Dilemma

Here it is! My thesis film! The film that consumed my entire life for 8 months and I enjoyed every minute of it. I put a lot of work into the film and I I hope you enjoy it and take something away from it.

DILEMMA

Here are links to posts about the process and a concept art dump:

IDEA DEVELOPMENT

ART

I'M A TINTERN!

I'll be interning at Tinman Creative Studios this summer and I start tomorrow!

It's a small studio located literally right next to the Exhibition GO train stop, it's like a 2 minute walk from it. They have created a lot of web content including their recent web series Super Science Friends which is a series about a group of famous scientists with super powers led by Winston Churchill. Check it out the first episode here. And here's a link to their website:

http://tinman.tv/

I haven't really announced it anywhere since I got the job at the beginning of March (actually it was the day Zootopia came out because I remember watching it to celebrate). But since I'll be starting tomorrow I guess it was time to post it! I'm also lucky enough to be interning with a group of really close friends so I'm super excited to start. I can't wait to see what this summer holds.

And alas here's my portfolio and demo reel that I used to get in! 

http://animation.sheridanc.on.ca/portfolio/2017/riverama/

(oh boy some of these stuff are already outdated haha)

And if you're wondering I did receive one other interview from another studio the same week Tinman had interviewed me. I had not received any interviews or offers prior to those two. I learned a lot about portfolios and what studios were looking for in interns. So here's a list of things that I learned in the process!

• YOU'RE A STUDENT. First and foremost you're a student. Take advantage of it. Studios are looking for amazing artists and animators, but in the end you're a student. They aren't expecting the best in order to replace their animation supervisor or art director, they're looking for someone that can do the job that they're going to ask you to do. But if your stuff ends up looking top notch even better! You're not going to be in a higher position since you're an intern for 4 months, so don't assume your portfolio needs to be filled with experience. Studios know that the majority of students don't have industry experience, but if you do that's a bonus! You're doing an internship to GET experience so don't sweat that you don't have much relevant experience, they know.
• The demo reel may be the only thing they see. One studio only looked at my demo reel and nothing else, while the other ended up contacting me directly through my email that I had only listed on my resumé and not through my school's job board. As someone who was looking for an animation internship, my demo reel and the order in which scenes appeared was crucial. Generally (not a rule) the order would be:
  
  
  BEST > SECOND BEST > AWESOME STUFF IN THE MIDDLE > THIRD BEST
  
  

  Your demo reel must CONSISTENTLY BE GREAT WORK YOU'VE DONE that showcases what you are capable of doing and your interests. The end of my demo reel has that Mr. Fairway walk cycle that many industry people responded positively to, so at one point I moved it very early in my demo reel and showed it to more people. They then said to have something at the end to make sure they're hooked IF they watched it all the way through, some don't and that's important to know. So I ended up returning the walk cycle at the end and got the same good feedback as before! I rearranged my demo reel so many times until I was satisfied with it. There were a few pieces that I was hesitant to put in but industry people ended up liking those ones the most, so never doubt your instincts! If YOU think it's good it probably is. And just a few more notes about the demo reel:
  
  -MAXIMUM 1 MINUTE. IT CAN BE LESS. I just had enough stuff to show off and most relied on dialogue, I've seen people with 30 second demo reels and less. SHOW YOUR BEST. Don't add anything bad because that could even alter their decision on you!
  - Rough animation? That's fine! You're a student! Pretty much all the industry people I've shown my demo reel to did not care that some of the stuff I had were not clean. Just make sure your performance is CLEAR. I asked them if they did and every single one said the same similar thing, "We're looking for the performance and how clear it is, not how pretty it looks." But don't take this advice as truth, guaranteed when you're a professional in the industry, something like this would not fly with companies.
  
