Professional Practice:
Assignment 1 – Reflective Research Blog / Vlog – 40% – Monday 13th December
Job Roles:
Whilst studying the Professional Practice module, I was able to find job roles within the Animation and Game industries that interested me to pursue as potential careers in the future, and researched into them.
2D Animator
The job that I am primarily interested in pursuing a career in is 2D animator.
The primary skill required to be a traditional 2D animator is to have the ability to draw in a variety of styles and genres, and to be consistently practicing. This is because 2D animation is creating a series of drawings to give the effect of movement so understanding anatomy and visual language is very important. This is helped further by being creative, having attention to detail and the ability to visualise abstract concepts.
It is important to have experience with 2D animation software, both cel and computer graphics, as well as good communication skills and being able to work well in teams due to professionally working in animation studio as part of a team of multiple animators. Experience with storyboarding and layout design are also very helpful to become a 2D animator.
Portfolios and reels:
If I was applying to be a 2D animator and creating a showreel, I should first only include my best pieces of 2D animation that I can find. I could show one or two examples of my animation sketches and development after the finished animation to show how I work. I should avoid using any art or stills, unless the job requirements state otherwise, as employers are only looking for animation work.
If I were to create a portfolio, I would include, again, my best 2D animation work, but also lots of drawing. Observational and life drawings to show my skill and study of form and shape. Concept sketches and character art would be effective to show if the job is asking. A knowledge of storyboards as well as examples can also be helpful. However I should avoid too much concept art and storyboard if I am not applying for an animation job that includes these as roles.
I should have my best work in the first 30 minutes as this is the part the employer’s attention will be caught for an decide wether or not to keep watching.
To apply as a Junior animator would be an entry level position, however, I may need to apply as an animation Runner in order to start off working at a company and gain some more experience to advance.
I found it really interesting to know the roles of a 2D animator: “A 2D Animator works through a three-stage process (pre-production, production and post-production) to create a sequence.
During the pre-production stage they write the story, design characters, create a storyboard, choose a design style, and prepare the backgrounds on which the action will occur. The voice-overs are then recorded by actors based on the dialogue in the script.” – CGspectrum.com
Whilst this seems not very extraordinary, the idea of being a part of every part of the creative process seems very interesting and novel to me, as I enjoy being a part of the entire animation production and pipeline. I am interested in animation, character and concept design, and storyboarding, so I am glad to know I could be able to have a part in multiple job roles.
Whilst researching the 2D animator role, I looked at job applications for 2D animators that I thought could interest me:
Wild Child Animation –
I also found the following 2D animator role on the ToonBoom website, which I would be very interested in.
Hoopla Animation:
These were really helpful to see the skill and qualities that the companies would be looking for in order to understand what skill would be needed in an job.
I will focus on applying for a 2D animator position for Assignment 2 and create a CV, Cover letter and showreel aimed at that role.
Assignment 2: Industry Facing Material – 60% – Monday 13th December
For the second assignment, in looking at pursuing a career in the creative industries, we were tasked with creating a CV, Cover E-mail and Showreel as mock ups to practice promoting ourselves and what we would send to potential employers. We had to find a balance between having a creative flair in working and solving problems, but also present ourselves in a mature and professional way.
CV
To begin, I researched CV designs and examples from past Ulster University students and artists/animators I followed online on social media. In particular, the following three CVs from past students really inspired me:
I was inspired by their layouts, and I really liked the idea of having a bit of creative flair with an icon or logo! These also really helped in showing me what content I could add to my CV.
I was also inspired by the following CV design from an artist that Joseph had shown me:
I also found the CV of Jay Foster that inspired me too:
I began by sketching out a rough layout design for my CV on Procreate, to get myself thinking about formatting and what areas to include, such as an About section, Experience, Education etc.
This then made it easy for me to start blocking out the layout and first draft design in a more refined way, continuing on Procreate, and creating the following CV mock-up that I then showed to Michael:
My one-on-one with Michael was incredibly helpful, as he pointed out areas that needed refining such as fixing basic grammatical errors and telling me how to organise my layout more effectively. He suggested really helpful ideas of including what I want to specialise in for my ABOUT section, as well as including a couple of examples of what I did in projects. He also told me to put my contact details under my name and make my software icons smaller.
I also illustrated my own icon for the CV, that would give it character:
Sketch!!
Final Drawing!
Finally, by following Michael’s advice and going into Photoshop, I put together the final version my CV. Having written down all the relevant information such as my education, experience, skills and my personal profile on the Procreate file, when I created the final version I was able to copy and paste everything over, and edit the basic mistakes I was told to fix. I also changed my colour scheme to make it less grey and cold, but also to match my icon that has much warmer neutral tones. I wanted too make sure that the colours used went well together and were also visually appealing.
