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Which 3D Animation Jobs Are Right for You? By Felicity Flesher
Y
ou have your degree and a stellar portfolio, but what’s the next step? Although 3D animation is a highly specialized field, the demand for new talent is high. The animation, gaming and VFX fields are steadily growing, and talented artists and engineers can advance quickly. You can now get an excellent starter 3D animation job with zero experience, based on your portfolio alone. Here are some entry-level 3D animation jobs that you might pursue:
This role allows you to get to know everyone in the office while developing your skills, and to eventually prove that you are ready for promotion. If you’re unsure what kind of 3D animation jobs you want to pursue, this role can give you a better idea of what each position really entails. While you may not get much hands-on animation experience as a PA, you will still have to showcase your organizational abilities, attention to detail, teamwork and problem-solving, all of which are necessary for a successful career as a 3D animator.
Production Assistant
Junior Concept Artist
One of the most common entry-level 3D animation jobs is that of the production assistant or PA. Being a PA generally means no job is too small. That may mean preparing for meetings, maintaining the office, taking notes, ordering food and coffee, researching and being available to help with anything. In 3D animation specifically, a PA may assist in maintaining assets, which can require some appropriate software knowledge. A PA keeps production moving without any hiccups, multitasks and anticipates concerns before they happen.
Concept artists create the first sketches of a project. The early visual look for the project is generated off of a creative brief given to the concept artist. This is an experimental stage where you play around with various ideas before finding the right visual style. The findings will serve as a reference for further designers and animators in the pipeline. The junior artist then reports to the lead artist and uses their guidance to refine pieces of developmental or marketing art. It can take patience and good communication skills to execute multiple iter-
ations of an idea. You should be a skilled artist, imaginative and able to take criticism to succeed in this role.
Junior Previs Artist Previsualization (previs) artists use concept art and storyboards to create rough 3D animatics of scenes. Animatics are drafts to plan out size, scale, movement and timing for locations and characters. It is also a good way to layout the camera position and identify any problems that could arise during production. The previs artist then communicates to the team. When used in live action, previs artists plan how VFX will work within a scene. Previs artists should have proficient knowledge of cinematographic composition, movement, 3D animation, perspective and VFX software. Knowledge of architecture and coding may also be helpful.
Junior Storyboard Artist Storyboard artists play a crucial role in the 3D animation world. Creating a storyboard is often one of the earliest steps in production as they take a script or concept and pave the
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