# Animator > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Animator > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Animator.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animator > Source revision: 1338072109 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Person who makes animation sequences out of still images For other uses, see [Animator (disambiguation)](/source/Animator_(disambiguation)). For people who draw individual images and comics, see [Cartoonist](/source/Cartoonist). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Animator" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Animator Scottish Canadian animator Norman McLaren drawing on film, 1944 Occupation Occupation type Art Activity sectors Film, television, internet, mass media, video games Description Competencies Drawing, fine arts, acting, computer software Fields of employment Animation An **animator** is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called [animation](/source/Animation) when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animation is closely related to [filmmaking](/source/Filmmaking) and like filmmaking is extremely labor-intensive, which means that most significant works require the collaboration of several animators. The methods of creating the images or frames for an animation piece depend on the animators' artistic styles and their field. Other artists who contribute to [animated cartoons](/source/Animated_cartoon), but who are not animators, include [layout](/source/Page_layout) artists (who design the backgrounds, lighting, and camera angles), [storyboard artists](/source/Storyboard_artist) (who draw panels of the action from the script), and [background artists](/source/Background_artist) (who paint the "scenery"). Animated films share some [film crew](/source/Film_crew) positions with regular live action films, such as director, producer, sound engineer, and editor, but differ radically in that for most of the history of animation, they did not need most of the crew positions seen on a physical set. In hand-drawn Japanese animation productions, such as in [Hayao Miyazaki](/source/Hayao_Miyazaki)'s films, the key animator handles both layout and key animation. Some animators in Japan such as [Mitsuo Iso](/source/Mitsuo_Iso) take full responsibility for their scenes, making them become more than just the key animator. ## Specialized fields Animators often specialize. One important distinction is between [character animators](/source/Character_animation) (artists who specialize in character movement, [dialogue](/source/Dialogue), acting, etc.) and [special effects animators](/source/Special_effect) (who animate anything that is *not* a character; most commonly vehicles, [machinery](/source/Machinery), and natural phenomena such as rain, snow, and water). [Stop motion](/source/Stop_motion) animators do not draw their images, instead they move models or cut-outs frame-by-frame,[1] famous animators of this genre being [Ray Harryhausen](/source/Ray_Harryhausen) and [Nick Park](/source/Nick_Park). Stop-motion animated character from *[20 Million Miles to Earth](/source/20_Million_Miles_to_Earth)* (1957) ## Inbetweeners and cleanup artists In large-scale productions by major studios, each animator usually has one or more assistants, "[inbetweeners](/source/Inbetweening)" and "[clean-up](/source/Cleanup_(animation)) artists", who make drawings between the "key poses" drawn by the animator, and also re-draw any sketches that are too roughly made to be used as such.[2] The terms "assistant animator" and "clean-up artists" tend to be used in place of each other.[3] Usually, a young artist seeking to break into animation is hired for the first time in one of these categories, and can later advance to the rank of full animator (usually after working on several productions). ## Methods Historically, the creation of animation was a long and arduous process. Each frame of a given scene was hand-drawn, then transposed onto celluloid, where it would be traced and painted. These finished "cels" were then placed together in sequence over painted backgrounds and filmed, one frame at a time.[4] Animation methods have become far more varied in recent years.[5] Today's cartoons could be created using any number of methods, mostly using computers to make the animation process cheaper and faster. These more efficient animation procedures have made the animator's job less tedious and more creative. Audiences generally find animation to be much more interesting with sound. Voice actors and musicians, among other talent, may contribute vocal or music tracks. Some early animated films asked the vocal and music talent to synchronize their recordings to already-extant animation (and this is still the case when films are [dubbed](/source/Dubbing) for international audiences). For the majority of animated films today, the soundtrack is recorded first in the language of the film's primary target market and the animators are required to synchronize their work to the soundtrack.