Animation demo reels or examples that you used to get into an art school?

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 12th, 2012, 03:07 PM

I was wondering if anyone had any animations from high school or before applying to an art school that they used in a portfolio and got in, I havn't seen anything around so is this something thats not done or do most people just not have the resources or not want to start doing that before they learn from a pro?

**themegagod** · November 13th, 2012, 12:18 AM

I've heard that many animation schools only like to see your work, if it's really good. If it's not, then it is best not to show it. Most schools honestly don't want to see animation work, because all too often people can learn really bad habits learning on their own, and it's much easier to teach from the ground up, than break bad habits, and teach someone already set in their ways.
basically from what I understand, is that if your work is already up to or really close to on par with what the school teaches, than yeah you can show animation work, but if its mediocre, or choppy, it's best to keep that to ones self.
Most schools, from what I understand, want to see observational drawings, and figure drawings. I guess giving a school what it wants may be the best option.

**Auds** · November 13th, 2012, 09:08 AM

themeagod pretty much covered it. If you're trying to get into an art school and study animation they will most likely NOT require you to give them a demo reel. BECAUSE you're senior thesis will all be about learning how to construct a demo reel for the real world / companies.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 13th, 2012, 05:28 PM

hmm, so I have a script, character designs, some voicing and animated storyboard done... Should I put that on hold, or maybe post what I have here so if it's good enough I would keep working on it?

**themegagod** · November 13th, 2012, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by DRadDaDanDawg

hmm, so I have a script, character designs, some voicing and animated storyboard done... Should I put that on hold, or maybe post what I have here so if it's good enough I would keep working on it?

I'm no expert; but it never hurts to get a critique, so I'd say see what people have to say.
From what I know from looking up animation schools myself though, it would seem most schools want you to show observational art. Drawing what you see. Some schools want different things, some like to see colors, others ask only for your strongest medium. Portfolio days are the best route to go to find out what you need.

Chances are you may find that you need to put your current project on hold, but I'm simply not sure. I know Sheridan has some interesting criteria. Ringling would most likely, like Cal Arts prefer to see figure drawings.
what is the list of schools you are looking at? try and gear your work towards your schools requests. If they are an animation school worth going into you will have plenty of time to learn and do animation.

But why not post up what you are working on? IDK maybe your work will blow people away enough that it will seem silly not to include it in a portfolio.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 13th, 2012, 10:34 PM

OK I'm working on the first scene, I just finished a basic storyboard that I can upload (althought the audio is new so it doesnt sync with the emotions, and its really rought)

I can upload that as shitty as it is, or tomorrow I can start to tune up my backgrounds that I made in colored pencil, put those in, and then over the next week or so see what I can do with animation.

Its going to be SHITTY right now, since its a new audio I had to make that scenes storyboard fit as best I can, and the emotion in the blue character isn't correct for this new mood im going with for him. If you look at my sketchbook, the guy you see a lot will be replacing this blue guy, and thats why I'm drawing him so often. The guy with goggles and guns in my sketches will replace the black character in the end. Right now the idea for this video must look stupid, so to prove its not as dumb as it look I'm willing to share the script of this and/or other animation ideas.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 13th, 2012, 10:34 PM

plus I have to balance the audio... Mayber

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 13th, 2012, 10:36 PM

(just focus on the last 5 secs on the animation, thats the only real movement I plan to keep)

**themegagod** · November 14th, 2012, 09:21 AM

Don't take this the wrong way, but my advice with what you have up there, is DO NOT put that in a college portfolio.

this may be a hit on newgrounds, but in the world of college animation, this is not what they'd like to see. your characters barely move. there is very limited camera story telling. Your timing is exaggerated in an awkward, david lynch kind of way. And there's "gore". I've heard that gore is a big no-no in terms of portfolios because you never know who might be reviewing your work. Gore is one of those things that may disgust someone, and if that person is looking over your portfolio, imagine how they will "grade" it?

