| Portfolio Guidelines | ||||
| Before you start sending off all that cool artwork of yours for the review, you'll need to do a few things to make it easier for Brian to review it properly.
First, let's talk about what a portfolio is and what it is not: What a portfolio is Your portfolio is a sampling of what you consider to be your very best work. In essence, your portfolio is going to be competing against other portfolios that other students or professional artists will be submitting to get into either a school or a studio. You do not put in something that you don't think is very good. This doesn't mean that if you've just started out drawing recently and you don't feel your work is really good that you shouldn't send it in for a review, it simply means: put in only what you consider to be your very best work. It should also be your most recent work if possible. What a portfolio is not A portfolio is not the case or binder that you put your artwork into. It's important to remember that the people who are assessing your portfolio for a job or position in a school are not more impressed by the portfolio case that you spent $200.00 on. It's your artwork that they're assessing. Presentation is one thing and you should try to be neat (tidy) and make your portfolio easy to go through so the assessor isn't thinking about how difficult it is to go through the process. They should be concentrating on the artwork and nothing else. Your portfolio needs to be specific If you are applying to a school, they will give you a specific list of drawings that they will want to see. You can view a list of some of the typical portfolio requirements from various schools here. A school application / assessment is slightly different from a studio. The main difference is that at a school, every September (sometimes January and May) the school accepts a certain number of students into their programs, that's guaranteed (as long as the school continues to still offer the program). It will always be the top number of students that will get accepted. If there are 44 positions available, and 500 people apply, the top 44 will be accepted. At a studio, it all depends on the needs at any given point in time. If there's nothing to work on, they're probably laying people off rather than hiring. If they're in the middle of production and running a bit behind, they'll start hiring like crazy to get the job done. It's very much a "feast or famine" situation. In some cases, it's just "being in the right place at the right time" or even "who you know". You could apply for a job just after they post the position and because they desperately need someone now, you get hired. If two weeks later someone else applies for the same position and they're better than you, well too bad, you got there first. If you're applying to a studio for a job as a layout artist, you need to submit layout drawings as examples of your abilities, not a portfolio full of character designs. What you send to us There are three types of portfolios BUT, you can only send in two types for assessment: General Art Portfolio - No School Application Portfolio - Yes Studio Portfolio - Yes
General Art Portfolio This is a collection of artwork that you have done that is extremely varied in it's content. It can contain any of the folowing and more: These are incredibly difficult to assess because they're so widely varied in their disciplines. Our focus here at The Animated Cartoon Factory is "Animation" related artwork. While some of these can be squeezed into an animation context like fashion design, unless it specifically relates to a series of character designs and the optional clothing that they might be wearing in a particular production, It's not really helpful to what we are doing here. Please do not submit this type of portfolio as it will be returned unassessed with the postage required to return it deducted from the cheque sent. School Application Portfolio For this portfolio you must send along a listing of the required elements from the school you are applying to. This listing will help Brian to understand the perameters of the elements required and give you a better feedback on what you're submitting. Include any artwork that the school has provided to you such as model sheets of characters that they want you to draw, etc. These are typically required to be submitted in 8 1/2" x 11" photocopied format. The reason for this is so that they can be easily handled and stored after assessment. Please submit this portfolio in this format. Colour copies are acceptable. Be sure the copies are of the best quality that you can afford. A bad photocopy can affect the quality of your artwork. Printouts from your computer are o.k. too. Do not staple or paperclip the drawings together. Do not make little folders for each grouping of drawings either. Do not place the drawings into any type of binder or plastic sleeved portfolio case. Be sure they're all facing the same direction and the top of the drawings are all orientated up so the drawings don't have to be rotated to see them properly. Landscape drawings should be rotated so the bottom is facing the right side. Be sure your name is on the back of each page. Go here to see more about Animation School Portfolios and the things you should watch out for. Studio Portfolio This type of portfolio is usually contained within a portfolio case for presentation purposes. For this type of portfolio assessment, please send along the following information: • What studio are you applying to, While these things will be commented on, they will not constitue a major part of the assessment - that will be reserved for the artwork. Remember to be specific about your portfolio application, there are some things that cross over but don't put in everything under the sun. This portfolio shouldn't be any more than about 30 pages total. The dimensions of your portfolio should not be more than 15" x 18" as it makes shipping more expensive on both ends. I'm Interested! What should I do? |
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