[5] ## Evolution of animator's roles As a result of the ongoing transition from [traditional](/source/Traditional_animation) 2D to 3D [computer animation](/source/Computer_animation), the animator's traditional task of redrawing and repainting the same character 24 times a second (for each second of finished animation) has now been superseded by the modern task of developing dozens (or hundreds) of movements of different parts of a character in a virtual scene. Because of the transition to computer animation, many additional support positions have become essential, with the result that the animator has become but one component of a very long and highly specialized production pipeline. In the 21st century, visual development artists design a character as a 2D drawing or painting, then hand it off to [modelers](/source/3D_modeling) who build the character as a collection of digital polygons. [Texture artists](/source/Texture_artist) "paint" the character with colorful or complex textures, and [technical directors](/source/Technical_director) set up [rigging](/source/Skeletal_animation) so that the character can be easily moved and posed. For each scene, layout artists set up virtual cameras and rough [blocking](/source/Blocking_(stage)). Finally, when a character's bugs have been worked out and its scenes have been blocked, it is handed off to an animator (that is, a person with that actual job title) who can start developing the exact movements of the character's virtual limbs, muscles, and facial expressions in each specific scene. At that point, the role of the modern computer animator overlaps in some respects with that of their predecessors in traditional animation: namely, trying to create scenes already storyboarded in rough form by a team of story artists, and synchronizing lip or mouth movements to dialogue already prepared by a screenwriter and recorded by vocal talent. Despite those constraints, the animator is still capable of exercising significant artistic skill and discretion in developing the character's movements to accomplish the objective of each scene. There is an obvious analogy here between the art of animation and the art of acting, in that actors also must do the best they can with the lines they are given; it is often encapsulated by the common industry saying that animators are "actors with pencils".[6] In 2015, [Chris Buck](/source/Chris_Buck) noted in an interview that animators have become "actors with [mice](/source/Computer_mouse)."[7] Some studios bring in acting coaches on feature films to help animators work through such issues. Once each scene is complete and has been perfected through the "[sweat box](/source/Sweat_box)" feedback process, the resulting data can be dispatched to a [render farm](/source/Render_farm), where computers handle the tedious task of actually [rendering](/source/Rendering_(computer_graphics)) all the frames. Each finished film clip is then checked for quality and rushed to a film editor, who assembles the clips together to create the film. While early computer animation was heavily criticized for rendering human characters that looked plastic or even worse, eerie (see [uncanny valley](/source/Uncanny_valley)), contemporary software can now render strikingly realistic clothing, hair, and skin. The solid shading of traditional animation has been replaced by very sophisticated virtual lighting in computer animation, and computer animation can take advantage of many camera techniques used in live-action filmmaking (i.e., simulating real-world "camera shake" through [motion capture](/source/Motion_capture) of a cameraman's movements). As a result, some studios now hire nearly as many lighting artists as animators for animated films, while costume designers, hairstylists, choreographers, and cinematographers have occasionally been called upon as consultants to computer-animated projects. ## See also - [Animation portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Animation) - [Animation](/source/Animation) - [Computer animation](/source/Computer_animation) - [Computer graphics](/source/Computer_graphics) - [Key frame](/source/Key_frame) - [List of animators](/source/List_of_animators) - [Sweat box](/source/Sweat_box) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Shaw, Susannah (10 September 2012). [*Stop Motion: Craft Skills for Model Animation*](https://books.google.com/books?id=y8kqBgAAQBAJ&dq=Stop-motion+animators+don't+draw+their+images,+instead+they+move+models+or+cut-outs+frame-by-frame&pg=PA9). CRC Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-136-13510-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-136-13510-1). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Animator (Animation)"](https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/animation/production/animator-animation/#:~:text=Assistant%20animators%20take%20the%20animator%27s%20drawings%2C%20make,the%20animator%20did%20not%20need%20to%20produce.). *ScreenSkills*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Di Massimo, Eleonora (15 November 2023). ["Research Into the industry: Assistant Animator/Clean Up Artist"](https://edimassimo.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/11/15/research-into-the-industry-assistant-animator-clean-up-artist/). