2D / 3D Showreel
I noted all the advice and guidelines given in class. I was concerned about the variety and quality of work I had, as I’ve drastically improved over the last year, so a lot of my previous work, though still really respectable, often contained small errors that could show a lack of care, especially with the cinematography.
Intro card
I decided to first research intro cards with the added expectation that this would help me narrow down what sort of brand I wish to build. I decided to prioritise clarity and simplicity to give an air of elegance and professionalism. This ruled out Disney, DreamWorks and other animation studios which focused on fantasy elements with a lot of movement. Pixar and Studio Ghibli had my favourite intros, as the name is clear and on screen for the whole time, and they use a simple drawing or animation to support it without distracting from the information. Looking at the references and work, I decided I wanted my brand to lean towards reliability, confidence and efficiency, which works well with a simpler intro.
Brand indentity:
Successful brand identities are simple and recognisable via one feature; more than 1 or 2 features makes it confusing, forgettable and amateur.
I created a list of brand elements based on myself and a previously used brand:
- dark colour palette
- horns
- slit pupil
- oranges
- VSR
- Victory
- Spain / Colombia
Relating to ‘victory’, I found that the statue ‘Winged Victory’ in Greece also has a tribute piece in Spain called ‘Victoria Alada’. This gave me direction for my branding. The concept references the winged victory in the same way as Victoria Alada. To make this concept my own, I implemented a sword, representative of reliability and resilience; short hair; and a moody blue colour palette.
Spain, Madrid.
Concept art
I designed a mascot; she combines elements of angels, the statues and my own style. I also emphasised the connection between ‘Victoria’ and victory in Spanish by holding up a sword triumphantly – this pose will convey reliability, confidence and success, which should be appealing to potential employers.
I had an idea to have the sword cut my name to reveal the remaining information. This was my first time properly using Adobe After Effects, which was quite challenging, and I was very inefficient and needed multiple guides to understand the UI; however, I’m very happy with the results, and I think it perfectly captures the feeling I was going for.
I listed rigging as one of my skills, so I wanted to make sure to showcase a rig. I looked at a couple of different rig demo reels; however, this was the only one that had a format I liked, as it felt clear and simple yet refined. I reanimated the ‘Kraken rig’ to show the individual features of the rig, created an overlay to explain them and edited it to highlight and pause on the important parts to make it clearer.
Although I would prefer a calmer song in a showreel, it’s preferable to have a faster-paced song, as the excitement and energy make the showreel more entertaining and memorable. I chose a Spanish song to reflect a part of myself and also tie in with the reference to ‘Victory Alada’.
The most time-consuming aspect, along with learning After Effects, was simply going back and reanimating, rerendering and finishing some animations/models, as I couldn’t put in the work with so many glaring weaknesses and with terrible cinematography/renders that don’t properly show what is otherwise good work.
updated works:
Completed clothes retopology and textures
Redid animation, unreal render, texture settings
Redid rig showcase
Fixed eye tracking (previously, eyes were bobbing up and down)
Final showreel
Overall I’m very happy with my showreel; I think a wide range of my skills are shown, and the title card fits the professional and confident feeling I wanted to convey. I wish I had more examples of really nice topology and more dynamic 2D animations; however, I feel the examples I gave, though a little lacking, do work well. I’m also incredibly happy with my improvement in general, as I managed to identify and correct mistakes in older works relatively quickly.
CV
A CV’s main purpose is to summarise a person’s skills, experience and achievements to an employer; there is a big emphasis on clarity and understanding. The CV is meant to demonstrate that I’m a good candidate that would fit well with the available position. I don’t have a lot of work experience, so I was afraid I wouldn’t have much to write; however, Rachel advised us to use non-work and uni experiences to talk about our skills. The CV is also our first impression to potential employers. Keeping this in mind, I wanted to create a relaxed but professional feeling. While I want my work to be taken seriously, I also found it important that it wouldn’t feel unapproachable.
