to bring them to life, 3D animators look for many of the same things as everyone when they consider places where they might live. Moving is a dreadfully big production, so you won’t want to have to do that any more than is absolutely necessary. If you’re just starting out, you’re probably not going to worry too much about a city being a good place to raise a family; you’ll have your own concerns, probably more about nightlife than the quality of schools. Regardless of your age, you’re ultimately going to want a place where you’ll be able to find work and be well paid for it. The strength of the professional community into which you’ll be moving is a further consideration, as is the quality of life that a given city can afford you, both as an artist and as far as the basic necessities of life are concerned. 

Job Opportunities

Above all, the thing you’re going to want to look for in a city to live in as a 3D animator is the relative abundance of jobs. If it’s not a city with work opportunities in your chosen field, you’re not going to be able to make a living doing the thing you want, notwithstanding the trend towards remote work. 3D animators generally need entire studios with which to work, complete with a staff of specialist animators and the necessary special equipment. You could conceivably make 3D animation on a laptop, but bear in mind that it took Pixar 27 hours per minute using 117 machines to render Toy Story 3.

You thus need to investigate carefully:

• Where the jobs are,
• How they’re expected to grow,
• What the location quotient for a given city is,
• What industries support 3D animation studios, and
• How those are expected to grow.

These are considerations everyone looking for a place to work has to confront. The location quotient is an index that shows the density of people employed in a given sector as compared to the national average; the higher the location quotient, the greater the concentration of jobs in the sector you’re researching. Sites like Indeed, Glassdoor and even the Bureau of Labor Statistics are good statistical resources for coming up with the numbers you need to make your determination.

High Salaries

After you’ve established the existence and availability of jobs in a given city, your next concern is going to be the salary you can expect to earn there. You’re not going into 3D animation because you’re a not-for-profit corporation and not seeking to make money for food, clothing and shelter for you and your family. You’re going to want to make as much money as you can in your given profession: that’s the basic principle on which all work is based in a capitalist society. That doesn’t paint the entire picture, but the reality is that, all other things being equal, higher salaries are better. All other things aren’t equal, however, especially the cost of living in a given city. As you research salaries, you’re going to realize that the highest-paying jobs are in the most expensive places to live (i.e., New York and Los Angeles.) On top of that, there’s more to life than going to work and coming home to sleep. That’s where the following considerations come into play.

Strong 3D Animator Community

A 3D animator doesn’t work in a vacuum or on a desert island somewhere in the South Pacific. It’s a collaborative calling; you can’t possibly create a whole 3D movie on your own. You’re going to be working on a team at most jobs you have in the course of your career, but, beyond the coworkers you’ll have, many animators also want to seek out a larger community of colleagues with whom they can share their experiences, inspirations and technical discoveries. Sometimes, you’ll need help with a mechanical matter; sometimes, you may just want to socialize with people who understand the trials and tribulations you face at work. For this reason, larger communities of 3D animators have sprung up in the major cities in which there is an important animation industry. These communities do everything from staying in touch on a platform such as Slack to arranging real-world meetups to socialize with the like-minded. 

Vibrant Art Scene

You’re more than what you do from nine to five. You have to be able to recharge your batteries, and one of the ways artistic types (and 3D animators fall firmly into that category) do that is by looking at and enjoying the work done by other artistic types. Since you’re a visual artist, the first thing you’re going to want to have at your disposal is the work of other visual artists. That can mean something as simple as a major art museum or something more ephemeral like a community of street artists. Art needn’t be visual, either: music is of primary importance to quite a few creative types, so, if you’re one of those people, you should look to see what the live music scene is in a place you’re considering living. That can mean clubs just as much as it can mean a concert hall with a symphony orchestra. There’s also live theater to be considered, be it big productions or smaller efforts in more intimate venues. Depending on your tastes, you can look into venues with poetry readings, bookstores, and even karaoke bars. And don’t forget an artist’s supply store. Yes, you can order it all from Amazon, but there’s definitely inspiration to be gained from a store filled with media to work with during your downtime.

Recreation and Other Quality of Life Factors

In addition to an art scene that will allow you to unwind and recharge, you should also consider the recreation possibilities a city offers. Are there softball leagues, swimming pools, hiking trails, and nearby winter sports? Or, a bit further afield, are there opportunities for off-roading, surfing or playing rugby? If the gym is your thing, look into that. If you’re a bridge, mahjong or golf addict, make sure that a city will offer you chances to play your game of choice. And, if you’ve always wanted to learn to play the flugelhorn, check to see that there’s a flugelhorn teacher in town.

