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Further Artist research

ANNA PODERWORNA

In Summary:

Anna is a Polish illustrator and motion graphics animator who specializes in painting fantasy scenes. She has a background in studying architecture and engineering and extended her skillset to illustration.  Career History: 

She has mainly worked for CD Projekt Red Productions worked on: 

Gwent: The card game and Magic the Gathering

Examples of her work:

https://www.artstation.com/akreon

https://www.instagram.com/akreon/

Aspects of her work that I like:

Anna is a well rounded technically apt illustrator. I feel like her background in archictecture gives her a really strong background in being able to understand form and draftsmanship. My favourite type of work that Anna does is when she takes her Gwent card Illustrations and animates them, like the one shown below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Anna Podedworna (@akreon) on May 21, 2020 at 11:00am PDT

How she broke into the industry:

Anna’s career began through her posting work online on Deviantart while in college. She took commision work through deviantart and rose to prominence and financial stability through doing so.

Through her deviant art portfolio, she began doing work as a junior artist on mobile games which further helped her career along. 

JEREMIE PERIN

In Summary:

Jeremie is a French animator and director who has worked on a variety of music videos and his own animated series. He’s an animator with a wide skillset which has allowed him to take on a more senior role in the productions he takes on. Career History:

Jeremie primarily works on indepent projects and projects he’s comissioned in for his specific style. Productions worked on:

Jermeie has done work for musicians such as DyE and Childish Gambino. He’s also worked on his own French animated adult series, ‘Lastman’ and a wide vairety of independent work

Examples of his work:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremie.perin/?hl=es

Aspects of his work that I like:

Jeremie has one of the most detailed styles I’ve ever seen pulled off with so few lines. His work is super clean and refined and he masterfully illustrates the planes of the characters he animates without relying much on shading at all. I can only hope to have a fraction of his understanding of how to do this in the future. I really like how he draws faces as well. It hits this sweet sport right between Western and Eastern animation techinques. I also appreciate how as a creative, Jeremie doesn’t shy away from exploring taboo topics in his work. It can be a bit shocking at times but I appreciate how he tries to push the envelope.

How he broke into the industry:

I think part of this has to do with a bit of a language barrier, but there isn’t a lot of information available on Jeremie’s rise in the animation industry. From observing his work though, he seems to have focused on developing an identity based around his independent film work. 

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Online courses and resources that could help develop the skills I’m interested in

SCHOOLISM 

Schoolism is a source for online courses taught by seasoned industry professional. The cost for 1 year of access to all the course is usually $300USD but they have regular sales where it drops down to around $200USD. They’re a good source of strengthing illustration and design skills. For a little bit extra, there’s also an option of have your work directly reviewed by the course instructor which could be a valuable chance for feedback.

https://www.schoolism.com/

CUBEBRUSH 

A great source for lessons and tools, such as photoshop brushes and plugins. Cubebrush has more of a specific slant to concept art and illustration but there are lessons discussing the fundamentals avaliable on there too. 

https://cubebrush.co/

ANIMATION MENTOR

A set of online course specialized in teaching 3D animation using Blender and Maya. There’s also a course on character design avaliable about on their website.

https://www.animationmentor.com/

FZD SCHOOL OF DESIGN 

There’s a whole playlist of videos from Feng Zhu discussing industrial design and how to apply the fundamentals of art to make good design. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL

VILPPU ACADEMY 

Glenn Vilppu is a legendart draftsman who has a course of online lessons that help teach how to apply figure drawing and technical drawing to drawing from the imagination. 

https://vilppuacademy.com/

CROQUIS CAFE

Croquis cafe is a series of free life drawing lessons avaliable on vimeo. I plan to use them to help expand my knowledge of anatomy and draftsmanship 

https://vimeo.com/croquiscafe

GNOMON SCHOOL OF DESIGN ONLINE COURSES

The gnomon school of design is a California based school with direct ties to the entertainment industry and they offer a 10-week online course. It could be botha good opportunity for learning and networking. 

https://www.gnomon.edu/courses/on-campus

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Examining some art competitions

LISTS OF ART COMPETITIONS: 

https://mymodernmet.com/best-art-contests/

https://www.infodesigners.eu/

https://www.awn.com/call-entries

https://callforart.net/list-of-art-competitions-contests/

https://www.ecc-kruishoutem.be/en/cartooncontests/

LIST OF ART GRANTS: 

https://www.artworkarchive.com/blog/complete-guide-to-2020-artist-grants-opportunities

https://theabundantartist.com/art-grants/

https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding-finder/grants-arts

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Exploring online artist collectives/communities

MEDIUM INTERNET ARTIST COLLECTIVE For contemporary artists who make a living selling art online and a source of resources helping new ones to do so. 

