https://www.artstation.com/matthew_shannon
Matthew Shannon – Cover Letter
Professional Practice
3 – Development of Industry Facing Content
Showreel
Check out the research in my previous post where I analysed some showreels I found and identified which aspects I liked from each one, planning to implement these features in my showreel.
A lot of this research just reinforces what I’ve previously learned, stuff I’ll probably repeat throughout the blog; keep it short, put my best work at the start, present clips clearly etc. Don’t mess up the video with over the top titles, transitions and editing – keep it simple. After making a showreel you should trim the fat, and always keep it updated.
Just before I started, I watched some YouTube videos to refresh myself on what makes a good reel – starting with your strongest clips, quality over quantity, good timing etc. These were all stuff we covered in class too, during our workshop with Alec when we edited his 30s Showreel. I knew I wanted to have some kinetic typography at the start, inspired by Sorcha’s classes, I thought having the letters appear as if they were being written would force the audience to actively read the name and hopefully make me more memorable.
I hopped into after effects and started animating the text with a write on effect, I done this by creating a mask over the text with each point placed in the order they appear, then adding a stroke effect to this. I then keyframed the the end value of this effect as well as some subtle brush size animation.
When I was happy with how this was looking, I started collecting all the clips I wanted in my showreel. I found some energetic music with a strong beat to allow me to edit with strong timing and did some further research into showreels, watching a bunch of YouTube clips before jumping into Premier Pro.
The actual editing was easy enough, I put what I thought was my best work in the first clip, it included vehicle, character and camera animation as well as a strongly rendered scene. The second scene finishes with a fade to black, which allowed me to transition to my 2D animation scene well, as that opens from black. I took some tips from Alec’s recorded videos including some advice, based on common issues he saw with my classmate’s edits -and implemented the rotation idea he showed using Sketchfab, I also added a crossfade to show my wireframe like he mentioned in the video.
Following my feedback from Aodhan, I added my contact details to the end of the showreel, he said it wouldn’t be necessary to have it at both the start and the end, just the end’s fine since my start has a little animated sequence. It’s important to bookmark details as showreels often get passed around a lot.
He suggested I should change the text I included in the first scene where I was listing what I wasn’t responsible for, as it sounded like I was listing a bunch of work I didn’t do. Instead he said It would be easier listing what I was responsible for, but when I tried this the text took up way too much of the screen, so I stuck with what I had, and just worded it differently. Since I worded it more concisely, and added a description to my showreel stating I’m responsible for everything in each scene unless labelled otherwise it no longer sounded like I was listing things I didn’t do.
I’m happy with the final product, I was expecting a bunch of changes since I never made one before, but Aodhan said all in all it was a really nice showreel. I was a little worried about the length in case it was getting too long, but when I mentioned it he said the length felt really good to him. I would include a before and after of Aodhan’s feedback, but I only had to change the end screen and the text on the first shot, which I included in the above screenshots since there are size limits for files on the blog.
The final showreel is posted in my Industry Facing Material post.
CV
The general structure suggestions I found online were similar to the examples on blackboard; the resume header, the resume summary, employment history, skills, education. You should begin by researching the studio/job role and tailoring your CV to match this, since employers advertise exactly what they are looking for (obviously don’t lie though). Since we focused on having a strong design too, I started by planning out how I wanted to showcase my understanding of design. There are a lot of examples of these very designed and creative CVs, which look awesome but I think they come across a little unprofessional, I wanted something a little more subtle.
I honestly struggled for a while with the CV, I couldn’t figure out a design that worked for me – showcasing my design capabilities while also looking professional. I looked at the provided examples from Alec, and used this in combination with Pinterest, to create a pureref file I could work from. I knew I wanted the sleek professional look I previously referenced, but didn’t want it to just be black and white.
I really like Jack Ellison’s example with how he created a logo out of his initials, something I wanted to implement but really struggled with. I created a colour scheme and rough layout, keeping the colours quite desaturated, something Alec mentioned in his class. I used the grid system in photoshop to make sure it lined up well.
