The salary of an Animation Designer I in the United States varies depending on several factors, including experience, location, education level, marketing trend and company sizes.
As of April 01, 2025, the average hourly pay of Animation Designer I in the United States is $30. While Salary.com is seeing that the highest pay for Animation Designer I in the US can go up to $36 and the lowest down to $21, but most earn between $25 and $33. Salary.com shows the average base salary (core compensation), as well as the average total cash compensation for the job of Animation Designer I in the United States.
| Annual Salary |
Monthly Pay |
Weekly Pay |
Hourly Wage |
|
| 75th Percentile | $33 | $3 | $1 | $0 |
| Average | $30 | $2 | $1 | $0 |
| 25th Percentile | $25 | $2 | $0 | $0 |
As of April 01, 2025, Salary.com is seeing that an entry-level Animation Designer I with under 1 year experience makes about $60,502. With less than 2 years of experience, a mid-level Animation Designer I makes around $60,946. After 2-4 years, the Animation Designer I pay rises to about $61,241. Those senior Animation Designer I with 5-8 years of experience earn roughly $62,186, and those Animation Designer I having 8 years or more experience is expected to earn about $63,010 on average.
| Levels | Salary |
|---|---|
| Entry Level Animation Designer I | $60,502 |
| Intermediate Level Animation Designer I | $60,946 |
| Senior Level Animation Designer I | $61,241 |
| Specialist Level Animation Designer I | $62,186 |
| Expert Level Animation Designer I | $63,010 |
| Entry Level | 2% |
| Mid Level | 2% |
| Senior Level | 1% |
| Top Level | 0% |
| Experienced | 2% |
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from state to state due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of April 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of Animation Designer I is $68,380 in California and in Massachusetts, the average annual salary goes to $67,480. While in New Jersey, an Animation Designer I earns $67,180 per year.
What Am I Worth?
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from city to city due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of April 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of Animation Designer I in San Francisco, CA is $77,380 and in New York, NY, the average annual salary goes to $71,780. While an Animation Designer I earns $69,080 per year in Boston, MA.
For those exploring the changing dynamics of Animation Designer I salaries, Salary.com offers detailed insights through our Job Trending in CA Labor Market analysis. As of April 01, 2025, our research highlights a notable shift in Animation Designer I compensation over the past six years. For instance, the median salary has moved from $57,414 in 2023 to about $57,253 in 2024 (for a comprehensive analysis of Animation Designer I salary trends, click here). It's crucial to consider several elements, including geographical location, experience level, industry demand, and economic development, as they play a significant role in influencing salary variations.
Salary.com job board provides millions of Animation Designer I information for you to search for. Click on search button below to see Animation Designer I job openings or enter a new job title here.
Here are companies hiring for Animation Designer I and their salaries, click below for more details.
| Core Compensation | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Base Salary | $61,980 | 68.9% | ||
| Bonus | $0 | 0.0% | ||
| Value of Benefits | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Social Security | $4,741 | 5.3% | ||
| 401K/403B | $2,603 | 2.9% | ||
| Disability | $1,240 | 1.4% | ||
| Healthcare | $8,352 | 9.3% | ||
| Pension | $3,347 | 3.7% | ||
| Time Off | $7,628 | 8.5% | ||
| Total Compensation | $89,892 | 100% | ||
| Degree Level | % of user with this level of education |
|---|---|
| High School | 10.0% |
| Associates | 10.0% |
| Bachelors | 67.0% |
| Masters | 12.2% |
| Doctorate | 0.8% |
What Am I Worth?
The Animation Designer I utilizes sketches, storyboards and animatics to develop concepts. Conceptualizes, designs, develops and executes 2D and 3D motion graphics and animations for web, mobile, and other digital platforms. Being an Animation Designer I works with UI designers and developers to integrate graphics into the overall design of projects. Creates complex graphics, animation, and video content. In addition, Animation Designer I proficient with a variety of visual and audio design and editing tools. Typically requires a bachelor's degree in art, design or equivalent. Typically reports to a manager. Being an Animation Designer I work is closely managed. Works on projects/matters of limited complexity in a support role. Working as an Animation Designer I typically requires 0-2 years of related experience.
Specify the abilities and skills that a person needs in order to carry out the specified job duties. Each competency has five to ten behavioral assertions that can be observed, each with a corresponding performance level (from one to five) that is required for a particular job.
Initiative: Taking decisive action and initiating plans independently to address problems, improve professional life, and achieve goals.
Illustrator: Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program developed and marketed by Adobe Inc. Originally designed for the Apple Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began in 1985. Along with Creative Cloud, Illustrator CC was released.
Software Design: Software design is the process by which an agent creates a specification of a software artifact, intended to accomplish goals, using a set of primitive components and subject to constraints. Software design may refer to either "all the activity involved in conceptualizing, framing, implementing, commissioning, and ultimately modifying complex systems" or "the activity following requirements specification and before programming, as ... [in] a stylized software engineering process." Software design usually involves problem solving and planning a software solution. This includes both a low-level component and algorithm design and a high-level, architecture design.
