Can you become an animator with a computer science degree?

What skills do you need to have to become a 3D animator?

• I am going to be going back to school to become an animator, but my school only offers computer science or video game design. I just want to get a jump on courses I should take before transferring to get a BS Degree.

• Answer:

  The secret to becoming a good animator is bringing believable performances to your characters. There is a distinction between an actor and an animator. An actor lives watches for subtle cues to improvise his/her performance. For a normal human being, any action follows a three-step rule: a thought process that leads to an emotion, which leads to the action. However, when you see a play or a film, all you see is the action. As a member of the audience, you subconsciously reverse engineer the actor's emotion and subsequently the thought process, by observing a bunch of subconscious and unconscious actions of the actor. Now, if an animated character were to be just as believable, the animator has to put in that level of subconscious and unconscious actions into the character so the audience can relate to what the character is trying to convey on screen. As long as your characters are believable, you should be good to go! Once you've got your skills to a point that you're fairly happy with, getting a job / starting to do it professionally is where the fun (and the challenge) begins. On this front, I'd suggest talking with the people doing it today. This is a good way to get the 'insider' insights that will help you organize your attack plan. I'm an Advisor on Wisewords if you'd like to chat about how to 'make it' in the field. Feel free to reach out: https://www.wisewords.co/users/anandh-ramesh/