What Does an Animator Do? A Deep Dive Into The Creative Process
Billy Perry
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Posted Jun 22, 2025
Explore the day-to-day responsibilities of an animator, from storyboarding to final rendering. Discover the different types of animation and the skills you need for a successful career.
What Does an Animator Do? A Deep Dive Into The Creative Process
The Core Responsibilities of an Animator
Conceptualization and Storyboarding
Asset Creation: Characters, Objects, and Environments
Bringing it to Life: Movement and Performance
Post-Production: Rendering and Final Compositing
A Day in the Life of a Freelance Animator
Client Communication and Project Briefs
The Animation Workflow in Action
Managing Revisions and Feedback
Different Types of Animation Specializations
2D Animation
3D Animation
Motion Graphics
Stop Motion
Essential Skills Every Animator Needs
Artistic and Creative Skills
Technical Proficiency with Software
Communication and Collaboration
Time Management and Meeting Deadlines
Conclusion
References
What Does an Animator Do? A Deep Dive Into The Creative Process
The role of an animator is to bring characters, objects, and environments to life through the illusion of movement. This can be for various media like films, TV shows, video games, and advertisements. The demand for skilled animators is growing across many industries. This article will explore what an animator does, the skills required, and the different specializations you can pursue.
For those interested in starting a career, understanding the path for how to get into animation is a crucial next step. Of course, many of these roles can be found as freelance animation jobs.
The Core Responsibilities of an Animator
An animator's job goes beyond just drawing. It's a multi-stage process that requires both artistic talent and technical skill to transform a concept into a finished product.
Think of animators as actors who perform through their artwork. They don't just move things around on screen—they breathe life into characters and create believable worlds that audiences connect with emotionally.
Conceptualization and Storyboarding
The process often begins with understanding a script or concept and then creating storyboards. Storyboards are sequential drawings that serve as a visual script to pre-visualize the animation.
Picture this: you're handed a script about a brave knight rescuing a dragon (yes, you read that right). Your first job isn't to start animating—it's to sketch out how each scene will look. These rough drawings become your roadmap, showing camera angles, character positions, and key moments in the story.
Storyboarding is where you solve problems before they become expensive. You might realize that a dramatic scene needs a different angle, or that a joke lands better with different timing. It's like planning a road trip—you figure out your route before you start driving.
Asset Creation: Characters, Objects, and Environments
Animators design and build the various assets needed for a scene. This includes creating characters, props, and backgrounds, whether they are hand-drawn for 2D or modeled for 3D animation.
Let's say you're creating an animated commercial for a coffee shop. You'll need to design the main character (maybe a sleepy office worker), the coffee shop interior, steaming cups of coffee, and even small details like sugar packets and stirring spoons. Each element needs to fit the overall style and mood of the piece.
In 2D animation, this might mean drawing multiple versions of your character from different angles. For 3D work, you're essentially sculpting digital clay, building characters that can be viewed from any direction. The key is consistency—your coffee cup needs to look like the same coffee cup whether it's in the character's hand or sitting on the counter.
Bringing it to Life: Movement and Performance
This is the core of animation, where artists create the illusion of movement frame by frame. This can involve keyframing, motion capture, or stop-motion techniques to give characters and objects life-like motion and expressions.
Here's where the magic happens. You take your static character and make them walk, talk, and emote. In traditional animation, this means drawing 24 images for every second of footage. That's 1,440 drawings for just one minute of animation!
But it's not just about movement—it's about performance. A character walking sadly looks different from one walking confidently. The way they shift their weight, how their shoulders move, even the timing of their blinks all tell a story. Animators study real-life movement constantly, watching how people gesture when they talk or how cats stretch when they wake up.
Post-Production: Rendering and Final Compositing
The final stage involves rendering the animated sequences and compositing various layers—like backgrounds, characters, and special effects—to create the finished piece. This often requires collaboration with editors and other team members.
Think of this stage like assembling a sandwich. You've got all your ingredients prepared (the animated elements), and now you need to layer them together perfectly. The background goes here, the character animation sits on top, maybe some particle effects for atmosphere, and don't forget the lighting that ties it all together.
Rendering can take hours or even days for complex scenes. During this time, computers calculate how light bounces off surfaces, how shadows fall, and how materials like water or metal should look. It's the difference between a rough sketch and a polished painting.
A Day in the Life of a Freelance Animator
A freelance animator's day is a mix of creative work, client management, and business administration. They often work from home and manage their own schedules, but must be disciplined to meet deadlines.
No two days look exactly the same when you're freelancing. Monday might find you deep in creative flow, animating a character's emotional breakdown. Tuesday could be all about invoicing, responding to emails, and hunting for new projects.
