Hard Material
For this week, since we had been looking our digital portfolios; we also had to look at how we should create physical portfolios for when we start going in for physical events within the industry as there would be limitations to what we could reasonably bring with us, such as job interviews and networking events.
Since I'm aiming to work in mainly pre-production, as either a concept artist (mainly for characters) or a storyboard/animatic artist; I'd be focused on two different forms of hard copy portfolios: USB sticks and sketch books.
As a concept artist focusing on character designs, I would have to have a sketchbook or sketch pad; filled with some traditional drawings of my character designs, character studies for poses + expressions, life drawing, experiments in drawing outside of my usual style and even a few other concept sketches for backgrounds and props, to show variety in my skills to show that I'm not limited to characters but to make employers aware that it is my strong suit. I might also need an USB stick to show the digital versions of these examples, although
For my Storyboard/animatic portfolio, since it's more of a video medium; I would have to have a USB with a few of my best animatics I made from uni using the industry standard program, Storyboard Pro. I would also try and create my own animatics within my own time to add to my portfolio to show how I can work around with any limitations that may fall upon me with creating them. The overall video showcase of the best moments within my animatics would all need to be a minute in length since that's usually the amount of time you would be given to make a good impression.
Another item I should have with me, especially when attending a networking event would be any kind of tablet; an iPad, a small laptop or even a large phone. This is so I could carry both forms of media (traditional and digital) within the tablet so it wouldn't drain my energy carrying a large portfolio sketchbook in a bag and instead have a small and easily storable object where a person can just flick through my work quickly to get an idea of my style. It would also mean that I wouldn't have to worry about bringing a USB stick and losing it, as well as being a social event, not many people would have USB ports or even computers/laptops that would allow me to show off my projects.
Another quick task we were asked to do was to look at the portfolios of artists or animators from the industry to get some bits of inspiration for how we could improve our portfolio websites to be around the same level. Again with me wanting to apply for two different animation industry jobs, I looked at one portfolio for a storyboard artist and a portfolio for a character designer/artist; to see what I can take from each to create my own portfolio layout that mixes the two so mine can stand out and make a impression
Character Designer
(Kenneth Anderson)
Anderson is another freelance artist, this time from the UK; he got his big break within the industry in 2010 when he worked as an in-between animator for the Oscar nominated film: "The Illusionist". Over his 15 years of experience, he's worked with studios such as BBC, Ceebeebies and others.
On his portfolio, each of the artworks seen on the website are titled in bold typeface to bring attention to them, as well as having a small description to categorise them as either a piece of art work he did for a job or something he worked on personally.
Storyboard Artist
(Sarah Vettori)
This freelance artist originates from Switzerland where she had worked with studios in various places in the world and is currently working on an animated feature for Netflix.
The layout for her portfolio focuses on her actual storyboards, the first page being three of her best animatics that tell small stories where the storyboards found in the other page are more of storyboard exercises that may feature copyrighted characters (IE: Tarzan and The Iron Giant). Her about page being the last page to click on that has both an english and Swiss translation.
Some of the things I would take to consider from these examples while working on improving my portfolio are Anderson's titling of art pieces and Vettori's separation of media from professional to experimental. The titling of the art pieces would give more context to an interviewer or a person looking through my portfolio at a social event as to what the art piece is, which can allow give more time for the person to see more of my work instead of wasting time asking about a piece's context as first impressions need to be quick. And for separating professional artwork from experimental artwork, it would allow an interviewer that feels turned off by people using copyrighted characters in their portfolios (no matter the context) to ignore those examples so they can just spend more of their limited time looking at the stuff that THEY would want to see in a potential employer's portfolio when they apply for work at their studio.
Overall, doing this has allowed me to understand how I could improve my portfolio to an industry standard and how to go about with my physical portfolios for job interviews; as well as how to create my eventual video showcase that shows my more current standard of work from the past three years.