What does an 2D animator do?

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Animators create still images that are played in a rapid sequence to create the illusion of movement. They are artists, actors and storytellers. They know how characters show emotion and have a good, technical understanding of the way things move. They make a believable world through the blend of realism and artistry.

Animators take a visual brief from a storyboard and a verbal brief from a director. From the brief, they create the drawings, models or computer images in a way that gives the illusion of movement. This ability to translate the brief into movement is at the heart of all animation.

Within that, there are different kinds of animators:

2D or traditional animators
Examples of productions: Ethel & Ernest, Horrid Henry, The Tiger who Came to Tea
2D animators draw each frame by hand. Nowadays, animators tend to draw into animation software with a graphics pen and tablet. 2D animators don’t necessarily produce the finished ‘line’ seen on screen. They concentrate more on the overall action and character performance in a scene. They will usually produce a few clean, on model drawings as needed, for the assistant animator to follow. These are known as tie-downs.

2D assistant animators, also known as in-betweeners, clean-up artists
Assistant animators take the animator’s drawings, make each frame precisely on model and apply the final ‘line’ that will be seen on screen. This is known as clean up. They will often have to fill in frames that the animator did not need to produce. To do this they follow the animators ‘charting’ - visual instructions left for the assistant animator as to where missing drawings should come in the timeline. This is known as in-betweening. They might also lip sync, which means drawing the mouth in a way that lines up with the speech.

2D rigging animators, also known as puppet animators
Examples of productions: Charlie and Lola, Peppa Pig
2D puppet animators work with rigged models that are reminiscent of shadow puppets, with lots of separate moving parts that are interlinked. The kit of parts is often produced by the art department. The animator then uses the available assets to animate the character as detailed on the storyboard.

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2D Animator Job

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• Understand project goals to explore and set the game's visual identity

• Create rough story-telling character poses, and finalize clean character cutouts

• Create compelling 2D character animations with emphasis on humor

• Be able to work within performance constraints while maintaining high quality work

• Create Static and Animated 2D objects and environments as needed

• Surface the need for tools to the Lead Animator and Technical Artist to improve workflow

• Integrate assets into game engine to evaluate visual quality and performance

• Contribute baseline time estimates, work with Lead Animator and Art Director to prioritize, schedule, and achieve production milestones

• The ability to work within a team environment under the supervision of the animation supervisor/art director/associate director

• Responsible for the production of high quality 2d animated sequences using digital tool

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What we teach

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• Animation principles

• Animation Acting

• Animation cycles

• Animation Refrence

• Story baording for animation

• facial animation

• project management

• Animation Rigging -Duik

• Curve editor and keys

• Puppet Animation

• Photoshop Animation

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Softwares

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• Adobe after effects

• Adobe photoshop

• Adobe primiere

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