3D Animator Job Titles

If you are pursuing a career in 3D animation, it is likely that you are planning to work in the field for quite some time. Given that these jobs are in high demand and shifts in technology are making it easier and cheaper to produce high-quality animated assets, 3D animation is an attractive career path for students looking to build long-term earning potential. Given this fact, students may want to know what kind of career path they will be set upon if they decide to become 3D Animators, what kind of job titles they are likely to hold, and what responsibilities they will have in various roles.

What is a 3D Animator?

3D Animators are creative professionals responsible for designing and building 3D animated models for a wide range of different entertainment and consumer products. They are tasked with taking static images and using computer technology to give those assets the illusion of depth, weight, and motion. 3D Animators build everything from animated logos for webpages to elaborate 3D-rendered models for major Hollywood films. They also work in the consumer software industry, the video game industry, and even aspects of the entertainment industry you might not expect, like theme parks.

3D Animators are also often the professionals responsible for the thousands of minor digital alterations that go into modern film and television. Physical props and practical effects are less common, and it increasingly falls on 3D Animators to create the environments and assets that actors interact with on a film set. This means that 3D Animators are likely to find work in the film and television industry as their services are increasingly in high demand. This isn’t the only industry in which they can find work, but it is the one that is most commonly associated with 3D animation skills.

Read more about what a 3D Animator does.

3D Animator Skills

3D animation lies at the intersection of technical design and creative expression. This means that being a successful 3D Animator will require you to have skills in computer-aided design software and the creative skills required to make the most effective use of those applications. While there are a lot of different 3D animation toolkits available, the most commonly used tools are those in the Adobe Creative Cloud; After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Cinema 4D. These tools let users create, model, animate, and render 3D assets that can be easily added to film, television, software, web design, and video game projects. These designs can range in complexity from simple animated logos all the way up to fully animated set-pieces and environments.

In addition to knowing how to use these tools, aspiring 3D Animators will need to have a creative eye for what to do with those tools. While many 3D Animators will be given fairly direct instruction on how a finished animated asset should look, the highest paying 3D animation positions will go to creatives who can bring their own voice to the vision of a given project. Someone needs to be responsible for deciding how an asset or an environment should look, and that often falls on the shoulders of the animation team. 3D Animators may also need to be comfortable with collaborative creative work since large-scale projects, the kind most commonly associated with professional 3D Animators, are the result of tens of thousands of man-hours from hundreds of different animators working together to see a project through to completion.

Read more about what skills you need to become a 3D Animator.

3D Animator Career Path

Most 3D Animators work full-time at animation or design studios, and professionals entering the field will enter as Animators (possibly with an addendum such as Junior Animator or Associate Animator). These animators tend to have minimal control over the kinds of work that they are assigned and what aspects of the project they are working on. While some will be hired for more specialized purposes (such as Concept Artists or Character Artists), most animators will work as parts of teams moving from project to project relatively rapidly.

Animators with a decent amount of experience may find work as Senior Animators or Animation Team Leaders. These animators will oversee the work done on projects and be the point of reference for important aspects of the animation process. Senior Animators are also more likely to participate in other important parts of the creative process, and they are likely to work alongside directors, storyboard artists, producers, writers, and actors in the planning and execution phase of any given project. As team leaders, Senior Animators are also likely to need training in the soft skills required to oversee complicated projects and ensure that team members are working at peak efficiency.

Finally, most experienced professional animators will try and find work as Lead Animators or Animation Directors. These are the creatives responsible for important decision-making and creative brainstorming that shapes the overall vision of a project. While they will work alongside other high-level creatives and directors, these experienced animators will have far more control over the direction of a project than they have had in the past. Particularly skilled animators can even find work in higher management positions, such as the role of a Chief Creative Officer, who oversees the entire design and creative output of a firm, division or company.

Junior or Associate Animator

Entry-level 3D Animator positions are often given titles like Junior Animator, Associate Animator, or simply Animator. While working in these positions, animators will be delegated tasks and will work on a wide variety of different animation projects, depending on the industry in which they work. They will usually work as a part of a large team of animators collaborating on a project in order to complete large-scale projects, and entry-level animators will often be given fairly significant discrete tasks. Entry-level 3D Animators won’t have a great deal of creative control over the work that they do since teams of creatives will have made many important decisions before the task reaches the animation stage.

Special Effects Artists

Special Effects Artists represent one of the many different types of 3D animation specialists and are perhaps the most immediately recognizable by a mass audience. Special Effects Artists work on television and film projects to design and animate the digitally-created special effects that make the projects exciting and visually spectacular. Special Effects Artists are a vital part of the ecosystem of Hollywood productions, and most modern blockbusters would be impossible without their talent and dedication to the craft. Aside from working on major blockbusters, special effects animation has become an important part of everyday filmmaking, with minor digital adjustments to shots becoming the norm in modern cinema. This means that regardless of the kind of film project being worked on, it is likely that 3D Animators will play a role in the project.