Then, finally, there’s the question of quality of life. That involves everything from green spaces where you can walk your dog to, if you like to go shopping, an interesting shopping district or at least a mall. If you’re a believer in organic foods, is there a market that can keep your kitchen stocked? What kinds of businesses do you patronize in general? If you’re a cook, look into ethnic markets where you can discover interesting ingredients rather than ordering your green Sichuan peppercorn oil from Amazon. If you don’t cook, what’s the restaurant scene like? That can mean anything from trendy sushi places to your favorite fast food outlet. You make all kinds of demands on the city in which you live, some of which you may take for granted where you currently live. Please give it some thought, make a list, and check it twice.

Top Cities for 3D Animators

The best cities for 3D animators aren’t always the most obvious ones. There’s no making a list of them without including Los Angeles and New York, but there are other possibilities off the megapolitan axis that may afford you a better quality of life.

Los Angeles

A thoroughly sensible course of action when looking for work is to go where the jobs are. There’s no secret to where the bulk of 3D animation jobs lies: Los Angeles. Although the motion picture and television industries are slowly becoming decentralized, the City of Angels remains the omphalos of the entertainment industry, and has the number of jobs to prove it. April 2024 figures show that there were over 1500 positions for 3D animators in the greater Los Angeles area. No other metropolitan area comes even near that figure. That explains the city’s place on the top of this list, but be forewarned that a cornucopia of jobs is accompanied by a cornucopia of people applying for them. Los Angeles isn’t the easiest place to find work. On top of that, the cost of living there is prohibitive, and the city itself is going through what may tactfully be termed a difficult period. It’s not exactly the paradise studded with palm trees and movie stars it once was. Still, you’d be foolish not to at least investigate the possibilities for work in Los Angeles if 3D animation is the career on which you’re bent.

San Francisco

San Francisco is California’s other major center for 3D animation, being the home of Pixar, DreamWorks, and Industrial Light & Magic. It’s also a major hub for game design if your creative desires point you in that direction. Pay is good, but competition is stiff, and the cost of living is astronomical. Like Los Angeles, San Francisco is also a city that’s going through a bad period, but that doesn’t stop people from flocking to Baghdad by the Bay and its environs to make their fortunes in tech. The city has long had its adherents, and has a great deal to offer in terms of culture: museums ranging from SFMOMA to the Walt Disney Family Museum, an important opera company and symphony orchestra, and art galleries, music clubs and a thriving culinary scene. If you can afford it (and San Francisco animators’ salaries are the highest in the country), the city does have something to recommend it. It doesn't take much originality to get it onto your short list of cities to consider, but it does belong there for a reason.

New York

The center of the country’s indie film scene, a key city for television, and an important stop on the gaming railroad, New York is, well, New York, very arguably the greatest city on the planet. That by no means makes it the most livable city in the world, but, especially if you’re young, intrepid and interested in everything a city can offer, the Big Apple may be a good fit for you. There are jobs for 3D animators, and salaries are appealing, although just about everything from the extortionate rents to the price of a gallon of milk is going to take a bite out of that appealing paycheck. It’s probably not the best place to settle down and raise a family, but, if that’s not a priority, you can gain a very great deal by living in the City that Never Sleeps. You may even become one of those people who believe that they couldn’t live anywhere else.

Austin

A little island of good animation jobs in the enormous expanse that is Texas, Austin is rapidly emerging as a hub for all things tech, including animation. There is an assortment of animation studios based in Bat City (so named because Austin plays home to one of the largest bat colonies in North America), and, while the employment figures are a fraction of what can be found in the cities discussed above, Austin is also much smaller than the above cities, which makes for less competition. Austin is currently going through a tech revolution and its attendant gentrification, which has given rise to a Keep Austin Weird campaign to retain the unique flavor of the place. It’s got a haunted hotel, a tradition of bloody marys topped with everything from sliders to shrimp (gone are the days of the lone celery stick), Eeyore’s Birthday Party every spring, and an actual Museum of the Weird, to say nothing of the aforementioned bats. Far more affordable than any of the cities above (the cost of living is estimated at just about the same as the national average, at least for the time being), Austin hosts a number of animator meet-ups and, of course, is the country’s unofficial capital for live music. What it may lack in glamor, Austin makes up for in livability.

Seattle

Situated in the desirable Pacific Northwest, Seattle is affordable only in comparison to cities like New York and Los Angeles, with a cost of living at 45% higher than the national average. The temperate but rainy climate has been the butt of many jokes, but, for people who want to experience a mild version of a four-season climate, it has something to offer, and what you save on sunscreen you can spend on umbrellas. Seattle provides a healthy quantity of jobs in the animation sector, the animator community is healthy and thriving, and, in addition to art museums, you can visit the Pacific Science Center and the Museum of Pop Culture. The arts scene is similarly lively, ranging from a major ballet company to a hip hipster district brimming over with bistros, bars and boutiques.