I played around with the colours and layout for a while and got something I kind of liked. You’ll see I eventually move away from this design – I thought it looked like a pizza restaurant menu or something. I wanted like a retro 80s look at first but it didn’t really work, and it was starting to feel a little over designed. It also seemed a little too mathematical and boring, with everything in perfect boxes.
I got to work on my logo design, incorporating initials into a logo design is something I liked across all the CVs that had it. I had the idea of making a mountain from the M, and a river flowing from this in the form of an S. It was a little abstract but I liked the idea, and if done right it could also work as just a landscape scene like seen in Dermott Burns’ CV, but I am definitely not a graphic designer.
I thought the M and S wasn’t easily identifiable in this design, so I played around with different versions and ideas, before finally settling for lightning striking a mountaintop. This was also a call back to my old Halo 3 emblem which I thought was a pretty cool coincidence. I think the logo works decently well and really like the new colour scheme I came up with to match this. It seemed a lot more professional and the colours acted more as accents, I could use this to highlight key information. You can see the design of my CV really changed at this point, there was a day in-between the two designs. I just woke up really not liking what I had, and Alec mentioned using simple shapes following the design principles we know already to get a good design (since we aren’t graphic designers) so I decided to use more dynamic shapes, circular logo and triangle in the top right for contrast.
I looked into what a good cover letter should include, so I know what I shouldn’t mention in my CV, I didn’t want the two to just repeat each other. I found some more examples for the additional content I could add into my CV on the left side.
The one thing common amongst all the CV’s I like is a really strong layout, equal line spacing, words lining up well and indentation. This is something I tried to be very mindful of. Many of my screenshots have the photoshop grid system disabled only because its hard to see the CV with it on, I spent the majority of the time making sure the gaps between headings and paragraphs were equal, the logo lined up with the title and the subheadings etc. Alec said during class to be very strict with this.
It was really starting to take shape at this point. There was some space at the bottom I couldn’t figure out what to do with but realised it would be a good place to add my references and their contact details. I played around with adding logos for the software section, but I thought it looked a little tacky and broke up the flow of the CV, listing them also made it easier to read (for people and software) and seemed more professional to me. When I sent it to Aodhan for feedback, it didn’t have the left section filled in but it had all the headings – he suggested adding a heading that could list my soft skills and make up some of the buzzwords they are looking for. He told me about ATS – software that enables the electronic handling of recruitment and hiring needs. This basically scans through for keywords, so he gave me some suggestions to add into my about me and skills section. He said he really liked the colour scheme and didn’t really say much about the logo, so I guess it wasn’t too distracting.
Here you can see the difference before and after my meeting with Aodhan. As you can see it was still unfinished when I sent him it, but I took all his suggestions on board like slightly rewording my intro to better match the job description, and adding a soft skill section.
An image of my final CV, as well as a Pdf link, is featured in my Industry Facing Material post.
Cover Letter
My research into cover letters led me to the AIDA Model, AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. This model was a useful guideline, but I didn’t specifically want to follow a formula, I did use it to help with my layout. The introduction is the first paragraph – who you are and what you want, then go into career experience and interests is the second paragraph – qualifications. Remember to explain how are you a good fit for their team and research the company and their work before you write the letter, make sure to express gratitude at the end. You should try to be marketing yourself, your skills, and your candidacy with your cover letter.
This was the job listing I was interested in a few weeks ago, it’s definitely no longer available but I’m a fan of the studio’s work so I stuck with it. Out of the local studios and job opportunities I found, Taunt had the coolest stuff. I checked out what the studio was working on currently and took notice of the requirements they listed, luckily I mentioned some of these skills in my CV already, so I used my cover letter to cover the rest of them.
I went back to our class from Henry on cover letters as a refresher, mostly covering the language we should and shouldn’t use. I did some of my own research but it mostly repeated what Henry covered already. There’s not a whole lot to write about here since I just sat down and wrote about myself, but I made sure to follow Henry’s guidelines.