Final CV:
https://ulster-my.sharepoint.com/personal/maciver-u_ulster_ac_uk/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fmaciver%2Du%5Fulster%5Fac%5Fuk%2FDocuments%2FCV%2C%20Cover%20E%2DMail%2C%20and%20Showreel%2FUna%20MacIver%20%2D%20CV%2Epdf&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fmaciver%2Du%5Fulster%5Fac%5Fuk%2FDocuments%2FCV%2C%20Cover%20E%2DMail%2C%20and%20
I found Photoshop was much easier to lay everything out in a neater, more exact way with layout margin guidelines. I was also able to import the font that I wanted to use in my final design, and make it look much more professional.
Although I am happy with the final outcome, I feel I could make my about section more compelling, and I would like to get more experience for both 2D and 3D animation that i could include as well. I also feel like I could have tried a more graphic layout that was different and am concerned I am repeating a layout that is common. However, I really liked the personal touches of my icon, colour scheme to match and a specific font that I used.
Cover E-Mail
We had to research into job advertisements with local creative studios.
I based my Cover E-Mail on the local studio, Dog Ears, in Derry, that specialise in 2D animation and have an application posted on their website for the job of animator. I was also considering their other job role as a Character and Prop designer, however my current priority is to become an animator. I know of Dog Ears’ animated works, such as Puffin Rock, and so I was excited to be able to research into them.
Job Link: http://cheersdogears.com/jobs/ANI.pdf
The only issue is that if i was realistically applying for this job i would need prior experience with working on animated shows which i do not.
I was given advice from Michael, in the one-on ones for my rough Cover E-Mail draft, to fix any basic grammatical errors and to make sure the sentences flowed nicely together by reading it aloud. I made sure to get my friends to read over it before I submitted my Cover E-Mail so they could read over it and let me know that it made sense and had no simple mistakes.
I was also advised to add more examples of using my skills and fulfilling my job role in projects or assignments, which I added to the final draft that did make it sound more compelling and effective.
Finished Cover E-Mail:
https://ulster-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/maciver-u_ulster_ac_uk/EfnVfIIcY-ZNrqeVeotxEH4B6np9JIepCWaMvPSBPAGEDw?e=VTHPLc
While I am happy with my Cover E-Mail at the moment, I would like to fix some of the wording and way I explain my job roles, but also I would like to be able to improve at talking about my skills and achievements effectively. I also want to gain more relevant experience later in the future that I can include.
Showreel
When creating my showreel, I had to first consider my best work. I compiled all of my animation files and selected the best and most recent work I had completed. As a second year, I did not have too many examples, however this will inspire me to continue making animations in my spare time as well as for university.
I then found the Royalty Free music “Pyres” – Broken Elegance, that I then used as the music for my showreel. Following Alec’s tutorials, I was able to use Premiere Pro to put all of my audio and animation files into and then place markers to the beat of the music or where there were any changes in order to give myself a guide of where to place my videos. I was also shown how to add effects such as Dissolve, for the music to fade out.
I was also able to follow the following YouTube video as extra help:
Then I could bring my animations into the file at the beat markers and edit them all together.
References:
I looked at artists and animators from all levels that I knew that had really nice work that I like. i found the following showreels that really inspired me and helped when I was creating my showreel.
- Oakley Billions:
Their style of 2D animation and art has always inspired me, and I really liked how they made and edited together their showreels. I used their showreel videos as reference for myself to follow when creating my own.
- Jay Foster:
- Michelle Cheng:
- Nekouhai:
I wanted to have fun with the title cards, so I made little animated images to use for the start and end of my showreel:
This all then combined to make my final showreel that I exported and uploaded to YouTube.
Final Showreel Link:
https://ulster-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/maciver-u_ulster_ac_uk/EfGlT14C8nJBs5RTy65MJVkB6W0qL4Uejq89MBwDTY4wZw?e=VOTYIS
Showreel:
Overall, I am pretty happy with how my showreel came out when completed. I really like how the first clips are edited to the music and how it ends, especially on the final beats.
However, if I could redo it, I would remove the 3D Monty animations that just are not very good examples of my animation and were only put in to fill in the time gap. The beginning of one of the Monty clips is also not on time to the beat because of this reason, to fill a gap. I will have to try to do more 2D and 3D animation in my spare time to improve, and become more confident in them both in the future. I would also like to practice editing more, to help with creating showreels, and understand editing programs further in general.
Still Image Portfolio
While this was optional, I had still wanted to create a still image portfolio, however, I did not know if I had the skill or enough quality illustrations, concepts or final rendered stills to showcase. I am determined, in the future, to create an ArtStation Page for my still image portfolio and present my best character and concept art.