) had an event last night at the Queen Mary; it included student multimedia and animation projects, a comedy presentation by the funny Laugh is Hope folks and a presentation and Q&A by Bruce Smith (The Proud Family).I found the whole night very motivating. Bruce seems like a very cool guy and it helps to hear not only advice but about the travails he endured to get to where he is now. This type of insight seems invaluable to me.
He also offered up one bit of advice he says is lacking in many cases -and that is in learning how to prepare an impactful portfolio. Let's see if I can remember ....
I can't remember the order and all the pages but basically he recommended creating a portfolio of no more than 10 pages of copies of your work. He suggested the first page be a 'wow' or splash page -possibly your second best work- working like the opening action page on a comic book to get the reviewers attention and to make him want to turn the page.
he said you should include one page of life drawings to show you understood how the body works together, one page of extermities and parts -hands, feet, eyes - one page of animal studies in a realistic and in cartoon styles and one page of animals in motion with possible a few frames. One page with color -possibly the animal one. He said it was important to show some range - not all technical drawing for example. One story board page to show you can express an idea economically in a minimal amount of frames. He says to close with your best work -whatever that happens to be life drawing, vector etc.
He said to think about assembling the portfolio like making a movie or a story, opening 'bang' , then develop the body of the 'story' by showing what you can do, and a good ending. He suggested if you then want to add a demo of your animation it should be short -2 minutes max- and show highlights instead of trying to show everything -they can always ask for more if they like it.
It sounds like fun though I am a bit worried about how I'll handle the studio environment. Not use to working around people and now that I am older and more 'dignified' I don't have much patience for people who try to step on me or lord it over me -including bosses- so I have a feeling I'm going to have make some adjustments if I get that far.
Feel a bit like I just got in the first car of the newest death defying experimental roller coaster and waiting fr the guy to push the button.
