Special Effects Artists and Animators

Special Effects Artists and Animators typically perform the following tasks: • Design complex graphics and animation, using independent judgment, creativity, and computer equipment. • Create basic designs, drawings, and illustrations for product labels, cartons, direct mail, or television. • Participate in design and production of multimedia campaigns, handling budgeting and scheduling, and assisting with such responsibilities as production coordination, background design, and progress tracking. • Create two-dimensional and three-dimensional images depicting objects in motion or illustrating a process, using computer animation or modeling programs. • Make objects or characters appear lifelike by manipulating light, color, texture, shadow, and transparency, or manipulating static images to give the illusion of motion. • Apply story development, directing, cinematography, and editing to animation to create storyboards that show the flow of the animation and map out key scenes and characters. • Implement and maintain configuration control systems. • Script, plan, and create animated narrative sequences under tight deadlines, using computer software and hand drawing techniques. • Develop briefings, brochures, multimedia presentations, web pages, promotional products, technical illustrations, and computer artwork for use in products, technical manuals, literature, newsletters, and slide shows. • Assemble, typeset, scan, and produce digital camera-ready art or film negatives and printer's proofs. • Convert real objects to animated objects through modeling, using techniques such as optical scanning. • Create pen-and-paper images to be scanned, edited, colored, textured, or animated by computer. • Use models to simulate the behavior of animated objects in the finished sequence.