A strong animation portfolio is a curated selection of your best, most relevant work that showcases your skills, style, and creativity. It should include a showreel, website, CV, business cards, and social media presence. Beyond technical ability, employers look for storytelling, originality, and a clear artistic voice. Including process work helps demonstrate your thinking. Ultimately, a great portfolio tells a cohesive story of who you are as an animator.

Video notes to include most recent work, home in on one role and curate your portfolio base on what you’re applying for, create a ‘social media presence’ – it’s important in the most current animation climate.

I wanted to look over Portfolio works that got accepted in industry jobs, as a lot online was mostly school-related portfolios.

The video features the creator’s journey and the character design portfolio that led to their role at Pixar. It emphasizes the importance of a unique artistic voice, strong design fundamentals, and storytelling through character design, showcasing work that aligns with Pixar’s values of creativity and emotional depth.

ShowReel:

A animation ShowReel is a visual resume of your best work to date. It’s important to show the best quality, not quantity, of work. The best time frame is within 60-90 seconds and you must group similar work to establish flow.

At the time I was building my image based off me dabbling into 2D and 3D animation. I included my best animated sequences over my time spent in the animation course, however this didn’t include clear tags or credits. I also stated ‘3D Generalist and Illustration’, illustration alluding to my 2D and concept works however I again think this doesn’t read clear on what I want to specialize in.

I realized my submission didn’t clearly represent how I wanted to market myself. I was unsure about presenting as a 2D/3D generalist, fearing it might suggest I lack mastery. However, I still wanted to expand my Show Reel with animation work. Now, I’m considering focusing on a strictly 3D Show Reel to highlight my recent skills in animation, modeling, texturing, and rigging more effectively.

Video’s gain a good sense of gripping the audiences attention.

Character focused Show Reels, which is mainly the area I wanted to focus on regarding my 3D works. Focuses on 3D turnarounds, good topology, texturing and good animation.

I do want to revamp my Show Reel for the end of year show to better represent my role in the industry and get a professional polish.

 

Website:

InPreviously, I utilized WIX to build my website; however, for this iteration, I opted for CARRD due to its ease of use and ability to create a functional site.

I showcased key projects mentioned in my CV, primarily from animation modules, with plans to polish them further for my portfolio. I also included contact links and maintained consistent branding by using visual elements from my CV and business card.

Finished website.

Business Cards:

A good animation business card is a small but powerful tool—it should quickly communicate who you are, what you do, and how to contact you, all while reflecting your personal style and professionalism.

To begin, I aimed to investigate a range of business cards featuring effective and attention-grabbing designs. The objective is to capture individuals’ interest, encouraging them to pick up and retain the card for future related work. I identified and documented the features of the business cards that I found particularly effective and wished to incorporate into my own design.

I then mocked up some concepts based off my research.

I chose a design inspired by the Microsoft Paint window, as it represents the program where my digital art journey began. This concept effectively reflects both my personal interests and artistic identity.

I designed the colour scheme to reflect personal identity elements, using muted tones for a cohesive and professional look. A QR code linking to my website centralises access to my portfolio, CV, and social media, streamlining presentation and branding.

 

I printed these on card stock, however they turned out wonky due to the thick paper. I intend to reprint these for the final display professionally, so i rounded out the design and focused my role to “3D Generalist” so it was consistent across the board. I think the final version is professional and clearer to read.

CV:

A strong animation CV is clear, focused, and showcases your creative and technical abilities. It should include a short personal profile, relevant skills, software proficiency, and a link to your showreel. Experience and projects should highlight your contributions and tools used, all presented in a clean, easy-to-read layout.

Research:

Layout Summary:

I also reviewed my previous CV. I created one for both 3D and 2D roles, however I wanted to focus sorely on 3D.

I liked this layout, so I used this as a base. I improved some areas, splitting my skills into soft/hard skills, using icons for programs instead of listing skills, using a simpler colour scheme so information reads as clear and straightforward. I used the same self-illustration that I used in the art book for consistency.

The only other change I made was replacing the ‘portfolio’ section with my location, since my portfolio is accessible through my website. Overall, I’m pleased with how my CV turned out. While I considered adding a QR code to link directly to my site, it felt too cluttered for a single-page format. Although I would have liked to showcase more of my personality, I felt maintaining a professional structure was more important for presentation. It showcases my strengths and technical abilities in a clear and organized manner.

Website:

I sought to consolidate my social media profiles and portfolio into a single, easily accessible platform. Although I had previously used WIX to create a website, I was dissatisfied with its tools and layout. Consequently, I explored alternative options and discovered CARRD, a user-friendly website builder that requires no coding, allowing me to fully customize the site with ease.

Poster:

An effective animation poster serves as a powerful visual tool, designed to capture attention, communicate the core theme of the animation, and leave a lasting impact on the viewer. As a group, we decided to individually create mock-ups of potential poster concepts for our film. Prior to this, I aimed to compile a collection of strong compositional examples to inform and inspire my designs.

I wanted to capture these elements in my own poster concepts (Central characters, unique font and visual storytelling elements):

We asked Henry to choose his favourite design from our concepts, and he selected the one featuring the elephant breaking the sofa. I volunteered to develop the poster further, as it gave me the opportunity to translate the concept art into a 3D space.

This was an early render in which I posed the characters and used shape keys along with the proportional editing tool to deform the chair, giving the elephant a greater sense of weight and impact.

I updated the photo frame texture to match the one used in the animation, repositioned it, and adjusted the surrounding objects to better frame the characters. I also modified the elephant’s expression to make it appear less jarring. I zoomed out the frame to create space for the title and credit text, ensuring the overall composition remained balanced while accommodating the necessary design elements. Added DOF to draw attention to the characters.

I designed custom fonts for the poster, drawing inspiration from clay textures, earlier art concepts, and visual motifs. I then shared these options with the group to gather feedback on which style resonated best with the overall composition.

After voting we asked for feedback and I applied this to get our finalized poster.

Final poster design:

In conclusion, I believe this poster works well as a representation of our animation. The strong character focus, detailed environment, and cohesive colour palette all help to communicate the tone and personality of the film. The custom clay-inspired typography ties in with the handcrafted aesthetic, while the clear layout and lighting guide the viewer’s attention effectively. Overall, it captures the charm and humour of the story, making it an engaging and fitting promotional piece.

Rendered PNG’s For Showcase Ad:

Modeled popcorn and hotdog. Cup taken from SketchFab.

Final render, colour adjust made in Procreate:

Final Display:

For our final display we wanted to give the impression that you’re stepping into O’Malley’s living room. I printed out a small print of O’Malley and his roommate and framed it to mirror the poster of the elephant and O’Malley. I also found a small china set to place in front of the frame to mimic his living room set up.

Additionally I wanted to contribute stickers of Mr.O’Malley with a small quote, like I did similar for our game demo last year. I used concept art of O’Malley and used glossy sticker paper to print this.

Set up:

We still want to add some finishing touches to the table—like art prints, clay models & a art book reprint—but overall, I think we’ve created a solid foundation for a physical display that effectively represents our animation.

Reflection:

This has been a valuable and helpful experience in understanding how to present myself professionally within the animation industry. It pushed me to refine my portfolio, showreel, and promotional materials with more focus and consistency. I learned the importance of clear branding, strong visual presentation, and aligning my work with industry expectations. Through this process, I gained confidence in showcasing my strengths and developed a clearer sense of direction as a 3D Generalist.