Thanks to Hawk Halldorsson, an animator and programmer at Dunedin Arts, for these insights into starting a career in animation #CCCF19.
Getting into animation can be tricky. It’s a competitive industry and the first steps can be the hardest. Read on for some top tips from Hawk on how to get started:
- Create a short and to the point show reel which shows your best and most recent work. If you are looking for a specific type of job like rigger, modeller, animator etc, make the show reel for the job you are applying for. Having multiple show reels specific to the task is much more effective than one that shows everything. Employers do not have the time nor patience to watch long show reels.
- If you’re looking for a job in character animation, then study up on body mechanics and anatomy. Your characters will become much more believable once you understand how people move, then you can play around with exaggerating movements.
- Practice hand drawing, it is a skill often overlooked, but it greatly helps in the most important phase of any animation – the concept and planning phase. Being able to draw quickly and accurately during storyboarding will save you a lot of time, once you are actually working in 3D.
For more information on a career in animation, see our website.
