When it comes to jobs in the industry, it’s important to present yourself maturely and professionally. That is why you need certain materials to promote yourself, these materials being a CV, showreel, cover letter, and portfolio.
Creating a CV
What makes a good CV?
- A CV that stands out
- Clear and gets to the point
- Show your personality through your CV
- No spelling or grammar mistakes
- List key skills and software
- The design of the CV shouldn’t be distracting for the important information
What should be included in the CV?
- ‘About me’ summary
- Experience
- Education
- Software you use
- Contact details
- Skills (hard and soft)
- Link to showreel and portfolio
I looked into a few CVs that are made specifically for the animation industry to help the creation of my own. Formatting, color schemes, images, etc.
I really enjoy the fact that they all have some sort of image or drawing to personalize their CVs. Rachel has a more menu-type look to her CV and I think that’s very unique. John’s is sleek and professional and I like how the colors blend well together as well as the clear formatting. Martina’s is simple but effective and I like how she separated the sections.
This is what I came up with for my first draft of the CV. All the information is clearly separated into sections and formatted tidily. I was inspired by the other artists’ CVs, so I added a stylized portrait of myself for a more personalized flair and character.
Creating a Showreel
When it comes to a showreel, you need:
- Best work first
- quick and snappy editing
- keep it short (1-1:30mins)
- Edit to music (non-copyright)
- Bookend showreel (name, contact, role)
- Make a different one for each job (bespoke to a job)
- crediting each shot accordingly
Here are some showreels I’ve found to help me with my own showreel.
I have been following this artist for a few years now and he always knows how to make his work presentable. His editing is top-notch and really sells his work. Definitely an artist you want to take inspiration from.
I feel that the showreel was really well edited, the music really goes well with the work especially when the beat drops and all the colorful and fast-paced animations showed up.
I really love this artist’s showreel, not just for the amazing art and cinematic feel to the animation but also the clips went well with the music and the work was consistently good.
I used Adobe Premiere Pro to create my showreel. I found non-copyright music that I liked on youtube and used that as my background track. I found all my best work in animation and 3D and edited the clips together. I added a title card and a bookend and labeled every shot to what software I used to create them. It’s not currently a huge amount of work but over time I can feel my showreel looking cooler and cooler.
https://youtu.be/r6bmDxidh4o
Feedback and Updates
After getting feedback from my tutor about my CV, I was suggested that I desaturate the colors or make them lighter as some of the information blended into the background too much which made it hard to read. I was advised to take my date of birth out so I wouldn’t be discriminated against for my age. There were some issues with spacing on the experience column so I separated them more clearly and then added some soft skills along with the hard skills.
I wasn’t sure about the previous design and thought it did not look as professional as I wanted it to be. So I changed the colors and design to be more simple. However, I did keep the drawing but just made it smaller. Overall I’m way happier with this CV compared to the previous one and think that they look more similar to my references of the other CVs.
Cover Letter and Job in the Industry
What makes a good cover letter?
- Explain why you are applying ( and which position)
- How did you hear about the job
- Find the name of the hiring manager to make it more personal
- Outline qualifications that sell you and how they match the requirements of the job
- Thank the employer for considering you
- end with ‘sincerely’ or ‘best regards’
There are some red flags that the employer will look for, however. These include superlatives and exaggerations (do not make yourself sound pompous), on the other side of the spectrum, do not be negative about yourself because that will make you look unappealing as a possible candidate for the job. And finally, do not copy the CV as you will have it attached to the email. These are the guides that I kept to when working on my cover letter.
I found a local Job online for Taunt Studios who are looking for a 3D animator. With that, I used it as a reference for how I would make a cover letter if I was sending an application to them. To find the name of the hiring manager I looked up the studio’s LinkedIn. As it is a smaller studio they do not have a hiring manager so one of the co-directors was the name of choice.
On another note, judging by the requirements of this listing, I could have a chance of getting hired as I pretty much meet the requirements. This would be great as I very much appreciate the kind of projects they work on. They very much fit my vibe and what I want to work on, creating storylines and worlds with stylized characters.
After my 1-1 tutorial with my tutor, I was suggested that I should reshuffle my clips to include my best at the start and that I should fix the title as it expanded out of frame.
Here is my updated showreel.
https://youtu.be/Qf_iWC01HzM
Portfolio
What makes a good portfolio?
- Present art first
- Best work only (quality over quantity)
- Focus the portfolio
- Easy navigation
- Type of role you choose
- Progress may be shown but no unfinished work
- Up to date
- Contact info
Here is my portfolio on Artstation. It focuses more on my character art and digital illustration.