Why Become a 3D Animator?

The reasons for becoming a 3D animator range from the fact that it’s a fascinating joining of technology and art to the far homelier reality that it’s where the future of animation lies. Using Disney as a barometer for trends in animated features, the last time it produced a movie that was done in 2D was 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, and the movie’s not being in 3D is frequently cited as one reason for its failure at the box office. Thus, the question can be restated: why become an animator at all? Among the reasons that might be leading you in that direction are that

• You’re an artist and want to make a living making art,
• You’re fascinated by the process of animation and the giving the illusion of life to your drawings,
• You’re interested in a growth industry that pays well,
• You want to have a creative outlet in your work,
• You like telling stories, and
• Your initial interest was in 2D animation and you’ve realized which way the wind is blowing.

In any event, your profile is going to be that of a creative type who knows how to use technology as a tool for artistic creation. That lies at the heart of the 3D animation process, and, if it describes you, you’ll be a good fit for the field.

How to Find a 3D Animator Job

There’s no sense in applying too much sugar-coating to the pill: breaking into 3D animation isn’t easy. The number of available jobs isn’t enormous, and there is plenty of competition for them, especially the ones with big-name studios such as Disney, Sony, Warner Brothers, Pixar, or DreamWorks. The job-search process for an animator is, on one level, the same as the process for any other job: trawl the job search platforms like Indeed for positions in your field, send out resumes, and, way more than nine times out of ten, get not even so much as a thanks but no thanks email in return. Indeed can be overwhelmingly discouraging to use, but, because of the number of jobs (and scams) it commands, it can’t be ignored. You can improve your chances of getting some kind of response by tailoring your resume and cover letter very carefully to match the requirements in the Indeed job description. That’s at least going to give you a chance, but don’t count on it for much more than that.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to Indeed that you can pursue. There are smaller job posting sites that cater to creative artists in general, and some that cater to animators in particular. You may need to do some research to find the ones best suited to your needs, but they are out there. One such platform is Dribbble (that’s with three Bs), which allows you to showcase your portfolio in addition to hosting a job board. A further portfolio site that allows you to put your creativity on view is Adobe’s Behance, the premium version of which is included with several different subscriptions to the Adobe Creative Cloud.

There are also freelance sites that look like a good way of picking up a gig here and a gig there, including Fiverr and Upwork. These have a whole world of drawbacks, not the least of which is that they’re very hard to break into if you haven’t done a job for them as yet. (Yes, that’s an impasse.) They also skim their cut off of what the freelancer is paid, and sometimes the cut can be 20% or more. Don’t expect too much from freelancing sites, although, especially if you lowball your estimate, you may manage to get struck by lightning after all.

The best advice you can get as an animator trying to break into the field is to work on your showreel. The quality of your work is what’s ultimately going to get you hired, so research what should go into a demo reel (hint: only about a minute of your very, very best work) and compose your digital calling card accordingly. The other thing you need to do is network network network. That means checking to see if your landlady’s cousin’s first wife’s son-in-law knows anyone in the animation game. It also means trying to connect with people on LinkedIn, where you ought to have a profile anyway, and where you may come into contact with people who’ll view your demo reel and offer guidance, if not a job. Speaking of jobs, LinkedIn does have its own listings, although animation is not its strong suit.

This may all sound extremely pessimistic, but the point is that you’re going to have to do a lot of metaphoric pavement-pounding to find your first animation job. Still, if your showreel is good and you have talent, you’re likely to secure employment eventually.

Learn the Skills to Become a 3D Animator at Noble Desktop

If you lack the time, funds or inclination to pursue a four-year degree in animation, you can always consider a certificate program that will teach you what you need to know to break into the 3D animator job market. One such program is Noble Desktop’s Motion Graphics Certificate. It will teach you how to use Adobe After Effects as a means of creating motion graphics along with Cinema 4D Lite, which, despite the name, is a 3D modeling program that will allow you to create sophisticated 3D animations.

Alternatively, Noble offers a longer Video Editing & Motion Graphics Certificate program that adds modules on Adobe Premiere Pro and Audition to the motion graphics curriculum. The course will make you a competent video editor as well as an animator. The extra skills may well pay off, especially if you end up working on a small team that needs someone who can edit.

These Noble Desktop classes come complete with sessions with expert mentors who’ve actually worked as animators; these sessions can be used for any purpose you choose, including preparing your showreel. Both certificate programs include time to work on it as well. You’ll receive a free retake option (valid for up to one year) and access to recordings of every classroom session you attend. Finally, payment plans are available, some at 0% interest.