If you’re interested in pursuing a career in stop motion animation, here’s how to go about it.

Scope of a Career in Stop Motion Animation

Stop motion artists majorly work in the film, TV, media, and software publishing industries. An average stop motion animator makes around $69,000 per year, per Glassdoor. Pay varies with the industry you’re working in.

The motion picture industry pays higher remunerations to animators vs. the software publishing and digital advertising industry, per Chron. It’s an expensive undertaking if you’re working as a freelancer, unless you stick to using your phone and free animation software and post-processing apps.

Educational Qualifications for a Career in Stop Motion Animation

A formal bachelor’s degree in motion graphics, design, illustrations, art direction, graphics design, animation, and relevant media fields is a good starting point for a career in stop motion animation.

Education or experience in media production, theoretical knowledge of animation, working knowledge of the tools and software used in the process, excellent communication skills, and demonstrated ability in the visual arts also help gain a foothold in the industry. Although having a formal degree is not always a requirement if you’ve got a stellar portfolio, it does help you bag better positions in the industry.

1. Get Started With Online Courses

Explore online courses to pad your resume in lieu of a formal degree. Unlike other fields where a free course or two is usually the norm, stop motion animation is an expensive art form, and most courses require payment. Here are a couple of resources to get you started:

Skillshare offers a wide range of free and paid stop motion animation courses. Bloop offers a comprehensive course in stop motion animation using the Dragonframe software for $97. Domestika offers affordable courses for different aspects of stop motion animation, like creating animated loops, claymation, etc. Course fees range from $4 to $10.

2. Build Your Technical Skills

One or more of these technical skills are necessary to pursue a career in stop motion animation:

Lighting and Angles: Using natural and artificial light sources to illuminate your subjects is a critical component of stop motion animation.

Photography Skills: Stop motion reels are stitched together with multiple photographs. Whether learning more about aspect ratios for photos and videos or understanding basic camera settings, having a good grasp of the art and science of photography and being familiar with camera equipment and accessories is essential to making quality content. Storyboarding: The storyboard in animation is like the script in a movie. Having a blueprint of how the film progresses shot by shot makes it easy to maintain continuity, avoid mistakes, and plan. Hardware Equipment: Besides cameras, stop motion animation requires a scene setup, armature devices, rigging hardware, tripods, light panels, 3D models, and other equipment you must learn to handle.

3. Work on Non-Technical Skills

Stop motion animation is a time-consuming art, and having these non-technical skills is essential to pursue a career in the field:

Stamina: The working hours vary significantly once shooting begins. It might stretch into long hours beyond the workday schedule. It would help if you had the strength to last through the grueling shooting schedule even as you keep your creative juices flowing. Attention to Detail: Maintaining continuity between frames and ensuring every single object in the frame is at its designated place takes careful attention to detail. A minor mistake could send you back to the studio to recreate an entire scene. Strong Work Ethic: Whether you’re working out of a studio or making stop motion animation as a freelancer, you’ll spend hours and hours by yourself or with a small team, making minor changes to the position of objects and photographing them over and over again. Communication Skills: Presenting your idea effectively, understanding the project’s scope and vision, and creatively showcasing your stories require stellar communication skills. Explore LinkedIn Learning courses to improve your communication skills.

Working with footage, editing video content, adding audio files, and expertise in animation software and processing techniques are necessary prerequisites for making animated movies.

Numerous free illustration and animation software programs like iMotion, qStopMotion, etc., help you edit video footage, animate your pictures, and more. In addition to the top animation apps for Android, master a few of these popular software programs to work in this field:

DaVinci Resolve Monkey Jam Frame. io Watchtower Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and After Effects to create animated graphics.

5. Get Ideas and Inspiration

Once you have the software and hardware in place, it’s time for some inspiration to create your reels. Join popular forums and communities like Stop Motion Animation and Bricks in Motion to discuss concepts and ideas.

Explore marketplaces like Stickybones, Animation Supplies, and Stop Motion Shop to educate yourself about the equipment essential for the job. Stop Motion Planet has helpful lists for studios, animators, artists, contests, and challenges that can help you learn more about other artists and opportunities.

Look up Stop Motion Animation Shorts on YouTube, and subscribe to channels like Stopmotion Cooking and SHIP to see the best gallery of reels. Pinterest boards on the topic and creative websites for photography inspiration also serve as excellent visual concepts and ideas inspiration.

6. Create a Portfolio

Create a portfolio of stop motion animation shorts and movies with the help of free film-creating software like Flixier and video editing software like Filmora. Upload them on sites like YouTube, Dailymotion, etc.

Use sites like Behance and Wix, and the ready-made templates they offer, to create an eye-catching portfolio of your reels and images. Promote your channel via social media campaigns. Use relevant hashtags when posting on social media sites to show up in keyword searches.

7. Get an Entry-Level Job

Almost all online job portals like LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and so on advertise stop motion animation jobs you can apply to directly. Join freelance marketplaces like Upwork, Flexjobs, etc., for freelance project work.

Alternatively, look up top studios known for stop motion animation like Beast Animation, Bix Pix Entertainment, Bent Image Lab, etc., explore their career sections, and pitch your ideas to them where applicable.

Get Your Stop Motion Animation Career Rolling

If you’re passionate about the creative arts, animated storytelling, photography, or design, stop motion animation would make for a great career choice. Work as part of a movie-making unit or be an independent artist churning out creative stories with innovative stop-motion reels. Explore other careers in the field if the visual arts aren’t your forte.