What You Need to Know to Be an Animator in Detroit, Michigan

More and more talented artists residing in Detroit, Michigan are pursuing careers in animated film design.  The city of Detroit, with as many as 60,000 commercial businesses, experiences a continuous, increasing economic demand for local, professional animators.

Detroit Schools and Training Programs for Animation

Numerous colleges, Universities and trade schools in Detroit, Michigan feature workshops and degree programs in animation art.  Artists attending local design schools often major in mass media, digital graphics or photography.  Popular animation schools in the city of Detroit include College for Creative Studies, University of Detroit, Everest Institute and Wayne State University.

Many aspiring Detroit animators design their own learning programs via virtual professional art colleges.  Popular accredited online animation schools include the Academy of Art University, Post University, Full Sail University, Stratford Career Institute, DeVry, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes and ITT Tech.  Some cyber animation schools provide supplemental local facilities.  University of Phoenix has training centers in Southfield and Detroit.  ITT Tech has Detroit area campuses in Southfield, Dearborn, Canton and Troy.
 
Working as an Animator in Detroit, Michigan

Professional animators are hired for various reasons by a broad diversity of Detroit businesses.  Animation is used for cartoons, video games, advertising, engineering studies, bio-tech design and website development, to mention just a few.  Some Detroit animators find work at local film studios.  Top Detroit motion picture producers include All-Star-Video-Productions, Bridge Entertainment, Comspec, EM-Space-Design and P-Aradigm-2000.  Other Detroit animation artists work for local graphics-based info tech firms.  Dependable Detroit digital design IT corporations include Covisint, Marketing Associates, Protocol Systems, Rootlevel and SW-Design.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Detroit, Michigan animators working full time for companies based in the United States earn about $56,000 per year on average, with a mean hourly rate of roughly $27.00.  However, this data does not reflect the incomes of part time animators, freelance professionals and local artists employed by offshore enterprises.

Skills of a Professional Animator

There are many methods to animated motion picture production.  For instance, live action film involves drawing (and/or coloring) directly onto live movie clips.  Stop-motion animation involves manipulating physical objects in tiny increments and photographing each pose.  Well-known examples of stop-motion animation include Claymation cartoons and flip books.  Then there's computer-generated animation, created entirely with high tech software programs.  The world's first entirely computer-generated feature film was Toy Story. 

A successful animator is a masterful storyteller with a playful, poignant sense of humor.  Beyond that, advanced technical skills are required.  Professional animation artists are superbly talented illustrators with highly developed computer skills that include web page construction, HTML fluency and familiarity with different operating systems.  Other essential qualifications include photography, prototyping and set design.