What do they do?

• Create the visuals for games, movies, TV programs, & advertisements

• Specializations include: Character animators, digital painters, lighting, render wranglers, & more

• Preferred education: Bachelor’s degree, or 1-2 year professional program for those with experience

• Certification & licensing: None

• Getting ahead: Move from small-scale, low-paid projects to higher paying ones. Some people go into management.

• Skills: Vary with specialty, but all include working in a competitive environment, teamwork & working with computers

• Where they work: Offices, cubicles, & studios of film, television, video, & internet graphics; usually in LA or NYC

• Job outlook: Becoming even more competitive

• Earnings: In the $30-70,000 range

What Do They Do?

The film Westworld is set in a futuristic theme park in which rich vacationers live out fantasies through the use of robots that give them anything they want. The amusement park, however, quickly becomes less than amusing when a computer malfunction leads the robots to run amok. Made back in 1973, Westworld, may have been a fairly forgettable flick as far as the critics were concerned. But the movie has found a place in history for one ground-breaking reason: It was one of the first major feature films to make use of computer graphics. Since then audiences have enjoyed a flood of films employing computer graphics. Star Wars. Alien. Toy Story. Terminator 2. Jurassic park. Finding Nemo. Monsters, Inc. Shrek. Matrix. Harry Potter.

In fact, some of the best, most memorable films today are those using CG, or computer graphics, to construct extremely vivid, larger-than-life virtual worlds that would otherwise be impossible to duplicate. The people responsible for these jaw-dropping scenes are programmers, animators, painters, shaders, musicians, directors and render wranglers, who all work together to turn someone's wild imagination into wild visual reality. As this field evolves and becomes more complex, jobs continue to become more specialized. A film company doesn't just look for a "graphics person" anymore but a "Maya 3D texture artist."

The most glamorous of film graphics are created in specialist studios such as Industrial Light & Magic and Pixar. But film effects are only a part of the CG industry. Computer graphics have also become a big part of television programming, advertising, computer games, theme parks, and the Internet. They are also used in industrial design and scientific research, but these specialties require additional skills and different kinds of training. Specific tasks vary by specialization, but always involve a combination of independent work at a computer and cooperative work with others planning and evaluating projects.

Some Areas of Specialization

• Broadcast motion design artists create the graphics used in multimedia or television broadcasting to display sports statistics, animated logos, and advertising.

• CG programmers create the coding instructions that bring the characters to life.

• Character animators analyze the way people and creatures move and use specialized software to create a simulation of that movement on the screen.

• Digital painters use traditional and digital painting techniques to create textures, flats, character patterns, and colors as well as retouching and enhancing computer renderings.

• Lighting specialists create the effects of light and shade that make animation look real.

• Render wranglers manage the computer process that takes the work created by animators and artists and creates the final images suitable for scan out to film.

• Special effects animators produce special effects, such as tornadoes, or exploding asteroids

Education, Certification & Licensing

The first computer graphics animators taught themselves as they invented the profession. You can still learn a lot working on your own with the information now available on the Internet, but not enough to get a job in this highly competitive field. A growing number of colleges, universities and technical schools teach computer graphics and the various specialties used in film, television, and computer games. Some schools may have much better programs than others. Look for one that has:

• A broad range of courses, including art, design, and other topics as well as computing
• Faculty with actual work experience in the CG industry
• Up-to-date computer equipment
• The respect of employers
• A good program should also be able to demonstrate that its graduates have been able to find good jobs.

The best way to enter the CG field is through an internship that provides work experience and industry contacts while the student is still in school. Major employers like Industrial Light & Magic offer internships each year. These are much prized and very competitive. But other, less well-known companies also offer internships that may be easier to get. To apply for a job in CG, candidates need to present a "demo reel" that contains examples of their best work in the area they want to specialize in. Students usually develop their demo reels during their school careers and internships.

Getting Ahead

CG people advance by moving from small-scale, less-profitable projects to larger, more prestigious, and higher paying ones. It is also possible to advance into directing or managerial positions--to advance, for example, from animator to lead animator to art director to project director. Sometimes however, this advancement means moving away from creative work into supervision and administration. Not everyone in CG wants to do this, since for many, the fun of doing the hands-on, creative work is the whole reason they chose the field to begin with.

Skills, Abilities & Personal Characteristics

Required skills for CG people vary by specialization, but generally include some combination of:

• Thorough knowledge of major software packages used in the industry, such as Alias Maya/PowerAnimator/, PixelKinetix, Discreet's 3D Studio Max, Softimage, Lightwave, or knowledge of programming, or networking and administration

• Knowledge of the principals of animation

• Attention to detail

• Applying abstract theories to practical problems

• Artistic ability and judgment

• Creativity and imagination

• Writing and storytelling

• Communicating ideas to others

• Working in a highly competitive environment

• Teamwork

• Business sense, self-promotion, and entrepreneurship

Where They Work

Computer graphics are used in a variety of industries, particularly in advertising, film and television, computer game production, and on the Internet. Most computer animation firms are in New York or Los Angeles. CG people usually have to move to one of these cities to find work.

Outlook

CG is an exciting field that attracts many people and is very competitive. However, the particular combination of talents that is required for outstanding success is relatively rare. People with a combination of real artistic talent, strong computer skills, the ability to work with others and communicate a vision, and entrepreneurial ability have a distinct advantage because most of their competitors don't have all these skills.

The demand for more and better computer graphics will certainly continue to increase. Even though constantly improving technology will make CG artists more efficient, more and more of them will still be needed, though only those who keep up with technological change will find work. But recently CG work has begun to be exported to other countries where wages are substantially lower, making the field even more competitive.

This trend is important throughout the IT profession. Unemployment in IT as a whole reached 6% in 2003, the highest it has been for many years. Industry experts predict that outsourcing will continue because the cost savings of using overseas workers are just too great to ignore. If it does continue, unemployment will continue to rise and this once secure field will become more and more competitive.

Earnings

Incomes in this field are usually fairly moderate, though, as is common in the entertainment industry, the best and most sought after people earn very high incomes indeed. According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2007), animators can make an average of $61,000.

For More Information

A short explanation of various film techniques, including computer generated and traditional cel animation from ThinkQuest.com library. http://thinkquest.org/10015/data/info/reference/techniques/index.html

ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics, www.siggraph.org

Animation World Network, www.awn.com

Animation World Magazine, www.awn.com/mag

Visual Magic Magazine, visualmagic.awn.com

Computer Graphics World, cgw.pennnet.com/home.cfm

3dSite, www.3dsite.com

3Dcafe, www.3Dcafe.com

Industrial Light and Magic, www.ldlhr.com, Internships, www.ldlhr.com/internship.html

SpicyCricket.com, Training and career advice in computer graphics, www.spicycricket.com

Ask the Headhunter's "Industry Insider" essay on Computer Graphics & Animation
www.asktheheadhunter.com/industryinsider8.htm

Making the computer graphics for "Walking with Dinosaurs" www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/tv_series/graphics.shtml

The Frame Store -- How they did it, www.framestore.co.uk

3dRender.com, www.3drender.com

Starting a Career In Computer Graphics, www.3drender.com/jbirn/Info/career.html

How Stuff Works, 3d Graphics, www.howstuffworks.com/3dgraphics.htm