  
• Be good at more than one thing, but not everything. In both my interviews and portfolio reviews with other studios, I discovered that studios want people who are versatile. If you're a one man show, the moment your job is done you'll be out of work and useless to the team. Being good at two or three things is best. This doesn't mean you need to be good at animation and layout, look at the subcategories in those skills. For myself I had stated my main interest lies in character animation, lip sync and enjoy broad cartoony acting. As for my other skill, I said I am currently practicing and enjoy doing SFX animation ever since doing it on Cuphead. If you say you like everything, then you're unsure of what your skills are, making studios unsure of where to put you. They want people who know what they want and what they do. Have a clear direction of what you want to do. Although, just like with everything I've been writing here there are exceptions. There are some studios that just want someone who can do one thing really well. I found that being capable of doing other things allowed me to apply to more jobs. In both interviews, both companies had pointed out when I mentioned also doing special FX animations and one of which asked for my resume to write a note down that I did FX citing that every company is always in need of FX animators.
• Be yourself in interviews. The biggest thing I dreaded the most was the interviews. I hate them and I'm not good at them. Each company has their own way of deciding if an interview went well or badly, so I can't really chime in on that aspect. All you need to know is that the interview means they like your work, now they want to see how cool you are. I'm not joking. So be cool, be yourself. Animation companies tend to be so relaxed and inviting. They have the same interests as you, so just act like you normally would and treat it as a conversation. So relax and have fun, 15-30 minutes goes by in a flash.

I hope this advice helps! Heck, I'm still learning the process! If I think of any more advice I will update this post.

The Keyframes Podcast Episode 2 - Sheridan Portfolio Edition

HEY YOU! Yeah you! 

Chances are, especially at this time of the year, you're someone who stumbled upon this art blog to creep and see if I posted my portfolio. Well, here it is and it can also be found through the sidebar under the tag "Portfolio":

http://www.artofmarcorivera.blogspot.ca/2013/04/animation-portfolio-2013.html

Above is the second episode to the Keyframes podcast that I participate in and in it we talk about how we approached the portfolio and give some advice for those who are working on theirs right now. So give it a listen while you're working on the portfolio!

Download Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-vWNCEDAYT6UFN0QWxJSkdKdEk/edit?usp=sharing

Welcome to another exciting episode of The Keyframes Podcast!

On this weeks episode we do our best to help all of the 2014-2018 Sheridan Animation Hopefuls! That's right, an entire episode dedicated to offering the tips and tricks we learned along the way when we were creating our Sheridan Animation entrance portfolios just 1 year ago. We walk through each of the pieces required for the portfolio and share our experiences, pass on advice we were given, and give our thoughts on how to give your portfolio that extra edge among the rest.

We hope this episode will make creating your portfolio just that much more an enjoyable experience, and will hopefully will help you in accomplishing your goal in joining the Sheridan Animation Elite!

Goooooodluck!

Studio Mongoose: http://studiomongoose.tumblr.com 

The Keyframes Podcast: http://the-keyframes.tumblr.com

The Team:

Matthew Ramirez: http://ramirezart.tumblr.com/

Melissa Cho: http://cheeeesu.tumblr.com/

Marc Lefevre: http://maclefame.tumblr.com/

Marco Rivera: http://artofmarcorivera.tumblr.com/ 

Raymond Dunster: http://raymonddunster.tumblr.com/

Kennith Concelos: http://kennith-concelos.tumblr.com/

Kathleen Martin: http://martinartin.tumblr.com

Sheridan Animation Portfolio 2013

Sorry for the delay, had been busy with school but I finally had time to upload.

First let me get some basic information out of the way because I know people that will assemble their own portfolio will find this and wonder about certain things:

• How many times did you apply?
  I tried 3 times. I first attended Art Fundamentals then transferred into Visual and Creative Arts, then took the third year for VCA.
• What was your previous score?
  We don't talk about my first one...But my second attempt got me a 2.18 and this year I got a 3.37.
• What size was your portfolio?
  I used a big portfolio (18x24) to fit my life drawings, certain personal pieces, and it allowed me to present my smaller pieces in a tidier fashion.
• Which day did you submit?
  The second day. 

