Over course of the module I’ve had the pleasure of delving into a lot of really interesting research and conversing a lot of amazing people. I thought the way the module has been set up and the content we’re taught as a result was invaluable, particularly for a developing artist/designer. The interview experience in particular was something I can say I’ve learned a lot from, the one on one process gives you a great chance to experience what industry is potentially like here and where its going, which I can say with confidence, cant wait to be part of it. I realised that presentation is a large part of selling yourself, both in person and how you present your work, which has caused me to really think about how my work communicates itself to others. Adding life to your work could be the difference between you getting employed. The advice given in the guest talks we’re eye opening, and only made me more excited and devoted to keep pushing myself and developing as an artist, cause the hard work pays off to quote Gerard Dunleavy. I’ve also developed a better understanding of how things work (that aren’t industry specific) like creating a good CV or cover letter, the importance of networking, regardless of what career you’re and the necessity of just going for it and seizing the opportunity you want.
Overall I’ve had a great time with Creative Enterprises and learned a lot as a result, and have been given a good direction to go in and keep progressing.
Before writing my cover letter up I wanted to take a bit more time to research into what makes a good cover letter, ranging from the content and format to what will help to stand out in the rest.
What is a cover letter?
‘A cover letter is a one page document that you send with your resume when applying for a job.’
It sets out to:
Introduce yourself to the hiring manager
Argue why you’d be a good fit for the job
Fill in places your resume cannot describe
Further explain other aspects of your resume
Format
1.Contact Information
Begin your cover letter, include both the employer’s and your contact information.
2. Introduction
Find out who you’re addressing the letter to:
Look through the company’s website, LinkedIn, or even give the company a call to ask for the hiring manager’s name. Even if you get it wrong, it still looks like you’ve made an effort.
Introduce yourself:
In the first paragraph of your cover letter, begin by telling the employer the position you are applying for and how you learned about the opportunity.
The rest of the paragraph should briefly present basic info about yourself, including: degree, area of study/expertise, and your career goals in terms of how they align with the goals of the company.
3. Sell Yourself
The second paragraph should respond directly to the job description written by the hiring manager.
Describe how your previous job experiences, skills, and abilities will allow you to meet the company’s needs.
To make that easier, you can (and should) literally include words and phrases from the job description in your cover letter.
Try to find out what they are doing,why,given the current state of their industry.
In a third paragraph, explain how you can fit into that schema, and help push the company forward and achieve any goals you suspect they may have.
4. Conclusion
This is your “call to action” portion of your cover letter.
Inform them that you’d love to get interviewed and that you’ll be in contact with them in a week if you don’t hear back.
Thank them for spending the time to read your letter.
So based off what we were taught in class and from the following bit of research, I started on my cover letter.
In my case I decided to use Double Jump Studios as the company I was applying for due to the fact that I had been working with them for several months and built up a good working relationship with them.
First draft:
After showing it to Alec for feedback he suggested going into more detail about how I would fit in with the company and what I could contribute to them as a result of being employed. Also add your signature to make it more personal.
With the feedback taken on board I finalised my cover letter
First draft of my showreel, so theres still a few bits and pieces to fix up. I put this together with the intent of applying for a generalist postion with a company, showing off my work in as many areas as possible, modelling, animation, compositing etc.
After wrapping it up, I sent to Alec and Niall Carlin (Double Jump) for feedback and advice on how to make it better.
Alec’s Feedback
Try some other car renders – try using different hdr images maybe with higher studio light contrast (more black areas) experiment with the car paint shader material.
Move the comp shot forward, after the robot model, then the animation cycles, then the bird and crunch shots, then the prop models
Add textures and appropriate shaders to the prop models along with the wire frame stuff you have when you have time after hand in.
Niall’s feedback
Liven it up more
Don’t just have turn tables of your work, have you assets doing something that engages the viewers interest, like interacting with one another.
Show the early concepts,process and development of your work
He then told me to look at this ‘making of video’, taking note of how the individual, shows the development, process and breakdown of the work.
Really happy with the feedback given, it’s really constructive and will definitely make a huge difference whenever the changes are made. Thanks lads!
