Animation director vs animator

The differences between animation directors and animators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an animation director and an animator. Additionally, an animator has an average salary of $76,853, which is higher than the $71,266 average annual salary of an animation director.

The top three skills for an animation director include animation, maya and motion capture. The most important skills for an animator are animation, motion capture, and storyboards.

Animation director vs animator overview

	Animation Director	Animator
Yearly salary	$71,266	$76,853
Hourly rate	$34.26	$36.95
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	4,968	551
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 76%	Bachelor's Degree, 74%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	2	2

Animation director vs animator salary

Animation directors and animators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Animation Director	Animator
Average salary	$71,266	$76,853
Salary range	Between $43,000 And $117,000	Between $52,000 And $112,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Las Vegas, NV
Highest paying state	New Hampshire	Nevada
Best paying company	Microsoft	Meta
Best paying industry	Technology	Media

Differences between animation director and animator education

There are a few differences between an animation director and an animator in terms of educational background:

	Animation Director	Animator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 76%	Bachelor's Degree, 74%
Most common major	Animation	Animation
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Animation director vs animator demographics

Here are the differences between animation directors' and animators' demographics:

	Animation Director	Animator
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 75.1% Female, 24.9%	Male, 71.9% Female, 28.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.3% Asian, 7.7% White, 67.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 5.8% Hispanic or Latino, 13.9% Asian, 7.5% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between animation director and animator duties and responsibilities

Animation director example responsibilities.

Manage animation department, promote to manage video and animation departments.
Lead a team of artists to create the art and animation for motion comics aspects of the show.
Translate storyboards into rough previz animations and work with director adjusting cameras and actions.
Assist with QA of code within Xcode environment.

Animator example responsibilities.

Lead a team of artists to create the art and animation for motion comics aspects of the show.
Train & supervise newly appoint employee in achieving realistic looking effects and help integrating the effects in compositing with cg elements.
Create many logos for a YouTube sketch.
Sketch every seen multiple times utilizing several camera angles and character blocking.
Assist in the animation development of learning videos and nursery rhymes for YouTube.
Implement uniform display geometry to support texture artist and UV mapping artist, demonstrating advance UV mapping skills.

Animation director vs animator skills

Common animation director skills

Animation, 37%
Maya, 16%
Motion Capture, 6%
Unity, 5%
Medical Care, 5%
CG, 4%

Common animator skills

Animation, 36%
Motion Capture, 7%
Storyboards, 5%
Motion Graphics, 5%
AAA, 3%
Graphic Design, 3%

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Animation Director
Animation Director vs Animator

Updated January 8, 2025

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