When you think of an animator, often times you wouldn't think of these two as one. However, they can sometimes be used interchangeably depending on the project.
Someone who works in this field is tasked with creating visuals that mimic parts of the human world. They may also create worlds that are completely fictitious but still have movement similar to that of our world. If you were working on special effects for a movie, it is your job to draw or design complex visuals which would then be used in parts of the movie.
For example, let's look at The Avengers. There are times where the heroes are fighting and explosions are made. Often times these are generated behind the scenes with someone using their artistic talents to create their rendering of an explosion to use in the movie.
Animators also have their own jobs that are very similar to the special effects portion.
Let's say you are watching an anime. The visuals are stunning, with amazing colors, and the way the characters move is very fluid. This is because there is an employee who drew the visuals and the frame. When putting frames together and having them move quickly, you are able to trick the mind into seeing movement that is not actually there. Creating movement is a tedious task, often taking years for companies to create just one animated movie because of this constraint.
Some of the key aspects and skills needed in this field include:
Some of the information included was found from
Animation Mentor.com
, article by Bobby Beck in 2019.