During class we collaborated on a menti quiz where we submitted answers to questions such as “name different jobs in animation”, “what makes a good portfolio/showreel” and “what makes a bad portfolio/showreel” and we got to see the answers everyone put down. It was surprising to see how many jobs can be found in animation based on everyone’s suggestions as I never realised how many different areas of expertise are required for everything in the production pipeline to run smoothly, and regarding the portfolios/showreels it was interesting to see what companies would consider a good or bad portfolio based on factors such as quality, effort, length and whether the content in the portfolio is original and not plagiarised and other factors I never considered before such as how easily accessible the portfolio/showreel is and whether the content of the portfolio is relevant to the job you’re asking for. We were also given a presentation by Alec on some of the different jobs in animation in pre and post production such as storyboard artist, 3D modeller, animator, sound editor, rigger, director, and even a runner who can help out in areas where necessary, with some of these jobs being entry level.

For next week we were given a few tasks to complete. The first task is searching for different job roles within animation and reporting back in the blog with the job roles we can find and writing a brief reflection at the description of one of the jobs we found. There’s a lot of overlap between the job roles that were suggested in the mind map and the job roles I searched because of the sheer amount suggested in the menti quiz, but some of the job roles I found quite interesting include the following:

3D animator – Animating objects that appear in a three-dimensional space. They can be rotated and moved like real objects. 3D animation is at the heart of games and virtual reality, but it may also be used in presentation graphics to add flair to the visuals
Character animator – Character animators create and design characters using animation software, 3D modelling, 2D animations, and even puppetry. These creative professionals develop characters that use movement to tell a story, whether it’s for film, television, video games or mobile applications
Lighting artist – Lighting artists light the scenes in an animation and use light to enhance the atmosphere, tone, depth and mood of a scene. They input different light effects depending on the factors in a frame or scene, such as the weather or the time of day
Modeller – Modellers or model makers build the digital or physical versions of everything that is seen on screen in an animation. They translate concept art, character designs and environment designs into models ready to be animated. They work in-house at an animation studio
Rendering artist – The rendering artist colours, paints, sculpts and shapes like any other artist, although its medium remains exclusively digital. Rendering is a technique primarily used in video games, animated films, simulators, architectural designs, FX and design visualization. Rendering increases efficiency. 3D rendering is the process of turning information from a 3D model into a 2D image. 3D rendering can be used to create a variety of images, from the intentionally non-realistic to what’s called photorealistic
Rigging artist – Riggers create digital skeletons for 3D computer-generated (CG) characters. Riggers usually work with characters, but they can also create rigs for anything that moves in an animation. They can be freelance or they can be employed by an animation studio

Since I’m more interested in 3D animation than I was when I first started university last year, I made sure to include job roles that related to 3D in some way. While researching, I also found some general animation skills that are in demand by employers which include but aren’t limited to:

3D modelling
Adobe Creative Suite
Maya
Social media
Typesetting/kinetic typography

I was curious as to what the last skill entails since I have never heard of it before, but upon further research typesetting (also known as “kinetic typography”) is “an animation technique that uses moving text to capture attention, set a tone, and entertain” and “commercials, music videos, mobile apps, and websites use it to make their words more impactful and add an element of artistry.”

Being a 3D animator as my future job role seems to be quite ideal since I find myself enjoying it a lot more compared to doing 2D animation, plus it removes a lot of the frustrations I had felt with doing 2D animation such as figuring out how to draw characters/backgrounds in the correct perspective as the 3D models remain consistent with whatever camera angle you use on them. Plus with knowledge of Maya being in demand since it’s industry standard, I feel like this could work for me since I’ve become quite comfortable with using Maya for character animation and over the course of the year my 3D animation skills will only improve.

