Tips on Becoming an Animator in Tampa, Florida

The city of Tampa, Florida is teeming with local artists pursuing employment in the field of animation.  With well over 85,000 commercial businesses, Tampa features a continuous economic demand for animation professionals.

Tampa Schools and Training Programs for Animation

Colleges and Universities in and near Tampa, Florida feature various courses in professional animation design.  Tampa artists often acquire the needed skills from local colleges.  Acclaimed animation design colleges in Tampa include South University, Fortis Institute, Southwest Florida College and the International Academy of Design and Technology.  Art students studying animation at Tampa colleges typically focus on mass communications and visual arts.

Lately, more and more Tampa artists are earning degrees online.  Countless accredited cyber art schools offer online training programs for aspiring professional animators.  Popular favorite virtual art colleges include the Academy of Art University, Full Sail University, Stratford Career Institute, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes, ITT Tech and DeVry.  Many online design schools feature local campuses and resource facilities throughout the Unite States.  University of Phoenix, ITT Tech and The Art Institutes all have locations in Tampa.

Working as an Animator in Tampa, Florida

Tampa is packed with commercial businesses in need of professional animation artists for the creation of cartoons and video games, not to mention medical images, legal evidence, promotional advertising, training videos and biotech engineering designs, among other things.  Some Tampa artists work for local animation studios like Tri Dimensional Animation.  Others sign with local movie producers like Born to Ride, Peakaboo Productions, Creative Carbon, Ren Scott Productions or Sunray Legal Video.  Some local animators are employed by top Tampa IT corporations.  Successful local graphics-based info tech firms include Data Force International, Elsint Incoporated, OTF Technologies, Princeton Information and Sage Software Healthcare. 

Full time animators residing in Tampa, Florida and employed by U.S. companies earn, on average, about $55,000 per year, with an average hourly rate of around $27.00.  However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides no reliable information regarding the incomes of part time animators, freelance artists and Tampa animators employed by offshore businesses.  

Skills of a Professional Animator

When hiring professional animators, employers typically look for certain personality traits.  Successful applicants demonstrate superb communication skills, high-level organizational ability, calmness under pressure and energetic self-motivation, not to mention a clever sense of humor.  As for visual-technical qualifications, professional animation requires advanced drawing technique, solid photography skills, innovative digital graphic design and prototyping expertise.  Key animators are also fully familiar with assorted animation software programs and fluent in one or more programming languages.