How to open your door to the future

Portfolio preparation guide

by Bruce D. Barnes and Midori Kitagawa

First of all, you need to find out what you want to do after finishing the degree that you are working on now. Going to a graduate school and getting another degree may be a good option if you feel you are not prepared for the kind of job you really want, if you think you haven't learned enough of what you are interested in, if you want to change your career direction, or if you are not too sure about what you want to do for the rest of your file. Earning a graduate degree is an investment of your time and money. You will probably have to put off your dream of buying a brand new car for a few more years, but the return of your investment may worth a lot.

If you want to teach at a four year college or university, going to a graduate school to earn a terminal degree, such as M.F.A. and Ph.D., is a "must". (Note: A M.A. degree is not a terminal degree, but a Masters of Fine Art (M.F.A.) degree is.) Before you apply for a graduate program, learn about the program. If checking out their web site does not give you enough information, email, call, or visit them. Talking to professors and some of the students who are already in the program is a great way to learn about the program. When a statement of intent is required as one of the admission materials, it is often an important factor in the admission consideration. Write about your academic goals (what you want to study while you are in a graduate program), professional goals (what you want to do after graduate school), and the reasons why you have selected the graduate program. Have someone proofread it and make sure that there are no misspellings or grammatical errors.

What is your strength? If you want to get a job in the industry, find out your strength. It is usually in the area that you most enjoy. Your strength may be in scripting, story boarding, modeling, rigging, lighting, texturing, character animation, effect animation, compositing, software development, technical directing, or something else. If you do not know what your strength is, ask your instructors. Even if you are not ready to apply for a job immediately, when there is an opportunity to have a portfolio review with a school's guest (e.g., a guest lecturer, a recruiter), take advantage of it. They can help you identify your strength and weakness. Once you recognize your strength, focus on it (i.e., strengthen your skills in the area your strength is in), create works for your portfolio/demo reel that showcase your skills, and find a position that matches your skills. Learn about the company and the position that you are applying for.

Learn to be a good team worker. While in school, develop your people skills, communication skills, organization skills, teamwork skills, and learning skills. These skills will be as important as technical skills when you go out to the real world where you will be working on a project as a team member. You need to learn to be a team player. The industry is smaller than you think and the people are well-connected. No matter how talented you are if you develop a reputation as a big snob who cannot take criticism on your work from your peers & teachers (colleagues & supervisors) or as a self-absorbing jerk who cannot collaborate with others, you will have a hard time finding a (next) job since your former classmate or colleague may be working at the company you are applying for.

Start early. No matter which direction you are heading to, start portfolio preparation early. Do not wait until your last semester. If you want to complete a short animation for your demo reel by your graduation, start working on it at least one year earlier. It takes one or two years to make a good animation even if it's 2 or 3 minutes long.

Collaborate. Do not hesitate to collaborate with your friends on your portfolio piece. For instance, if you want to make an animation for your portfolio and if you love modeling and animating but not texturing or lighting, find someone who is good at texturing and lighting, and is willing to collaborate with you on your project. Just be sure to include a breakdown guide (see below.)

Theme. A lot of students have made 3D models and animations of spaceships, sport cars, robots, ninjas, knights, aliens, dinosaurs, and dragons before you thought "It will be cool to make an animation about a dragon!". Reviewers at companies and schools have seen a few thousand animations of these common themes. If you feel very strong about using one of these common themes for your animation, go ahead. But if you want your animation to stand out, put extra effort into making your work unique, creative, and artistic.

Format. Once you decide your direction, you need to find out in what kind of format a portfolio is accepted by the company/graduate school that you are applying to. They may accept some of the following but may not be all:

• Hard copy portfolio
• VHS
• CD
• DVD
• Web site

Check their web sites first. If you can't find the information on their web sites, contact them by email or phone.