In preparation for the interview I decided to do some research into the potential guest panel interviewers.When talking through good ways to present yourself and preparing for an interview, it was clear that doing a bit of research on the company your applying to work with and the individual interviewing you was a good thing to do.
As a result I decided to do a bit of research into NI Screen’s Paula Campbell and Black North’s/Enter Yes’s Ross Morrison
Who are NI Screen?
Northern Ireland Screen is the government-backed lead agency in Northern Ireland for the film, television and digital content industry, driving global growth through boosting our economy, celebrating our culture and enhancing our children’s education.
Paula Campbell – Skills Executive
Joined in August 2011 as Co-ordinator for the Aim High training scheme, a joint venture with Creative Skillset and BBC NI, and was appointed Skills Executive in November 2014.
She co-ordinates work placements for the Aim High trainees with local indie production companies as well as BBC NI. Paula is also responsible for organising additional training workshops, master-classes and trips to festivals and markets for the trainees.
Prior to joining Northern Ireland Screen, Paula worked in production for over 25 years including being a founder and director of a local production/post production company for 10 of those years.
Who are Black North?
Black North are a multimedia company who create award winning animation and interactive products based in Belfast Northern Ireland.
Ross Morrison – Assistant Producer
A writer by trade, Ross has been involved in the creative industry for a number of years. In 2007, he was a finalist in international novel competition, Pulp Idol.
In 2008 his short Slow Life was selected for an anthology put together by the Society of Young Publishers to celebrate the most exciting young writers in the UK & Ireland.
Since 2009, he has occasionally worked with Blacknorth as a Script Editor until he joined on a full-time basis in December 2014.
He has established himself as a useful asset, bringing with him project management experience along with a vast array of talent and imagination.
It’ll be great to get in insight to what the industry is like here from these two, and where they see It going in the future. Hopefully they foresee jobs….lots and lots of jobs… But regardless, they both have a lot of experience and advice to give from the sounds of it so I’m looking forward to meeting them.
In addition, we also went through some interview questions, looking at how they should be interpreted and how we should respond to them.
Some examples were:
Tell us about yourself
The employer wants to know about you but also put you under pressure to see how you react on the spot.
Take full advantage of the control they’ve given you
Don’t give a life story, keep it pertinent, keep focused on the position you’re applying for.
Appropriate Answer:
2 to 3 minutes long and briefly cover your education,interest in the field, work history and experience.
Why Should you get this Job?
Your opportunity to describe why you want the job and why you would be a perfect fit for the company.
This is your personal sales pitch
Appropriate Answer Format:
“From what we’ve discussed so far, you’re looking for ‘X’. In the past I have demonstrated ‘X’,’Y’ and ‘Z’ (experience and your main strengths) which have really helped my previous employer.
Where do you see yourself in fives years time?
The employer wants to see if you’ve thought about your future and you’re ambition to progress in the industry.
They also want to verify that you plan to stay with them for a long time.
If you’re applying for an entry level position, explain how you’d like your career to progress. for example ‘I’d like to progress to this position’
If you’re applying for a senior position explain how’d you move the company forward, have a look at their business strategies and explain how you could help them achieve it.
Appropriate Answer:
Be passionate about the industry, fit your career goals around the company’s objectives. Demonstrate passion and exploit your strengths.
What are your weaknesses?
Realise what they are, be honest, there’s always ways for us to improve ourselves.
Take one weakness and give practical examples of how you’re trying to address it.
A good answer would be:
“I used to find it difficult to work on simultaneous project, preferring to finish one task before starting another. However since taking part in a time management course recently, I’ve learnt how to manage my schedule more effectively, making it easier to multi task when necessary.”
Appropriate answer format:
Weakness + how you’ve tried/how you’re trying to address it, and turn it into a strength.
What are your Strengths?
Pick the three biggest attributes that you think will get you the job and give examples of how you have used these strengths in a work situation.
They could be tangible skills like, proficiency in a computer language or intangible skills like good management.
If you’re not sure where to start take a look at the job description which should give you an idea of what they’re looking for.
Appropriate answer format:
Be ‘T-shaped’, Have a good broad knowledge but a good expertise in the area you’re applying for.