Senior Animator

Senior Animators are experienced 3D Animators who are placed in charge of important animation projects and who have a greater say in the pre-production process of a given animated project. They often oversee Junior Animators and are responsible for ensuring that certain elements of the animation process are completed effectively. There is often a bit of a blur at various studios between the work of a Senior Animator and the work of a Lead Animator since they both oversee elements of the animation process. As a general rule, Senior Animators will spend more time animating than organizing animation projects since they will be the most experienced animators at the studio. They will also be responsible for the more vital animation tasks, so they are more likely to be working on digital assets that the audience follows closely throughout the projects (like main characters in animated films, significant special effects, or company logos in commercials).

Lead Animators

Lead Animators are responsible for overseeing animation projects and for working closely with other creatives involved in the completion of a given project. Since 3D animation is a very team-oriented process (especially when working on larger projects, a CGI-heavy action movie may employ hundreds of animators), it is important that skilled team leaders work closely with one another to ensure that a project doesn’t fall behind and become too costly to continue. Lead Animators are the animation specialists responsible for ensuring that teams of animators are working together effectively and efficiently. They will often be tasked with working alongside other creatives, like writers, directors, storyboard artists and producers, to plan the project and ensure that all of the different teams involved in the process are on the same page.

Chief Creative Officer

The highest job titles held by 3D Animators are management positions such as Chief Creative Officer or Creative Director. These managers steer the creative direction of a company and are responsible for making the decisions (and delegating the tasks) that shape the kinds of projects that a company produces. They are hired to bring their unique creative voices to a company or organization, and they compete with other creative professionals for these positions. This makes these jobs hard to get and incredibly lucrative, with most CCOs (and comparable positions) making more than a quarter of a million dollars annually. 

Why Become a 3D Animator?

3D Animation is a vibrant and attractive career path for anyone interested in working in a creative, in-demand field that blends traditional creative skills with technical knowledge. 3D Animation lets users take their creative ideas and make them into a reality using powerful computer-assisted design applications. As 3D animation tools become more powerful and more accessible, an even greater number of creatives are going to be able to enter the field and have their voices heard, making it an attractive career choice for anyone interested in collaborative projects or who is hoping to be able to eventually tell their own stories in a compelling visual medium.

Owing to the increased demand for 3D Animators, it is also a well-paying career path that offers employment opportunities in some of the most vibrant industries and locations in the country. For example, many 3D Animators will find work in the film and television industry (in cities like Los Angeles) or in the software development industry (in cities like Seattle or Houston). Not only will animators be able to find good jobs in these areas, but they will also be able to enter into local creative communities and begin the process of collaborating with others on complex and memorable animated projects. If you are a creative interested in finding a community of like-minded artists or you just want to work alongside other artists on large-scale projects, 3D animation is an ideal career path for you.

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

Anyone looking to become a professional 3D Animator will need to learn how to use the tools of the trade. Applications like Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D can be difficult for new animators to learn, which is one of the reasons that guided, live instruction is so profitable for aspiring creatives. Noble Desktop offers a wide range of motion graphics design classes and these courses are available either in-person or online. These classes provide students with hands-on instruction guided by industry experts who can help students learn the ins and outs of 3D animation programs. Class sizes are limited, so even online classes are kept small, meaning students won’t have to compete for their instructor’s attention. As a bonus, every student who enrolls in a Noble Desktop training program can retake that course within a calendar year, giving them more time to develop their skills and build their demo reel.

Students looking to start a new career as a professional 3D Animator should consider enrolling in Noble’s Motion Graphics Certificate Program. This career-focused course will teach students how to animate complex 3D assets and objects using Adobe After Effects. Students will learn how Cinema 4D can be used to create and render 3D models, and students will get hands-on experience working with animated text, graphics, and both Photoshop and Illustrator files. Since this is a career-focused program, students will benefit from resources aimed to help them succeed on the job market, including one-on-one career mentorship sessions and a capstone project in which students construct their own sample demo reel to take with them onto the job market. 

Students who want to learn 3D animation skills but aren’t preparing for a shift in their career may want to enroll in a class like Noble’s Adobe After Effects Bootcamp. This course aims to provide students with hands-on training in the 2D and 3D animation tools offered through Adobe After Effects. Students will not only learn how to build 2D and 3D assets, but they will also learn how to integrate text and audio into those designs, how to transition between animation cycles, and how to work with layers to add complex lighting and the illusion of depth to a 3D asset. This course is an ideal fit for students looking to learn how to use this dynamic animation tool.

If you would like to learn more about animation as a professional and technical field, please visit the Learn Animation page on Noble’s Learn Hub.