Hello there, welcome to this week’s installment of Career Walk.  As promised last week, there are some exciting, 21st century careers to share with you. This week, we delve a little into the virtual realms of cartoon animation.

Most have a fair understanding of what animation is, but for definition purposes – animation is the process of creating an illusion of movement using a series of successive drawings or photographs. The three forms of animation are 2D animation, 3D computer-generated imagery and 3D motion picture.

As with most businesses, it takes a team for the business to work. In cartoon animation, there are several skill areas. These include the animator, of course, the illustrator, the vocal talent, the layout artist, and a script writer.

In doing some digging into some of the growing industries in Jamaica aside from the traditional ones, it was discovered that animation outsourcing was one such industry, and research is projecting that this it will make big bucks for the country in the near future. This means that animation companies abroad are willing to pay local Jamaican animators to produce content for them. How awesome is that!

According to a sector study on animation, done by the Labour Market Research and Intelligence Department at the HEART Trust National Training Academy, Jamaica has emerged as an animation outsource destination for North America. Jamaica’s geographic and cultural proximity to North America gives an advantage to many young Jamaicans who have the raw talent for animation. Because of this, the Government and other stakeholders have taken a stake ensuring that formal training is provided for these youths.

If you are interested in becoming a cartoon animator, or maybe you are already dabbling in the art for fun, there are a few local institutions that offer formal training in several of the areas that make up cartoon animation:

The University of Technology offers courses in film production, and writing and script development. They also offer an introductory course in basic animation.

The Northern Caribbean University also offers an introductory course in animation as part of their computer science programme.

Edna Manley College also offers several courses that would propel you toward a career in cartoon animation. They offer voice acting as part of their acting programme. As for special effects, their Music courses include special audio effects.

Additionally, the HEART Trust NTA is offering training in the production phase of animation, which is the main aspect outsourced to Jamaica.

Aside from those courses, the National Council on Technical and Vocational Education (NCTVET) is also offering introductory and preliminary certificate courses in animation, under the Governor General’s I Believe Initiative. The Ministry of Education, Northern Caribbean University, University of the West Indies, and the HEART Trust NTA offer these certificate courses.

For those of you who are interested in this career, the opportunities are there for you to get formal training. You can find more information on the websites of the educational institutions that were named above.

All the best!