Here is a showcase of my three cycle animations. I have created a walk cycle, a run cycle, and a body mechanic.
Walk Cycle:
Syncsketch link:
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/449da411a66b/
Run Cycle:
Syncsketch link:
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/268ab7f7dd33/
Body Mechanics:
Syncsketch link:
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/b52b4817b814/
Reflection:
I found this project very fun and exciting to make. I definitely see the improvement I’ve made throughout this project in 2D animation, and the creativity I was able to produce during the project. I am happy with my results. I successfully created a walk cycle, run cycle and body mechanic animation. I made sure to create these cycles with reference, the principles of animation, and create them in a unique, creative style for all three videos. The lessons from Sorcha McGlinchey teaching about 2D animation in After Effects, and other tutorials I came across, have been immensely helpful in building my skills and learning new skills. Although, there are parts I would go back and improve on if I were to do this again. I wish I had found new ways to make my animations smoother and more interesting as they move. I would’ve liked to find ways to avoid stiffness in the motions. Other than this, I think I did a pretty good job to produce an animation with fundamental principles for each of the cycles, with unique and experimental characteristics and style in the animations.
This was a challenging but surprisingly fun project to take on. I think this was a successful piece of work, as we were able to produce a 3D environment of a Haunted House and present it in a cinematic short film.
I am very happy with the outcome of this project. The jump from Maya, to Unreal Engine was tough but paid off at the end. It was very interesting to see what Unreal Engine was capable of and how I could experiment with it. I was successful in using my past experience of modelling and texturing, to produce spooky assets for the environment. I made sure the group and I were on track and that we had the resources we needed to produce this work such as Miro Board, presentations and notes from discussions. I made sure to try new things and learn from my tutors lessons to produce engaging visuals of the Haunted House. There are times where I thought I could do better or improve on. I wish I could have communicated more with the other groups in the class – to see what directions they took. From this we could have found new ideas, or helped out the other teams in return.
In addition, I feel my teammates worked very hard on this project. They were always kind and helpful. They produced high quality work, and communicated very well.
In conclusion, my teammates and I successfully brought back our year 1 skills to produce a Cinematic Short film using the environment as its storytelling medium. We modelled, UV mapped and textured assets, coordinated tasks and deadlines to complete layouts and renders, spread out equal share of props, and created our own layout on Unreal Engine 4.
This is my portfolio of the work I completed during the 3D environment project. I have participated in concept art, modelling, texturing and building my environment – layout, lighting, rendering.
Once I had set up my main layout of the environment, and had set up my main source of light, I started recording some shots for the cinematic part of the project.
First of all, I brainstormed what kind of shots I was looking to achieve – from a look at our inspiration from our Miro Board, and my own initial ideas I came up with. I wrote what asset I would like to record, what kind of shot etc. close up, medium shot, and what movement will happen in the shot.
At the time I also considered what was done and what was not done. The Piano, fireplace and bookcase were still in construction. So I waited until they were made, and in the meantime, I worked on the shots that the assets were ready for.
I made some cameras and labelled them by number so they will be easy to recognise. I also made a folder for the sequences that matched each camera.
In each sequence file, I connected the camera with the shot. As the camera was in the right position, and was connected to a sequence, I was ready to start recording.
I set the camera settings as below:
Filmback: Super 35mm
Focal Length: 39
Aperture: 7
ISO: range from 100 to 600
These settings were what I mostly used throughout recording. However, to create some different kind of effects, these settings would change around. E.g. the Aperture would change if I wanted a lighter or darker setting.
This is the sequence workspace. It works as a timeline, like most animating software. So It was quite simple to get used to.
I worked with the location and rotation of the camera to create the movements of the camera. I worked with the focus distance to set which object would be the main focus, or what will be out of focus. I also used the focal length to create different styles of zoom.
Here In the first shot of the clock, I made a lighting strike effect at the start. I turned the aperture up and down once each frame to help me achieve the look. I set a still position from the start to around frame 24 so I had a close up shot of the clock face. From frame 24, I made the camera zoom out, and roll to the left until the end. The distance between the frames allowed the movement to flow slowly and eerily. The end frame was to capture the full shot of the clock and candles.
In the second shot, I presented the entrance of the Haunted house. The camera moves backwards, while zooming out, and rolling round, giving the same effect as the first shot. I set the first frame close to the door handles, and zoomed out until the wide entrance to the house, included each asset in frame. I altered the focal length from the start and middle of the shot as the camera moves back, that it can keep focusing on the door.
The third shot focused on the writing desk, and the objects on top of it. I framed the shot at the group of candles by the left side of the writing desk for a second or two, then I moved the camera so it frames the other side of the desk, where the ink pot and open book is. The cameras location is shifting to the right, while also rotating to better frame the objects.
The fourth shot is a short clip showcasing the books on the floor by the bookcase. I set the position and rotation at the start and a slight different position and rotation at the end, viewing around the books. I set a blurred focus at the start then a clear focused shot by the end.
The fifth shot presented the dining table, where the candelabra, dishes and cutlery were placed. Again this was a short clip. The camera moved slightly around the table as the focus was set from the closest dish, then to a far away dish – making the closer dish out of focus.
This sixth shot was considered for the end of my cinematic. I recorded a single candle as it is lit, then being blown out, making the surroundings dark. I made use of the transitions inside UE that included a fade out feature. I used this to end the clip where the scene goes dark.
I included a few more shots that were mostly very quickly made. They were not as experimental as the other shots, as I was just looking for simple medium shots of the room. I recorded a shot of the camera looking around the entire room, one of the piano by itself, and one of going up the stairs.
