To create a CV, cover letter, showreel and portfolio, I learnt that it was important to include:

• A consistent colour scheme
• A consistent typeface
• Icons for longs for example, social media icons to show my Artstation profile.
• A personal logo or monogram.

 

Creating my CV!

A CV should explain to potential employers mys skills, qualifications and experience, demonstrating how I am a strong candidate for the job that I am applying for. I was a little stressed at creating a CV as I didn’t think I had much experience but after researching, I learnt that a good CV should include:

• Header – Should contain your name, the role which you are applying for, your contact information such as your phone number or email and a link to your portfolio/ showreel.
• Summary Intro – A positive summary about yourself, style, career goals etc.
• Experience/ Skills – List work/ placement history in chronological order. It should have the job role, name of company and date of employment. There should be a summary of responsibilities within the role whilst complimenting your skills.
• Education – In chronological order with the name of the institution, years studied and any qualifications that were obtained.
• Software – Keep it brief and only add software you’re confident in working with.
• Any awards earned with the name of the company, award obtained and year awarded.

 

For my CV, I wanted to portray my personality and make the branding seem bubbly! After researching a few portfolios, these two were the main ones that I took inspiration from. I really liked the creative layout of them with their drawings as their logo. I would say Yuing Nguyen’s CV inspired me more on the layout rather than the colours as I feel like it’s a little too bright for me and uses more than 3 colours. NamBees CV inspired me the most for the hand-drawn details however, I didn’t want my CV to be focused on 2D as I wanted to show myself as a 2D/ 3D artist so I kept that in mind!

My first CV that I made was okay the way it was; I used the layout of the left one but tried to limit the colours I used. I also liked how it laid out the software skills so I tried to replicate something similar. I picked an image that I drew for the profile image as I liked it the most – I also wanted to show my love for cats too. After showing Rachel my CV, she liked the layout. She pointed out that I didn’t list the software skills in chronological order from the most confident, which made more sense as having them randomly could portray that I’m not as skilled in most of the software. She also suggested making the skills and about me a little smaller to let my education and experience section become larger as there was a lot of information there. I really like how my final CV turned out as I believe it represents me well! I also made business cards to match.

Creating a Showreel

For the showreel, it is recommended to stay around 1 minute, and allows you to showcase your art. For example, a 3D Animator would show scenes they like whereas a modeller would focus on their modelling work. I wanted to go more down the lines of a modeller role as I’m really interested in that area however, I didn’t have as many things to show off so I decided to expand the showreel to showcase myself as a 3D generalist.

I made sure to follow these points:

• Show your best work first – it will be the first impression therefore you should leave any unfinished work towards the end.
• Make sure it is centered around the role that you are applying for.
• Nothing should linger for too long on the screen – it should have a good pace.

 

I was struggling with what I wanted to include in my showreel so I looked up a lot of different examples that I liked. 

The main thing I noticed I liked was the personality shown in these showreels and I definitely wanted to replicate something similar like that in my own showreel. The only problem was that these are 2D showreels and I want mine to be a mix so I kept that in mind.

 

I really liked this one especially the intro as I thought it was very catchy, funny and showed off their personality well.

For 3D showreels, these were helpful as I understood more of what to include in my own showreel. At the start I wanted to look towards showreels which focused on more of asset design/ modelling. 

 

This was definitely one of the showreels I found the most helpful and I used for inspiration. I really liked how they showed the model before and after texturing so I decided to include something similar to that in mine.

 

This one is definitely my favourite – it makes me feel as if I am in the scene. Another thing I really liked about it was the transition between the untextured vs textured scenes and I wanted to incorporate something similar into my showreel.

 

I felt that I didn’t have enough, good quality art to show in my showreel so I tried to create more scenes/ assets. After speaking to Rachel in class, I felt a lot more confident – she kidney showed me her showreel that she made when she wanted to go further into a modelling career and it helped me understand what I would need to include. I also asked for feedback of if my scene was okay to include and other assets I could have in my showreel.  When creating my showreel, I wanted to show my personality but not make it look too chaotic. I decided to add a quick animation at the start and effect to my name. I also picked music that wasn’t too loud but still expressed my personality! I showed Rachel and asked for feedback and she really helped me make it look better!

Before:

 

After:

 

I would say that I could definitely improve my showreel by continuing to work on the animation that isn’t complete yet and also maybe try redesign some of the assets that I created!

 

Cover Letter

A cover letter is a short letter sent along with your cv whenever you are applying for a job. It allows you to introduce your skills and experience and further explain why you fit that role and want to work for that company.

 

A good cover email should include:

• An introduction addressing the specific person in charge of your interview/ job role. You should have a clear outline of what you’re applying for and why you want this role and would like to work for the company.
• Summary of what skills you will bring to the company – you should ensure that you are referencing essential criteria that the job role includes for example, skills in certain softwares. Reference your best experience from your CV and projects you have worked on.
• Explain why you want the role and how you would help to see your career progress within the company.
• Make sure you do not ramble!
• Conclude by thanking the person, company or employer for considering you for the role, express your gratitude for the opportunity and choose a professional way to sign off such as “Sincerely” or “Kind Regards”.

I tried to find job listings that realistically would fit me – I used sites such as Indeed, Glassdoor and just searched on Google itself. I found a job listing that I thought would be a good opportunity for placement, unfortunately it had ended at the time I found it, and decided to use it as an example. I wrote my cover letter to JAM Media, for the role of a 2D character animator. I am familiar with JAM Media and looked more into their ethos and realised it was definitely a place I would love to work. This is how my cover letter turned out a long with the role I applied for:

Portfolio

A portfolio is a place where you can display the art you have created and show how you have developed as an artist. I looked back on my previous portfolio that I had created to apply for the animation course and it helped me realise on what I could’ve improved on and also allowed me to see the progress I have made since then. I wanted to create both a portfolio on Artstation and PowerPoint – mainly just because I really wanted to design everything on PowerPoint, however I just stuck with Artstation as I thought it would be easier to showcase my 3D work as well and work on expanding it over summer.

I found these portfolios which I really liked and wanted to create something similar – I screenshot the parts I liked best:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/216576541/PORTFOLIO-2D-Game-Concept-Artist?tracking_source=search_projects|art+portfolio&l=0

 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/205223901/2D-Game-Artist-PORTFOLIO-Bong-(2024)?tracking_source=search_projects|art+portfolio&l=24

 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/210101027/PORTFOLIO-2D-Game-Artist-Illustration?tracking_source=search_projects|2d+artist&l=23

 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/216266309/2D-GAME-ARTIST-PORTFOLIO?tracking_source=search_projects|2d+artist&l=6

 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/201768565/Portfolio-2D-Game-Artist?tracking_source=search_projects|2d+artist&l=5

 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/216357531/PORTFOLIO-2D-ARTIST?tracking_source=search_projects|2d+artist&l=3

 

For Artstation, I tried to find other artists which uploaded the same thing that I wanted such as asset design – I followed a bunch of them for inspiration!

https://www.artstation.com/davidpuerta85

 

https://www.artstation.com/brainchild

 

https://www.artstation.com/thaisdelrey

 

https://www.artstation.com/aylinnn

 

This is my artstation!

 

Finally, Rachel gave me another really good suggestion of creating my own linktree so all of my details could easily be found. I decided to create one and link together my Artstation, showreel and art Instagram!