15 Art Career Options (Animation, Illustration, Design)

Most artists have the skills equipped and are ready to work, but not everyone knows where to place those skills. Here are just some jobs in the art industries that may suit different people based on their needs. If you are an artist who has a job not listed in this video, and would like to share, comment below!

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FAQ:
Recording Equipment:
Canon EOS M50 Camera, Movo Microphone, iPhone 7 (for older videos)
Drawing Equipment:
iPad Pro 12.9in (2017), Any sketchbook, pen, or pencil really.
Editing Equipment:
Adobe Premiere Pro or iMovie depending on laziness LOL

MUSIC

[Fabtasticstudios]

A timestamp in case anyone was having a hard time or was just asking.storybored 2:02 2.Character design/character designer 2:35 3.Visual development3:21 4.Cg modeling 4:01 5. Cg animation4:45
6. Graphic novel 6:22 7. Picture book 6:53 8. Illustrator for books 8: 21 9. Colorist for book 9:08 10. Freelance artist 10:45 11. Tattoo artist 12:26 12. Print Design 14:07 13. Graphic Design 15:08 14. Social media artist 17:04 and 15.Business owner 18:46 Extra stuff I found in the video 20:45 or 20:30 1 what type of timeline 2. you want, do you want art to be a narrative 3. How financially risky am I willing to be

[XXXXXX-tnpl]

I am working in a game development industry and heres how its looking for us:
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Concept Artist - brings the ideas to life. Visualises locations, characters, props, mood of the scene, patterns and mechanics, by doing multiple variations of the thing. Their goal is to be as quick as possible with a ton of various ideas and unusual takes. They also have to always remember about properly showing off the idea, so that the rest of the team know exacly what is going on on the concept.
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2D Artists - depending on the size of the team, they might be doing some concept artists job as well, but usually they are the one helping develop the already excisting idea, not creating it. They are rendering and polishing 2D assets, helping with repetetive tasks, textures, etc. This job is more common in mobile games studios.
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Illustrator - makes illustrations and sometimes polishes ready concept arts so it can be for example posted on social medias. Ive never met illustrator hired on a full-time, they are always either commission freelance artists or hired from another company, that specialises only in illustrations.
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Animator - makes animations, either in the engine or outside programms. There can be animator 2D or 3D (or both if someone is cool :) )
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Storyboardist - its the same as you described. This job exists almost only in big AA+ studios. Usually its animators job to preaper storyboard before the animation if needed.
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Character Artists - it often missunderstood. They sculpt characters in 3D following already done character designs made by concept artist. They do not design the character themselfs.
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Character concept artist - thats the right position you should be looking at, if you are interested in designing characters yourself. Its exacly like concept artist, but ONLY for characters/sometimes mobs. I guess you can name them character designers, but ive never seen anyone using this term in gamedev. Same as with storyboardist - its very unlikely that smaller studio is going to have that position. General concept artists often do the characters design too.
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Level Artist - They are responssible for placing ready assets in the engine, creating the locations with a help of concept/ mood art.
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Level Designers - They design levels (gameplay-wise).
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3D Artist - does 3D art usually based on concept art. In smaller studios often does the job of the character artist too.
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Game artist/General artist - from what i see they are usually "one army men", are required to do everything from animation, to illustration and often help to develop early idea for the game.
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UI artists - icons, menus, design of the fonts etc. More design, less drawing/painting.
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And many many more... Please take a note that what i just described might vary among different workplaces. Those titles are not always well defined and do not always tell you 100% what you might be required to do. It can often be merged - like 2D/UI artist or 3D/2D artist, depends on the size of the company. Game development industry is pretty chaotic and theres a lot of new positions beeing created every year ( for example lately there are AI artists, that specialise in generating required AI stuff). Different games need diffrent artists and sometimes its hard to put one task on only one person. Thats why job interviews are so important here - they always tell you what they need from you :) It is pretty hard to get in, since many people dont quite understand how does the job look like. For example i can myself see plenty of young artists applying for a concept art position with a portfolio built solely on the illustration, without any proper concept art in it... Remember - always put in your portfolio something that you would actually do during the job youre applying for :D

[dodostarforce]

Woah you were assistant director on Oni?! That was my favourite animated thing I’ve seen this year, probably longer. Was so amazing!

[nikibyalo]

My mom told me that if I want to have a career out of art, I should draw impersonal things and give the people what they want apart from drawing in my comfort zone.

[moonka]

This was such a great and informative video. I've been debating for a while now just what direction I want to go with my art career and I think deep down I've always known but getting confirmation that I don't have to be in animation to have a professional career as an artist is very reassuring. Especially since I'm starting at 25

[TheMutantCreeper]

I mainly want to be a character designer. I love drawing people, but I like to sketch more than fully render. Storyboarding sounds better, but I still want to design. Storybook illustration sounds nice as well if I want to have a more entry level thing while having a job or when I graduate.

