Landing a job in animation is not easy. The competition is tough, and it can be hard to know how to make yourself stand out when applying for a job. As an animation studio, we receive a lot of emails asking for placements or jobs here at Engine House. Here are seven tips we’d give on how to grab our attention.
From Boys Vs Girls, a short 4D film
1. Have a really great show reel
This is the first thing we will look at, so for starters make sure you have one, and then make sure it’s really good. It doesn’t need to be overly long – pick the highlights of your best work and show us some variety. Highlight your best skills, and demonstrate the work you are looking for. It’s no good showing us concept work if you’re a rigging artist. Open with your strongest work – the person watching will probably be extremely busy, so you need to wow them quickly.
2. Get your basics right
Don’t just be influenced by what you’ve seen in mainstream films, have your own voice and style and execute it really well. We’d much rather see something basic done impeccably, than an attempt at something more complicated with lots of problems. The old cliché of the bouncing ball is a perfect example – how well can you do something that simple? Can you bring it to life and give it personality? That’s the test of a great animator.
3. Draw, even if you can’t
You really don’t have to be good at drawing to make a good animator – but you do need to practice thinking and working creatively. Experiment with different art styles, and create your own characters and worlds. Constantly be designing, creating, making. It’s all great experience for the working world and the animation pipeline.
4. Work on stuff all the time
A lot of show reels we get sent are quite sparse – recycling the same handful of projects. This is fine, but it stands out when somebody has obviously been working on projects in their own time, pursuing their own ideas. We’ve even been releasing some free assets that you can download and have a play with, so you can get right into animating.
5. Stand out in your covering letter
It often feels like almost every job request we get is a regurgitation of the same template, and so when somebody mixes it up a little bit it makes all the difference. We’d much rather hear something interesting about you, than a breakdown of all the grades you got throughout university. In fact, it doesn’t even matter if you have been to university or not. Be the wild card!
The Ship, a short made for The Channel 4 Random Acts Project
6. Look further than anime and Pixar
They say if you want to write, read. If you want to make films, watch films. So if you want to be an animator, watch animation. This does not just mean watching your favourite anime or Pixar over and over again (not that there is anything wrong with that), but consuming a huge range of styles. Keep an ear to the industry and check out what other people are talking about – watch the staff picks on Vimeo, find features from other countries, live and breathe your craft. By drawing from a wider range of inspiration and finding your own voice you give an employer a specific reason to hire you over someone else.
7. Have passion, and show it
This is maybe the most important point of all. Let your creativity, hunger and know-how shine through in your work. We’d always go with someone who has passion and spark over someone with the right credentials or experience on a piece of paper. We can fine tune your techniques, but we can’t change your enthusiasm.
Photo Credits
Images are from Engine House – All Rights Reserved
Guest Author Bio
Natasha Price
Natasha Price works for Engine House, an animation and VFX studio based in Cornwall. Engine House have worked on projects for Ogilvy HK, Assassin’s Creed and Hodder and Stoughton.
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