Main categories:
- Name – Victoria
- Job role – 2D/3D Generalist
- About Me
- Software experience
- Skills
- Education
- Achievements – Dean’s list award
- Experience – Comic project (team lead), game dev project, animated wedding invitations
Examples / research
What makes a successful CV and what elements do I like?:
- Visual clarity
- reference
- personality
- short and concise
- Limited colour palette
- icons for software
- drawing
My first attempt was pretty bad; the font was illegible, the icon looked goofy rather than strong or reliable, and the lack of contrast made the whole thing murky.
I tried focusing on a looser and flowing design. I liked these; however, the background took up so much space there wasn’t enough space to actually put in information. I also looked at creating a mascot, like the Pixar lamp, Columbia Pictures’ Lady, DreamWorks’ Boy in the moon, etc.
As the previous attempts didn’t work, I tried a different direction, focusing on a playful vibe instead. I really like the drawing, and the layout was the best so far; however, it didn’t feel like the brand I wanted. At this point I decided to work on the showreel, and I, while making the intro, found a strong direction for my brand.
Using the same colour scheme and image from the showreel intro to keep consistency, I started making a new layout using Canva and a free template so I could measure the general space each section would take up. I liked the general feeling; the darker colours felt a lot more fitting than the pink from the previous attempt, and the image being lower contrast helped with the legibility of the text above it.
As I finally had a direction for the CV I started researching the actual content of the CV, although I had been taking note of this while looking at the visual examples. I also looks at previous students CV’s to see how they approached the experience section as as students we have minimal amunts of experience.
I noted the following from my additional research:
- Be specific to the general role you want; don’t put in a skill if you hate working on it.
- Look at job requirements and include them throughout.
- Mention soft skills in experience from uni work.
- Include the dean’s list award.
Final CV
This is my final CV. I took into consideration all the information from my notes and other research. I focused mainly on covering technical and soft skills to ensure employers are confident in my abilities; however, I also tried to be a little more relaxed in the About Me, as both the showreel and the rest of the CV are quite formal, and from speaking with some professionals at the NIscreens workshop, most companies tend to have a relaxed and understanding attitude. I’m very happy with the final result, as I think I successfully made it clear and legible, which was my main concern. I also additionally think I was able to effectively carry across the branding from the showreel into the CV, which I found to be quite important from my research, as consistency creates a more memorable impression and therefore a higher chance that potential employers may choose you.
Notes:
- IT skills, as I did computer science GCSE, and a studio mentioned liking candidates with basic IT knowledge.
- Achievement
- avoided talking about the environment, as I dislike it.
- Got a reference for credibility.
- talked a lot about soft skills, especially in uni work
Cover email
The cover email is a short email sent along with your CV to a company to express genuine interest in the company and enquire about job positions. A good cover email should be personalised, job specific and mention the essential criteria.
I knew immediately I wanted to make a cover email for ALT Animation, as I’d seen them in the NIscreens pipeline workshop, and I really liked their presentation and company values.
I looked up the NIScreens ALT placement candidate information document to find out what I should mention in the cover email.
What to mention:
- Happy to do and help with a variety of work.
- excited to learn and develop.
- Mention extensive experience working in teams – good communication, organisation, and dedication.
- Independent – works incredibly well remotely.
- extensive knowledge of Google Drive and Word, with alright Excel understanding
- good with deadlines.
- Mention NI screen pipeline workshop – gaining an understanding and appreciation of every section.
Final thoughts
Overall I found the research part quite simple, and I felt I had a good understanding of the purpose of each element early on. My notes from class also served as additional support and reminders while creating everything to avoid any common mistakes which we were warned about. Although I had a good understanding of what makes a successful CV, showreel and cover letter and how I should go about building one, I still struggled creating the visuals. I think this is mainly due to the fact I’ve always been terrible at making layouts, and I was also very indecisive over the mascot/general branding, which really inhibited my progress. Thankfully, after some additional brainstorming and research, I was able to come up with a branding that I’m very happy with and can also see potential for development in the future while still maintaining the core aspects.