From my research into the studio I saw that they were very small scale and also employ a lot of freelancer’s to take on work. I saw in Dermott’s CV he had many different roles working with Taunt, so they seem to like someone with a wide range of skills – something I attempted to cover, while also staying focused on the 3D Animation aspect, since that was the original role I planned to apply for. This version to the left is what I sent Aodhan.
Following my meeting with Aodhan, he said I should definitely showcase some of my CV’s colour scheme in the cover letter. He was happy with all the wording and language of the letter, though some parts he had to read a few times before realising it was okay – I addressed this by making those parts have more clear language. I added some more buzzwords into it, and made some sentences a little more matter of fact, rather than opinion based. I also decided it was nice to add a signature to make it a little more personal, as well as fill that empty space and add some contrast. It also looked more formal, much cleaner and easier to read with the justified layout, rather than aligned left.
Here you can see the difference before and after meeting with Aodhan. I took all his feedback on board, again adding the buzzwords and the main thing he mentioned was adding the colour scheme from my CV, so they compliment eachother. You can also see the slight layout differences I added and the signature.
An image of my final cover letter, as well as a Pdf link, is featured in my Industry Facing Material post.
Artstation Portfolio
We also have the option to make a portfolio to showcase more of our work, suggesting we use Artstation for this. I thought it was a good idea to make one, even though I don’t have a lot of finished work/renders right now to add to this, it will give me some incentive to start documenting my work.
It also gives me something extra to link to potential employers. It seems a bit empty as of right now but hopefully I can get some more work that is a good enough level to add to this and by the time it comes to applying for jobs it will be full of work.
There are different options for how you present your portfolio using categories or presenting them as posts showing different projects. Here are a few examples of what a more finished animators portfolio might look like with these different layouts. Artstation also it makes it very easy for potential employers to reach you with how it showcases your details
Link to portfolio, hopefully will be less empty eventually – https://www.artstation.com/matthew_shannon
References:
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs
https://resume.io/resume-examples/3d-animator
https://www.artstation.com/about/artists/portfolio
https://magazine.artstation.com/category/inspiration/featured-portfolios/
https://www.tauntstudios.com/
https://www.womenfolk.co/taunt-studios
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOwFX-YFktXxEIX7-IPjlKQ
2 – Talks from Guests in Industry, Further Research and Interview Preparation
We had some guest speakers, Zoe Woods and Aishling Mcelroy – 2018 graduates of UU as well as Greg Woodcock, who graduated from Swansea met uni in 2008, and made his own studio.
Zoe Woods went into the course hoping to work in the gaming industry, and bounced about from gaming to VFX and eventually did her placement in Enter Yes as an animation intern. Since graduating has worked at BBC Blackstaff, Jam Media, Blue Zoo and Framestore. She has worked in, live action, fully CG kid’s shows and visual effects, and got to work on the new Wheel of Time show announced. She gave us description of the roles she worked in and what they entail, which was a great insight into the different job roles. It was nice to hear she didn’t have anything planned or lined up when she graduated, puts a little less pressure on us. She has been a runner, data wrangler, 2d render lead, lighting and render artist all before finally becoming a layout artist.
She gave us an overview of being a layout artist, showing the differences in work between 3D animation, 2D and visual effects. She discussed the different studio sizes she’s worked in and the benefits or drawbacks of these different studios, and contrasting workflows she’s experienced, as well as reflecting on how the pandemic has changed the industry from her perspective.
Aisling McElroy also didn’t get a job straight away, working in a bar for a few months before getting a role in the games industry. Aisling worked at Sixteen South and Blackstaff Games, and has been with Italic pig now for the last 2 years. Paleo Pines, is one project she’s working on, being released very soon. Being a lead producer for the past month, producing 5 different projects, her main focus most of the time is making sure everyone is doing what they need to do when it comes to production, and supporting them. It was good to hear the differences between the game and animation industry, and how much more straightforward the animation pipeline is.