After animating the camera and shooting the shot, I was ready to render the sequences. I went to windows-movie render queue to render the sequence. I clicked on +render to add the shot I wanted to render at the time, and set up the settings I preferred. I added the option to render in a PNG sequence. I added anti-aliasing, as I learnt from a video below about rendering UE sequences, that it helps to remove a ‘jagged effect observed along straight lines in the frames.’ I applied the temporal sample count to 64. This gives each frame an amount of time to be calculated to a higher quality image.
Once I set up the render options I let it run. I was using both the uni computers and my laptop during the rendering stage. The uni computers took approx 2-10 minutes rendering the shots, while my laptop took 20-50 minutes each shot :’). The preview told me the total frames that were rendered, what was to be rendered, and how long the rendering process was taking.
After a few draft shots were recorded, I brought them to After Effects to start editing the cinematic. I made sure each image sequence flowed correctly while on After Effects, then I combined them together.
My first draft was very rough. Some of my shots were cut too quick because of a setting I forgot within UE. I also had not picked out a background song yet so it was difficult for me to find a good place for each clip to go, and flow well. This draft was merely testing the clips for the first time, to see how they looked.
In my second draft I had picked out a song, I rendered out some new shots, and rendered out the shots that were cut too quick. This was a little better to grasp how I would edit my cinematic, but I ended up changing the song after this, because the song was too short, and it was not a great song to edit to.
My third draft was more suitable, and felt more interesting and spooky. I think the different choice of music fits much better aswell. At this time I am missing a few shots because they were rendering as I was editing this together. In addition one of my shots has rendered wrong, as it stops and cuts to a further frame suddenly – I plan to get this fixed in the next draft or two.
This is the fourth draft of my cinematic. Here I collected as much rendered shots as I could, while others were still rendering. I made a more structured order but it may still change by the final cinematic. The error with the paused frames on one of the shots was still occuring – I was still figuring out what the cause of it was.
This is now my final cinematic animation. I was able to fix the frame pause problem by re-downloading the frames. I also added a fade transition to each shot so they can flow better together. This version is definitely an improvement from the drafts. I was able to add many more assets that enhanced the environment tremendously. I love the spookiness of the shots and how I was able to find interesting places to record. I also like the mystery to the visuals – such as the muddy footprints on the steps, the blown out candle, and the portraits on the wall. The group and I did a great job setting up the environments, and I feel I successfully captured the wonky, spooky, decayed Haunted Mansion that we were looking for from the start. However, if I were to complete this again, I would have spent more time crafting the camera shots, and making each shot a unique visual. I did take time to look at simple camera techniques, but I had an opportunity to go more into depth and create a more fascinating cinematic.
Around week 9 to week 10, we started gathering an idea of our plan going towards Unreal Engine to finally build our environment. We still needed some time to prepare our models, and fix some problems that we came across. However by week 11, we were all on the Unreal Engine software preparing our workspace.
We were importing out assets, ensuring they were in good shape, and cleaned up, before placing in. We gathered our textures and organised them into materials / instances. And, we started to lay out our assets in a position/visual that we individually preferred.
To organise my workspace, I had made individual folders for each part of this project – assets, materials and textures. This makes it so much easier to find what I am looking for once I start something new etc.
It was a long process in importing, creating nodes, and applying materials to each asset, all while organising the scene into a working environment. The images shown are the progress of adjusting the environment, making sure each material worked.
During week 11 we watched tutor videos on lighting and how to present them in an unreal engine scene. This lecture on what the lights do, how to place them in and alter their information, and to bake the lights to see the result – will help us to light our scene effectively.
Our main source of light in the scene will be with candle lights. Our teammate Matthew was in charge of creating the particle system of a flame, and modelling the candles to go with them.
Also during the week 11 class, we learnt a lot more about unreal and how we could make our workflow a lot easier to handle. We discovered a way to share over the particle systems to everyone in the group by migrating the folder through unreal projects. Matthew made a video for us showing us how to migrate this folder, to our own files.
We also took note of using instances more than materials to texture our work. It makes for easier navigation, and less space taken up on the project. It works well If there were an asset with multiple textures applied to it, or to use a material for two different assets with the use of instances.
In addition; considering my walls, as they are made as a Udim, I should make use of the virtual texture support to correctly apply my textures. These bits of information are vital for us and will help us continue our Unreal engine workflow. – Aswell as this, I made a short video for my teammates on how to apply the wall textures correctly, so everyone can take on the same technique and continue on with ease.
Another detail I took on was the stained glass reflection idea. I made space on my grand door for the possibility we would have stained glass in the future.
I first made a texture of stained glass, with colours that fit the visuals and mood of the Haunted mansion.
I imported the texture into Unreal, placed a plane static mesh down, and created a material, where I linked the texture to the material result node into base colour, and opacity. I also selected a few detail options on the right that would make this material translucent and emissive.
Bend mode is set to: translucent
two-sided is ticked
Lighting mode is: Surface TranslucencyVolume
After I made the material, I created a material instance to link to the plane so it appears as it is to the left. Next, I wanted to create the reflection. This process required a simple blueprint to keep the lights together.
I followed this tutorial on Youtube by DefaultSound on how to create a stained glass reflection. It was actually quite a simple tutorial to follow and helped with keeping my workspace on Unreal tidier, and helps easily move the reflection to the position I’d like.
First we were to create three different light functions, all with separate colour channels etc. red, blue, green. Then we assigned these to three spot lights, and adjust their colours to the colour channel that’s plugged into it. Aligning them together at this point will create the full colour palette of the texture.