We were asked to go and do some research on how other CG artists have set up and layed their websites, saying what we like and we think could done better.
From looking at the site we are immediately hit with how organised and well presented everything was. The content is split up into three areas, professional, personal and workshop.
Professional – Portfolio created from the variety of Blizzard projects he’s worked on.
Personal – A small collection of portfolio pieces that he’s done outside Blizzard
Workshop – A series of tutorials he’s made himself for any artist to work from.
Good Points
Simple,clear and well presented
Collection of work is a very high quality
An email address is found at the bottom of each page as well as links to his other online presences such as facebook,vimeo and linkedin.
The fact he creates content that sets out to teach others demonstrates a sense of confidence in his own work.
What could be done better
He could go into a bit more detail when it comes to the work he produced, which tells the employer more about the artist.
The site doesn’t have a showreel demonstrating his work in greater detail
Overall, I think Chungkan’s site is simple but really well thought out.
Another artist’s site I thought was worth mention was Victor Hugo’s. His site is organised in a way that allows the user easy navigation through out.
When we first enter the site, the first thing we see is his showreel that clarifies his specific responsibilities in each project and a collection of work from multiple other projects ranging from advertising to comic book illustrations.
Good Points
Well organised and easy to navigate
Demonstrates his work and portfolio clearly
The ‘about me’ and ‘F.A.Q sections tell us more about the person behind the work which could be useful for an employer.
The ‘Get in touch’ section displays a variety of different contact options including links to his presences on social media site like facebook.
What could be done Better
I would really like to see some form of blog from the site that gives us a better understanding into how he works and gets the results he does.
Cant really fault Victor’s site, it seems to tick a lot of boxes for me and demonstrates a variety of really cool stuff.
Peter Zoppi has gone for a slightly different approach when creating his online presence, where he’s merged his website and blog into the one area.
From the home page we are greeted with a small bio section off to the side of the site and a continuous flow of blog post detailing interests and recent projects.
The content is broken up into both professional and personal work, tutorials,photography, about me and contact information.
Good points
The website demonstrates a variety of high quality work, both personal and professional.
The fact that he creates content set out to teach others suggests he has confidence in his work.
The addition of a photography section gives us a better idea of how he perceives things such as composition and framing within a shot, etc.
What could be done Better
The site could be simplified as it’s currently very busy looking
The addition of more contact information would be great
A show reel or at least a gallery of work being present on the homepage would be useful.
Below is the first draft of my CV, I wanted to follow along with the advice and feedback given in class, in which you would typically have your name and occupation at the top, followed by your bio and then experience as these pieces of information are what tell the employer most about yourself and whether or not you’d be a good fit for the company.
I started by breaking it down into into a basic format highlighting the main headings to go in each section.
However looking at it and comparing it to others, I felt like it was quite boring. It has the information, but visually it doesn’t say or reflect a lot about myself and therefore not standing out which could cost me the position i’m applying for.
As a result I started looking at the other CV’s that were produced by the rest of the class. In particular Sorcha McGlinchey’s and Christan Johnston’s.
Sorcha’s CV
What I like about Sorcha’s CV is that her personality shines through it. You can really get a sense of what kind of individual she is, fun, creative and hard working, the visual elements also help tie it all together with the little rendition of herself as her logo or brand symbol which adds a nice sense of character to it. An awesome CV Sorcha!
Christian’s CV
One of the things I thought was great about Christan’s is the design. It’s very simple and layed out to ensure the information on the page is organised, clear and well formatted.
So as a result, I re-did my CV, taking influence from Sorcha’s and Christian’s.
I rearranged the layout, changed the colour scheme to make it more visibly interesting to look at and added a little character I made up in Maya to add a bit of personality to it.
We had Gelnda Martin, Careers adviser for Ulster University give us a talk on how to correctly prepare for our career development.
Key notes:
What will we get from Placement?
Earn yourself some cash
Stand out from the crowd
Put your academic knowledge into practice
Test your career options
Build your confidence working with others
Develops skills employers want
Training and Development
What do we want from a job?