[magnamakers]

Damn girl. Didn't you know you helped create Oni.

I just finished the show last night - it made me shed a few tears. Great work :) I love stories with deeper meaning. It also made me more interested in Japanese folklore.

[sasaresende]

I'd like to add that In publishing you can also do Book cover as an illustrator and/or graphic designer which is not as stable either but there are some cool gigs for it. For storyboarding consider film industry too because they also work with them.
For the animation industry stuff, it also applies to games industry, and for games industry you also have UI artist which is has a lot of offer imo.

[margaretsmith]

I actually work as a designer in the gaming industry! I've worked in the animation industry and I'd say working in design is more stable when it comes to benefits and income. It is very corporate so there is a lot of down time and you may not be illustrating things you actually enjoy creating. If anyone has questions feel free to ask!

[yamiyugi]

This helps I know a lot of us don't have life partners who can back us financially while we get into a fitting career in art so it's very nice that you gave pointers on options around that is how I saw it ♥

[andreacoloma]

I loved Oni so much, it was so uplifting and had so many cute character moments! As someone aspiring to have a career in art, it is so inspirational watching how your career is developing. Thank you for making these videos :)

[subterranean]

Great vid! I'm currently working on my first graphic novel. (No publisher, just DOING it!) I don't know if I'll ever be a full-time artist, but for now, I just want to tell awesome stories created 100% by me! :)

[lovehandle]

There’s also a book called careers in art by Blythe Camenson that goes through and gives description on careers in art. They have professional artist statement and what they did to get into the field. It has fine arts, graphic art, art education, arts sales and many more. It tell you about colleges and universities training and more highly recommended.

[CiarraStebbins]

I would love to see a video discussing your experience/knowledge with finding/working with an agent and what that looks like! (Also standard practices to expect or red flags to be aware of). ❤

[sofimei_jmj]

Ah so some more options that relate to these but in a slightly different field! Game development! I currently freelance for a small indie studio as a 2D artist and animator, and honestly its a fascinating field which carries a lot of the skillsets of working in animation for film or shows, but also with a technical twist. Theres concept art, character design, environment design, storyboard for cinematics, 2D or 3D modeling and animation, UI and UX design, VFX and special effects animators. The industry is definitely interesting, as you can work with an AAA studio (Bungie, or Playstation etc) if you really want to specialize in a skillset for a larger team, or work with indie studios where you can usually wear multiple hats if that interests you. I think the biggest difference between working in games versus other entertainment might be the prevalence of technical limitations and making sure to always serve the player experience- the art is heavily reliant on not just story but also mechanics, and how can the art tell a story, or communicate the level design, help the player, etc. Very fun puzzle in my experience!

[KayGee_yt]

I'm currently stuck between two careers. I work as a graphic designer and am looking for my next step. Motion design is a secure and financially viable option that interests me. But I originally went to college to become a director for animation, so, there's also storyboarding. I have struggled to get hired in both so I'm spending time learning (I'm better at motion design. Struggle to kind of calm down my drawings into storyboards) but I feel like I should focus on one so I can get good enough to get hired (especially in this recession). Idk which is for me. My difficult to ascertain dream, or the fulfilling and more promising side option...

P.s. Oni was great!!!☺️

[lesnuits]

Omggg, I have just started Oni thunder god’s tale before discovering your channel and found it amazing. It made me realize this was what I wanted to use my art for. And now, I find your channel. I am so amazed and thankful that someone who worked on this masterpiece is there to help young artists find their vocations. Thank you (English isn’t my first language so I would appreciate any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism :)

[samanthajeffers]

Your video was really thoughtful! Thanks for sharing! It’s also nice that some careers are just best suited for different times in our life. We might want less of a 9-5 job until we want a family, or we may want more creative freedom down the line. There’s a ton of options, huh?

[kokoro]

So I have a weird spread of experiences from the catigories covered.
•Pixel artist
•Color assistant
•Logo designer
•Background artist
•Layout planner
Sadly a "jack of a few skills master of none".
I still have a lot of choices to make, but I would love to work toward making my book into a graphic novel, but I am currently aiming for a more assessable goal of creating it into a visual novel, since that has the higher chance of success. I have most of the the programming down but the character art is going very slowly. Thankfully my writers group loves the story and really dig the special Japanese culture that shows up throughout the story, even though I was born here in America.

[samanthajeffers]

Excited for the video! I’m a graphic design major, but I love illustration. I hope there’s good alternatives :)