10.13
I’ve seen a lot of portfolio pages. I always thinks it’s fun to find new artists, animator, you name it and I always look at what they have to offer. The problem is that I often see portfolio pages with issues. Mostly it is because of the content, but some times the general layout which makes it very annoying and difficult to find stuff that should be very clear and easy to find.
For instance, if you’re an animator and you are applying for a job at Studio X. A producer or human resources person recieves your application, looks at it and hopefully forwards it to a lead animator. The lead animator will then look at your CV roughly before opening your portfolio page. The very first thing he is looking for is animations that can show off your abilities, to see if you’re any good for the job. Hopefully an animation reel.
A lot of pages fails here, making a guest at his/her webpage look for the content instead of serving the guest the content. Mind that this lead animator probably gets a lot of mails every day about a new animator looking for a job, so he has looked at LOTS of animation portfolios. His patience is probably pretty short by now. So, if he can’t find what he’s looking for he will just close it down and ignore you.
Another thing is, never ever include irrelevant work that doesn’t have anything to do with the role you’re applying for. No lead animator cares about how well you can draw different stuff. He’s looking for animations, NOTHING else. Sure, some studios are saying on their job page that it’s a plus if you’re skilled at photoshop for example, or if you’re good at drawing human figures. But if you’re work isn’t world class then it’s probably not worth showing up. Less is more, just keep the amazing animations instead of lots of other stuff that has nothing to do with your wished position.
Regarding showing up only animations, only keep the GREAT animations. Quality over quantity. If you have 5 animations, and 3 of them suck, then it’s way better just showing up the 2 instead of all 5 of them. As any lack of detail or quality will pull down your overall score in the lead animator’s mind. The same thing with bad 2d art, or 3d art for that matter. If you’ve included stuff like this in your portfolio, it will unfortunately just make you look worse at what you do. The lead animator will assume you’re as bad at animation as you are at 2d or 3d. And even if your 2d and 3d work is amazing, then he will probably just think that you’re not serious about animation and won’t be interested. As he only wants to hire passionate animators. Not a animator/3d artist.