Hello,
My name's Cami Woodruff, and I'm currently a senior (with some extra terms after graduation) studio art major at Knox College. I've wanted to go into animation for as long as I can remember, and have been influenced greatly by Disney, Don Bluth, Dreamworks, and, of course, Warner Brothers; as a child of the nineties, I'm a huge fan of 2D animation and would love to see it come back. Ideally, I'd like to help it get there!
Anyway, for a bit of background, I chose liberal arts over a straight-up art school because I'm all about real-life experience contributing to everything I do. I've studied a lot of theatre as well as formal painting techniques, which I think have given me an interesting perspective on the cartoons I make in my elusive free time. I'm now looking at different grad programs where I can start pursuing the dream full-force, and I'm hoping to eventually find a place in feature films. As a requirement to complete my major, I also need to find a related internship that may be more forgiving towards people who aren't working on a BFA in animation right this second; any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
To get to the meaty part, my website is located at http://www.seedoubleyou.net and about 90% of it is comprised of work that I've managed to teach myself by reading books and studying the art of people I admire. There are a few simple storyboard-like animations, but the quality of those pretty much reflects my resources: I used Painter Classic and Windows Movie Maker.
Here are a couple studies I whipped up recently and haven't gotten around to posting on my site yet:
http://cabsie.deviantart.com/art/Fifi-Character-Sheet-WIP-113401756
http://cabsie.deviantart.com/art/Cyril-Character-Sheet-113403660
I'm excited to have found this site, and would love to hear any advice you can give me!
Cami
Cami-
Your work is very close for where I think it needs to be for entry into the biz.
You could probably land work tomorrow, given just your character designs.
But..........if you want to raise your profile to double or triple threat talent, I suggest adding some studies other than characters in your samples.
Show us some perspective images, location shots, or varied period studies.
Show some other characters from cartoons you love--with the exercise being to see if you can adhere to model designs.
The point of all this is to show range. You have a very appealing style, which is very contemporary ( and classic at the same time), but its largely one kind of style.
Show us something like..........say.......Power Puff Girls--come up with some other girls in that style. Or some Jack Kirby comic characters. Or speculate on some other characters for yet another hypothetical Rescuers Down Under follow-up. Or pick a popular movie, say try a new Animated Star Trek, or go weird and perhaps an animated Saw ( ick!)--whatever floats your boat.
Showing range means you offer some versatility, means you can adapt to what the studios are working on--rather than what "you" are working on. They will hire you to do their stuff rather than yours, after all.
As I said you are very very close by the looks of it, so keep at it--and good luck!
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Thank you so much for your feedback! I appreciate it enormously, and I will absolutely get to work on doing some of the things you've said.
With that in mind, I still have a few questions. Do you think getting a degree or certificate in animation will still be necessary, or are studios likely to hire someone who hasn't had any sort of formal education in the field?
Also, if I post my studies based on your tips, will you look at them and keep telling me what I can do better?
Thank you!
Cami, think about what a degree is for a minute.
Its a piece of paper that says you have met the academic standards of a college or university programme.
It does NOT mean you have talent, just that you completed the degree programme.
A student can meet the academic standards of just about ANY degree program and get a degree, but still lack the artistic ability to gain work in the industry. Since there is no set universal deciding qualifications amongst colleges or universities that offer degrees in animation or cartooning--just what standards are students held to?
The answer to that is it varies so much that a degree is essentially "worthless".
Okay, a caveat, a degree is useful if you want to teach animation.
To get into the biz, you need artistic ability, such that you can demonstrate that you can draw or produce work at the level of ability that the studio needs.
That's it.
The rest of the knowledge base you "need" is mostly procedural---how to use software, or how to time a scene, label a storyboard etc.
Much of those things you can pick up from on-line sources, books, or short classes........or on the job.
Now, why you hear this talk about "degrees" needed to get work in the biz is because it comes from people that do not know what they are talking about, or it comes from recruiters that are, frankly, blinking idiots.
Any studio that hires upon that basis......nah, you probably do not want to work for them.
It bears repeating again: a degree does not guarantee artistic ability, it only means that the degree holder has met the academic standards of that programme.
Genuine, demonstrable artistic ability is the only true qualification a artist needs to get hired in the biz.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
I suppose I should have phrased the question differently. While your advice continues to be helpful, I was asking more along the lines of 'will I learn very important things if I study with a high-end school, or are these things that I could potentially learn on the job?' It seems you've answered this, at any rate, and I take your answer to mean that I would learn important things on the job.
I'm not dying to go to grad school, with the crazy economy being what it is and having almost no personal resources to do so; it would all be on financial aid and student loans. It's comforting to hear that paper credentials don't matter so much, but I want to make certain I'm preparing myself for what I would be expected to do as a professional.
Best advice:
Talk to a studio and ask them what they seek in new talent.
PIXAR, Disney, Dreamworks all have job sites that provide info on what kind of credentials they seek.
Since they tend to be the industry leaders, they are a good gauge as to what is looked for.
If you seek to animate in games, look at the job sites of the largest game producers, like Electronic Arts, for example.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Well the great thing about going to an art college is that you gain networking skills. You also get the feel of competition when your in that environment as well.