Animation - Online Schools, Degrees, Courses

What’s it all about?
Taking an online degree in animation is the flexible way of learning everything about the industry from the ground level up. Being a creative industry, it’s necessary to gain and advance the necessary knowledge before honing your individual prowess into the most advantageous way to further your career. With the correct knowledge, the sky really is the limit in this exciting industry – and an online degree course will provide you with a structured learning pathway that will help you identify and develop your key skills.

What will I learn?
An online degree course covers all aspects of the animation industry. The following will be covered, along with various opportunities along the way to specialize and delve more deeply into certain elements of the industry.

• Starting from the traditional hand drawn images of old, you’ll learn about every part of the industry, with a large focus of your learning concentrating on the most up-to-date technology of CGI and 3D moving images.
• History of the animation industry, including the various concepts used to bring the processes to where they are today.
• Animation principles, including stop frame animation, digital narrative technology, editing, scriptwriting, dialogue, sounds, acting for animation and storyboarding.
• Sound production
• Various accepted techniques such as squash and stretch, moving holds and timing
• Computer techniques that are changing on a rapidly expanding course due to huge advances in technology. You can expect your degree course to give you a great background in the most cutting edge tools that are availableright now to aid with all aspects of the industry.

How will I learn?
Taking an online degree in animation will provide you with exactly the same learning as attending a physical school. The course structure will be very similar, and all the same curriculum will be covered. The only difference is that your assignments and projects will be delivered to you via email, and you return them in the same way to be assessed and marked. Lectures, seminars, tutorials and the like will be carried out via a ‘virtual classroom.’ This might entail live webinars or recorded video that you can watch at a time that suits you.  Questions can be asked of your tutor either be direct email, or many online learning institutions use a message board. This is a great way of interacting not only with your tutors, but with you fellow students as well. Using up to the minute technology, any necessary exams can also be carried out via the internet.

After gaining my degree, what options are open to me for employment?
A career in animation is possibly one of the exciting industries around today. With technology advancing on a daily basis the opportunities are literally endless. Whether you choose to follow a path into the movie, TV or games industry, or even into world of science and industry where it is becoming increasingly more common to first create new products virtually, more and more options are fast becoming available. Of course, you may already be working in the industry, which is why you’ve chosen to study for a degree online for the flexibility it offers. Holding a qualification, and even before you’ve completed your course, makes you stand out for your commitment and dedication over others. A degree can also lead you into a career such as pre and post production work, character development and design or even teaching and instructor roles.

So if your passion for animation was born by watching cartoon characters in childhood, combining this with your artistic talent and honing it through the degree process is the ideal way to advance yourself up the career ladder. And it goes without saying that the requirements for talented individuals in the industry will only rise along with the development of further digital platforms, such as tablets, iPads and smart phones.

« Collapse