Greg Woodcock, who went to university with Alec, started his own studio Slapstick Studios . He’s worked on a lot of different stuff, console games, advertisements, mobile apps, casino games, including AAA games like Until Dawn and Call of Duty doing facial animation. He started with kind of a generalist role, modelling, rigging, texturing, animating but struggled to get a job at first since he wasn’t specialised in anything. He spoke about his first job, which he said was the most difficult to get, making a PS3 game with a start up company. He spent a few years working freelance for low pay, and eventually after he had more work and studios started to take him on. He highlighted the importance of knowing what you like, as one of his biggest issues was entering the industry with a lot of skills but no specialities. He also gave us some tips on CVs, not to over exaggerate or lie, as well as the importance of clearly showing the software we use.
I found the guest speakers really useful in finding out more about the industry, mostly the local guys. Zoe Woods highlighted current trends in the creative industries in response to the pandemic quite while, mentioning how one studio nearly tripled their employee count and experienced a lot of growth during the pandemic, when they realised employee’s could work remotely. She didn’t mention if this new trend of remote work and constant access of your computers (online) was a bad or good thing. It did benefit the studio greatly but also she noticed people would be logging in to work at 9pm etc. Even if they were just bored with nothing else to do locked at home, or really enjoyed the project they were working on, it can be unhealthy for workers and could definitely result in burnout which was one of her main concerns.
It was also interesting to hear and read about the amount of support the creative scene in Belfast receives with places like the pixel mill or the funding available from NI Screen.
Showreel Research
I liked how this showreel’s intro doesn’t just showcase their name, it also showcases their artistic skills. I feel like the music is a little much but I do like the heavy bass and beat, it really drives the editing and when muted the timing and everything flows well because of this. There is a lot going on in each clip though and they don’t mention what they are responsible for in them.
This title card also had an interesting way to showcase some animation skills, while also getting your name in. Compared to the previous example, I found myself actively reading the name this time compared to admiring the art in the first one. I feel as if the kinetic typography forced me to actively read it, which could be good to implement into my show reel. The text in the bottom left explaining the clips was also a good touch. I’m not sure about showing your software skills at the end, it seems like a good idea but it hasn’t been mentioned by any of the tutors.
I also wanted to check out a game animation reel, since I think working in games or animation would both be cool. I really liked this title card at the start, instantly showing off some animation skills. I did find this one a little long, but since its a bunch of short clips it was easy enough to watch, I did get a little bored during the longer clips though.
Interview Preparation/Further Research
We also spent some time preparing for mock interviews so we could get some practice for the future. This meant I had to choose a job role that I wanted to interview for. I don’t think I’m ready to actually specialise, I think I want to do something 3D so I went for a 3D modeller job, preferably character sculpting. I also thought 3D animation would be a suitable role but couldn’t find anything that mixed the both of them. I did like this role 3D Artist, but for the purpose of the interview I went more specific.
Before an interview you should research the job’s responsibilities and how this fits into the studio, as well as researching the studio itself. There are other suggestions like familiarising yourself with the location before the interview, and dressing professionally, but for this mock interview, I just looked at what’s expected of a 3D Modeller.
During the interview I mentioned my background and what made me qualified for the role, talking about shape language and the different characters I’ve modelled and how I approached them. I mentioned some things that showed I was aware of how I fit into the pipeline and overall it went really well. The feedback was all great and it was fun to get some practice in, I would definitely be a lot more nervous for the real thing though. I was told to maybe not to ask about the overtime situation next time.
I looked more into what people from in the industry had to say about being a 3D Artist. This channel FlippedNormals has so many great videos covering various topics, kind of as a casual conversation between two industry veterans, the only thing is they are very long and a lot is covered. They also covered getting your first job which was very useful for this module, they show and analyse their show reels that got them hired, talk about what they look for as recruiters and things to avoid. They mentioned keeping it simple and don’t try to be fancy quite often, especially when showcasing models. One bad example was an animated car which spent most of the time in shadows/low lighting followed by flashing lights – it was a very impressive render and art piece, but didn’t show off the animation or model well, which is what they were meant to be advertising for this job.
Since most the guest speakers have experience in the games industry, I checked out what options I had in Belfast. I have heard of the majority of these guys before, a lot of them are at the indie stalls at Q-con and all of them have members in the NI Game Dev Network discord channel.