https://medium.com/internet-artist-collective

R/ARTISTSLOUNGE There are a variety of subreddits dedicated to specifically art and they’re a good place to interact with likeminded people.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/

DISCORD ART SERVERS Art servers in Discord are a bit of a catch 22. While they offer an opportunity to directly interact with those inerested in art, they can often devolve into unmoderated and unfocussed gathering points for shouting matches. They’re best used as a platform the post your work, participate in challenged and interact with others via text conversations. Voice chat can be a bit of a mess in big public servers. 

https://discord.me/servers/tag/art

CG SOCIETY A community most focused around 3D work but there’s a space for 2D work as well. On top of being a place for promotion of one’s work, it’s another source of learning material. 

https://cgsociety.org/

ARTSTATION 

Probably the biggest professional art space online at the moment. The site is regualarly visited by studios scouting talent and industry professionals sell lessons and valuable resources through the site as well. It’s a major one stop shop for art in a professional setting online. 

https://www.artstation.com/

CHARACTER DESIGN CHALLENGE 

This group is a massive collective of artists who work on character design based around a monthly theme and has been consistently active for a very long time. 

https://characterdesignreferences.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CharacterDesignChallenge/

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Social Media Strategies as suggested by other artists

I’ve noticed  so far in my reasearch of social media strategies that social media platforms are something that require a lot of luck to grow on but there are actions that you can take to maximize your chances of growing your presence. There was a general set of rules that kept popping up from multiple sources and I think this video consolidates a lot of these points well:

HOW TO GET NOTICED ON INSTAGRAM

Keep your username/alias short and easy to remember.

Upload any images of your artwork in high quality resolution, with proper composition and good lighting/contrast levels. 

Make your profile picture art related to avoid any confusion of your account being a personal one. 

It’s best to post at minimum 2 times a week. Ideally posting daily would be good. Basically consistent engagement is essential. 

Actively engage with other accounts in order to foster growth. Don’t just wait for followers to come to you. 

Essential SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS For SERIOUS Artists

Engage your audience with Empathy and not Sympathy. You want to tailor your content in a way that presents your experience and allows your audience to draw their own similarities, not telling them to feel the same thing as you. 

Stay on topic. Keep your social media on topic so you don’t distract your audience and encourage them to disengage.

Mind the tempo of your content. Cut out dead air but also don’t deliever information too fast.

Your online presence functions as an extension of your CV. Be mindful of the content you post on there as it could end up haunting you in the future.

Basically, remaining as apolitical as possible is best. 

The challenges of social media with LOISH

Be consistently active across as many avaliable platforms as possible.

Make an effort to use social media to engage with professionals already working in the industry.

It takes time to build up a presence on social media so patience is essential. 

A LIST OF GOOD SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR ARTISTS: 

https://www.creativebloq.com/features/social-media-for-artists

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Showreel advice from professional artists

How To Make A Showreel For Your Dream Career | Animation

Focus on presenting content you want to make more of inthe future. Don’t just put things in your showreel to impress. 

Tailor your showreel to the studio you’re applying to.

Show a wide variety of use of the principles to demonstrate skill.

Show variety of skills within your specific area of animation

Treat your showreel like a short film. Try to create a mood with it and engage your audience in a specific way.

Showreels are quality over quantity so make sure to keep it short.

Animation Demo Reel Guidelines

Vimeo is the preferable place to post a showreel because you can update the showreel video and keep it under the same url

Your showreel should be between 1-2mins. Even just 30seconds of good animation is preferable to 2mins of mediocre animation.

Fundamental excercises are also ok to include in a showreel.

20 Tips For An Amazing Showreel | Motion Graphics & Animation

Make sure you demonstrate an ability to be a bit of a generalist, as that’s a key ability in being able to grab an entry level position.

Personal work is fine to include in your showreel as well.

Music with lots of percussive elements are good for a showreel because it allows you to make video cuts along the beat easier. 

Your reel should be updated between every 6-12months 

Show the process of a shot. All the way from rough to the final cut. 

Make sure to add your individual personality into your showreel.

Don’t include work ripped straight from a tutorial. 

Demo Reel Tips to ACTUALLY Get You Hired!

Your personal and professional online pressence should be clearly seprated. You can link to your personal profiles through your professional sites but there should be an easily accessible and clear cut professional pesentation source for your work.

Recruiters definitely google your name. It’s good to have your professional online pressence linked to your name. 

Show a variety of acting and action shots. Avoid just having characters sitting around. 

One of the recruiters recommends that for an interview, it actually makes sense to visit and scope out how people who already work at the studio for an indication of how to dress for the interview.

Try and fine reviews for the culture of the studio you’re applying for on sites like glassdoor.

Ask employees at the studio why they like working at the studio 

100% make sure to ask questions in an interview.

