Education and Training

If you are interested in earning an animation degree, you may attend a college or university and complete a fine arts program leading to a bachelor’s or a master’s degree. In addition to taking courses centered around your artwork, you will also need to take classes such as English, natural science, social science, and art history. You may also earn an animation degree by attending an independent school of art.

Employment Opportunities

With your animation degree, you can put your creativity and skills to work creating moving images for movies, television, commercials, and other forms of visual media. If you have a computer background, which you will most likely receive with your animation degree, you may also create animation for computers or video games. In most cases, creating animation for other types of media will also require some computer knowledge. You might even be called up to create synthespians, which are digitally created humans that are used when a certain scene is too dangerous for the actor to actually perform.

Job Outlook and Salary

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment opportunities for individuals with an animation degree are expected to grow about as quickly as other occupations throughout the next several years. The Bureau reports that the median annual salary for a person with an animation degree working in this field was $50,360 in May of 2004. Those working specifically in the motion picture and video industry earned a median annual salary of $67,390 that year while those in the advertising sector earned $46,810.

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