Job Title:
Character Animator – Computer Games
In One Sentence Describe Your Work Role:
Creating realistic looking and appealing character animations for video games
Number Of Years Dedicated To This Field Of Work or Lifestyle:
17
Category Of Work:
Employment – Paid Work
Country / Area of Work:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Arts/Entertainment/Publishing
Type:
Employment
Key Skills For The Job:
Good eye for form, shape and timing. Willing to invest lots of time and effort to always learn and improve. Basic software skills in one of the major 3d software packages like Maya or 3ds Max. Must be able to take on board criticism and follow direction. Good people skills to work as part of a team. Must know, study and comfortably apply the main character animation principles and techniques.
Vital Key Skill:
Great Demo Reel is by far the most important thing. Lead animators will rather hire someone with no official qualification in Animation and a great demo reel, than someone who studied for 3 years with a average demo reel.
Your Personal Experience Of Entering This Role:
Higher Education Level
Tips For Undertaking This Work:
Almost every animation schools will not teach you all you need to know, or get you to a level where you can walk into a job. It is up to you to put in extra time and effort over and above what they teach you in order to get good enough for your demo to stand out above the rest. Specialize in one thing first and get really good at that. So if you choose character animation, make that your focus. The computer games industry will hire 95% specialists and not generalists.
Future Progression Or Developments:
Junior Animator
Animator
Senior Animator
Lead Animator
:
I would have been happy to specialize sooner. Read more books (at that time the internet was not like it is now). Take the time to learn the skill properly and methodically instead of erratically and by the seats of my pants. Realise that almost all animators starts off not being that good at it, at all. My first animations were terrible. Don’t be too proud and listen to your mentors. Find the right mentors. Not all mentors know what they talking about.
What Are The ‘tools of the trade’ Used Daily:
A reasonable computer with a reasonable graphics card
Autodesk Maya Software
Reference Material (the internet)
A Typical Day’s Duties:
Go through you list of animations and tasks. You’ll be expected to do a certain amount of animations or frames per day depending on the complexity of the scenes. Animators work better in small groups that has an atmosphere of sharing each others work with each other. So it’s important to sometimes ask the animator next to you, to look at what you just did. 9 times out of 10 they see something you missed or point out something that might make it better. Getting feedback from your leads is important to keep the style and quality consistent across the project so if you can’t handle criticism, this is not a good job for you since your work will be judged constantly by your leads. If you have the skills, can work at a reasonable pace and take criticism in good spirit it’ can be a very rewarding job creatively.
Is Travelling A Regularly Part Of This Work:
No
Weekly Working Hours:
Full Time
Type Of Hours Arrangement:
Flexible Based On Employers Needs
The Best Thing About The Work You Do:
Working with like-minded people. Seeing your finished scene or animation go out into the world and people enjoying it.
Your Least Favorite Thing About The Work You Do:
Sometimes long hours during “crunch” that can last for months or even years. Some game companies don’t pay overtime either. They basically just expect it as part of the culture, even though over long periods of “crunch”, in my experience, overall productivity goes right down, so nobody wins. So many of my friends private lives suffered greatly. Not able to spend time with their partners or even children during these extended periods. It’s good to find out what the culture in a company is regarding this before taking the job. Not all companies are like this.
Any Duties You Hadn’t Anticipated Prior To Undertaking The Work:
I did not imagine I’ll end up in a Lead Animator position. When leading a medium size team you need people skills, and just general management skills also. In my busier lead roles, I barely had time to animate, if at all. I had to talk to and work with the Producers, Character Modeling, Programming, FX and Environment Teams.
The Top Perks Of The Work:
Some companies have bonuses a few times a year or when the game gets released. Its usual to get a free copy of the game you worked on. At TT fusion we got a see through Lego brick sculpture with a ‘minifig’ in for every game we completed. There is normally an active social life within these companies.
Other Work In The Same Sector:
Environment Artists, Prop Artists, Character Artist, Sound team, Programmers, Level Designers and Game Testers
What Professional Organisations Are Associated With Your Work:
Games Companies
Additional Info You Wish To Share:
Recently as a freelancer I had a chance to work on Call of Duty Black Ops 3 and Homefront – The Revolution
Where People Can Visit For More Details On Your Work:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/wilhelm-ogterop-2529433