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** "How A Cartoon is Made" ["How a Cartoon is Made"](https://web.archive.org/web/20060925111819/http://www.sci.fi/~animato/cartoon/cartoon.html). Archived from [the original](http://www.sci.fi/~animato/cartoon/cartoon.html) on 25 September 2006. Retrieved 10 January 2007. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_5-1) nyfa (17 October 2023). ["The History of Animation: Celebrating Disney's 100 Years of Stories"](https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/quick-history-animation/). *NYFA*. Retrieved 30 August 2024. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** [Gaut, Berys](/source/Berys_Gaut) (2010). [*A Philosophy of Cinematic Art*](https://books.google.com/books?id=ATh0CRxhGGQC&pg=PA139). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 138–139. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780521822442](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780521822442). Retrieved 9 June 2014. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Virtue, Robert (29 April 2015). ["Acclaimed Disney director shares his creative vision for Newcastle"](https://web.archive.org/web/20150505093919/http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/04/29/4226204.htm). *1233 ABC Newcastle*. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from [the original](http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/04/29/4226204.htm) on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015. ## External links Look up ***[animator](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Search/animator)*** in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. - [Animation Toolworks Glossary: Who Does What In Animation](https://web.archive.org/web/20170420040215/http://www.animationtoolworks.com/library/article6.html) - [How An Animated Cartoon Is Made](http://www.sparetimelabs.com/animato/animato/cartoon/cartoon.html) v t e Animation topics By country Azerbaijan Bangladesh Bhutan Brazil Bulgaria Canada China history Czechia Estonia France Hungary India history Indonesia Iran Italy Japan history Korea North South history Latvia Lithuania Malaysia Mexico North Korea Philippines Portugal Romania Russia South Africa Spain Taiwan Thailand Ukraine United Kingdom United States Silent Era The Golden Age World War II Early TV broadcast era Modern TV cable and streaming era Vietnam Industry Animator List Animation department Animation director Story artist Animation studios List Animation database Art pipeline Biologist simulators Animation film festivals international regional Highest-grossing films (Opening weekends) Outsourcing International Animation Day Works Films Computer-animated Feature-length Lost or unfinished Package Short Short series Stop-motion Adult animated films Children's animated films Series Adult animated Children's animated Computer-animated Direct-to-video Flash Traditional Internet Television (list of years in animation · years in animation) Techniques Traditional Barrier-grid and stereography Flip book Limited animation Masking Rotoscoping Exposure sheet Stop motion Claymation clay painting, strata-cut Cutout (silhouette) Graphic Model go motion Object Brickfilm Pixilation Puppetoons Computer 2D 2.5D Flash PowerPoint SVG CSS Multi-sketch Onion skinning 3D T-pose Cel shading CGI Crowd Facial animation Morph target Motion capture facial hand tracking eye tracking Non-photorealistic rendering Physically based animation Procedural Skeletal Virtual cinematography Puppetry Traditional puppetry Digital puppetry Machinima Aniforms Virtual human Live2D Supermarionation Mechanical Animatronics Audio-Animatronics Linear Animation Generator Direct manipulation animation Humanoid animation Idle animation Ink-wash animation Magic Lantern Scanimate Shadowmation Squigglevision Whiteboard animation Other methods Blocking Character animation model sheet walk cycle lip sync off-model Chuckimation Drawn-on-film Erasure animation Hydrotechnics Inbetweening Morphing Paint-on-glass Pinscreen Pixel art Pose to pose Straight ahead Rubber hose Special effects Sand Syncro-Vox Zoetrope Variants Abstract animation (visual music) Adult animation Animated cartoon Animated sitcom Animated documentary Educational animation Erotic animation Independent animation Instructional animation Virtual newscaster History Early history History of computer animation List of years in animation Related topics Animation music Bouncing ball Mickey Mousing Key frame Cel Character animation model sheet walk cycle lip sync off-model Creature animation Twelve basic principles Motion comic Films with live action and animation highest grossing Cartoon physics violence Most expensive animated films List of animated films by box office admissions List of animated television series by episode count Category Portal Outline Authority control databases International GND 2 FAST National United States Japan Czech Republic 2 Latvia Israel Other Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Animator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animator) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animator?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.