Lots of responsibility
Finacial Security
International Experience
Company with good reputation / profile
Local / Home experience
Work with lots of people
Work independently
Good training opportunities
The value of placement
On average students completing a placement year achieve a higher degree classification compared with those who don’t take placement eg 2:1 compared to 2:2
Placement students are more like to be employed six months after graduation and to have higher salaries than the average graduate
Why placements are important?
More than half of recruiters warn that graduates who have had no previous work experience at all, are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their organisations’ graduate programmes.
Employability
Employers want more than just a degree
It is your responsibility to manage your own career
Nothing is certain – Future of the labour market consistently changing
What employers are looking for
Employers expect to recruit people from university that have not only the relevant academic qualifications but also a wide range of skills and experiences
Desired Skillset
1.Commercial awareness (or business acumen)
2.Communication
3.Teamwork
4.Confidence
5.Problem solving
6.Accuracy & attention to detail
7.Organisation
8.Perseverance and motivation
9.Ability to work under pressure
10.Negotiation and persuasion
How do I find Relevant Work Experience?
Personal Contacts (family and friends)
Previous work experience contacts
Yell.com – map who is in your area
Professional Associations
Academic support
Career Development Centre
Internet Searches (jobsites)
How do I write a good Application?
The key to a good application is making sure your Skills, Abilities, Knowledge & Experience (SAKE) fit the job and/or person specification.
In these highly competitive times, you’re unlikely to get far if you can’t align your SAKE to all or most of the essential requirements.
Preparation is Key
Research the company –Its Development, Expansion,Markets, Products, Mission Statement, Its Values, Its Ethos /Culture.
Often the application form will test your knowledge of contemporary issues which face a particular organisation. This is to check that you have done your prep work.
Application Form Checklist
Follow instructions, for example about the use of block capitals, black ink, your own handwriting and word limits
Complete every section or insert NA (not applicable) if it doesn’t apply to you
Pay attention to your writing style. Use action verbs such as ‘organised’, ‘responsible’, ‘managed’, ‘lead’, ‘planned’ to create a dynamic, competent image
Check for mistakes in grammar, spelling and punctuation
Compare what you have written with the job description – is it concise, clearly illustrating why you are right for the job?
Re-read your draft answers to the questions while imagining you’re the employer. Do they impress you? Would you want to interview this applicant?
Keep a copy of the form so that you can read it before the interview
Identify three things about yourself that make you the best candidate for the job!
How do you write a CV?
Look at the job
What does it involve
What skills are needed
Think about your skills/qualities/abilities/experience
Match the two together – and provide evidence!
Design and Layout
Should be:
2 sides of A4
Appropriate to role/job being applied for
Follow a logical sequence/order
Aim to be ordered and allocate space in relation to the importance of the information
Draw reader’s eye to important areas
Include:
Personal Details
Career Objective
Education
Work Experience / Employment History
Skills Profile
Achievements / Interests
Referees (Usually 2)
Tips:
1.Always tailor your C.V.
2.Sell your skills – always be positive
3.Use bullet points
4.Use positive, action verbs
Don’t use weak words such as “did” or “worked”; change them to “achieved” or “implemented”.
Include active verbs when describing your activities
e.g. achieved, arranged, contributed, established, implemented, initiated, negotiated, organised, increased.
Put the most powerful words at the left-hand side of the page – where the scanning eye travels first ie not “While I was at Brown and Co. I developed a new database system”, But: “Developed a new database system while at Brown and Co”.
5.Include covering letter
The interview process
Show enthusiasm
Smile
Be positive
Make it easy for the interviewer to obtain information
Even if it feels as if things are not going well don’t give up.
Answering Interview Questions
Identify the key skills being asked for
Reflect on your own experiences to find a suitable scenario which highlights these skills/competencies
Good approach – is to use STAR
–Situation – describe the situation
–Task – what did you do
–Action – what steps did you take to complete the task
–Result – what was the outcome
Try to draw on a range of experiences
On the Day
First impressions count
How you come across is as important as what you say
-7% words
-38% tone of voice
-55% body language
Questions to ask the interviewer
The Organisation
–What are the likely future developments?
The work and training
–What projects you would be involved in?
Colleagues
–Who would you be working with?
