What careers—and salaries—are available for designers and animators in 2022?
More and more artists are moving into the digital art space, but with no idea where to begin their careers. What jobs are actually out there for designers and animators…and what do they pay? If you’re just starting out as a digital artist, or if you’re cranking out cryptoart in between projects for Buck and Subway, this article explores the options you might not even know exist.
With technology driving limitless prospects for creative innovation, the discipline of digital arts has quickly become one of the most popular and interesting professional choices for hungry artists. Social media helped develop and encourage a generation of self-made digital creators, but what are the possible career paths for someone with these interests?
We actually developed a full Industry Trends Report to help guide new and current artists in charting out their careers. If you want the full report, grab it below.
Dive into real-time 3D with our Unreal Engine beginner's course by Jonathan Winbush. Master importing assets, world-building, animation, and cinematic sequences to create stunning 3D renders in no time! Perfect for motion designers ready to level up.
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Unlock the secrets of character design in this dynamic course! Explore shape language, anatomy rules, and motifs to craft animation-ready characters. Gain drawing tips, hacks, and Procreate mastery (or any drawing app). Ideal for artists seeking to elevate their craft.
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Elevate your freelance motion design career with our guide to client success. Master a repeatable method for finding, contacting, and landing clients. Learn to identify prospects, nurture leads, and develop a thriving freelance philosophy amidst chaos.
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Rev up your editing skills with After Effects! Learn to use it for everyday needs and craft dynamic templates (Mogrts) for smarter teamwork. You'll master creating animated graphics, removing unwanted elements, tracking graphics, and making customizable templates.
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Stand out with Demo Reel Dash! Learn to spotlight your best work and market your unique brand of magic. By the end, you'll have a brand new demo reel and a custom campaign to showcase yourself to an audience aligned with your career goals.
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Illuminate your 3D skills with Lights, Camera, Render! Dive deep into advanced Cinema 4D techniques with David Ariew. Master core cinematography skills, gain valuable assets, and learn tools and best practices to create stunning work that wows clients.
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Master After Effects at your own pace with Jake Bartlett's beginner course. Perfect for video editors, you'll learn to create stylish animated graphics, remove unwanted elements, and track graphics into shots. By the end, you'll be equipped for everyday AE needs and more.
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Revolutionize your Premiere workflow with customizable AE templates! Master creating dynamic Motion Graphics Templates (Mogrts) in After Effects to speed up your team's work. By the end, you'll craft easily-customizable templates for seamless use in Premiere Pro.
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For this article, we’ve used Payscale.com as a guide for average salaries, in case you wanted to dive deeper.
What is a Digital Artist?
Digital artists may work on a variety of projects—including video animation, website user interfaces, artwork for the visual elements of a video game, illustrating a medical manual, creating two-dimensional images for fashion design, and more—using a computer and contemporary software programs.
A digital artist may develop a number of digital assets depending on the project, including 3D figures and environments, storyboards, textures in artwork design, animations, and 3D effects. Visual effects for movies and television are also created by digital artists in collaboration with editors.
What Are the Jobs and Salaries for Digital Artists?
Graphic Designer
What does a Graphic Designer do?
Graphic Designers use color, illustrations, fonts, and layout to visually communicate a message or present a product. Among other things, they create logos, product packaging, print materials, and websites.
Graphic designers work in a wide range of businesses and in various capacities. For example, a designer could be hired as in-house staff to work on promotional materials for a company, or they could work for a design agency with a variety of clients and projects. Many graphic designers are also self-employed, working as freelancers on a project-by-project basis.
Graphic Designer salary
$47,072 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for Graphic Designers
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign
Motion Designer
What does a Motion Designer do?
Motion Designers create artwork for the web, television, and movies. This can include things like movie snippets, trailers, advertising, and title sequences, among other things. To bring their concepts to life, they use visual effects, animation, and other cinematic techniques.
Motion Designer salary
$60,397 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for Motion Designers
Adobe After Effects, Graphic Design, Design (Typography & Color Theory), 2D/3D Animation, Video Editing
What's the difference between graphic design and motion design?
Graphic and Motion Designers work in many of the same applications, are hired at many of the same companies, and have complimentary styles and skill sets. The biggest difference is that one prioritizes animation and therefore has a distinct approach to each project.
Graphic designers work with static images, such as posters, business cards, and stationery, that are either digital or printed; their designs are never created with animation in mind. Motion graphics adds movement and animation to visual design that would otherwise be static, meaning they often have to consider the movement of their projects before laying down a single brushstroke. Shapes, objects, or text are generally animated in motion graphics animation.
Web Designer
What does a Web Designer do?
Web Designers combine a variety of visual design components—such as text, images, graphics, animations, and videos—to create and build websites and web pages. A web designer can either construct a whole new website or make minor changes to the style and layout of current sites.
Web Designer salary
$52,296 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for Web Designers
Adobe Photoshop, Graphic Design, HTML5, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
What's the difference between a graphic designer and a web designer?
Web designers solve creative problems through a well-designed website that converts users to customers. Graphic designers solve creative problems through a logo, branding, or printed materials to educate a potential customer.
Multimedia Designer
What does a Multimedia Designer do?
