How Does an Anime Artist Spend a Workday?

Design

Anime artists must first design the characters and the backgrounds of the show they are working on. They work closely with the art director of the anime to make sure the design is correct.

Graphic Art

In the past, anime was painted on cells that where then photographed against a separate background. This was a long and costly process. Now it is done with computers. Anime artists paint backgrounds and then scan them into a computer or they paint it in a computer paint program. Then they draw the characters in the computer program and add the virtual cells to the background's virtual cells.

Part of the team

There are many anime artists per project. An anime artist might only design characters and another might only design backgrounds. They work together to make sure the illustrations look smooth and flow well, with the assistance to the art director. If an anime artist only works on backgrounds he or she will work in a group of other background artists to make sure the backgrounds are consistent. If the anime artist works on the characters they will work with other character anime artists to make sure the character design is consistent as well. They all must be able to draw the same things in the same way.

Resources

• About careers in anime