Prospects
–What career paths have other graduates taken in the organisation?
Timing
–How long will you have to wait before you hear from them
I want my CV to stand out in a crowd, but also have it fit in with the company i’m applying to work with.As a result, it should clearly convey all my information to the individual reading it, making it easier for them to decide whether I fit into the company or not.
As a result, I decided to collect a variety of CV’s picking and choosing what I liked from each one, and trying to implement these features into my own.
I love the sense of depth you get with Errol Veloso’s CV, it makes certain bits of information stand out to the reader. Also the simple and contrasting colour scheme helps highlight key bites of information.
Patrick Rogan’s CV is simple, displays the information on the page clearly, and uses a single colour scheme to break up the information in a contrasting way that helps it stand out.
With Monica Gomes’ CV you get a real sense of personality from it. I love the logo as well, its like she’s creating a brand for herself, which is a really cool idea. In addition to that her skills, experience and contact information is clearly shown for the readers ease.
I think Stewart Mayhew’s CV looks incredibly professional, using contrasting tones of grey, suing white and blues to allow key bits of information to stand out. With regards to the content, all the relevant information is there, ranging from a personal bio to skills and experience. The only thing I would say is that maybe there’s a bit too much information and visual elements. The CV itself is quite busy and slightly distracting in some places.
I love the simplistic design of David Maddocks CV, again, a simple colour scheme of one colour contrast well again the white of the page. Similar to some of the examples above, he also uses colour to highlight key pieces of information. However I do think it could be simplified to one page as there’s a lot of information which can make the viewing process tiresome.
In preparation for putting our show reels together we have been asked to do a bit of research into the show reels of others. Taking note of what we think is good about them and what could be done better.
Jonathan Cooper – Game Animation/Motion Tracking Showreel
Immediately what I like about this showreel is how it shows off some of the basic character animations, having the same animation present three times and from different angles in the shot allows us to see how the overall animation plays out. We can see that Jonathan has taken the time to ensure that the animation is good from all angles, which would be an important factor in a third person game. I also think its cool the way he shows off how these animations play out in the game itself.
However I do feel like he could say what software he used, and have his contact information at the start of the reel. If an individual exits the video on the half way mark, they wouldn’t know how to contact him.
Xin Zhao – Character Animation Showreel
I love this showreel! it’s full of brilliant animation and has a lot of character. It also shows a strong understanding of various different emotions and scenarios, ranging from humour to sad/ upset. Its simple and straight to the point.
I would have my contact information at the end as well to reinforce my details with the viewer and maybe have the software used as well.
Ryan Manolov – 3D Modeling Showreel
Another really cool reel with a lot of high quality work, the combination of presenting his work using rotation and still images makes a lot of sense to me, the rotations allow you to see the models from every angle which is great but doesn’t necessarily give you the opportunity to see the finer details, that’s where the rendered stills come in.
I wouldn’t mind seeing the uv’s for his textured characters, and similar to Johnathan Cooper’s showreel, I would have put my contact info at the start of the reel, to reinforce my details with the viewer but the addition of software used at the end is cool.
Gregory Chalenko – VFX and Compositing Showreel
I thought Gregory shows off some really nice work here and the way in which he break down each shot is interesting to see. I also like the way he included the project name, client and responsibilities at the bottom of each shot. However I don’t think he has enough contact information on the reel.
Class Notes
Keep it simple and professional
Put you name at the start and at the end of your showreel, include software used and contact information
Demonstrate a clear understanding of what you have done in the reel
Maybe credit your course or the company you worked with, “special thanks to”
Looking at the industry from a game development perspective, our guest speaker this week was Gavin Moran, animator at Epic Games, North Carolina. Telling us about his humble beginnings in Ireland to his development and growth over in the states.
Growing up in Dublin, he studied design presentation in Dublin, however he failed the course being disappointed by what it had to offer.
As a result he took a year off and worked in a music store selling drums for a year and a half.
Knowing that this wasn’t a full time gig, he enrolled in Dunlery, art and design, Studying 2D traditional animation.