Client Communication and Project Briefs
A significant part of the day involves communicating with clients to review project requirements, provide updates, and receive feedback to ensure the final product aligns with their vision.
Your morning might start with a video call where a client explains they need an explainer video for their new app. They use words like "fun" and "energetic" but what does that actually mean? You'll spend time asking questions: What age is your target audience? What other animations do you like? What's the main message?
Clear communication saves everyone time and frustration. You might create mood boards, share reference videos, or do quick test animations to make sure you're on the same page. It's like being a translator—you're converting their ideas into visual language.
The Animation Workflow in Action
The bulk of the creative time is spent in the actual animation process, which could be anything from sketching initial ideas to detailed digital sculpting or rigging characters for movement.
Once you're aligned with the client, it's time to dive in. Your workspace might have multiple monitors—one showing your animation software, another with reference videos, maybe a third with the project brief. You've got your coffee (or tea, no judgment), your favorite playlist humming in the background, and you're ready to create.
The actual work varies wildly. You might spend hours perfecting a character's walk cycle, making sure their hips sway just right. Or you could be rigging a 3D model, essentially building a digital skeleton that allows the character to move naturally. Some days you're problem-solving—figuring out how to make a character's hair flow realistically or how to animate a complex fight scene.
Managing Revisions and Feedback
After delivering a draft, animators incorporate client feedback, making edits and adjustments. This iterative process is crucial for achieving the desired outcome.
Here's a truth every animator knows: the first version is never the final version. You send off your beautifully crafted animation, proud of how the character's expression changes during the emotional climax. Then comes the feedback: "Can we make them smile more? And maybe change the shirt color? Oh, and my boss thinks it should be 5 seconds shorter."
This is where patience and professionalism shine. Good animators understand that revision is part of the process, not a critique of their skills. You learn to save multiple versions, keep your project files organized, and build buffer time into your schedule for these inevitable changes.
Different Types of Animation Specializations
The field of animation is diverse, with several key specializations that artists can pursue based on their interests and skills. Each type has its unique workflow and application.
Choosing your animation path is like picking your favorite ice cream flavor—they're all good, but some will suit your taste better than others. Let's explore the main types.
2D Animation
This traditional form involves creating movement in a two-dimensional space. It is widely used for TV series, films, and explainer videos.
2D animation is the classic style you grew up watching in Saturday morning cartoons. But don't let "traditional" fool you—modern 2D animation combines time-tested techniques with cutting-edge digital tools.
Today's 2D animators might sketch on tablets that feel like paper but offer endless undos. They create rigs that let characters move smoothly without redrawing every frame. The style ranges from simple stick figures for educational content to gorgeously detailed anime productions that rival any live-action film in emotional impact.
What makes 2D special is its ability to simplify and exaggerate. You can stretch a character's face for comedy or use bold shapes to convey emotion instantly. It's perfect for projects that need personality over photorealism.
3D Animation
3D animators work with digital models in a three-dimensional environment, creating realistic characters and effects for films, video games, and virtual reality.
Welcome to the world of digital sculpture and virtual cinematography. 3D animation lets you create worlds that viewers can almost reach out and touch. From Pixar movies to the latest video game characters, 3D animation dominates modern media.
The process starts with modeling—building your character or object in 3D space. Then comes texturing (adding colors and surface details), rigging (creating the skeleton), and finally animating. You're not just an artist; you're part sculptor, part puppeteer, part cinematographer.
The learning curve is steeper than 2D, but the possibilities are endless. You can create photorealistic humans, fantastical creatures, or anything in between. Plus, once you build a 3D asset, you can reuse it from any angle—try doing that with a 2D drawing!
Motion Graphics
This specialization combines animation with graphic design, often used for commercials, title sequences, and data visualization to communicate information visually.
Motion graphics is where design meets movement. Think of every slick commercial where logos transform, text dances across the screen, and infographics come alive. That's motion graphics in action.
This field is perfect for designers who want their work to move. You might animate a company's quarterly results, making boring bar graphs engaging. Or create the opening titles for a documentary, setting the mood before the first scene even starts.
The work is often more abstract than character animation. Instead of making a character walk, you're making shapes morph, colors transition, and typography flow. It requires a strong sense of design, timing, and often, the ability to simplify complex information into digestible visual chunks.
Stop Motion
This technique involves physically manipulating objects and capturing them one frame at a time. It includes styles like claymation and puppet animation.
Stop motion is the marathon runner of animation techniques. It's physical, time-consuming, and requires the patience of a saint. But the results? Absolutely magical.
Imagine spending an entire day to create five seconds of footage. You move a puppet a tiny bit, take a photo. Move it again, another photo. Repeat this hundreds of times. One sneeze, one bumped table, and you might have to start over.