I'd say work on this when you have a free moment, and don't give up on it- who knows this may be your ticket to fame- you may not even need school at all; but don't put it in a portfolio. as far as the skills most schools want; this does not show case it.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 14th, 2012, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by themegagod

Don't take this the wrong way, but my advice with what you have up there, is DO NOT put that in a college portfolio.

this may be a hit on newgrounds, but in the world of college animation, this is not what they'd like to see. your characters barely move. there is very limited camera story telling. Your timing is exaggerated in an awkward, david lynch kind of way. And there's "gore". I've heard that gore is a big no-no in terms of portfolios because you never know who might be reviewing your work. Gore is one of those things that may disgust someone, and if that person is looking over your portfolio, imagine how they will "grade" it?

I'd say work on this when you have a free moment, and don't give up on it- who knows this may be your ticket to fame- you may not even need school at all; but don't put it in a portfolio. as far as the skills most schools want; this does not show case it.

Oh no I wouldn't put this is a portfolio, the voice acting completely takes away from it (and thats the only gory part at all)

I was probably going to just give sections that were well animated, and keep in mind that thats just a storyboard

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 14th, 2012, 07:29 PM

And now thinking about that , I'm probably going to revise the opening scene again, the character in blue has changed a lot from the first idea, so the mood of the animation shouldn't be so gory.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 14th, 2012, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by themegagod

your characters barely move. there is very limited camera story telling. Your timing is exaggerated in an awkward, david lynch kind of way.

And sorry if I'm stating this again, but the voicing, sounds, and tone changed after I did the original sketches, and there's no refining, camera movement, or overlay colors/clean lines or anything that would make even this scene near finished. The blue characters movements were a test, but do you think the black character was also too exaggerated and awkward (I mean as a low frame storyboard generalization movement)

**themegagod** · November 14th, 2012, 08:52 PM

If you are trying to say you are making an animatic, don't worry so much about doing animation. An animatic (a moving story board) is basically taking your storyboard images and using it to show appropriate timing for your piece.

a good example would be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1uRncKY8DU

If you are asking about how your characters move- it's not bad... but for it to be better, first try and flesh out your characters a bit more. make them into dummies and make sure you are accounting for weight. All of my animation is self taught, so I may be wrong in saying this, but you should try to make sure that your allowing all of your characters motions to be readable. I'd try and have him stand, then put the gun behind his back, then turn. you might be over whelming your viewers. try and act out the action you want. as I'm assuming your "black character" is military (because of the gun) try to make his motions mechanical almost.
just some advice.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 15th, 2012, 03:08 PM

Originally Posted by themegagod

If you are trying to say you are making an animatic, don't worry so much about doing animation. An animatic (a moving story board) is basically taking your storyboard images and using it to show appropriate timing for your piece.

a good example would be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1uRncKY8DU

If you are asking about how your characters move- it's not bad... but for it to be better, first try and flesh out your characters a bit more. make them into dummies and make sure you are accounting for weight. All of my animation is self taught, so I may be wrong in saying this, but you should try to make sure that your allowing all of your characters motions to be readable. I'd try and have him stand, then put the gun behind his back, then turn. you might be over whelming your viewers. try and act out the action you want. as I'm assuming your "black character" is military (because of the gun) try to make his motions mechanical almost.
just some advice.

