In this competitive world, earning a degree has become a must for job-seekers (unless you’re Bill Gates, perhaps). Choosing the best degree, however, is one of the hardest decisions you’ll have to make. There are, after all, so many degrees out there, and it’s hard to pick the one that suits you best.
If you love art and technology, then an animation degree might just be the program for you. The growth of the animation industry has been astounding due to a number of factors. These factors include the accessibility of the Internet, technological advancement, and the increasing popularity of video streaming. What’s more, promising career opportunities await animation degree holders. The median salary of an animator, for instance, was pegged at $65,300 as of May 2016.
Here are some specific reasons why you should consider an animation degree:
An Animation Degree Will Enhance Your Creativity
If you’re the creative type who likes to draw up characters and doodle on paper, you can level up your skills with an animation degree. A degree in this specific discipline of art will help get your creative juices flowing even more precisely. Many of what you will learn has to do with using your imagination.
Learn to sketch like illustrator Andrew Tarusov, or bring characters to life with your technological know-how. You can also create your own storyboards, develop your own concepts for movies, and design websites or books. For sure, your imagination would be working double-time as soon as you go through the animation program.
Once you graduate, you’ll be able to apply your creativity to a relevant career. Below are some animation-related jobs that will require your creativity:
- Animator: Creates a series of moving images for television and film
- Web Designer: Creates the overall appearance of an online site
- Game Developer: Conceptualizes and makes games for gaming consoles, computers, and mobile gadgets
- Advertising Art Director: In-charge of the visual style of brands and publications
- Illustrator: Makes two-dimensional images for use in books, websites, magazines, and advertisements
An Animation Degree Will Develop Your Love For Technology
Techie people, in particular, should consider getting this degree. Animation is as much about technology as it is about creativity. Those majoring in this course, for example, will also learn coding and programming to supplement their creativity. Students will also learn how to create computer-generated animation using software such as Flash and Maya.
If you love technology, you’ll surely love it more once you study animation and realize there’s so much you can create with just a click of the mouse or the typing of keys.
Below is a list of some technology-oriented jobs that you can land with an animation degree:
- Web Designer: Uses code to create websites with coding languages like PHP, HTML, CSS, Ruby, and JavaScript
- Animator: Employs software packages like After Effects and Cinema 4D to create moving images to tell a story
- Game Designer: Utilizes programming languages like Java, C++, SQL, and CSS3 to develop video games
- VFX Artist: Uses JavaScript, Maya, and Adobe Creative Suite to create visual effects for video
An Animation Degree Is Fun
Let’s face it. Memorizing terminologies and concepts isn’t fun for everyone.
Not all students want to spend hours on end memorizing scientific terms, hoping to remember them for an exam the following day.
An animation degree can be a more hands-on alternative to learning a discipline. When you study animation, the following hold true:
- Practice is far more important than theory: Memorizing all the things you can do with the software After Effects, for example, means nothing if you can’t create 3D models or motion graphics using the program. In the same manner, knowing all the types of code means nothing if you can use neither to develop a game.
- The memorization of concepts is not deliberate and comes after practice: The more you use After Effects, for example, the more you understand its fundamental concepts. The more you use Java, the more you memorize the language.
For animation degree holders, then, studying is fun because you literally just have to tinker with programs to learn the necessary skills.
Conclusion
An animation degree is worth considering because of what it can offer for your personal development. Apart from preparing you for the real world by enhancing your creativity and boosting your technological knowledge, the degree helps you develop a different outlook on learning.
For animation degree holders, studying doesn’t need to be just a means to an end. The program becomes an end in itself, because students always look forward to learning the craft. With an animation degree, you become a more well-rounded and positive person ready to take on career challenges.
