Explore by Career/Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media
Special Effects Artists and Animators
Create special effects or animations using film, video, computers, or other electronic tools and media for use in products, such as computer games, movies, music videos, and commercials.
- Median pay
- $99,800
- per year
- 10-year outlook
- +1.6%
- Stable
- Typical entry
- Bachelor's degree
Key skills
- Active Listening
- Reading Comprehension
- Critical Thinking
- Speaking
- Writing
- Active Learning
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Monitoring
What they do
- Design complex graphics and animation, using independent judgment, creativity, and computer equipment.
- Create basic designs, drawings, and illustrations for product labels, cartons, direct mail, or television.
- Participate in design and production of multimedia campaigns, handling budgeting and scheduling, and assisting with such responsibilities as production coordination, background design, and progress tracking.
- Create two-dimensional and three-dimensional images depicting objects in motion or illustrating a process, using computer animation or modeling programs.
- Make objects or characters appear lifelike by manipulating light, color, texture, shadow, and transparency, or manipulating static images to give the illusion of motion.
- Apply story development, directing, cinematography, and editing to animation to create storyboards that show the flow of the animation and map out key scenes and characters.
- Implement and maintain configuration control systems.
- Script, plan, and create animated narrative sequences under tight deadlines, using computer software and hand drawing techniques.
- Develop briefings, brochures, multimedia presentations, web pages, promotional products, technical illustrations, and computer artwork for use in products, technical manuals, literature, newsletters, and slide shows.
- Assemble, typeset, scan, and produce digital camera-ready art or film negatives and printer's proofs.
Majors that lead here
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS, Employment Projections) and O*NET, used under CC BY 4.0.