Animation has grown to play a big role in creating the stunning visual effects you see in today’s blockbuster movies, graphically-intensive video games, high-production advertisements, and other digital media.

Animators bring still images and objects to life by drawing upon their studies of art and technology. Whether designing for film, television, games or online videos, you depend on a broad range of skills as an animator. Classical animation typically requires manual methods like hand drawing, whereas the latest digital techniques rely heavily on knowledge of computer generated imagery (CGI).

Animation course content generally includes standard topics such as:

• 3D modeling
• Backgrounds
• Character modeling and rigging
• Lighting
• Storyboarding
• Texturing

With animation becoming an increasingly high-tech field, animation degrees may often feature computer graphics courses that introduce you to specialized software applications used in creating visual effects as well as computer science courses that can teach you programming languages and scripting; some animators may even end up writing code for customized software. You might also study sound engineering or techniques for lip synchronization.

In your animation-degree search, you may also find classes that relate more to the artistic side of the field, including anatomy, graphic design, visual storytelling, life drawing, illustration or film. Coursework in perspective and layout could allow you to properly analyze scene composition as well as camera shots and angles, while compositing courses typically cover methods on how you combine distinct visual media, such as blending real-life photography with digital effects.

If you’re interested in studying animation, you have several choices depending on your academic qualifications. For example, if you have completed secondary school, you could think about earning a bachelor’s degree in 3D Animation & Visual Effects from Indira Gandhi National Open University or the Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics. If you already have a bachelor’s degree, post-graduate options include a master’s degree in Creative Multimedia and Animation from Gurudeva Media and Animation College.

Your choice of academic programme may depend on your goals for a career. Since animators work in a variety of industries, such as gaming, education, software publishing, motion pictures and marketing, you may want to look into targeted studies like game design, Web development or online advertising.

Within a specific field such as game design, animators may specialize even further. You might focus on character design and modeling, or you could work in level design, helping create the look and feel of each game level. Whatever your specialty, you will most likely work with teams of other professionals to create the many complex aspects of an animation project.