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Portfolio advice from Professional Artists

Art Lessons - What to include in your visual development portfolio? (Aaron's Art Tips S2 E6)

Your portfolio must communicate your ability to adapt to the style of any film you’re working on. 

Demonstrate an understanding of either specifically colour or design ability. You can show a range but focus on making a particular skill stand out.

ART ADVICE: COMMON PORTFOLIO MISTAKES

It would be ideal for your portfolio to be project directected. It shows an ability to progressively develop an idea and commit to it to the end. 

Your portfolio should be 15-20 pieces and easy to navigate.

Make sure your characters and props are designed with a clear logical purpose in mind to their features.

Show iterative process to resolution of an idea. 

Include turnarounds. For a symmetrical character, a 6-point turn around, for an asymmetrical character and 8-point.

Show multiple styles. 

5 Tips to Make Your Portfolio Better

10-20 pieces of work in your portfolio.

Tailor your portfolio to a specific genre, the genre of the company your applying to.

He recommends to put the pieces in your portfolio in this order with 1 being the strongest piece of work and everything else in descending order:

3 Of The BEST Design Portfolios Of 2020 [Techniques Revealed]

Font and general layout of the portfolio should be minimal, an open plan layout. This gives a more gallery type feeling to your presentation.

Sans-serif fonts are ideal to use throughout the portfolio.

Repetion is imortant (with regards to layout of the portfolio, not the pieces of work)

 Ideal to have: A work page, an about page, a contact page and optionally, a blog page. 

Adding aspects of interactivity to the layout of the thumbnail is a good way to elevate the unique experience of interacting with your work

Pro Illustrator Critiques an Illustration Portfolio

This porfolio reviewer noticed these faults in portfolios:

When blending traditional and digital aspects of work, makes sure too properly integrate them to avoid an awkward feeling in your work.

When demonstrating different styles within your portfolio, make sure they all still have the same consistent tone throughout.

Clear narrative communication is important in your work. Pieces should tell a clear and easy to understand story.

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Portfolios I like

TATIANA CHERNIYCHUK

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/exxxY

TOSHIKI NAKAMURA 

https://www.artoftoshi.com/visualdevelopment

AMY KIM 

http://www.amykimworks.com/portfolio

LAURICA ANDERSON 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/53771239/Visual-Development-Portfolio-2017

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Looking at mock cover letters

Animation cover letter example links: 

https://www.jobhero.com/animator-cover-letter/

https://www.livecareer.com/cover-letter/examples/film/animator

https://www.greatsampleresume.com/cover-letters/animator-cover-letter/

https://www.resume-now.com/cover-letter/examples/film/animator

https://www.jobhero.com/3d-animator-cover-letter/

The main purpose of a cover letter seems to be letting the company know what position you’re interested in applying for and why you’re applying. Writting a cover letter geared towards animation seems to fall into two main categories of tone. Either people are trying to sell their character traits and enthusiasm for the position or get to the point and highlight experience that makes them a good fit for the role. 

Again, I struggled in writting this because I just feel like I don’t have much to say or haven’t had enough relevent experience yet.

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Looking at mock CVs

Various CV example links:

https://www.visualcv.com/resume-samples/animation/

https://www.kickresume.com/en/help-center/animator-resume-sample/

https://www.resume-now.com/resume/examples/film/2d-animator

https://www.resumeok.com/animator-resume-sample/

MAIN TAKEAWAY FROM EXAMPLE RESUMES LISTED: 

Simple and direct delivery of information. 

Make sure to tweak information for each application so you’re not sending a generic one around.

The CV is also an opportunity to display artistic ability. Invest some time into properly designing it.

Showreels, social media, awards, and relevent experience aside from education should have been made within a 12 month period before the application. Otherwise, you could give the impression of not regularly creating work.

Clearly indicate how you will be a benefit to the company you’re applying to.

The main thing I’ve taken away from researching what’s required for a strong cv is that I severely lack directed and consolidated experience. I found my old CV from when I applied to my 1 year internship at an art gallery and I feel like I had a lot more to say then than I do now almost 2 years later: 

I still really like this format so I think I’ll use it again but I found it hard to know what to put in the new CV needed for this unit even if it was a mock one.

I also stumbled upon a trend of making animated resumes which I found to be really interesting:

https://www.wyzowl.com/animated-resume/

Here are a few I specifically like:

One take away this I had from all these animations though, is that I wonder if they give the viewer enough time to really process all that information. I’d imagine that these applicants also send in paper resumes with their applications. I also wonder if this is a form of application that’s so young that it isn’t recognized or is met with hostility when applying since it’s not traditional.

I really like the second animated CV as it takes a more biographical approach and gives the opportunity for the interviewer to get a uniquely intimately view of that applicant. It also seems to be a practice typically employed by motion graphics designers so I don’t know if it’s applicable in applciations to tradition 2D animation positions.

