This article will be helpful for every person that wants to pursue digital art as a career. And of course, it can help someone that would like to do an art-related job to see the career digital artist as an option. This article will explain what is like to be a digital artist, what they do exactly, what is a typical day, etc.
A digital artist work mainly with his computer, he needs to know how to use a lot of different programs. It's a job where you need to be really creative.
The arts produced by digital artists can be used for CD-ROM, video games, websites, books, print to hang on the wall, films, or even television. They can do animation or drawings. Digital artists can also do other things in the company that is not directly connected to art like discussing with clients, be part of the hiring and managing, do plan for the animation, and direct motion capture.
Usually, a typical day for a digital artist is really busy. When a digital artist work in a company, he needs to communicate a lot with his teammates because doing digital art for living it's mostly teamwork. Because there is so many dead-line, sometimes digital artists need to finish the work at home in the evening and weekend.
A digital artist can work for different kinds of companies video games, websites, and he can also work for a publishing house, but also can be a freelance illustrator and work at home.
The first thing that you can do to become a digital artist is to go to an Art program in college to art in general. There you will have a base in everything drawing, photography, sculpture, video making, painting, etc. But, you can also a bachelor of creative media production and if you want to be an animator you will need a diploma in animation.
The salary of digital artists depends, it depends on their art skills, how many tasks they are able to do, and how many programs they master. A new digital artist will have a minimum wage of $20 per hour because they just started, but eventually, he can obtain a better salary when it's been a few years since he works in the business. Every two or three of experience the salary can increase + $5 per hour. When a digital artist or animator get more experience and become a pro in 2D digital illustration or 2D animation or both he can earn a salary up to $50 per hour and a digital artist who does 3D illustration or 3D animation can earn a salary up to $75 per hour because 3D illustration and animation are more difficult so it makes sense earn a higher salary than with 2D. A very talented digital artist can have a salary of up to $100 per hour.
Digital artists need to be up-to-date with the software, they need to know how to use different kinds of programs for the computer. And they need to adapt if they change company and a different program is use they need to master the program as fast as possible. Having studied in film, photography and computer programming can be a bonus. But, experience in drawing, life drawing, computer drawing is important to own. They also need to be a very good communicator and be able to work with teammates.
There is not really any dangers of being a digital artist, but definitely, it's a job where you can overwork yourself pretty easily if you don't have hobbies outside of work. They sometimes need to work after work and even on weekends. Because digital artists work a lot each day, around 10 hours a day, and are really involved in their work it can be pretty bad for their mental health if they don't do anything else.
I don't think there is any chance that digital artists ever be replaced by robots, because robots can be logical and analytical, but they can't be creative at all. Only humans can use creativity, robots can't create original characters, background, and story. So, it's impossible for digital artists to be replaced by robots.
There was no information that I was able to found about retirement of digital artists. It probably depends on the person, if he likes his job enough to not retire or maybe because of the large amount work during all his life, he will feel tired and retire at 60 years old or a bit later. It's definitely possible for a digital artist to retire this early because digital artists usually have a high salary, so they will probably have a lot of saving.
I hope this will be helpful to someone that want to pursue the career digital artist. In my case I finished Visual art last semester, and I am currently finishing college with general course. My goal is to be a digital artist and work for a video games company, hopefully I will become a concept artist and create video game character or do character modeling. I already plan to study video games in UQAT.
Rationale: to inform or educate
Date: recently published
Rationale: to inform or educate