Next we created a blueprint with these spotlights. I followed the script he made which combined each spotlight, and shared the same lever to increase or decrease its light intensity.
After that it was done, I could position the spotlight to the area I wanted the stained glass to reflect onto, and it created that illusion.
Source:
After this, I was mostly working on adjusting the lighting in the environment. It was quite difficult to handle as the whole scene is in an enclosed space, it was almost always dark and hard to create light everywhere. I worked with placing point lights around where the candles were shining, and I also placed in a spotlight up where the stairs are, to give a mysterious look to the mansion – making people wonder what could be up there.
At some places, the point lights would shine too bright, and the area around it would appear white. I would use the build lighting option to optimise the lighting to its actual view, but it still had a strong intensity to it. I turned down the intensity of the invididual point lights to help, and also added in a post-processing volume box into the scene. I used this tool to alter the world lighting, and it helped to tone down the intensity of each source of light in the scene.
With this development, my scenes lighting became stronger and more stable around the room. I made sure to experiment with the colour grading and vintage visual to make the scene appear like it was from a Haunted Mansion.
At this time, I had altered the clock design based on recent feedback. I took it out of Unreal Engine for the time being, until I had finished with the additions to the model, then brought it back in.
The rips on the wall textures I made work well when imported into UE as a decal. I learnt how to set up and apply decals in Unreal Engine with the use of my tutors tutorial on Blackboard. I imported the rips as textures. Made a material for decals, set the right settings for each texture to work as a decal, and made instances for each rip. They are placed on the wall to give the wallpaper a rough, torn look – further emphasising our idea to make this haunted house old and withered.
At this stage, my lighting was mostly finished, apart from places where I felt needed more candles. Other than this, I was waiting for other assets made by the group to be able to import into the scene. First to come was the piano, modelled by Caithlin and textured by Matthew. It works well in a corner in my scene where it was empty beforehand. It fits very well into the scene with its old dirty look on the keys, and the roughness in the metal base.
Next was the split-tongue-shaped carpet, made by Megan. This is a very nice tough to the scene. The floor is mostly wood, and It would get uninteresting to look at after a while. However the carpet fills up the room and fits well with the animal/monster theme.
Megan had also uploaded the fireplace, broom and taxidermy saw. These assets were able to fill up the second room I made very well, and they nicely suit the wonky visual we were achieving.
Now that I imported the fireplace, I was hoping to make its light source the strongest in the environment. I used a spot light to illuminate the fire colour outwards outside the door. I also used a point light to illuminate the inside of the fireplace, and cast shadows onto the floor. The guard was in-front of the point light so I could use them to create an interesting looking shadow throughout the room.
Alisa finished up the chair asset for the environment. The chairs fit well into the bones/animal theme with its spine back to the chair. I have placed it multiple times around the scene with the dining table, the writing table, and around the corner, for the gramaphone to sit onto. The chairs definitely helped to fill up the room and add to the cluttered, messy detail of the visual.
Lastly, I got to fit in the picture for the frames. Megan took some time to illustrate fun animal portraits for the mansion. These images will give so much life to the haunted mansion, that beforehand, felt like no one lived inside it. I believe hanging these pictures on the wall will invoke a mystery/story to the place – who are these animals? Are they all a family? Where are they now? These are very fun and interesting assets to add.
During this time, I started on the rendering stage of my environment build.
This week we took time to prepare for our Mock interviews for the 19th November. In this mock interview we are to apply for a job role we are interested in and present ourselves to the interviewers who we are, and why we are suitable for the job. This process will also give us students some ease into the industry & interview stage, for the future.
BEFORE THE INTERVIEW
research company/studio/organisation
research job criteria
anticipate and practice interview questions – and prepare questions for the employer
if travelling to site by car, drive 10-15 minutes early and familiar yourself with area
dress professionally
DURING THE INTERVIEW
talk about qualifications, background, education, experiences
Attitude, be honest, sincere, professional
Intelligence – use communication skills, speak about company and its mission
Compatibility, speak about adapting to different work environments, examples of being an effective team player
Use the STAR Method – describe the Situation, what was the Task, describe the Action undertaken, what were the Results.
DO’S
give time to think about answers
be friendly not abrupt
be positive and honest
relax and talk to interview like a human being
talk about skills & achievements proudly
take deep breaths when tense and freezing up
prepare your answer to questions, but not off by heart
go with the flow
DON’TS
down play skills and achievements
sound too abrupt
get annoyed with interviewer
speak softly, or too loud
exaggerate and be dishonest
be negative
AFTER THE INTERVIEW
Ask when you may hear back from interviewer
Ask for feedback / where there could be improvement
As a task for this weeks lecture we took some time in groups to ask each other interview questions from the examples we were given. We picked out one from each category which were:
Skills
Experience
The Role
Ambitions
Personality
Odd questions
Do you have any questions for us?
I worked with three other classmates and we took turns to be the interviewee and interviewer. I was the interviewer first and I asked questions like:
What are your strengths/weaknesses?
What is your best achievement to date?
What would your first 30 days in the job look like?
What is your dream role?
Do you prefer to work in a team or independently?
What is your favourite animal?
For when I was the interviewee, I was asked similar questions and tried my best to answer them all confidently and professionally. I think this task was very rewarding and it made me feel a lot more confident in taking the mock interview soon.