Multimedia designers create multimedia presentations and tools to educate and promote their company's branding, goods, and services. They must meet with members of their firm (and/or clients) to discuss requirements, generate a draft of the multimedia product, and complete the final product. These individuals may be in charge of the company's web design, including landing sites, as well as editing video footage into an appealing bundle.
Multimedia designers can also generate print materials like infographics, reports, and case studies. These designers must stay on top of new approaches and programs as they become available, incorporating appropriate tools and skills into their daily work.
Multimedia Designer salary
$55,013 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for Multimedia Designers
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Graphic Design, Video Editing
Video Game Designer
What does a Video Game Designer do?
Video Game Designers are creative persons who are responsible for the design and layout of a video game. They are the ones who create the storylines, characters, levels, scenarios, etc. of a certain game. This position requires not only creativity and knowledge of storytelling, but also the technical skills to craft a fun and playable level of a game.
Video Game Designer salary
$66,501 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for Game Designers
Game Design, Design, C# Programming Language, User Experience Design
Video Editor
What does a Video Editor do?
A Video Editor works on production changes to a video. The video editor collaborates closely with the director to produce the best possible final video, with the purpose of delivering the story in the most effective and compelling manner possible. Cutting and rearranging scenes is a big part of the job.
Video Editor salary
$49,432 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for Video Editor
Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects
Visual Effects Artist
What does a Visual Effects Artist do?
VFX artists create photoreal, digitally-generated imagery. The role requires the seamless integration of these effects into live action in feature films, television and, increasingly, online and console gaming. VFX artists use the latest technology to produce computer-generated creatures, crowds and stunt doubles.
Visual Effects Artist Salary
$62,668 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for VFX Artists
Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, SideFX Houdini, 3D Animation
3D Artist
What does a 3D Artist do?
A 3D Artist builds 3D models of products, environments, and more. They use their ability to create photo realistic materials, lighting, and rendered images for various uses including marketing and advertisements.
3D Artist salary
$55,889 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for 3D Artists
3D Rendering, 3D Animation
2D Animator
What does a 2D Animator do?
2D Animators create characters, storyboards, and backgrounds for animation in a two-dimensional space. Animators working in 2D may be referred to as animators, character designers, or storyboard artists.
2D Animator salary
$50,505 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for 2D Animators
Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop (Adding Adobe Illustrator added an average of 40% to the base salary)
3D Animator
What does a 3D Animator do?
3D animators create a plethora of animations, which may turn into major motion pictures, popular video games, or shorter animations for television or film. Many 3D animators create special effects for the film industry. A 3D animator can specialize in creating various types of animated images such as humans, objects, or focus on the background and landscapes of an animation.
3D Animator salary
$53,643 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for 3D Animators
Cinema 4D, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Blender
Art Director
What does an Art Director do?
As an Art Director, you work as an artistic chameleon while also bringing your own individual voice and vision to clients. At times you will be asked to modify or update pre-existing client material into a new context; in other times, you will be expected to create an entirely new look at a product or service that defies expectations.
Art Director salary
$70,291 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for Art Directors
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Graphic Design, Branding, Design
Creative Director
What does a Creative Director do?
A Creative Director answers the what, why, and how that a team uses as a “true north” to guide all of their decision-making. A Creative Director may not be “on-the-box” during a project but they will have an intimate knowledge of the limits and needs of a production’s pipeline and workflow. Most of a Creative Director’s time is spent with clients, developing pitches, and collaborating with their Producer and Art Director to establish the look and feel of a project. A Creative Director is expected to be continually developing their voice and vision as an artist as they are often the most visible member of a motion design studio.
Creative Director salary
$90,389 / Year Avg. Base Salary (USD)
Popular Software & Skills for Creative Directors
Graphic Design, Design, Branding, Project Management, Team Leadership
What's the difference between an Art Director and a Creative Director?
It's easy to mix up creative and art direction, but they're not the same thing. The scope of responsibilities differs between art direction and creative direction. Art direction combines art and design to produce a unified look that elicits a response from the audience. An art director, by definition, is primarily concerned with aesthetics, whereas a creative director is responsible for strategy, campaign execution, art direction, and more. An art director will know the names of the fonts that will work if a creative director requests a bold font to radiate strength.
What's the right career path for me?
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Still not sure where to start? We believe design is the most foundational element of any artistic career. If you’re looking to work as a digital artist, you need to start there. And if you need any help, we’ll be here for you.
Not sure where to start?
If you’re a beginner, here are some great courses to help you get started:
After Effects Kickstart
Dive into the fundamentals of motion design with our most popular (and recently updated) After Effects course.
Photoshop + Illustrator Unleashed
Master the basics of Photoshop and Illustrator and gain invaluable insights in this introductory level course.
Design Kickstart
An introduction to the design principles behind all great work.
More Advanced?
If you’re a more advanced student looking to up your game, here are some great options:
Animation Bootcamp
Learn the art and principles of creating beautiful movements in Adobe After Effects.
Design Bootcamp
Learn to design for motion in this intermediate-level, project-based course.
Cinema 4D Basecamp
Learn Cinema 4D from the ground up in this exciting introductory C4D course.
Now is the time to learn the skills you need to advance in your motion design career:
