The animators and special effects departments find that they constantly must outdo themselves, as the audience appetite for fresh "eye candy" continues to grow. The more amazing and unusual things they see, the more people tend to expect, and the more sophisticated the effects and visuals must become must be to grab their attention. Films are just one part of the industry, though. Actually, most animation studios make their money through commercials rather than feature films. Animation and special effects professionals can find work in many other forms of visual media.

Animation and special effects are both highly specialized fields, which can be tough to break into. The more specialized your knowledge, the better off you are.

ANIMATION

Animation isn't just found in kids' cartoons anymore. You will find it in network and cable television, commercials, video games, computer programs, the Internet, comic books, and in just about every visual media imaginable. It can be one of the most original ways to present an idea or to tell a story. In the past few years it has also become increasingly popular on prime-time TV and in movies.

Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Viacom and the new DreamWorks SKG studios are currently spending a combined $1 billion on the expansion of their individual animation departments. This animation explosion has taken the industry by surprise. Hiring wars are common, and studios will often outbid each other for talented, experienced animators. Disney has nearly doubled its animation division in the past two years. This is quite a change from the lean years of the past couple of decades when layoffs and cutbacks were common.

In most animation companies, there is an animation director, who is in charge of most of the creative work. He or she often comes up with the idea, designs the scene, and like a film director, "directs" the action, and the expressions and appearance of the characters. A storyboard artist breaks the script down into a comic-strip sequence so that the animator can follow each "shot," like a rough map of the action. Animators then draw the characters, or other moving objects, and assistant animators clean up the drawings and do minor work.

Sometimes assistants get the chance to draw characters and they may also prepare instructions for the camera operator so that they will know exactly how a scene should be shot and how many frames of each drawing are required. Other assistants may do "in-betweener" work, which means that they will do the drawings in-between the important actions. (This a job that computers are taking over). Some studios have a paint and trace department or "blue liners" who will trace or copy the finished drawings on to "cels." Then the painters fill them in so that they can be photographed (this type of work is often sent overseas).

A layout artist often refines the elements in a storyboard after working with the director and the editing team. In addition, a layout artist can be like a set designer, someone who can visualize and create the worlds that the characters live in. They help determine where characters will stand, what other things will be in the shot, and from what angle we will view them. Background painters paint the layouts or backgrounds in each scene. The job of the color key specialist is to work with the various colors used for the characters and backgrounds and fine-tune them until they balance well together for the desired effect. Model or prop designers create the characters and objects that are featured in the script. Some other areas in rendering include puppetry, claymation, sculpture, modeling and computer graphics.

The industry also needs writers, story editors and development people to seek out or create original material. Production assistants, coordinators and managers also help get the job done. They often begin at entry level. To break into this area, all you need is general office skills, common sense and some knowledge of animation. From here you may be able to move into other areas of management or production.

The best bet is to have art skills and a good knowledge of computers. This area is fairly new and is still being experimented with, but the computer literate are finding work in various areas. In the production area, computers are used to help track production and budgets. In the artistic area, various software programs are used to create three-dimensional backgrounds for film, video games, the Internet and many other multimedia uses. Computers are also used to create special effects and graphics, and color or draw animation art.

Most animators work in 3-D by waving pencil-shaped wands at computer screens. They point the special digitizing wand at specific points along a grid of intersecting lines which are penciled onto the subject's "sculpting" surface. The computer can then translate and record this data into a "real" space on an axis with height, width and depth.

To get a rough idea of salaries, in 1993, an animator, layout, or background painter could start at around $1,100 per week. Other art jobs started at about $900 per week. Production work started at about $400 a week. Writers could earn around $3,500 for a good half-hour script. Of course, with more training, experience and/or specialized talent you can earn more. According to the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Union Local 839, experienced animators in L.A. average a mind-boggling annual salary of $104,000. Free-lancing is a good way to get a job and get your work known within the industry. Studios often employ free-lance artists who go from job to job. Don't forget to seek related jobs in other areas including comic books, advertising, cartooning, multimedia, CD-ROMs, Web site illustration, greeting cards and children's book illustration, just to name a few.

Special Effects

Amazing scenes of fantasy, spectacular action sequences, and many much more subtle effects are created with special effects. Everything ranging from actual filmed explosions to computer generated "crowd" scenes (which can be assembled from footage of one small group of extras). It was even rumored that one film studio spent a small fortune on making sure an actor's bald spot was painstakingly "filled in" by computer frame by frame on to the completed film. The worldwide popularity of action/adventure, science fiction and fantasy/comedy films, ensures that special effects will continue to dominate the film industry. In the past ten years, this has become one of the most exciting areas in film, video, commercials and many other types of visual media.

This is a new field, and one that changes constantly as it evolves. Digital editing, digitized effects and the latest computer advances make new, ever more amazing things possible. The f/x team might put even put actors out of business someday! Eventually they may be able to "clone" and animate actors just as they do in that new commercial that features a famous now-dead actor dancing up a storm with a vacuum cleaner.

Today, this field is divided into two major groups. The physical special effects crew can work on location, or on constructed sets, miniatures, or models, which will be filmed according to the demands of the script and the director's instructions. This may include fire, explosions, floods, alien attack, or the challenge of creating a completely believable fantasy world. These operators and technicians come from a wide variety of backgrounds: electricians, robotics scientists, explosives experts, ex-soldiers, inventors, model makers, etc.

Computer special-effects artists work on the film in post-production, although they are often consulted before and during the shoot as well. They manipulate the images using a variety of software packages and effects. They must make the unbelievable believable. It is their job to blend the model shots with live action, and to composite images with actors and blue screen effects.

Visual-effects supervision is also a growing career. These professionals make sure the production process runs smoothly. They must coordinate companies, individuals and tools to help achieve the desired results. In addition, they must be aware of the creative choices that are made and maintain consistency from shot to shot. They also must have a good grasp of the art of storytelling and some understanding of what is possible with special effects.

For more information check your newsstand or library for specialized industry publications such as Film Quarterly, Fangoria, Cinefantastique, Cue, and many others. A good book on the field is Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Special Effects by Thomas G. Smith (Lucasfilm Ltd. 1986)

Those interested in animation may want to subscribe to :

Animation Magazine
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