In this assignment I am required to keep a research blog on 1 or 2 job roles in the animation industry I am interested in. I will find what skill set is required, what should and shouldn’t be in a portfolio/reel for this job, if it is an entry role or requires previous experience, and any other interesting insights. By the end of this research I hope to find 1 or two job roles I am interested in, and learn and understand the requirements of these jobs, so that I could be prepared to apply for a job in this industry for the future.
At first, it was difficult for me to choose a specific job role, as I do enjoy trying out every aspect of animation in this course. I also couldn’t figure out what aspect I am best at. However most recently I found out from a class we had, that I do enjoy 2D Animating a lot, and have some experience with it. I am also quite interested in a concept artist job as a lot of pieces of work I admire/inspired by, are based off concepts of a project.
A 2D Animator is the role of creating movement in a 2-dimensional space in cel, traditional drawings, or on computer software. 2D Animators convey stories, life and messages through their work by making characters, objects, and backgrounds move.
A 2D Animator could be working with many people to produce their work. They will work with writers and head of story to learn how to communicate this story they have made. They will work with concept, background, layout and character artists to determine the visual of the animation and how to portray it. They will work with sound designers and voice actors to accurately animate in beat and in time with any sound played.
A 2D Animator has roles and responsibilities they take on to do their best job. These include:
Producing frames
Rigging characters
Producing special effects & graphics
Inking and colouring
Animating scenes
Preparing actions & timing to dialogue & music
Cleanups
A 2D animator can work with many software and skills to produce animation, such as:
Pen and paper
Paint and cels
Artistic skills
Creative skills
Anatomy
Puppetry – traditional and digital
flexibility within projects
Toon Boom
Adobe Photoshop / Illustrator / After Effects
Krita
Blender
Now I will present 2 – 3 job applications that are looking for a 2D Animator at the moment. I will analyse their job description to see what skills they require, what they would look for in a portfolio / reel, and if this is an entry level position or not.
1. Junior-Mid Animator – Creative Recruitment
The first job I found was on Reed.co.uk. This is for a recruiting branch called Creative Recruitment and it is offering a Junior-Mid Animator job based in London. This is a client job offer for corporate and promotional briefs.
Their essential skills for this job is to:
have intermediate After effects skills in 2D Animation & motion graphics
decent at video editing in Premiere Pro
be highly creative and thrive in lively creative environments
be self-motivated
have awesome showreel / website with range of projects
work on tight deadlines
love to interact with clients
This job application states it is ideal to have agency experience beforehand, however they advertise this job role as junior-mid which some graduates with 2D Animation experience could fall into.
They are looking for a showreel submission and a portfolio website with a range of projects. This ensures the studio of what you have previously worked on, and showcases your skills in action.
2. 2D Animator – Vanilla Recruitment
This next job role was also found on Reed.co.uk. The recruiting branch is called Vanilla Recruitment and they are looking for a passionate 2D Animator to join a commercial marketing service company to help international brands communicate with digital innovations. This is based in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire and contains flexible working.
They list the duties that you will undertake in this role:
Create 2D text flashes & animations
generate creative content for digital screens and social media
work closely with other creatives & client services team to understand requirements
use initiative and working at pace whilst maintaining quality
work on diverse projects with consumer brands
They also list skills and experience required:
experience with 2D animation,, or an open minded animation graduate with practical work experience
Creative skills and experience with illustrator, After effects, Photoshop, InDesign
Ability to work to deadlines
excellent communication skills
Alternatively to the last job, this application is offered to ‘open-minded’ animation graduates with some work experience. This is ideal for graduates looking for their first big role in the industry.
3. 2D Animator – Zest Exec ltd
This last job I found was found on Indeed.com This is for a company/recruitment branch called Zest Exec ltd and they are looking for a 2D animator / motion designer to join the animation team. They will provide the chance to work with clients on a global scale, and the opportunity to work in a studio environment. They are based in Midlands, Nottingham, and they prefer to work in studio.
The requirements they look for are:
At least 2 years experience, but also consider graduate level appointments
require proven commercial proficiency in editing, asset creation and motion design with software After effects, Illustrator and Photoshop.
Experience in 2D design and motion
3D not required but added benefit
They also provide a list of skills to have:
Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Indesign – bonus
A solid communicator at all levels – both written and verbal
A passion for the sector, a willingness to learn and develop
This recruitment branch says they can consider graduate level appointments for this role, which means graduates have an opportunity to apply for this role depending on their experience.
This application requires the skills and qualities for being a 2D Animator, but also suggest 3D skills is a ‘benefit’ to the role. This could suggest that there are some range of tasks within the job role, relating to 3D aspects.
From these three jobs I can summarise what kind of skills a studio would look for in a 2D animator, and what to include in our portfolio/showreels for these roles.
The most required skills that these applications look for are:
After effects skills
video editing skills
experience with illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign
communicator
to work on tight deadlines
When showcasing your portfolio and showreel, It would be ideal to include any work experience you have – especially agency work. You would include an indication that you have projects to show with experience in the software they mention the most etc. After effects, Illustrator, Premiere Pro; You would also include the types of mediums you have experimented with such as 2D Animation, video editing, design experimentation, and motion graphics.
It would be ideal to include any experience you have taken as an animation student or as an animation graduate – to present your industry work at the moment, or show you are prepared for the industry.
What I would guess that you shouldn’t include for this job role would be showing little, different, or no work experience at all. You would avoid indicating you have experience with software that is too distinct from the likes of After effects, Photoshop etc. Lastly, it would not be ideal to include work the opposite of 2D Animation eg. 3D art, 3D mechanics, rendered illustrations, or unfinished work.