I could definitely see my self working in games, despite what Greg said about his negative experiences with the games industry, since it was kind of a childhood dream at one point and the local scene has a lot of great stuff going on.
I used this animation job master to list find this opportunity at a local studio, similar to paleo pines its a super stylised wholesome art style dinosaur themed game. So now I have this job role in the games industry, and the animation role for Taunt studios to look at, although I am more biased towards Taunt at the minute as I’m more familiar with their work. The list of requirements and ‘nice to have’ is very useful though, could help me with developing my CV and cover letter.
Speaking of CVs and cover letters, I checked out some graphic designer cover letters and CVs to finish out this week, thinking they would implement some cool designs. The cover letters were very bland and formal but I found some cool CVs, they were normally very lowkey and sleek which I liked. This ZEN example had a very nice logo and simple layout, so I guess sometimes less is more.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/c/FlippedNormals
https://brainstation.io/
https://uk.indeed.com/
https://www.ambertailgames.com/
https://agora.community/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG2srhdMHCa4OofVCbcwRXg
1 – Job Roles in Animation
Out of all these possible jobs within the industry, I think I’d definitely want to work in the development/ pre-production/ production stages. I’ve always liked the idea of a concept artist, coming up with the first initial ideas/looks/sketches for an animation, following the information and story made by the writer. Working with the writers, producer, and head of story to produce a style for the animation. They provide visuals and references for animators, background artists, and character designers. I like how much influence they have, but they require a lot of technical drawing/painting skills and normally in short time frames, which I’m not confident if I could manage that right now. This job probably wouldn’t have a showreel but instead a still image portfolio.
I also feel like a modeller/model maker would be cool, actually building the versions of everything that is seen on screen in an animation. I also like working from concept art, character designs and environment designs. I think I’d like to be a character modeller/sculptor, I spent the summer looking at and trying to emulate Omar Smith’s recent sculpts, a visual development artist at Sony. You would probably work from a character concept for this, from a character designer which might be what I’m more interested in. This job could have a showreel more focused on turnarounds showcasing the models, I feel like this could be made easier by just linking a Sketchfab account though, allowing employers to view models how they wanted.
What does a Character Designer do?
Character designers visualise and create the look of characters, from descriptions given by the director. These might include notes on a character’s personality and/or physical traits. Character designers take inspiration from the script and concept art to design characters and communicate the characters’ personalities through artwork.
Character designers carry out research into the anatomy of characters and relevant fashion styles to inform their work. This role relies heavily on drawing ability. Character designers create a variety of designs for a single character. They present these to the director and address any of the director’s feedback to achieve a result that they are happy with.
Once a design has been approved, character designers create ‘model sheets’ which show the character from different angles. In 3D animation, these will be used by the modellers to create the characters. In 2D animation, the animator uses the model sheets to ensure each frame of animation is “on model”.
Shiyoon Kim – Character Designer
Shiyoon Kim is a Korean-American character designer and concept artist previously at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Sony Pictures Animation, He is responsible for designing and helping bring characters to life from Tangled, Wreck It Ralph and Big Hero 6. My favourite of his work is on Big Hero 6 and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I think a character design/ concept art job would be great to have, since you are directly responsible for creating iconic characters that the audience connects with – someone eye-catching and memorable. they must truly understand and conceptualize the character’s personality and backstory and therefore have a large influence on the project. Shiyoon Kim didn’t have a showreel to study obviously, instead he uses a website showcasing still images.
What does a Look Development Artist do?
A job I find interesting that I’ve heard of before is a look development artist, that wasn’t mentioned in the above list from screenskills for some reason.
If a concept artist draws an alien, then the look development artist works out what the skin of the alien will look like in different conditions – when it’s raining, when it’s dark, when the creature’s angry. They work with lighting TDs, texturing artists and creature TDs to establish the different looks, balancing the processes of texturing, lighting and rendering to match reference images and real footage.
As the title suggests the Look Dev Artist focuses on the development of the visual style of the animation or the game. Overseeing all elements such as layouts, environments, characters, objects, assets, etc are in line with a uniform look. This involves setting the style, color scheme, genre and execution of the artwork.
