ACR Staff

Animation is a multibillion-dollar, global industry that has a place in more major industries that you think. While most people associate animation with entertainment (i.e. television, film, gaming), it is viewed as a powerful communication tool in advertising, business, education, interior design, architecture, medicine, engineering, and technology. In fact, besides the film and video industry, the industries with the highest levels of employment for animators are computer systems design; software publishing; advertising, public relations, and related services; and other information services—in that order.

Officially nicknamed “The Constitution State” in 1959, Connecticut has its fair share of firsts from the very first cigars made in America to the first color TV. The state produced the nation’s first law school, the first telephone book, the world’s first nuclear powered submarine was built in Groton, the state was the first to issue permanent license plates for cars, and the first commercial U.S. telephone exchange opened in New Haven.

Connecticut is one of the few states that continues to publish more than 144 different newspapers and it runs the oldest newspaper in America—the Hartford, which began as a weekly newspaper in 1764. The state is a leader when it comes to innovation and accepting new ideas, so it’s not surprising that Connecticut is also home to an active film office that offers excellent incentives for digital animation production companies. This attracts productions from all over the U.S., which spells “opportunity” for aspiring animators.

The State of Louisiana can be charming, beautiful, bizarre, and stifling all at the same time, but ask anyone who’s been there they’ll say they had the time of their life. First, the state is home to the biggest Mardi Gras celebration in the country. Next, Louisiana’s largest city—New Orleans, which also hosts Mardi Gras, is filled with street artists, art galleries big and small, production studios, design centers, and museums galore. New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Contemporary Arts Center, and New Orleans Center for Creative Arts are just a few. University-affiliated art museums such as LSU Museum of Art of Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge and Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum of the University of Louisiana University, Lafayette are also well known.

With a population more than 9.9 million, North Carolina is the 10th largest state in the U.S. It is home to creative cities such as Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham, and Winston-Salem. In fact, on the list of America’s Leading Creative Class Metros, Durham, North Carolina tops the list. Around 48.4 percent of the population here are members of the creative class, which consists of professionals in the fields of arts, design and architecture, entertainment and media, science and technology, and healthcare, law, management and education.