2D animation is the art of creating movement in a two-dimensional space. This includes characters, creatures, FX and backgrounds. The illusion of movement is created when individual drawings are sequenced together over time. One second of time is usually divided into 24 frames. Depending on the style of animation there can be as many as 24 unique drawings in one second of animation (24fps) or as little as two. 2D is a popular and diverse medium that's making a massive comeback. It can be seen prevalently in TV shows, video games, feature films, advertisements, mobile apps and on websites. For 2D animation students can go through these additional responsibilities to be an expert in animation may include here:
- Sketching designs
- Designing characters
- Developing storyboards
- Creating special effects
- Animating scenes
- Transitioning backgrounds
This job is just one part of the production pipeline and it is divided into three parts:pre-production, production and post-production:
In pre-production , a project is in its early stages and the team may be working on story and character development, writing scripts, recording dialogue, storyboarding, background layout, and character animation.
In the production stage, animators breathe life into their characters and objects by giving them movement. The figures are then coloured and processed by digital ink and paint and composited over their appropriate backgrounds.
Post-production is the final stages of adding sound and editing to ensure the project looks sharp and flows seamlessly, and then it is exported in the final format.
Being such a diverse industry, animators can choose to work on 2D feature films, TV shows, video games, as well as for production companies and advertising agencies who produce 2D content for advertisements, mobile apps and websites. If you’re studying 2D animation, you won’t necessarily become an “animator”. There are many types of jobs in this industry as include here:
- Animator
- Animation Supervisor
- Animation Director
- Games Developer
- Character Designer
- Storyboard Artist
- Illustrator
- Graphic designer
- Motion designer