Craft the Perfect Animator Resume This Year

What Should I Highlight in an Animator Resume?

To gain the animator position you want, use this document to sculpt a high-quality image of yourself in your resume, exhibiting your best attributes to the hiring manager.

Follow these resume tips to present yourself with style and create the perfect resume, and take a look at an animator resume sample to refine your professional resume for that animator job.

Structure of an Animator Resume

The standard resume structure includes a header, summary or objective, a skills section, a work history section, and an education section. Despite that, there is still a lot you can do with layout and presentation. Keep it simple by using these resume samples to guide you. For even more help, you can use this resume builder instead.
Take a look at the three resume formats when putting your resume together: functional, chronological and combination. The functional format is perfect for presenting your skills, the chronological is best for highlighting your work history, and the combination design gives both skills and experiences equal focus.

Header

The header contains all the essential contact information so that the recruiter can get in touch with you about the role directly. Your full name, telephone number, and email address should go here, along with a link to your professional website or online portfolio, like Linkedin.

Resume summary or objective

The resume summary is where you present an overview of your strengths to the employer. Pinpoint where you gained work experience or knowledge that best displays your suitability for the role. Then create a powerful 2-3 sentence paragraph using action verbs to start every sentence. Put yourself in the recruiter’s position; what do they want to read when picking up an applicant’s resume?
If you have years of experience in animation, you should let the hiring manager know. Alternatively, if you are new to animation as your vocation, you can also use this space to detail your career aspirations. Demonstrate how eager you are to develop your skills in animation and excel at the role using a resume objective.  A summary is geared more towards job seekers with job experiences they can highlight. Show your expertise in particular animation skills, such as motion capture for cinematic films or compositing.

Skills

The skills section is where you detail skills that match what the job description needs. Use bullet points rather than complete sentences and include both hard skills (technical knowledge and abilities) and soft skills (important intangible traits). You can draw these skills from your education, employment, or passion projects. For example:

• Experience in character design and character animation
• Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop
• Proficient in using 2D animation software, such as After Effects
• Expertise in creating visual effects (VFX) using 3D animation software, such as Autodesk Maya and 3DS Max
• Excellent interpersonal and teamwork abilities
• Efficient at working with tight deadlines

Work history

The work history section is the perfect place to put all the examples and evidence that you are up to the task. This section proves that you really do have the abilities you mentioned in the skills section. Start with your most recent or current role and write about previous positions going back no more than ten years. You should have employers’ names, locations, job titles, and dates of employment. Include a few key bullet points in for each job, outlining your responsibilities but focusing on your achievements in each position. For example, you could state how you were involved with storyboard creation to bring a concept to life at one company or how you designed animated characters for video games at another.

Education

Feature your top academic credentials and certifications here – for example, a bachelor’s degree in animation or previous qualifications in illustration. List any relevant training you have completed to gain proficiency in specific creative software or technical skills. Animation work is artistic and technical, so any qualifications showcasing these abilities are relevant.

Dos and Don'ts for an Animator Resume

These tips will steer you in the right direction:

Do: 

• Do add links to your resume for any online portfolio with examples of your animation work or personal projects.
• Do refine your resume to pass applicant tracking systems (ATS) by addressing specific skills and job requirements from the job posting. Businesses often use ATS to shortlist resumes based on how well they match the job description.
• Do keep your resume straightforward and simple with two font styles maximum, and a limit on text effects.  

Don’t:

• Don’t make your resume too long. It should be 1-2 pages long with short, punchy phrases rather than verbose sentences, and focus on specific skills and qualifications the job needs.
• Don’t overcram your resume with too much information. The entirety of your experience is not likely to fit comfortably in a resume, so do some pruning and determine which bits matter most.
• Don’t forget your alignment; make your dates and job titles line up correctly and aim for symmetry.