It was the movie Toy Story that caused him to transition into CG animation, applying to work in Disney’s new CG department. The reason for this was because he felt that Toy story broke a lot of tropes and conventions, changing the industry.
It was Disney’s contract with Insomniac games studio that caused him to leave but lead him to work on a short called ‘Wild Brain’ which went on to receive various awards.
Afterwards he worked for Sony pictures image works, in its visual effects department, working on such films as Stuart Little 2. Bit by bit, his reputation grew moving from a Intermediary animator to the senior animator,working on the previz for Spiderman 2.
Leaving Sony to peruse something new he joined up with Dream Works, however thought that they were terrible to work for which led him to contact Sony, asking to come back as if he had never left.
Then realised that he to work for games, Epic games, 9 years after working with Sony.
Responsible for:
Animation for cinematics on gears of war 3, the downloadable content, Never Dawn, Samaritan – look into elemental – lighting – pushog unreal 4 for the first time.
When working on Kite his job was to get a brief of the assets, storyboard to show all of the features in the assets, he described how you needed to be flexible, addressing and solving as many issues as possible like working with the depth of field in previous versions of the unreal engine.
They had to establish early on what was achievable in the short amount of time given to them. (8 weeks) Such as:
One character, that is all they’d be able to rig in that amount of time.
They had the beginning and they had the end and the middle was a little fussy.
It was after the Skype Lecture that we had an opportunity to ask questions:
Bear animation, in the revenant, the fur is weird. Not 100% realistic. They went with cheap renderer instead of what is actually amazing.
real time is cool because its a challenge. “Kite” was meant to not look like it was being rendered in real time. People perceived it as a short. They were in the non games catagory which was a mission accomplished. Pixar were like this was cool! Pixar lost their shit, random locations of the deer, became a problem because when they came over the cliff the bastards were never there. They tricked the renderer to make the deer be were they needed to be then switched it back to AI.
Kite was used to show outdoors a lot of projects swtiched their engine because of this. Kite broke the chain of doing dark and grey stuff, “we can do everything we like or nothing”. Blacksmith demo from unity was very much like what Epic were doing 3 years ago, “who can be the darkest and more violent” and Epic changed that idea entirely.
They got a child in do to the runs in mo cap, they need mo cap to help in animation.
Dailes at Disney, the traditional animators finding it hard to learn were freaking out a little.
Approach to visual effects compared to shorts/features?
Reference in shorts needs to have a lot of understanding and knowledge but it cartoony still, doesn’t need as many real life references, it’s more artistic, while visual effects need to be realistic, photo-realistic, and needs a lot of reference.
Animation in features needs a lot of acting, think about animated shots, it’s a frame of mind you need to be in while you are acting it out. Better at general production than he is at animation. Production interferes with pure art because of time frame. real production isn’t as pure as you think it’s going to be, Kite felt more like art because you are more invested in the whole short, rather than one shot or scene.
Employability?
Sometimes it’s about trying to get a good crew, or a crew that are available in that short period of time. Epic like to employ people for a long period of time. you need to be a person that people can get on with for years to come. It’s not enough to be a good animator, you need to be a good guy.
They interviewed a guy for an hour, and realised that he didn’t eat his soup, they asked him why he didn’t eat his soup and he said he didn’t have a spoon, this made Gavin think well if he doesn’t have a pencil or if something is wrong will be just wait for someone to come over and ask him or “spoon feed” him.
If you got an interview, they think you are good for the job, they just need to check you aren’t a psychopath.
Epic are very aware of how they appear to their consumers and people that use their products.
What do you look for in reels?
2 minutes! no longer. 4 minutes is too long. Only put your best of the best in your showreel.
nobody wants to see a walk cycle on a turntable anymore.
pet hates, stretched out, weird music, scenes from movies with curses and inappropriate stuff in the reel. Think of who you are sending the reel to and always be safe ot sorry. Never take a piece of comedy and re-animate it, the reality is, it was funny when they did it first, you don’t want the person to think “oh the original was better, it was funnier the first time”.
Additional Advice
Don’t stick around because it’s easy, do what you want to do.
Be as honest as possible! Producers aren’t concerned with the truth, “I want that shot by friday” “that won’t happen”
CLOY TOONS 