Haha no I was saying THAT was a storyboard, or the first layer of the piece. My next step is to add a second layer, which will consist of actual "fleshed out" drawings and characters. What I showed was to give me an idea of where the characters would be and how they would move

**themegagod** · November 15th, 2012, 04:29 PM

Isn't what you described an animatic? what's different from what you described, and the video I linked you, of the animatic music video? normally I think that's considered the animatic- but I may be wrong, what you described (minus the movement) is my understanding of an anamatic. I've even seen some with minor animation- now that I say it- but often it is just keys or tweening.
I think if this is where you are at, focus more on your key frames (the main poses within your motion). your "first layer" as you call it shouldn't get too bogged down with every frame being animated- at least as far as I've learned. at first just worry about placement, and readable motions. think about your characters as though they are silhouettes. If they were, could you still understand what your character was doing or would it just look like a blob? with animation, you kind of want that idea to always be the case.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 16th, 2012, 07:39 PM

Think of what I currently have as more of a sketch, and what I'm working on is the final piece. The movement is to show me a guideline on how I want the motion to look, so that when I try to make the final version, I dont spend a lot of time fixing errors to make the movement right. What I have basically is an animatic, but what I was trying to say is that the animatic is not the final stage, and I'm going over it again and make a more final version

**Melete** · November 18th, 2012, 03:34 AM

Even if you finish it up and change things around, don't submit that as part of your portfolio. 99% of people going to an animation program don't have any noteworthy animation skills beforehand, and the ones who work hard come out fine. It's not what they expect, and it's not what they necessarily want to see.

90% of your portfolio should be fine art drawings (still life, portraits, etc) and gesture drawings. Perhaps one or two style drawings, or a short printed storyboard, if they're good.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 18th, 2012, 09:36 PM

This is the work I did up until tonight... Hopefully this gives a better sense of the look on the animation, and here are some vocals that I recorded so that I can have a very active scene

**themegagod** · November 19th, 2012, 01:52 AM

definitely do not put this in your portfolio. If this is for simple uploading online onto new grounds, or for simple study, I can critique this; but if this is for a college portfolio, DO NOT, put this in the portfolio. Any college worth its price tag that has a good animation reputation (ringling, Calarts, RISD, Sheridan, SCAD, SVA, etc) would not want to see this.
and this is not to say that this animation with characters, a good story and so on, couldn't make you a millionaire, it's just not at all the animation a school wants to see you doing. How could this be great profit wise but not get you into school? let's just say it this way, a 20 sec-90 second segment of family guy most likely would not get anyone into college. It's animated, but it's not the best representation of what animation is. (BTW seth mcfarlene went to RISD, But he was more based on writing and film [I believe]. in any case, after college, his professional jobs were as a writer for hanna barbara.)
A good lip-synching with emotion and gestures, a consistent and emotive flour sack, a 30 second short story, told in complete silence, these things might, MIGHT, be animation to have in a portfolio, but what you have linked is not something to add to a portfolio. at least not to any animation school that I've heard is worth it. Think of a pixar short. could you do comparable animation in a 2-d realm? if not don't worry about show casing your animation.
Learn animation as it can only help you need to fumble around less when you begin animation in school,
but don't put animation into your portfolio as it will most likely hurt your chances of getting in rather than helping it.
the same goes for creating 3-d objects to put into your portfolio- most schools DO NOT want you to put any 3-d in your portfolio.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 19th, 2012, 09:46 PM

Oh I completely get what your saying, which is why the next "scene" will consist of facial expressions, body language, and movement. Ill keep updating as I work, and if I'm not good enough at that stuff to make a difference, I will definitely slow down. Thanks for the critique for far

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 19th, 2012, 10:08 PM

And sorry if I sound like I'm arguing and just ignoring the advice I asked for, thats not how I want to come off here

**OfficialLamp** · November 19th, 2012, 10:39 PM

Honestly, your time is better spent doing other things. Sure, you can make this for fun but do not make it a priority for your portfolio. A lot of schools don't even give you the option of submitting digital files and you could use a lot more practice in life drawing.

**DRadDaDanDawg** · November 22nd, 2012, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by OfficialLamp

Honestly, your time is better spent doing other things. Sure, you can make this for fun but do not make it a priority for your portfolio. A lot of schools don't even give you the option of submitting digital files and you could use a lot more practice in life drawing.

OK Thanks Ill do that

but when its done I'll post it here in case the entire thing seems better or something, thanks