I also really like this fimmaker’s resume. I could see integrating live action film and motion graphics as a tactic to make a really interesting video resume.

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Researching artists who I admire

LAURA PRICE In Summary: Laura is a California based artist who specializes in Character design and Visual Development. She mostly works on background painting in a professional setting but also does visual development for props. She is also an active youtuber and shares details about her art career and the industry ins and outs. She has consistently been an active artist in the online world and is a good example of one way the space can be navigated or at least how it could have been at the advent of online art forums.  Career History: Laura has worked at Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network Productions worked on: Tangled the Animated series, Steven Universe and Amphibia

Examples of her work:

https://www.luludraws.com/

Aspects of her work that I like: 

She has a really good understanding of values (as most professionals do) that I really appreciate. I like how angluar a lot of her forms are in her work and she doesn’t really use soft edged brushes which givers everthing a crips feeling. One think I really don’t like about my own work is that I struggle to not use soft brushes and make my work look muddy in comparison to more graphical styles like Laura’s. I also really like her use of colour, as she typically balances desaturated cool tones with vibrant warm ones.

How she broke into the industry: 

Laura seems to have broken into the industry by seeking out opportunites to make personal connections with professionals in the industry. She actually has a youtube video detailing her career path. 

ETHAN BECKER In Summary: Ethan Becker is a 2D animation storyboard and background design artist who also has a large social media platform. He mainly works as a revisionist and has stated himself that he primarily got hired based off demonstrating his drawing skills.  Career History: Ethan has worked at mainly Dreamworks but has taken part in offshoot indie projects. Productions worked on: Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Netflix’s Voltron 

Examples of his work:  

https://ethanbecker70.tumblr.com/

Aspects of his work that I like: Ethan has a lot of videos documenting and explaining his working process and I really love that he demonstrates how to apply draftsmanship to the animation process. He highlights what exactly you should be thinking of while drawing for animation with regards to forms, line placement and proper communication of action. I especially like Ethan’s use and understanding of lines and feel like I have a lot to learn from his process of being able to quickly break down and express forms. 

How he broke into the industry: Ethan really dove into his career by moving to California and educating himself online while working daytime jobs. He even lived out of his car for a few weeks on arrival. He also seems to have developed his career through friendly connections rather than a direct application for a position. He was scouted by a Dreamworks employee as a background designer.

BAHIJD (He’s very scare about sharing personal information online)  In Summary: Career History: Productions worked on: Bahi JD is an accomplished Japan based animator and here are some projects he’s been involved in:

https://myanimelist.net/people/28429/Bahi_JD

He also did work for the game skullgirls and does freelance illustration on the side.

Examples of his work:

https://bahijd.tumblr.com/ Aspects of his work that I like: I love, love, love how energetic and identifiable his animation is. There have been times when I watched an animation or saw an illustration and was able to just instantly identify that is was his work because of his distinct use of perspective and action lines.

How he broke into the industry:  Side notes:

This is a quote from highly accredited director and character designer Nishii Terumi. I’ve seen quite a few foreigners migrating to Japan to work in the animation industry but you don’t often see them talking about their harships. I’m kind of curious to try reaching out to animators working uder these conditions to see if they’d be willing to talk about their experiences.

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Industry research - Roles I’m interested in

SOME GENRAL LINKS OF JOBS IN ANIMATION I’M INTERESTED IN: https://www.screenskills.com/careers/job-profiles/animation/ https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/animation I’ve realized I’m mostly interesed in career paths that involve actually drawing so I’ll likely be focusing my work in the direction of 2D animation. I’ve become more comfortable with using After Effects (Though not neccessarily good at it yet) so I think working in a style more suited to that would work too. I also tried to focus some research into the most likely avenues of entry into the industry.

Runner

https://www.screenskills.com/careers/job-profiles/animation/production-management/runner/

This is the most likely entry level position based on my research so far and discussions that our instuctors in uni have facillitated about career paths. This position mostly involves acting in an assitant role to the production department and provides a great opportunity to learn from senior artists.

Skillset of a runner based on screenshare list:

Storyboard Artist

https://www.screenskills.com/careers/job-profiles/animation/pre-production/storyboard-artist/

I feel like if I tailored my body of work more in this direction, this would be a role I’d be most suited too. My draftsmanship skills are the one thing I’m kind of confident in my ability to perform in. I also just think I’d get a lot of enjoyment out of being able to draw that much. 

Screenskills also suggests that taking on an aprenticeship role is a good way to open up the avenue of becoming a storyboard artist.

Skillset of a storyboard artist based on screenskills list: 

It’s hard to even really consider what avenue of work I want to go down because I feel like I don’t yet have a portfolio that reflects any specific interests. I’m interested in drawing overall but I think I could benefit from spending some time in a position like being a runner to maybe be able to observe how a studio operates and what roles I’m most interested in.