So here's my scoresheet.

And here it is! My animation portfolio! 

3 minute

5 minute

15 minute

Gaur

Orangutan

Here's Al, Spacemonkey Extraordinaire!

1. Cubism Drawing 
2. Hand Sculpture
3. CD Case Design
4. Stylized Portrait
5. A Sketchbook

Third Time's The Charm!

BEST. DAY. EVER.
Celebrated in the afternoon with a bunch of people who got into their programs too. I smiled the entire day, I couldn't help it.

Obligatory portfolio post coming ASAP. A bit busy with school, although one assignment actually involves posting on this blog and sharing it. So posts incoming in the next week or two! Stay tuned! For now, I can finally relax.

Portfolio

Well...I didn't get in this year, I found out last friday afternoon. I guess there's always next year...*sigh*. Anyway, here are the apparently bad work I did, except for the the character design because I don't like it and my storyboards. The only thing I got good scores on were my layouts with a couple 4s and my hands.

Here we go!

Life Drawing

(10 min)

 This one was the last drawing I chose to put in, I wasn't even sure to add it. But after showing a couple of people my portfolio, they all seemed to like this ball holding man. (3 min)

(5 min)

Animal Drawings

Doberman

Doe

Hand Drawings

I did well on these, I guess those countless Leyendecker studies during the summer and constantly drawing hands whenever I had nothing else to draw came in...how should I put this...handy! (Note: this pun was unintended and I noticed it last minute so I edited it).

Character Expressions

Okay, I'll post the expressions. That was the only thing that I liked from my character. Especially the surprised look.

Object Drawings

Room Drawings

In the end I'm kind of happy I got at least some 4s (one for the object and another for the room [and most people didn't do so well in the layout portion]). But I think I deserved some better marks in other areas. Well there's an entire year for improvement, and I'm super excited about that. I've already started doing some studying again, starting all the way at the beginning by practicing with lines and basic shapes (boxes, cylinders etc.).

I'll be posting what I've been up to during classes this past month in the next couple of days or so. Although some of which I don't know if I'll be able to post, such as my digital projects. Although I might be able to post my mock-up website for a wine.

Portfolio: Personal Work

So portfolio was last week, I handed mine in the first day. I'll have to wait until the end of the month until I get the results. I'm very proud of the work I produced for the portfolio (except the character design), although I'm hesitant to post it online right now.

I will post my personal pieces I attached for the "personal work" section though. One of my personal pieces was the hand drawings I had to do for Life Drawing, so I won't be reposting those.

Skeleton Study

I know I messed up on the pelvis, that was difficult to do along with the overlapping arm. As well as the foreshortening of the left leg was difficult.

Standing and Sitting Figures

This one I am VERY proud of. I've received a ton of compliments for it too, even from the model himself! The task was to draw the same model in both standing and sitting (clothed) poses. Drawing on kraft paper with the highlights, shadows and mid-tones were optional, since we had to do a drawing on kraft paper anyway. The kraft paper drawing I will post another time.

Rooster Head Sculpture

This took about 7 weeks to create, and we also had to create a sketchbook with studies on the animals we were doing. I may or may not post those notes, but I have some decent drawings of roosters in there. We also had to create texture on the sculpture. I had difficulty finding something similar to the bumpy look of the wattle. I went through several textures until I settled on using the towels used to cover the sculptures and keep them moist.

Moleskine

I'm only posting the best interesting pages. I've already posted one page not too long ago.

I like this page. I've had the idea of doing cardinal heads, but only showing the black pattern on their face on a red background. I tried that, but it didn't turn out so well. A watercolour background, red pencil crayon and marker got the job done. I also have a raccoon page similar to this I'm working on.

That's all for now. I'll post most of my portfolio soon, something about doing so now just makes me feel uneasy.