General rules:

• Hard copy portfolio. Drawings, photographs, still images, etc., may be submitted in an art portfolio or presentation case. Do not submit original non-digital art works. Make color copies. Not all the companies/graduate schools send your portfolio back to you.
• VHS tape. Tape should be cued. No more than 3 minutes. The best work first. Music is not crucial.
• CD/DVD. A portfolio on a CD/DVD should have some kind of interface that guides reviewers OR it should linearly play itself (i.e., Do not expect reviewers to open all the folders and files, hunting for your works. They won't have time for that.) Do not expect reviewers to download applications that are required to review your portfolio either. (Again they won't have time for that.) It is best if your CD/DVD is playable on both the PC/Mac platforms, but if you don't know how to create such a CD/DVD, make a note that tells reviewers on which platform your portfolio can be reviewed. Make sure your CD/DVD works before you send it in. Believe it or not, we have seen many CD/DVD portfolios that are not viewable. If you are applying for graduate programs, admission committees may be nice enough to contact you about your un-viewable CD/DVD, but your potential employers will probably not. No matter how good your work is, if they can't see them, they won't hire you.
• Web site. If your web server is not very very reliable, put your web site on a CD and send the CD, instead of your web site address.

The followings are additional tips on portfolio preparations for your job/school applications.

Be selective. Reviewers have hair triggers and are often looking for any reason to slap the book shut and get through the stacks before go home. Don't give them a reason to reject yours. Include only the best of your best. If it's iffy or something doesn't seem quite right, leave it out. Do not put everything that you have created on a CD or DVD just because there is enough space for it. Quality matters but not quantity. Leave reviewers wanting to see more. If you have long animations, make a compilation of the excerpts that are the best parts from your animations.

Label your portfolio. Companies and schools receive a large number of portfolios. Your cover letter and work may be separated and scattered as people show this and that to others. They may forget who and where it came from. Put your contact information on your portfolio and on the back of each and every piece you submit. Make sure to put your name on your tape/CD/DVD as well as their boxes.

Best work first. Make reviewers want to see what's next. Make them want to see more. Again many places review a large number of portfolios. If the first few seconds of your demo reel does not catch reviewers’ eyes, they may stop reviewing your demo reel before it ever gets to "the good stuff". Put "the director's cut" at the end of your reel. If they liked the clips enough they may be willing to see what they came from. They have a lot of work to review. No one wants, or is willing, to sit through a 5 or 10 minute piece, looking for what they want to see. Show them in 2 or 3 second clips. That also will win you bonus points for being a thoughtful, professional-style submitter.

Make a clean and simple package. No bells or whistles. Since you are not applying for a graphics designer position, the design of your portfolio does not have to be super duper. Make it clean and simple. Let your work do the talking. Reviewers generally believe that the flashier the packaging is the more the submitter is trying to compensate for weak work. If you want to be a professional, make it look like the packaged work of a professional.

Include a breakdown guide. Your breakdown guide should describe each project on your demo reel briefly and your "role" on each project. Include a list of software you used to create each piece as well. Don't make them guess what you did or did not do. Also never try to get credit for something you didn't do. Your friend may apply to the same companies that you do. It has happened.

Include your resume. Your resume should not be wildly creative -- it should be legible!. It should include:

• Name, address, phone numbers (home/work/cell), email address
• Education
• Work experience (most recent employment first)
• Relevant experience (e.g., internship)

If you are applying for a graduate program and even if a resume is not included in the required admission materials, send in a resume. They may have an open assistantship position or a fellowship to give away, and your resume may help them decide to give it to you.

Identify your strength and focus on it. If you are good at modeling and want to work for a production (game) company as a modeler, your demo reel does not have to have animation. It can be a collection of still images of your 3D models and/or simple animations of your models on a turn table. If you are good at lighting, your portfolio can be a collection of high resolution prints of your works that demonstrate your lighting skills. A good plan is to show a realistic space under a variety of lighting conditions, such as day, night, twilight, dawn, interior light sources, and exterior light sources. No one really knows what dawn on Planet X looks like but we all can recognize the morning sun coming through the dining room window. Also, where appropriate, use shadows to create mood and/or help sculpt your objects.

Showcase your technical skills and creative talents. Between the two of us (Midori & Bruce), we have over 20 years of experience teaching animation and many of our former students have gone to production companies, such as Blue Sky, Disney, Dream Works, Pixar, and Rhythm and Hues as well as a variety of game houses and academic places. With our past experience we can tell you that companies and schools look for both technical skills and artistic abilities in portfolios. Pixar already has people who make Pixar style animations. They must be sick of seeing copies of Luxor Jr. and Nimo in applicants' demo reels. Production companies want to find people who have unique talents that add something new to their production teams. They don't want to hire copycats or software operators who know how to use certain software packages well but have no creativity or artistic skills.

If you have questions or want us to review your portfolio, contact us: Prof. Midori Kitagawa & Bruce D. Barnes.