What can I do to become a cartoon creator?

I agree with Nelson. Practice, gain knowledge, learn and I am going to add: Keep asking questions, look for jobs, internships, volunteer opportunities to hone your skills and definitely get that education.

When I was younger I didn't want to work for anyone to learn what I needed to learn, I just felt I should be able to do it and not have to pay my dues, build my skills or develop my portfolio, and that was a mistaken approach. What I learned to do was create my ideas while I was learning to be a better artist, and eventually I would have a treasure trove of ideas that I could now develop (at my current age and career level) my very own comic, graphic novel, animation, and even novel.

Point is start planning your personal pet project now and keep learning and getting better... maybe even use your personal pet project as part of your learning and skill development process. Eventually you'll see your own improvements and your story will grow with you. One day, you'll create your animation and wow yourself.

There's three things you can do to become a cartoon creator. First, sharpen-up your drawing skills: draw as much as possible to improve your line-work, perspective, and volume/mass. Second, learn basic animation principles like squash and stretch, overlap and anticipation. A great book to learn this principles is The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams . Lastly, research and learn how to use digital apps that make it easy to animate digitally. Some applications that are out there are Adobe animate, Flash,and ToonBoom.