The second task is looking through job sites and searching for junior/intern/entry level positions within animation and reporting back in the blog with the job roles we can find and writing a brief reflection at the description of one of the jobs we found. I used websites such as NIJobFinder and Indeed to find job roles of these positions which are shown below:

NIJobFinder:

Designer (BAKER MCKENZIE – Bachelor’s degree)

Indeed:

Character/Creature Rigger (RocketFlair Games – Bachelor’s degree)

Junior Graphic Artist (Inspired Gaming Group – Bachelor’s degree)

Assistant Technical Director – Film & Episodic (Framestore – Bachelor’s degree)

As the jobs above show, animation jobs aren’t just limited to the animation industry but are available in the gaming industry too due to the overlap of job roles in both production pipelines, so when looking for animation jobs there is the added benefit of having more jobs available compared to other industries where jobs are harder to come by as even though I couldn’t find any animation related entry level jobs in Belfast from animation studios when they were available in other cities I managed to find one from a game studio in Belfast (RocketFlair Games) from Indeed. Plus with the pandemic forcing companies to work from home, this impacts the number of jobs available to people as someone wanting to work locally can still apply for jobs in other cities like London but can still work from home which increases the number of job opportunities for them. Going back to the 3D animator job role from before, this role is essential in both the animation industry for movies/tv shows/advertisements and the gaming industry for character animations (walk/run cycles, idle animations, cutscenes) in games so there’s a wide range of jobs available as a 3D animator as a result.

The final task is to find a junior or mid level artist/animator currently working in the role we like and researching that person including where they began their career, how they got their current position, portfolios, older work and what their journey says to us about what we need to do. I am choosing to focus on Anna McCraith as she was one of the first YouTube animators I was exposed to when I was first getting into animation and have been consistently following her content from the early days of Spyro’s Got Talent and animations from the Rise of Scourge Warrior Cats book (both of which are no longer available unfortunately) to her current uploads which mostly involves dragon animations from her Sunseekers series (formerly known as The Fire and the Phoenix). Her very first animation from 12 years ago is shown below as well as her recent remake of it and her showreel compiling all of her work from 2014:

It’s crazy and inspiring seeing how her 2D animation has improved over the years, and her final year film in Ulster University Belfast with Callum Luckwell “Storm Within” explores her skills with 3D animation which is shown below:

According to the YouTube description, “Storm Within is the tale of a lost little rabbit separated from her warren by a stream. Afraid to cross the water, she is left behind. As her worries begin to compound the world around her begins to shift and warp and become increasingly hostile, and she soon realises that she must learn to conquer her fears before they quite literally consume her.” The film was nominated for the NI Short Film Awards: Best Original Music and won the Flickerpix Best Animation Short Film Award 2018. By “combining their passions for emotional storytelling and colourful visuals they worked together to create this very personal film tackling the emotions one who suffers from anxiety might feel” and the animation does a wonderful job at exploring how the anxiety can shift your worldview into something terrifying and blown out of proportion.

Her ArtStation is also shown below:

https://www.artstation.com/annamccraith

Currently she works in TAUNT Studios as a 3D animator but previously worked in other companies such as HUMAIN, JAM Media and Billy Goat Entertainment LTD as a 3D animator as well as being a storyboard artist for JAM Media for the show “Becca’s Bunch” and her journey of animation shows me that through hard work and dedication I can greatly improve my animation skills for the future so that I will have a great showreel to use to apply for placement year as a result. Her journey also shows a shift from primarily 2D animation in the beginning to working in 3D animation as a job and doing 2D animations on YouTube as a hobby and I’m making a similar transition to her as initially in university last year I wanted to do 2D animation for my future job but after experiencing 3D animation in Maya in semester 2 of last year I’m redirecting my focus to doing 3D animation instead of 2D and doing all I can to improve my 3D animation skills to make my showreel as high quality as possible. She is also proof that you can get a job in 3D animation in game studios as well as animation studios as she worked with Billy Goat Entertainment LTD to make the game “Supermarket Shriek” which once again highlights the number of jobs available for those wanting to do 3D animation like I am.