2D Animator

Depending on the project, 2D animation means frame-by-frame character work, cut-out or skeletal animation, or the motion design of an interface. In games the result has to be interruptible and loopable, because the player decides when a state ends, which is a different craft from a linear animated sequence.

Tools range from Spine and similar skeletal systems to Photoshop and After Effects, with engine-side setup in Unity or Unreal, and often a little scripting to drive the states.

UI animation has become a field of its own: transitions, feedback on a tap, the timing of a reward sequence. Next to a 3D animator, who works with rigs and cameras in space, the 2D animator works in the plane, and in small teams the same person also draws the frames.