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What does it take to become an Animator?

What does it take to become a Disney animator?

  • I'm a self taught artist with zero animation experience. However, my passion for Disney is through the roof. I read it, I watch it, I reach out and grab whatever I can about Disney. When I draw I feel most inspired by Disney characters and fantasize about one day becoming a Disney Animator.

  • Answer:

    Most Disney animators these days work on computer-animated films, so you will need to learn how to model, texture, rig, and animate characters and/or objects using animation programs such as Maya, Cinema 4D, or 3D Studio Max (in that order of preference). Even in addition to computer animation, however, you should be able to draw and understand the universal principles of animation. Practice life drawing, both of still objects and models (especially models in motion). Two good books to start as Drawing on the Right Side  of the Brain by Betty Edwards and The Animator' Survival Guide (and its accompanying media) by Richard Williams. There are dozens more great books out there as well. Ideally, earning at least an Associate's degree (but preferably a Bachelor's or Master's) in Animation would be preferable as well.

Brandon Cordy at Quora Visit the source

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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, may it be Disney or Dreamworks or Pixar or ILM! 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/

Anandh Ramesh

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