Video Game Animation Skills
If you want to become a video game animator, you need to have a variety of skills, including story-telling skills, technical animation skills, and professional skills.
Video games are about characters and the problems they face. That means as a video game animator, you need to know the rudiments of story telling. You need to know how a character reacts in a given plot situation, what drives the character, and how the character responds to any special rules (e.g. no gravity) that operate in the character's physical world. You must be able to storyboard a character's actions, or, in some cases, know how to create an animated character from the storyboard others provide you.
You also need technical animation skills. These all involve a degree of artistry, and can range from stop-motion, to hand-drawing, to 2d and 3d computer animation. 3d computer animation skills are especially important for gaming; you use them to depict a character's interaction with an environment. Essential aspects of 3d animation include creating the character's body type and physical poses, adding facial expressions to show emotions, creating gaming loops, and lighting the scenes the character takes part in. You may also have to lip-synch the character's mouth to recorded speech.
Finally, you need to have professional skills as a video game animator. You might have to sell your video game idea to others. You will probably have deadlines you must meet. And it's likely that you'll need to be comfortable working with others, such as artists, programmers, script writers, and creative managers.