Obsessed with "Finding Nemo" and "Cars"? If your love of movie, game, or Web-based

animation

is a passion you've always wanted to explore, why not look into animation degrees that can result in a lucrative career? If you're serious about becoming an animator, you're in for lots of training from animation schools to prepare you.

"Animation technology is always evolving, becoming more advanced and sophisticated," says John Mazzoni, president of The Art Institutes, a group of art-focused colleges with locations throughout the country. "Our instructors will teach students the media arts techniques used in the field, and prepare the students to be animators who will inspire and excite our imagination."

More specifically, students working toward animation degrees at The Art Institutes International Minnesota location, for instance, will take classes that combine individual artistic talent with technological expertise to create impressions in a moving-image format, says David Wilharm, the school's academic director of media arts & animation and visual effects & motion graphics. "Students learn to use the tools of the computer animation profession, ranging from 3D modeling and animation, lighting, shading, rendering, and 3-D effects." Additionally, animation programs include coursework in cinematography, film studies, frame composition, and editing.

"Students will focus on the fundamental animation principles of timing, transfer of weight, squash & stretch along with color, design, and composition through drawing, storyboarding, character design, and animated storytelling," adds Wilharm. "They will also study human anatomy, proportion, and structure through life drawing, character design, and acting classes that will be applied to 3-D modeling and later 3-D animation."

Excited about all you'll learn in animation programs yet? No matter which animation schools you're considering, you can expect to take a solid foundation of both hands-on training and theory. At the University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA), students are trained in traditional hand drawn animation, stop-motion and under-the-camera techniques (puppet, sand, pixilation, etc.) and 2-D and 3-D computer animation, explains Karl Staven, head of the school's animation program. Students then decide which technique(s) to focus on in their junior and senior thesis films.

Think you've got what it takes to pursue animation degrees? Staven says success in animation schools hinges on having the following attributes: "Creativity, perseverance, the ability to budget time and energy, ongoing excitement about the art, and creation of animation."

Start researching animation programs today, and you may experience the next hit animation film in a whole new way.

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