A concept artist is the role of creating visual development for a project. Concept artists explore and experiment with the looks and ideas for an animation. They can visualise character, props, environments and assets – as detailed illustrations, or as quick sketches. Each serve a purpose, and are used later on as reference for the whole production.
A concept artist could be working with others to produce their work. They work with types of designers such as character designers, and background designers, to provide initial ideas and reference for their progress. They would also work with the director and producer to produce artwork that reflects the story’s vision.
A concept artist has roles and responsibilities they take on to do their best job. These include:
Working from a brief
produce artwork of creatures, characters, environments, assets and more
providing attention to detail
explain and present pitch ideas clearly to team
adapt and refine work when needed
follow reference
A concept artist can work with many software and skills to produce concept art, such as:
Traditional pen and paper
Adobe photoshop / illustrator
Anatomy
Artistic skills
Creative skills
Graphic design
Zbrush
Clip studio Paint
Procreate
Krita
Autodesk Maya
Blender
Now I will present 2 – 3 job applications that are looking for a concept artist at the moment. I will analyse their job description to see what skills they require, what they would look for in a portfolio / reel, and if this is an entry level position or not.
1. Concept Artist – X4 Group
This first job role was found on Reed.co.uk. The recruitment company called X4 Group is looking for an experienced concept artist to work for a UK indie studio. They are offering a short-term contract to produce engaging visuals and concepts for a game in the production stage. They are based in London, UK and are currently working fully remotely.
They specify the role you will undertake at this studio:
Join the team for a PC & Console co-op survival horror game
Requires additional concept support for environments, characters and props
expertise in concept art
passion for creating fun and engaging visuals
The Concept Artist requirements:
A good track record of creating high quality art pieces
To produce quick rough drafts to aid communication and direction
strong work ethic, ability to work well with a team
Liaise productively with other team members and collaborate on ideas
The studio require someone with a passion for creating fun and engaging visuals. They also look for a strong portfolio of previous concept art work – to prove your skills and present your abilities.
The application states they are looking for an experienced concept artist, which could work out for a graduate if they are primarily focused on concept art.
2. Concept artist UK – Double Eleven
This job was found on Indeed.com. The studio called Double Eleven is looking for a concept artist to develop initial concepts, and work with Art and design leads to produce a range of work from environments / characters / storyboards to marketing content. This studio is based in Middlesbrough UK, and they are currently working remotely until it is safe to return to their HQ.
They list what roles you will take in the position:
Creating concept art for characters, environments, objects
Finish work within deadlines
Create high quality illustrations
Work with the Art Manager & leads to create high quality consistent visuals
Work with the design team to solve problems where Art and Design meet
create inspirational concepts and prototype art to pitch game ideas
Iterate on ideas using quick sketches and thumbnails
The skills and type of applicant they are looking for are:
Photoshop and / or Painter
Good communication skills
Good team player
Creativity, motivation, enthusiasm, adaptability
Strong sense of colour theory, lighting
Strong sense of design and composition
A passion for games art and games development
Knowledge of multiple art styles and techniques
This job role specifies ‘All relevant qualifications considered’ so it could be possible a graduate could apply for this role. In addition, they ask for a portfolio submission to support their application.
They let the applicants know that all without an accompanying portfolio will not be considered, so it is vital to include one, or else they will not look through your application.
From these two jobs I can summarise what kind of skills a studio would look for in a Concept artist, and what to include in our portfolio/showreels for these roles.
The most required skills that these applications look for are:
Collaborator
High quality illustrator
Photoshop skills
Strong sense of design
communicator
When showcasing your portfolio and showreel, It would be ideal to include any personal or group project experience, especially if you were in the concept artist role. You would include an indication that you have projects to show with experience in the software they mention the most etc. Illustrator, Photoshop, pen on paper. You would also include the types of mediums you have experimented with such as character design, background design, colour study, equipment design etc.
It would be ideal to include any experience you have taken as an animation student or as an animation graduate – to present your industry work at the moment, or show you are prepared for the industry.
What I would guess that you shouldn’t include for this job role would be showing little, different, or no work experience at all. You would avoid indicating you have experience with software that is too distinct from the likes of Photoshop, and other 2D drawing software. Lastly, it would not be ideal to include work the opposite of Concept Art eg. 3D mechanics, Animation, or unfinished work.
A portfolio is a website/blog based collection of a persons work, projects and videos all in one place. A portfolio can present your work in neatly forms, and is a great place to store all you work in one area. Employers can look for portfolios so they could see what kind of projects you have taken on in the past, and the range of skills within your work.
I can build up a portfolio containing my personal and university projects so I could present myself in an efficient and unique way, and also store all my work in this one space.
When first starting to build up a portfolio, I did have a preference for a website designer such as WordPress or wix. I liked the idea of designing my page and showing more my character, and interests within the work I do. I first went to research some portfolios and find ones that will Inspire my creation.
I looked for artists that I enjoy, and researched what their portfolio look like. This gives me an idea of what pages to include, what layout to choose, how to introduce myself, and so on.
http://www.marielumart.com
The first portfolio I found was for Marie Lum (Puccanoodles). Marie has set up her website to showcase her personal and professional work as an animator, and story artist. She includes categories on her first page – for storyboards, illustrations and more. Her professional page includes her pieces from each show she has worked on – Infinity Train, Craig of the week. She includes an about page writing about herself and her contact information. In addition, she has a page showcasing her resume of her work experience. It is a very easy website to navigate and looks clean.
https://melmurk.com/work
This next portfolio is for Mel White. Mel’s first page includes all their work in categories like Illustration, animation, character design, then projects below called Cockroach girl, Elar Institute, and more. They include an About page writing about themselves and their contact details. There is a contact page for their emails, and a page showcasing their resume of their work experience. Mel’s portfolio is very simple but brings out their work in a clear, big visual to it. They also include an animated name logo that catches attention.
http://www.ashleycaswell.com
This last portfolio is for Ashley Caswell. Ashley showcases their illustrations on the first page, Comics that they have posted on media on the second page, and design projects for books etc. on the third page. They include an about page writing about themselves and their contact information. They also link their store as a separate page, which brings us to their Etsy store. Ashley’s portfolio has a neat look to it and they also include a vibrant illustrated logo.