But there's something special about stop motion that digital can't quite capture. The slight imperfections, the tactile quality, the knowledge that everything on screen physically exists—it creates a unique charm. From Wallace and Gromit to Coraline, stop motion has a devoted following because it feels handmade in our increasingly digital world.
Essential Skills Every Animator Needs
To succeed as an animator, a blend of artistic talent, technical proficiency, and soft skills is necessary to navigate the creative and business sides of the industry.
Being a great animator isn't just about making things move. It's about understanding story, mastering technology, and yes, being able to work with people (even on those days when you'd rather just talk to your animated characters).
Artistic and Creative Skills
A strong foundation in drawing, composition, color theory, and storytelling is fundamental. Creativity is needed to generate unique ideas and bring concepts to life.
Even if you're planning to work entirely in 3D, drawing skills matter. They help you understand form, proportion, and movement. You don't need to be Da Vinci, but you should be comfortable sketching out ideas quickly.
Color theory helps you set moods—warm colors for happy scenes, cool tones for sadness or mystery. Composition guides the viewer's eye, making sure they focus on what's important. And storytelling? That's the heart of it all. Every animation, even a simple logo reveal, tells a tiny story.
Creativity in animation isn't just about wild imagination. It's about solving problems creatively. How do you show a character is nervous without dialogue? How do you make a walking refrigerator look believable? These challenges require both artistic vision and innovative thinking.
Technical Proficiency with Software
Animators must be proficient in industry-standard software. For 2D, this might be Toon Boom Harmony or Adobe Animate, while 3D artists often use Maya, Blender, or Cinema 4D.
Software is your paintbrush, and you need to know it inside and out. But here's the thing—the fundamentals matter more than the specific program. Once you understand animation principles, switching software becomes much easier.
Start with one program and master it. Learn the shortcuts that save you hours. Understand not just what buttons do, but why you'd use them. Can you create a walk cycle with your eyes closed? Do you know how to optimize your workflow for speed without sacrificing quality?
The technical side also includes understanding file formats, compression, and delivery specifications. Your beautiful animation won't matter if the client can't open the file or if it looks terrible after uploading to social media.
Communication and Collaboration
Whether working in a studio or as a freelancer, animators need strong communication skills to collaborate with team members and clients effectively.
Animation is rarely a solo sport. Even freelancers work with clients, voice actors, composers, and other creatives. You need to explain your ideas clearly, listen to feedback without taking it personally, and sometimes defend your creative choices diplomatically.
In a studio setting, you might be one of dozens of animators working on a single project. Can you match the style of other artists? Can you take direction from a lead animator? Can you give constructive feedback to peers without crushing their spirits?
Written communication matters too. Your emails should be clear and professional. Your project proposals need to excite clients while setting realistic expectations. And those revision notes? They better be specific and actionable.
Time Management and Meeting Deadlines
Animation projects are often deadline-driven. The ability to manage time effectively is crucial, especially when approaching deadlines that may require working evenings and weekends.
Here's a hard truth: in animation, deadlines are sacred. A TV show airs when it airs. A commercial launches with the product. Missing deadlines doesn't just upset clients—it can derail entire productions.
Good time management starts with realistic estimates. New animators often underestimate how long things take. That "simple" walk cycle? It might take a full day to get right. Building in buffer time isn't pessimistic—it's professional.
You also need to know when good enough is good enough. Perfectionism can be an animator's enemy. Yes, you could spend another hour tweaking that eye blink, but is it worth missing the deadline? Learning to balance quality with efficiency is a skill that develops over time.
The animation industry can be demanding, with crunch times that require long hours. But experienced animators learn to pace themselves, communicate boundaries, and find sustainable ways to meet demands without burning out.
Conclusion
Animation is a field where art meets technology, where patience meets passion, and where every day brings new creative challenges. Whether you're drawn to the classic appeal of 2D, the endless possibilities of 3D, the design focus of motion graphics, or the tactile magic of stop motion, there's a place for you in this industry.
The path isn't always easy. You'll face tight deadlines, difficult clients, and technical challenges that make you want to throw your tablet out the window. But you'll also experience the joy of seeing your creations come to life, of making audiences laugh or cry, of solving visual problems in ways that surprise even yourself.
Start building your skills today. Practice daily, even if it's just for 30 minutes. Study the animations you love—pause, rewind, and figure out why they work. Connect with other animators online and in person. Most importantly, keep creating. Every animation you complete, no matter how simple, teaches you something new.
The world needs animators who can tell stories, explain complex ideas, and bring imagination to life. With dedication, continuous learning, and a genuine love for the craft, you can build a rewarding career doing what you love—making things move.