
Jobs in 2D Drawn Animation
Jobs in 2D Drawn animation cover a wide variety of areas but it is worth bearing in mind that the majority of jobs in the UK in this area tend to be in development and pre-production
Development
The Development stage broadly involves the conceiving and identifying of ideas; and designing initial concepts. Pitching the product and securing funding and intellectual property rights are also important at this stage.
The Development stage very much requires a strong understanding of the target market and any commercial constraints, opportunities and competition it presents.
Jobs in Development:
| Director | Producer |
Pre-Production
In broad generalised terms, the Pre-Production stage involves ‘fleshing out the idea' to make it ready for production, typically involving: writing the script; drawing the storyboard; designing character turnarounds; designing layouts / backgrounds; and creating an animatic
Jobs in Pre-Production:
| Production Designer | Storyboard Supervisor |
| Art Director | Storyboard Artist |
| Designer | Storyboard Assistant * |
| Character Designer | |
| Prop Designer | Layout Supervisor |
| Background Designer | Layout Artist |
| Colour Stylist | |
| Clean Up Artist /Design Assistant * |
The Production stage is where there is most variation between the different animation forms, in 2D Drawn animation this stage involves drawing, cleaning up inking and painting drawings, scanning and digitising drawings, and positioning the images into animation sequences.
Jobs in Production
| Assistant Director | Animation Director |
| Key or Lead Animator | |
| Background Painter | Animator |
| Junior Animator | |
| Digital Paint Supervisor | Key Clean Up Artist (Animation) |
| Scanner * | Assistant Animator |
| Digital Painter * | Inbetweener * |
| Line Test Operator * | Production Secretary |
| Runner * | Production Assistant |
Post-Production
Post Production for 2D Drawn animation involves collating assets - e.g. drawn layers, filmed footage, digital files into the finished film. It includes editing, scoring the music, quality checking and outputting the final product into the required formats.
Jobs in Post-Production
| Special Effects Animator | Digital Compositing Supervisor |
| Special Effects Assistant Animator | Key Compositor |
| Compositor | |
| Editor | |
| Editing Assistant | Checker |
* entry level with appropriate qualifications
Animation Glossary
This is a short selection of words and phrases commonly used in UK Animation.
Read MoreSuggested Reading
Planning a career in animation? You may find some of the books listed here useful.
Read MoreUseful Links - Industry Organisations
Organisations supporting Animation in the UK
Read MoreUseful Links - Publications and useful websites
Information on other useful places to visit on the internet
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