Making Of: Intergrated Practice - Evaluation
For this module, I was tasked with creating an artist portfolio of my previous and current work suitable for viewing for a professional client - including a digital website with curated production artwork (URL link + Screenshots in a PDF or PowerPoint) either on Adobe Portfolio, Wix, Artstation or Behance, as well as a 90-second Showreel MP4 – representing my current and appropriate work to my area of interest, and a Behind the Scenes Video to be uploaded as an MP4.
Task one was to fill out two forms: a Skills Audit and a Swot Analysis to analyse my strengths and weaknesses as an artist.
The hardest area to fill in was 'external threats'. This broad category can include many things, such as equipment I need being unavailable through to natural disasters. Still, I filled out the SWOT analysis to the best of my ability and submitted it to Blackboard.
Next, I searched for animation jobs on Screenskills.com. I also looked at Upcity.com, a company job-hunting site.
My first choice for a career would be that of a storyboard artist. I have some experience with storyboarding in the past with other projects, such as with my short film Animatic, River Snake. It’s an entry-level job, so it could be a viable option as an industry ‘first foot in the door’ position.
Junior Animator is another viable career option. Specifically, frame-by-frame digital animation and stop-motion animation. Even though I'm talented with frame-by-frame 2D, this medium involves a variety of programs in which I'm not as well versed as I am in stop-motion software like DragonFrame.
And I do dream of being able to direct or be the head writer of my own projects with a professional company one day. I feel I have a vivid imagination and creative vision that I'd want to express on a mainstream project.
One studio I found on upcity.com was Kilogramme. A studio that specialises in "adverts, title sequences, museum pieces, explainers and public information films on any subject". I liked their look since they do 2D frame-by-frame animation. I could find viable work there. I have always been a fan of informational short films like those on the Ted-Ed YouTube channel, so it would be a great opportunity to work on similar types of short films.
Mighty Giant was a studio I would also consider working for. They specialise in motion graphics and, like Kilogramme, also have done some frame-by-frame 2D projects. I’m not quite as keen on working for this studio as I am for Kilogramme, as most of their work consists of CG animation, a medium I'm not well-versed in. I will still consider them as an option, though.
After this, I was tasked with looking at the different websites and website builders I’d utilise to host a portfolio.
The first website I looked at was Behance. A website owned by Adobe which caters to both professional and amateur artists. The tutor recommended this as good for students such as myself, but I was weary of working with websites and software owned by Adobe. While I am willing to use it at my school as it's considered an industry standard, I disapprove of the company's practices, like the increasingly high prices of their software. Hence, I was hesitant to use it at first.
Artstation was another website where I could create an account and post a professional art portfolio. It has a sleek and professional look. However, the website mainly caters to professional concept artists, so I didn’t know if it would be the right place for me, as an amination student, to host my work.
I also considered DeviantArt, one of the first websites dedicated to hosting art and artist's portfolios. Sadly, though, it isn't as widely used or as popular these days compared to the 2000s and early 2010s, so I thought it wouldn’t be wise to use it as a portfolio site to showcase my work to modern clients.
Ultimately, I chose Behance to make a website on, as I am familiar with Adobe products. Additionally, I wanted to expand my skills by building a page on a website I hadn't used before.
I then created a showreel for my Behance portfolio page, compiling short clips from the animation work I am most proud of and the work that best represented my current artistic abilities.
Although the teacher showed us examples of other artists showreels which showcased only one or two mediums the respective artists were good at, I decided that I'd show a mix of my stop-motion, 2D animation, puppetry, storyboards and sketchbook work to showcase a range of skills.
For the editing, I decided that instead of the film dissolve I used for the transitions of my previous videos and showreels, I would be more experimental and use a swipe transition. I felt it gave the showreel better pacing and a sleeker feel. I also gave the parts with my sketchbook sketches a page flip transition to give the impression of someone flipping through a sketchbook and shake up the film's repetitive format. Overall, I was quite happy with how the showreel turned out.
After this, I compiled a presentation and wrote a script showcasing all the work and research I had done so far during this project.
I was proud of myself for this presentation, especially considering how little time I had to work on it due to being busy with other projects. When it was my turn to present, I knew my project well and spoke off-script. I think it came out great despite not having the time to put more planning into my delivery.
Another aspect of Integrated Practice was recording material for a behind-the-scenes documentary on the film, Thin Ice, my team and I made for the Creative Collaboration project, including making promotional materials/merchandise such as posters. Due to some minor miscommunication, I was briefly confused about my job role in production art. I thought I was going to make the backgrounds and some thumbnail sketches for poster designs; however, my teammate Hung had done a few of those already (mainly the poster sketches). I messaged the group, and we were able to clear this up; Hung was to do the backgrounds while I took care of the promotional poster design.
After I made the poster in Adobe Illustrator, I made a second website on Linkedin, where I posted links to my other artist accounts. And vice vera include a link to my LinkedIn on Behance.
After this, I made a PowerPoint presentation that I could convert to PDF with a link to my Behance webpage. I had trouble with this because the website was inaccessible when I clicked on the URL. As it turned out, the URL behance.net/briannamcarthur was already taken, so I changed it to behance.net/Brianna_mcarthur. And after transferring the PowerPoint to a different computer to test if the link would work there, it did.
Throughout this time, I filmed several time lapsed videos on my phone of me working on creative collab to use in the documentary. I took these from my phone along with the videos Hung and Dennis uploaded to the Creative Collab shared folder and compiled them together in Premiere Pro for the documentary. I also included my own commentary recorded on my notes app. I ran into a problem when Dennis included footage of him working on the animation which was over ten minutes long. So, I adjusted the video speed to at least 2000% speed so it would feel more like a timelapse. Once the film was put together, I realised it went over five minutes, which was the maximum runtime required on the brief for the documentary. So, I had to significantly cut down the film footage wherever I could to fit it into exactly five minutes. This was tough as I felt this hurt the pacing of certain parts and scenes, such as the b-roll of the Lightwaves Festival. But I am satisfied with the result overall.
In general, I feel proud of the things I was able to accomplish in Integrated Practice; I felt I gained valuable experience in how to market myself as an artist and my portfolio of work online. I learned several practical skills in this area, such as building a portfolio/networking website on sites such as Behance and Linkedin and putting together an online portfolio of work. I also learned other practical skills during the making of my documentary, such as recording a voiceover for a film, speeding up footage in Adobe Premiere Pro, and making/editing a documentary in general. I also gained a better understanding of the multitude of jobs available within the animation industry and it has helped me to identify the entry level positions I should aim for. I hope to bring these skills and knowledge with me into the third year of my course and a professional career as an artist.