I started making my portfolio on the website builder, Wix.com. I tried a few website builders however Wix was a lot easier to use and has more options to customise the website with.
I made an account, set up my domain, and started setting up the pages of my portfolio.
I made a Home page, an About page, an Animation page, and a Projects page. This way I was able to show each of my different kinds of projects (illustration, animation, 2D, 3D etc.), and I was able to introduce myself/provide contact details.
On the home page, I placed in my strongest illustrations to give people a first impression of my style and skills. I used a gallery feature to import all my images in, and organise them into a collage.
The wix builder was great for aligning my images and text around the page. It was easy to pick out a nice font, and a colour for each text, and made sure it was repetitive throughout the portfolio.
For my animation page, I was able to import my videos from Vimeo and they would appear in a nice format. I included my uni projects ‘Antenna met you’, ‘Cyberpunk world’ and my college project ‘Audiovisuals’.
Lastly I added in all my work pieces from university projects into the last page, as different animation roles etc. Concept art, 3D Modelling, Storyboarding. I used the same gallery feature from the first page and arranged them in an order. I used a different gallery layout to present them.
After a few adjustments and finalising, I was able to publish my portfolio and use it as a real website! I think it is a nice way to present my work, and finally having something such as this website makes me feel better about sharing my art. It is presented neatly and there’s always room to add more projects in when I can. What I could do in the future, if I’d like to stick with a website builder portfolio; that I can pay for my own custom domain, and get rid of the adverts and watermarks that appear on free accounts. It would make my page more professional and presentable.
Here is the link to the portfolio: https://daynke.wixsite.com/daynakeaney
Sources:
https://daynke.wixsite.com/daynakeaney
https://melmurk.com/work
https://melmurk.com/work
http://www.ashleycaswell.com
Aswell as this portfolio, my tutor also suggested I should present my work in Artstation.com. This is an art website for showcasing portfolio work and personal projects. It is an efficient place to interact with other artists in, and be seen in the view of studios and project organisers etc. I first looked around art station to get used to the platform and figure out what way do people showcase their work. I had a look at some peoples profiles.
This Artstation portfolio is by Dipo Muh, a freelance Mechanical Designer. He designs mechanical tech, gadgets and vehicles. The way he has organised his portfolio, is by assorting each project into the type of mechanic they are, for example, armed, winged and wheeled. For an artist that specifically focuses on a topic such as mechanics design, this is a great way to showcase your work; enhancing your greatest skill.
This Artstation portfolio is by Mohamed Chahin, a 3D artist/ Illustrator. Mohamed works within 3D Art and specialises in many parts of the medium. To be able to show them all, he has organised his portfolio by assorting each type of project into an album – such as all his sculpting work, his FX work, 2D characters etc. For an artist who dabbles on multiple mediums, it is great to showcase your work; presenting all you have experimented with.
I can see that some profiles, such as Mohamed Chahin’s, I can organise my work in categories like 2D, 3D, Animation, Illustration etc. I can also post individual projects with multiple images, links, and videos into one. In addition, I have seen in other portfolios they include a personal/fan art section for their own enjoyment too. This all helps to know how I can showcase my work.
I started importing all my work into Artstation in the manage portfolio menu. I added each project in separate posts that will help keep my projects organised and tidy.
My albums for what each medium my projects are listed on the right. I dragged in each project to where they fit best e.g. ‘Cyberpunk world’ – goes into ‘2D’ and ‘Animation’.
In each project, I added in each piece of work I made into the post in various ways. I could upload images, videos, links from Vimeo, links from sketchfab and more. These were simple to place in and I could reorder the work in the order I preferred.
I was able to add a thumbnail to my project from here, and I was also able to add the project to my albums from here too.
In addition, I could also categorise the project to a medium I used to make the work. I was able to choose ‘Digital 3D’ and ‘Animation’ to label my project.
Lastly, I went to edit profile, and edited any information that was needed. I was able to link my showreel, add what my skills are, and add what software I use.
I completed this with each of my projects, rearranged them on my page to the position I preferred, and Saved/published my page. Below is the final result.
Although the website builder portfolio is a nice way to showcase my art, Artstation does a lot better job in letting me categorise my work into their own projects. It has lots of options to let me present my work, and has options to add in contact information too. It is a nice website to look around, and I am excited to discover more artists here. One thing I wish I could do, is add some more details like my CV, or a customisable portfolio site. However, that is for an upgraded version of Artstation that requires a subscription. If I am more drawn towards Artstation in the future, I could possibly look into upgrading so I could showcase myself in a better form.
A showreel is a collection of videos, of projects and creations a person has made, that can be shown to a future employer. A showreel is made to present all your work, and prove your experience and skills in an engaging way.
There are important aspects of a showreel; like keeping it under 60 seconds, including your best work at the start and end, and picking music first, so you can edit to the beat of the song. There are also wrong ways to present your showreel, like not including your contact details, going over 60 seconds, or including work in progress work that doesn’t support a finished project.
