Well, this is it. The epic conclusion of the AM Memoir series! It’s crazy to believe that just under two years ago I started as an amateur animation student at Animation Mentor and now I’ve graduated from AM with a newfound appreciation for animation.
I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy. It was a very challenging experience for me. Between managing my time between school and work and building my confidence as an animator, there were plenty of times where I felt I should just hang up my animator’s coat and call it a day.
But, here I am. An AM Alumni and a future of animation in front of me. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I got here, but I’m glad that I‘m here!
My last semester at Animation Mentor felt like the home stretch for me. In this class, I polished up some of my best shots that I’ve worked on since I started at AM and created my final student demo reel.
It’s all been building up to this moment! It was a little scary seeing how the end was in sight. I wondered if even after this class, would my shots be good enough to land myself an animator’s gig and if I had what it takes to push forward.
Then I told myself to shut up with that kind of talk and looked backed on how far I had come.
I reminded myself that I put in the work to make it here at the last class of the program and how much I’ve learned since my first day at AM which was only a year and a half ago.
So, I cracked my animator knuckles, plopped myself at my now worn desk chair, and got to animating!
As always, I learned a few things during this class (shocker) and picked up some final lessons that I thought I’d share with you guys. So, let’s just get right into it!
Know who you want to show your demo reel to
One of the key lessons I learned in my final class was before I even started to animate for my demo reel, I needed to understand who I wanted to show my reel to.
When I was first starting out as an animator, and not really knowing what I was doing, I would send my reel everywhere. I would send out applications for jobs in animation, motion graphics, games, any place that would let me move something around.
Since I didn’t have a lot of animation shots under my belt at that time, I would throw everything that I had into a single reel and send it off to any place that was hiring.
However, something that I came to learn later on is that every company is looking for something different. I can’t send my demo reel to a motion graphics company if all I have is 3D character animation because that’s not what they're looking for.
Even if the animation is top notch and impresses recruiters, at the end of the day they’re hiring for a motion graphics artist not a 3D character animator. I also can’t just throw everything I have into a one video and call it a day either.
If I’m sending my reel to a game studio that has a mix of everything, they’re most likely going to pass me up before they see my entire reel.
Recruiters are looking at hundreds of reels everyday when a new position opens up, so if someone doesn't have what they’re looking for right off the bat then there’s no point in wasting time and resources to watch the reel all the way through.
My reel needs to be tailored to the company that I’m working for in order to have the best chance of getting hired. Which leads me into my next point.
Know what your reel is missing
At the start of the class, my mentor asked us if we had a studio that we really wanted to work at. You guys probably know this about me by now, but my dream job is to become a game animator at Insomniac games (hopefully to work on the next Spiderman game).
Insomniac Games has a special place in my heart. I’ve grown up on the Ratchet and Clank games and really admired them for making a spectacular Spiderman game (if you guys also don’t know, I'm a big Spidey fan boy). So, I’ve known for a good while that’s who I want to work for.
My mentor then asked us if our demo reels represented the company that we wanted to work for. In other words, does our reel have shots that fit within the company.
As I was looking through all my past shots, I realized that I didn’t really have a good action shot. I had a couple of body mechanic shots that weren't bad, but nothing that screams games.
So, most of the time I spent during this semester was toward creating a cool action shot. I decided to animate a character doing a variety of hammer attacks because hammers are cool of course. But, also it would be a strong body mechanic piece that would help fill in the gap in my reel.
I think being able to analyze your reel and see what’s missing is an important skill to learn being an animator, especially when you’re working towards your first animation job.
Since I’m not currently in the industry, I’m still trying to figure out exactly what companies are looking for and if I’m expanding my horizons to create shots that will catch a recruiter’s attention.
So, for instance, if you’re trying to work at a studio like Pixar that’s very acting heavy, but you only have body mechanic shots in your reel, odds are you’re not going to get a job there because without some solid acting shots there’s no way for them to know if you can animate the kind of shows/movies that they’re known for.
That’s why it's always a good idea to look back on your reel every now and again and ask yourself, “What am I missing here?”, or better yet ,“What can I replace?”. Then do some research and try animating something new that’ll really make your reel stand out.
Don’t be afraid to try something new
Which, of course, leads into the final lesson and it’s pretty simple. Keep trying things.
Animation is a constantly growing industry. From feature movies to games, the call for good quality animators is the highest it’s been in the history of animation.
With that being said, the animation industry is still a very competitive one and studios are always looking for fresh original ideas that can take their movie, TV show, game, or whatever to the next level.
I had to step out and try something new for my hammer shot that I worked on. I had to create a shot that demonstrated a lot of body mechanics and showed a strong sense of weight which is something I’ve never really done before.
There were a lot of challenges such as, setting up the hand constraints for the hammer and getting the body mechanics just right, but in the end I was able to make a cool shot and deepen my animation skills.
Expanding your animation skills will only help hone your craft and make you that much more likely to get hired to work on the next big project. So, it’s always a good idea to try something new even if that something is out of your comfort zone.
For me, my strong area is working on body mechanic shots. Doing walks, runs, or awesome attack animations is what I love to do. I really enjoy seeing my characters come to life through action.
However, my weak area is acting. I struggled a loooootttt during the acting courses at AM. Things like creating appealing facial expressions and subtle acting choices with my character was always challenging for me.
So, I decided to enroll in acting classes, which is way out of my comfort zone. I’m big introvert, so the idea of getting up in front of a bunch of strangers and performing a piece of dialogue is pretty scary for me.
But, I realized that acting was something I needed to work on and I wanted to get better at it. So, here I am on Monday nights trying to act my butt off.
I’ve only just started, but I can already tell my acting skills are improving and I’m gonna be challenging myself to do another acting shot that’ll go on my reel.
So, the point is, don’t be afraid to try something new.
It’ll not only help your career, but will give you such a deeper appreciation for animation. Plus, animation is such a wide, encompassing medium, that you would be doing yourself a disservice if you just stayed in your comfort zone.
Well that about wraps it up guys. I hope you enjoyed reading this series as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them! And if not feel free to tell me off in the comments.
While this series may be over, my blogging will still carry on, so make sure to subscribe to The Man Behind the Controller to read more animation posts.
Until then, Happy Animating!
P.S. Here's my final demo reel!
Dean Willms
Gamer. Designer. Friend.
