Contents of an animation portfolio

[Cloakndagger]

Based on what I've seen online, it seems that examples of work, animations, illustrations, and also sketches of the human figure and poses are what studios are looking for.

I'm building my portfolio now, I'm using this animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9vodyDOKNI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; as an example of my talents, but I want to know if there's anything else I may have missed in that list. I'm entry level, zero experience on any level other than amateur, so I'm looking for advice on what would boost my noticability.

Thanks!

[slowtiger]

You don't apply to any studio with just 1 animated scene. I doubt that even a Game Design Studio would hire you. Anybody seeing this would ask: "Nice, but can he do anything aside of this?" A studio will always ask wether you can work with their assets in their style, fast and reliable, but don't apply with a reel full of their characters copied!

A broad range is always good. B/W drawings, some stuff in colour, preferrably different techniques: charcoal, watercolour, pencil (most important), etc. Sketches as well as clean-ups. Preferrably people and animals. Not too stylish (= no Pictoplasma characters or anything highly stylised). Some interiours and exteriours.

Remember that you don't show drawings, you show your skills. What are you good at? (This scene is very good.) Put the good stuff at the beginning. Show that you understand: principles of drawing (that's why sketches are important, they show them how you construct), anatomy, perspecive, animation in general, timing. Show your ability to observe: sketches of people in the real world count more than any swordfight.

I think you get the message.

[Paul Fierlinger]

I'm entry level, zero experience on any level other than amateur, so I'm looking for advice on what would boost my noticability.

Why? Notoriety for what; that you have no experience? Go into a quite place for several years where no one will pay any attention to you and draw, draw, draw ubtil you are blue in the face. Then come out when you can do all those things Slowtiger mentioned and more: present some originality. Learn to draw something useful in a way that no one else can or very few people can -- then work on your noticability. If you do this right you will be about 10 years older -- there are no tricks around this.

[Cloakndagger]

Heh. While I appreciate the nature of what you're saying Paul, and I do mean to make my individual mark upon the animation scene in my lifetime, I really want to just be in the industry already. Drawing has been my passion since I could hold a pencil, and I've had enough odd jobs at minimum wage that I want to launch a career already. But I do understand your sentiment. I do intend to produce something original, eventually.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Believe me, it's not a sentiment; it's a well documented fact: to become good at anything one must spend 10,000 hours doing it (Malcolm Gladwell; The Outliers). Holding a pencil since birth does little for your progress in becoming an animator and won't count for hours.

Drawing animations is not the same as drawing whatever. This goes back to your tracings; you haven't learned to draw each frame with the flare of an original drawing of captured motion. Each one of your drawings is a tracing of the same drawing; painfully perfected to a degree where all life has been squeezed out of it. Each one of your frames look like an icon for a button. You must learn to draw in such a way that you don't spend endless hours tracing but that you make your line fly about with natural life breathing through it, thus animating: giving life to an object.

[Cloakndagger]

I understand what you mean. This was my first attempt at animation and I wanted to see what level of perfection I was capable of. I do want to correct you though, they are not tracings. I traced nothing, but I did spend excruciating amounts of time perfecting it, which I understand is not efficient nor what an animation studio is looking for. My next project will be one of two things, I haven't decided which, but one of them being a first-draft only of animation to get a feel for doing it quickly, or even a time-sensitive project where I give myself maybe a 10 hour time limit on production and see what level of quality and length I can accomplish.

My talents are in movement and gestures, and I think I'll excel there, but my weakness is the human figure, as I've never taken any anatomy courses. I'll be working on that specifically so I can have figure drawings for a portfolio.

[idragosani]

What might work better for a portfolio, as far as this scene goes, isn't just the finished colored images but the pencil tests, to show your construction.

And I'll add this, as far as getting into the industry goes: don't wait around for a studio to hire you to become part of the animation industry, learn the basics of filmmaking and make your own films! You'll get far more experience and far more satisfaction doing that. I realize you want to make this your career and not just a hobby, but the hand-drawn market is so small (at least in the US), and it's the independent animators & studios who are going to keep it alive.

And definitely get a sketchbook and do life drawings, not just of posed models, but people at the mall, the coffee shops, etc.

Veteran animator John Celestri says when he's watching TV, he'll get out a sketchpad and work out timings for walks and other kinds of character animation... always practicing, always keeping his animation skills primed. Like Paul said, it takes time and dedication to animation, and even more time and dedication to animate well.

Do yo have a specific kind of thing you want to be working towards, in terms of career goals?

[Cloakndagger]

My goal is to get to whatever position I need in order to produce a story I have. I'm not sure if that means running a studio which I'm prepared to work toward, or another position within it.

[masterchief]

your youtube video shows several seconds of animation looping.. nothing to get excited about. a total of 14secs in all... I want to watch a video of maybe 10-15 minutes .. then I will start to comprehend something? it is all about the story as far as I am concerned. then I try to pick everything else apart as I am watching. basically, there is nothing to see here. ~peace

[Paul Fierlinger]

I'm with you on this one, Masterchief. A good dose of humility is needed to succeed in the mastering of any craft and this advice has been missing for too long in this thread.