Why do you want to know the salary? Either you want to do animation and dedicate you life to it or you don't. When learning stuff like 3D animation or other CG, it is probably best to do it on your own (save the money for buying software and hardware). The truth is that most colleges just teach from the manual. There are, however, a few colleges/schools that specialize in CG, and have teachers that actually do work in the CG field. And about pay: It really depends on who you work for, if you actually do work for someone. Some ppl. freelance, while others work for studios like ILM. I've heard that some animators make a few thousand a week, but they are some of the best and work for big name studios. Also, they probably work like 60+ hours a week, doing things like animating dust movement or fat giggling for months or years.