To start, I wanted to research other artists’ showreels and learn from how these people present themselves. It was nice to see these artists’ work and their unique ways to showcase them.
I started with this Animation demo reel by Michelle Cheng (Lemoncholy). What I love about their showreel the most is their opening animation. It is composed nicely in the frame, while clearly showing their name and contact details. I love the detail that the door opening represents the opening to their showreel. I love the projects they have included too. The first and last clips are definitely stronger, but the clips in-between also show their workflow, and their animation skills clearly. Lastly, I do enjoy the more calming music of choice, it suits the visuals of the work, and represents itself well.
Next was a 2D showreel by Ella Moffatt. I love how they show a wide range of 2D animation mediums such as typography, traditional pen on paper, and digital animation on a range of software like Toon Boom, Clip studio and Adobe Animate. This shows how experienced their skills in 2D Animation are. I also like how they labelled each clip with what medium they used, and when it was created e.g. ‘Clip studio paint, 2020’ It gives a clear indication of how long they have been creating such projects, and again the range of knowledge in mediums they use. However, I think they could have included an opening to their reel, and added some contact details so clients know where to find them.
Lastly I found this 2D Animation showreel by Henry He. They have a great opening animation, showcasing their contact details, and even their portfolio website. Henry’s work greatly presents the principles of animation, such as squash and stretch, secondary action, and anticipation. It shows they have great understanding of the principles, and has lots of experience. I also like how they included audio from the actual clips along with the background music. It makes the showreel more engaging and might encourage you to go find and watch the whole project. However, for Henry’s projects and visuals, I feel like a more upbeat background song would fit in better to the showreel.
With this information I started to gather all the clips of animation that I have, and compile them into an After Effects file. Before I went into clipping each video, I went to find a suitable background song.
I made a playlist on YouTube of the songs that I found. I made sure I was looking at copyright free songs while searching. I collected a few but picked out one I liked the most.
I chose the song below called Better Days. It is more chill than upbeat, but has a good sequence of beats.
https://youtu.be/xEKZwQF3BL8
Clips:
First of all, I dragged in the song I picked out. I listened to the whole song and cropped it to a suitable time limit of 1 minute. I listened to the song through After Effects, and when I head a beat coming, I pressed CTRL + 8 to place down a marker on the timeline. This marker will help me indicate where all the beats are, so I can adjust my clips to the in-between parts, and it will eventually sync well to the song.
Here I placed in all my animation clips, and adjusted their length to the best scene. I brought all my clips into a pre-composition to keep them altogether. Once I cropped all my clips, I assorted them to the markers on the main composition and they synced well.
In addition, I added text for each clip to label their name, and what medium it is. This allows for easy understanding and ability to recognise my projects by their name. Again I made a pre-composition for all the text layers to keep them all together. I wrote down the names of each clip, and aligned them to where they are positioned in the clip composition.
Seeing both the clip and the text together worked very well, and placing them all on the left corner fit well for the whole sequence. For just one clip, I had to make the colour of the text to black, as the clips background was in white.
Next, I adjusted the music a little more since now I know from my clips roughly how long the reel will be. I made keyframes to adjust the audio levels so the music will fade in and fade out of the showreel.
Opening:
For the opening, I wanted an engaging typography animation to attract the audience in the first seconds of my showreel. I took inspiration from Sorcha’s typography lesson, and this tutorial below, to help me make a nice introduction to my showreel.
I added a coloured background, my name and my contact details aligned in the middle of the scene. I chose a bold font for my name, and the same font as the caption texts, to make the reel consistent.
I followed the tutorial which included key framing the position, offset and ease high settings within After Effects animate option.
Below is how the typography animation turned out. I think its a nice touch to the showreel, and its an addition to my ability to 2D animate by adding this feature.
Ending:
For the end clip I reused the same background, title and caption as the opening scene. This is useful to remind the viewer of who the person is and is easier/faster access to their contact details if needed. I brought them over to the end of the timeline, but took out the animations from the opening, and made it a little simpler.
I started with each of the text with low opacity, then set higher opacity keyframe further In the timeline. I also adjusted the offset setting so that the text would come in from the left in a horizontal path. This made for a simpler transition and makes it easier to read after.
Below is the animation typography for the ending clip. I think it wraps up the showreel well, and clearly shows the information needed.
I went through a few versions of the showreel, as there was a lot to fix up, and changes to be made.
In my first version, It was still quite rough. There were still a few clips to add at this point, and more accurate positioning of the clips was needed too. I didn’t get as far as the ending sequence here, and the opening was a lot longer than the final version. However, I did have a good, concrete layout of how I wanted each clip to go to the beat.
In my second version, I had made a lot more adjustments to make sure everything played smoothly. I added another clip to the reel, and made the ending sequence at this point. This was a lot better in terms of the editing, but more could be done.
I took a tutorial with my tutor Alec and he gave me some feedback on the showreel clip above. He was happy with how everything was flowing, but suggested I should switch up my clips to make sure I had a strong clip first. I did notice that the first audiovisual clip did not have much movements or animation skills that I could have presented first. Rather my clip of the Cyberpunk world had a better presentation of my 2D animation skills considering the walk cycle in it. I moved it first, moved another audiovisual clip upwards, and pushed back the first audiovisual clip to the middle of the reel. I made a few more adjustments to the length of the music as my tutor suggested the opening was just a little bit long. I made sure it fit well and still had a few seconds to read the text.
After that, my final version was complete. I am happy with the outcome! I appreciate finally having a showreel to show off my work with and it was a fun process to make. If I were to make this showreel next time I would have liked to make a strictly 2D based reel. At this moment I don’t have as much projects to show. But later on, when I start some animation project ideas I have, and complete some university assignments, I will have much more to showcase.
I have also created a Vimeo account to post my videos on. My showreel can be found there too.
A cover e-mail is a letter of introduction, sent to an employer, accompanying a resume or CV. This e-mail is structured to speak more into detail of your CV, and express why you are applying for this job, and what you can offer to the role. This is what an employer would read before considering you for application, so it should be presented professionally. I will be creating a cover e-mail applying for a company or studio that I am interested in.
First of all, a cover e-mail is a small page long document to describe who you are, why you are applying for this job, and what you can offer. It is vital to first of all research the studio before writing to them, for example, searching for the recruiting managers details, researching the history of the studio, the projects they have produced and more. A cover e-mail is made to confidently explain your skills and qualities that are essential for the job role you’re applying for. Lastly, it is respectable to thank the employer for considering you for the role.
The website indeed.com offers examples of cover letters to express how each job role would be presented in a cover letter. I had a look at a few examples choosing different job roles – to see what ideas I can get from them, and see how a cover letter is structured.
Graphic Designer
Here we have the Graphic Designer cover letter. First they clearly label what position they are applying for and the name of the company. They express their admiration to the company and suggests how they would fit right into the team. In the next paragraph it is about a previous graphic design role. They explain their main duties in the role and how it has benefitted the past company – making them look like a hard worker. Their next paragraph goes into detail about their extended skills such as digital marketing and animation. They express how they work on their own projects and as a result is more experienced in multiple mediums. Lastly they thank the employer and summarise how they can be a good candidate. This is a cover letter suited for an experienced Graphic Designer, one that has work experience, and personal experience. This is an effective cover letter with the great contents of experience included, and the passion for the specific company they are applying for.
Artist
Here we have the Artist cover letter. It starts with what position they are applying for and the name of the company. They suggest that with their experience and education, they are a well-suited applicant. In the next paragraph, they tell a story about their art journey, from an early age. They talk about high school as art being their high achievement, and then goes on to explain their studies at a college. They list the mediums they studied, the topics they made projects on, and their most favourite thing about being an artist. Lastly they thank the employer and summarise how they can be a good candidate. This cover letter is more situated for a graduate, looking for an art industry job. The passion in the story and their detail into their skills is effective too. Also, their list of achievements are a sign that they are a great worker and artist too.
I picked to write about the studio Sixteen South, and apply for a 2D animator role. Their website is linked here:
https://sixteensouth.tv
Firstly, we worked on a task during class practicing how to write a cover e-mail for applying for a job. We chose between four job applications that we were interested in. I chose the 2D Animation role for this task. We took some time to figure out the structure of our cover e-mail, and find information that we could write about ourselves – our skills and qualities. I was not able to write down much information, but I learnt what structure I could go for, and later on I would find the right contents to talk about.
I started up a photoshop document containing my title name and my contact information. I wanted to follow the same design style as my CV so I copy and pasted the same title from my CV, and changed the colour. I copy and pasted the type font also and used it for my text and paragraphs.
From our lecture on cover e-mails, I followed the section prompts to help me write out my information. For section 1, it says ‘Why are you applying?’ ‘What position are you applying for?’ and ‘Where did you hear about the Job advertisement?’ I wrote that I was a passionate artist, interested in the studios 2D animation projects. That I am applying for the role of a 2D Animator, and I had heard of the job advertisement from their own website jobs portal, where they will post available job roles to apply for. I also added a sentence that I would be ‘a valuable contribution to the team‘ as this leads onto section 2.
For section 2, it says ‘What do you have to offer?’ ‘Outline specific qualifications that make you a good candidate’ and ‘show what you have to offer’. I wrote that I am an animation student at Ulster University, so I am constantly learning, and have experience of animation techniques like concept art, storyboarding, video editing, on software like After effects, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro. I also explained what current project I am working on at the moment, that includes aspects and techniques for 2D animation. This can let the employer know I am interested in the role as I work on projects that contain the role duties.
Lastly in section 3, it says ‘Thank your employer for considering you for the position’ ‘Summarise in a sentence why you are a good candidate’ and ‘Mention that you look forward to hearing back from your employer’. I wrote about the studios slogan ‘Impatiently believing in more’ and wrote how it inspires me and how I relate to the phrase. I concluded that I would love to follow in their path, and work with them. I stated where they could find my portfolio for easy access, and lastly thanked them for taking the time to consider me, and that I look forward to hearing from them. As an addition for the sign off, I added my signature to be seen more professional.
This is my final cover e-mail / letter to the right. I am happy with the outcome. I was able to write just under 300 words describing my skills, and explaining why I was suitable for the role. I am a lot more confident in working on this kind of industry material than I was before, as I took time to figure out what contents I should be writing about. However if I were to do this again, I would possibly layout the document as more of an e-mail format, but it is still effective as a document format I believe. Also, next time, when I am writing up a cover e-mail for an application. I will make sure I can find the name and details of their recruiting manager/management.
In the second shot, I presented the entrance of the Haunted house. The camera moves backwards, while zooming out, and rolling round, giving the same effect as the first shot. I set the first frame close to the door handles, and zoomed out until the wide entrance to the house, included each asset in frame. I altered the focal length from the start and middle of the shot as the camera moves back, that it can keep focusing on the door.
Next we created a blueprint with these spotlights. I followed the script he made which combined each spotlight, and shared the same lever to increase or decrease its light intensity.
