Cover Email
Often the first impression you will make on an animation studio, a cover email is a document sent alongside a job application with your CV, Providing the opportunity to interact with the Hiring Manager before they even see your work, a cover email not only explains how you meet the job criteria, but can relay your enthusiasm, professionalism, and potential, and putting your application in context, highlight why you care about this job. A well-written cover email also demonstrates your ability to communicate clearly and professionally, and by connecting your skills, projects, or coursework to the job, you can make your application more memorable.
Guidelines for creating a successful cover email were again provided by our Placements Tutor. These included the importance of being personable, while maintaining professional language, tone, and grammar throughout, and the necessity to thoroughly research the studio was also emphasised.
With the assignment brief to create a cover email based on a local creative studio, my first step was to find a suitable job or placement listing to which I could tailor my email.
Listings are posted on many websites, including the studios’ own, but mainly appear on LinkedIn or Indeed.com. Valuable information on other resources, advertising jobs, and placement opportunities was also provided by Aodhan, our Placements Tutor.
However, feeling my work aligned with the aesthetics of the studio, I chose the Northern Ireland Screen (NI Screen) funded position below, for a Trainee Junior Designer placement at Flickerpix – a local studio known for its high-quality, multi-award-winning content mainly tailored towards a younger target audience, and its creatively diverse and humorous approach to storytelling.
While the job specification mentions their upcoming 2D animated series ‘Luna in the Land of Dreams,’ I have experience in both 2D and 3D software and production pipelines, and on further investigation, with various 3D projects including ‘Cara’s on the Case,’ ‘Welcome to Bloomfields,’ and ‘The Magic Life of René’ in development, having spoken to one of my tutors who had previously worked at the studio, they felt my choice appropriate, and that my technical skills and experience in working on group projects as a 3D Generalist would also prove beneficial in their dynamic production environment.
The first stage was to further research the company, using the information available at their website – https://www.flickerpix.com/
While applications for this placement would be made through the NI Screen online portal, this research would normally involve finding the name of the Hiring Manager or email address to which my cover email and CV could be sent. In this case, with only an email address available – jobs@flickerpix.com – rather than simply addressing my email to the Hiring Manager, I decided to personalise it by addressing it to the studio’s founder and Creative Director, Mr Johnny Schumann.
Understanding that while studios want to see genuine passion, professionalism, and awareness of their content, and are seeking a collaborative individual with the relevant technical skills, and who they feel will mesh with their creative team, they also want someone who aligns with the culture and ethos of the studio. Therefore, to hopefully set me apart from other applicants, when researching the studio, I was careful to note how my values aligned with theirs, and to include this in my email.
However, before starting writing, I also sought guidance from reliable online sources, with the key takeaway being to, where possible, include meaningful anecdotes of how your skills, experience, and values are the best fit for the role or placement (Indeed Editorial Team, 2024).
To ensure continuity across all my forward-facing materials, but at the same time follow tutor advice to avoid heavy designs, as opposed to using my logo, I instead designed a more conservative header incorporating the cyan colour palette from my CV, and again used the Monserrat font throughout.
My final cover letter can be found below:
Portfolio
A portfolio is a vital tool for an animation student. Acting as a means of not only showcasing your skills, creativity, and potential, a successful portfolio can pave the way from academia into employment. Unlike a short highlight showreel, a portfolio allows you to demonstrate your technical skills and attention to detail, show versatility by presenting a broader collection of work, and, with animation in a competitive industry, stand out to employers by displaying the artistic style and storytelling approach that makes you unique.
When applying for a role, it is important to curate pieces and tailor portfolio content to the specific role or studio, and to make a strong first impression, use eye-catching thumbnail images. However, as a student, my current 3D portfolio on Fab.com below mainly consists of the assets created through coursework.
Source: Fab.com, 2025 Scott76 3D https://www.fab.com/sellers/Scott76%203D
While tutor advice was to keep branding consistent across all forward-facing materials, and ensure, as in our showreel, the first few assets reflect your best work, unfortunately, a feature to rearrange assets within their library, or to add my logo as a profile picture, is not possible on the Fab.com digital asset marketplace.
While my portfolio has only been recently created, some of my assets have already been sold for a nominal fee, with any proceeds being donated to Assistance Dogs NI, who provide autism anchor dogs to help children stay calm, focused, and safe in busy places, and autism companion dogs that help them to become more independent.
I also appreciate that this is an area in which I could significantly improve, and in the coming months, plan to both significantly increase my online and social media presence, and expand my portfolio to include 2D and 3D animations, concept art, storyboards, and texturing examples, but in the meantime, will continue to include a link to my Ulster University Blog in all of my forward-facing materials.
Business Card
With animation a collaborative, relationship-driven industry, networking can significantly increase your chances of finding job opportunities and gaining valuable feedback on your work. Ensuring vital connections are not lost, business cards can assist this process by providing a quick, convenient, and professional means of sharing your contact information at events, career fairs, studio visits, or animation festivals.
Showcasing your creative identity, business cards, too, can reinforce your personal branding and leave a more memorable impression in a digital-heavy world, and additionally, not only setting you apart from others, but providing a physical card can spark curiosity in potential clients or employers.
While I felt, as still a student, it might be premature to design a business card, this assignment brought this all too necessary requirement to the fore. Therefore, utilising the branding and colour scheme used within my CV and showreel, I created the business card below, which can be shared with others, containing the essential information below:
- The full name you are known by professionally
- The title or role you are aspiring to
- Contact details
- Portfolio, showreel, and blog links
- Software proficiencies
Business Card Front and Rear
References:
Indeed Editorial Team (2024). ‘How to write a cover letter in 5 steps,’ [online] uk.indeed.com, 3 December. [Accessed: 4 May 2025].
Available at: https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/cvs-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-cover-letter