Accessing technology and finding ways to make the most out of it is an extremely interesting field. Some people choose to take it as a hobby, while some decide to choose it as their career path. By pursuing a tech-related degree for college, an individual can open thousands of possibilities, such as learning animation.
Online animation plays an essential role in different visual media seen everywhere. Ranging from creating 2D digital portraits to curating action-packed movie animations, completing an online animation degree can take you to many places. When it comes to game design, online animation is also deemed as an important element to make various forms of games into life.
If you’ve accomplished an online animation degree or planning to learn animation, here are some reasons why it can qualify you for the industry of game design:
Technical Proficiency
For video games to become successful, a lot of technical processes are performed, where online animators must have a wide knowledge of.
Since game design is composed of a development team with members portraying varying roles and responsibilities, a good animator should have these technical skills relevant for game design:
● User interface (UI) design
● 3D modeling
● Interaction design
● Prototyping
● Motion graphics
● 4D Cinema
● Use of graphics software
Open a Broader Perspective
Having accomplished an animation degree will soon expose you to one of the most demanding career opportunities for animators – be involved in movie animation.
However, movie and game animation are situated in opposite poles. With your broad knowledge in animation, you can open a new perspective in animation through game design that doesn’t exist in movie animations – user interaction.
When you animate visual elements in a movie, your main focus is to put everything into action as shot by the camera’s perspective. You’re only concerned with what’s on the screen at a given angle at a specific point of time. Simply put, you’re limited to animating whatever is required to be displayed on the screen.
On the other hand, breaking into game design is much more challenging and requires animators to widen their visual perspective. Since games are supposed to be interactive, you should design every element that’ll be involved in the game. This is because the player of the game holds the complete control and can navigate through the entire game, so they’re responsible for moving the camera at different angles.
Masters of the Art of Time
Video game enthusiasts might sometimes overlook this non-visual aspect of the game, but it has a great effect on how visual elements move throughout the entire game, which is timing.
Basically, online animators have mastered the art of timing during their education, and timing is what gives the feeling of being actually immersed in the game. Timing is an essential principle that animators follow, so it’s guaranteed that they’re perfect for animating games, too.
Without the role of animators in game design, a message can incorrectly be conveyed to the user or player of the game. For instance, being shot by a raging bullet and being hit by a maul are two actions with different speeds, so it’s up to the animator to relay the timing and send the idea to the player on what will happen next.
Play With Fictional Characters and Worlds
A big reason why many people love playing animated games is the fictional world that it can offer, which is completely distinct from reality. With video games, a player’s only limit is their imagination.
But, how do game developers know what a fictional character or world looks like? Animators can do these tasks with ease and professionalism.
To become a successful animator, extensive creativity and imagination are a must. Even though visual elements inside a game can’t be seen in the real world, animators can create fictional characters and worlds because of their inspirations. Animators use art to tell reality and fiction. When you have an online animation degree, you’re expected to have a creative mind that isn’t limited only to what you see in the real world; game developers and companies love that.
Conclusion
Game design is an intricate field of technology that needs a lot of time and skills to develop. Many best-selling games in the past might be considered substandard, but technology paved the way for game design to improve drastically.
With the help of animators involved in game design, game developers and companies can produce better video games that gamers will enjoy. Indeed, technical proficiency, broader perspectives, timing, and creativity are the best tools that animators possess to break into the field of game design.