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Game Programmers

Character artist and animator: Character artists design and build creatures, including the one the player becomes. Animators make those creatures move. Sometimes, the same person does both tasks. Character artists begin by sketching the creature on paper or a white board. When they have completed the creature's basic design, artists build it within the computer, using modeling software. They start with simple shapes, called primitive polygons. They twist, stretch, and combine the polygons until they have a skeleton covered with a wire mesh.

 

Earnings. According to BLS, computer engineers—including hardware and software engineers—across all industries earned an average of $59,850 in 1998. Programmers across all industries earned an average of $47,550. BLS does not collect data specifically for software engineers and programmers in the video game industry.