Jeffrey Thompson – Look Development Artist
This is a look dev artist I found online, Jeffrey Thompson. He contributed a variety of design work, ranging from background and character paintings, to 2-D animation for Into the Spider-Verse. It looks similar to a concept artist, probably a job role for someone with experience or seniority, since a lot of these guys I find online seem to also seem to double up as art directors and I can’t seem to find any entry level positions for it. It looks like a great job with a lot of input in the final look of the project, which is always cool.
This website cgspectrum was great for seeing the different skillsets needed for different job roles, as well as more information like responsibilities, roles, software and salarys. Of course the lists have a lot of similarities since I was looking at pretty similar job roles and most of the time jobs in animations will require similar vague skillsets anyways since they’re rooted in art/design, such as; attention to detail, team player and ability to work independently, desire to learn new technologies techniques, knowledge of the pipeline, able to produce multiple revisions of artwork as briefed, comfortable with taking constructive criticism, good communication and interpersonal skills, ability to work under pressure and consistently meet deadlines. The more specific skills can be seen above, which in the above roles were often software/tool based.
Entry Level Position for me: Animator (junior)
Animators create still images played in a rapid sequence to create the illusion of movement. They are artists, actors and storytellers. They know how characters show emotion and a have a technical understanding of the way things move. They make a believable world through the blend of realism and artistry.
Animators take a visual brief from a storyboard and a verbal brief from a director. From the brief, they create the drawings, models or computer images in a way that gives the illusion of movement.
Within that, there are different kinds of animators: 2D/traditional animators, 2D assistant animators/in-betweeners/clean-up artists, 2D puppet/rigged animators, 3D/CG animators, stop motion animators.
A lot of the jobs you find online aren’t actually in Belfast, it just says they are if they support remote work, but I managed to find a job opportunity at a local studio, Taunt. I think I’d like a 3D animation or modelling job, it seems like a fun job and you’d have more of a generalist role if you get into a small studio like Taunt, which would be good while I figure out my speciality. I’m not set on just 3D work, I would like a 2D job role too which is why I looked at concept/character design, but I don’t think my 2D skills are quite at that level yet.
This job looks good for a graduate with a year in industry, since they require at least one year experience. It seems like a great opportunity, so I’ll use this as my example. The skill set required lines up well with the skills we gain on our course, working closely with a team to deliver assigned shots, communication, knowledge of the animation pipeline in Maya, time management skills, independent work, etc.
If I was applying for a 3D Animator job like this, I would need to cater my show reel to it. I found some helpful YouTube videos covering what a show reel for this should look like and I should be able to make one out of the content I’ve produced so far in Uni. I’ll do more research into this when it comes to actually making my show reel – but this job role seems like a good idea to go ahead with.
Junior/Mid-level Artist Research:
Arielle Estrella
She graduated from the American Academy of Art in 2015 and according to her LinkedIn and resume, didn’t get any work until 2018 – Where She Designed VFX and created final Unity assets for various console and mobile games. Once she got her foot into the industry though she got a lot of amazing opportunities. She went on to work with Alberto Mielgo, modeling vehicles, street props, vehicle variants, and painting texture variants for the “Watchdogs: Legion – Tipping Point” cinematic trailer.
Since then she has worked as a generalist in various freelance and contract roles. She has also grown a pretty significant following on her twitter, this is where I first discovered her and really enjoyed her art style, both 2D and 3d. She is still pretty junior/mid level and its good to see even though she didn’t get work at first, she now has a decent social media following and a lot of great projects under her belt. It seems as if the hardest job to get, at least in her situation, is the first one. After you secure that first job though, it becomes easier to find work.
References:
https://www.screenskills.com/starting-your-career/job-profiles/animation/
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs
http://www.shiyoonkim.com/
https://www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd4tG1v5ii8z9IG1i9SI_Tw#
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH64i_nElTFZlYE98oN8Idw
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arielle-estrella-320238217/
https://aeryel.tumblr.com/
https://www.cgspectrum.com/