How to get your student portfolio rated really, really quickly:
1. Hand in a portfolio the size of a mattress, filled with original oil canvases and sculptures.
2. Have all of the drawings, samples, etc. tossed into said portfolio without any sort of binder so that we have all sorts of fun digging around looking for the right materials. It's especially fun doing this when the character turnarounds are all on individual, differently sized sheets of paper.
3. Enclosing notes about how you won prizes for your work in high school. We do not read them.
4. Enclosing notes from high school teachers. We do not read them.
5. Deciding that storyboard and/or layout isn't worth your valuable time, so you don't include them.
6. Deciding that your own character is far more interesting than the ones that you have been asked to storyboard with--so you use them instead, contrary to the obvious directions.
7. Deciding that widescreen storyboard is just a fad, and handing in your boards on 4:3 panels that haven't been used in this program (or anywhere else) since 2010.
8. Draw the dead rhino in the Royal Ontario Museum, when you have been instructed to draw living animals, preferably your pet. Unless you have a pet rhino/giraffe/horse.
9. Tracing animals in the same poses as a dozen of your friends who also attended the Portfolio Workshop. Save your money and go draw from life.
10. Including copyrighted characters throughout the portfolio while claiming that your work is 'original' and 'unique' (unless you actually have a credit on Phineas and Ferb/Tangled/Spiderman.)
How to get your student portfolio approved:
1. Use a nice, simple folder with glassine pages. Put your drawings and samples in neatly in some sort of order, and preferably have a table of contents on the first page.
2. Follow the instructions in the portfolio. Use the template for the storyboards, and the characters that are provided. Not doing so = red flag for the reviewers.
3. Display wit and humor in your story.
4. Construct your drawings. Do not render them silly to conceal your lack of knowledge of anatomy/construction. Cleanups are not required. Good construction IS required.
5. Avoid fussy design. Make a character that you can actually MOVE.
6. Enclose personal artwork that is original and preferably has some relevance to animation (illustration, comics, sculpture are all good.)
7. Draw live animals and people, never copy from photographs.
8. Put in your very best work and do your best on all of the submissions--don't blow off layout and storyboard just because you haven't 'studied' them or do not care for them. If you don't include them, this is a red flag for the reviewers.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests