Today in class, we had some guest speakers from previous years who now work full-time in the industry. They mostly spoke about their journey from student to becoming a part of an industry and I thought that this process was really interesting. The first guest speaker went into detail about the many jobs they had after the course, and this included a lot of jobs being a runner. This experience added to their skills as an employee. In addition, as they had previously done work placement with a local studio it gave them the opportunity to stay on with that organisation. Moreover, this makes me feel as though a placement year could possibly help me a lot, not only with experience but with the further chance of being hired.
The other speaker that we had was a producer from Italic Pig who currently is working on a game titled, ‘Paleo Pines’. This speech was really interesting and also very informative towards my current considerations. At one point, she spoke about CVS and showreels, advising us to tailor these towards the careers we aim to get into. Not only that but there were a lot of helpful tips on the hiring process and information about work schedules and the importance of contribution and communication within a team.
In conclusion, this session was immensely helpful and further has allowed me to think more about not only my future plans but what I wish to do for the second year of my course. Although I am still on the fence about placement year, it has definitely made me consider it as a great option for experience building. Ultimately, today has inspired me to think more about my desired career and also to build upon my portfolio with the areas I am interested in, with the best quality of work in mind.
Career thoughts and ideas for portfolio/showreel
During the past couple of weeks, I have put more thought into what path I want to follow after my course ends. Something I have been particularly thinking about is my career and the type of portfolio and showreel I wish to create. After a lot of consideration, thought and also experience from the past two years, I have come to realise that I want to aim to get employment as an animator/character designer as I am really passionate about learning and developing my skills in these areas. To achieve a similar type of industry-standard portfolio for this role, I have decided to dedicate the next week or so looking into other peoples’ work for inspiration to have a brief idea of what I’ll need to aim for. As I am primarily focused on 2D animation, these standards may vary and I will most likely end up having a mix of both 2D and 3D examples to show that I am skilled in both areas of the subject.
Portfolio Examples- Deanna Schneider
I’ve recently found a lot of inspiration from the work of Animator, Deanna Schneider. In their Artstation portfolio, they have a range of different types of animations in both 3D and 2D styles. Moreover, I find their work really cute and very fluid with the movement itself which adds a lot of personality to the characters shown. This is a huge aspect of what makes their work so effective and lovable and without this, the characters would be stiff and lacking in personality. Ultimately, I wish to get to this level of skill of animation, allowing me to bring a character’s personality to life, to tell a story. In future, I will continue to reference back to this portfolio, especially whenever I go to make my own as this would give me an idea of the standards I need to achieve.
Below are some examples of my favourite animations from Deanna Schneider’s portfolio- I highly recommend checking it out!
Portfolio Examples- James Baxter
Another artist whose work I’ve been really inspired by lately is that of James Baxter’s, A well-known animator who has been featured in many famous features from the past 20-30 years. The main ones include that of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and The Prince Of Egypt. The reason I feel so in tune and inspired by his work is mostly due to a lot of these animations being childhood classics of mine and looking back, most of my favourite scenes in these features were animated by Baxter himself. This, to me, is crazy to think about but also really inspiring. To say I look up to this man is an understatement. Ultimately, I adore his animation, it is fluid, expressive and bursting with personality and a lot of the time it feels as though you know the characters he animates. For me, this factors in a huge part of what makes me enjoy a film, and Baxter does this astonishingly well. From now and towards into the future, I aim to keep practising what I am currently doing, to improve my knowledge, understanding and practical use of the principles of animation. My end goal for my career is to achieve a similar understanding and artistic skill to create animations that I can really express my passion into.
Note: Here is the link to Baxter’s animation Showreel, which has been uploaded to YouTube- it’s a brilliant watch!
James Baxter Animation Reel – YouTube