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A Day In The Life Of An Animator

Updated: Feb 2, 2023



Ever wondered what a typical day looks like in an animator's life? Well, it certainly is a day full of creative thoughts and artistic expressions, as his main focus is always on animating one scene after another. Normally a day in an animator's life depends on the nature of the project he is working on it can be a simple 2D animation or a technical mechanical animation but, usually what he does is standard practice and happens repetitively.


Having said that it is important to realize that this line of job is not monotonous as it has its own set of challenges and hassles; animators are always busy creating new unique elements and creative designs from scratch using their artistic sense. This skill set is fairly hard to acquire and to get going with, but a normal day in an animator's life generally involves interesting activities and tasks some of which are presented below.


Managing The Creative Process


Animation can involve anything from drawing, painting, modeling, or even simply gathering ideas for a brand new concept, Animation is derived from the word “animate” which means “to liven up”, and fulfill it with life, As the name suggests animation is basically an effort in making static things move from one direction to another as if it is alive. With the advancement in media and technology, the process has become quite easier and the method of creating and recording objects of animation can now be accomplished in several ways, hence bringing out new animations depending on how it works. Along with that, an animator is supposed to spend the maximum amount of time in creative meetings and discussions with other fellow animators and teammates to brainstorm ideas and come up with amazing animation plans that fulfill all the parts in terms of style and comedy.




Concept Art And Storyboarding


After long and tiring discussions and meetings here comes the time for developing concept art and making storyboards. concepts arts are kind of sketches or color drawings that are animated whereas storyboards are rough drafts that are then finalized and prepared for animation.




Taking a short break is good


Amidst all the brainstorming developing concept art and storyboarding things get a little overwhelming for the animators and that is where a short break is needed to revive the lost energy. It is a good practice to take short breaks of 45 minutes to 1 hour in between tasks so that the mind is not worn down. But it's not common sometimes things get so busy that animators have to stay at the same time for hours and hours to get the job done. This happens when the animator is under the pressure of managing time constraints due to tight deadlines. While oppose to this there are also days when they are much more relaxed and working while sipping a cup of coffee. This job requires you to be quite flexible and at the same time adaptive.



Working On Animation


As the title implies it is one of the lengthiest parts of the job which sometimes consumes an entire day in the life of an animator. No matter what mode of drawing is used by hand or on computers they are required to produce objects either in 2D or 3D motion. What an animator basically do is start by outlining the frames in different scenes before putting in much detail and depth such as light, texture, shadows, and so on. It can sometimes become nerve-wracking when the workload is high but he is supposed to keep going because consistency while animating is the key. There needs to be coherence in the colors used, character features and other similar details to avoid any errors.


Stay tuned for more exciting topics and insights into the animation industry:)



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