If you’re thinking about a career working with animation, then you might be wondering what the different options are in terms of the roles available in the industry and you may be wondering which one is a best fit for your talents.

This is a topic we discussed recently with Basil Lim, our 3D Game Art and Animation lecturer and Art Director for bitSmith Games. Baz explained that there are six key skillsets required to produce an animated game and animation courses like those available at Pulse expose students to all of these different skills.

Baz says “It’s really important that students get to experience each of these disciplines for two reasons; one is that some are more creative and others are more technical so by getting practical experience in each field, students can work out what they like the most – usually the work you love is the one you’ll be best at. The second important reason to try out all of these roles is because when it comes to working on animated games in practice, even if you are specialising in one area exclusively, you need to understand all the other skills and who is responsible for what – to work well within the animation team.”

Baz encourages students to work on their own projects to get as much hands-on experience as possible. “In reality when you’re starting out the likelihood is that you’ll be covering a number of these skills yourself – maybe even all of them! And that’s very useful in the long-run; students should work hard to build their portfolios and the more hands-on experience they have across the board, the easier it will be to specialise down the road.”

Here’s a whistle-stop tour of the different skills and roles involved in producing an animated game;
 

Artist

Does what it says on the tin! The artist does all the visuals, the UI systems, buttons etc for the game. This is a creative process which also requires technical skills to create digital art.
 

Art Director

On large game animation projects, the Art Director will lead the artwork and co-ordinate all the work done by the artists.
 

Programmer

The programmer uses computers and specialised software such as Maya to animate the work done by artists.
 

Designer

Game designers work on the mechanics of a game and the feedback loop; how players progress through it and are pulled back into the game at certain points.
 

Sound Artist

All the audio and music required for the game is applied by the sound artist, who needs to work closely with all the other disciplines to nail the best audio at critical moments.
 

Level Designer

Once all the mechanics are in place, the level designer works on each level to merge all the work together cohesively to create the final version of the game.
 
 

Animation Courses at Pulse College

The animation courses at Pulse College offer students the ideal opportunity to learn about this dynamic, creative and technical world where anything can happen! Why not come along to our next open day to learn more.
 
 

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